First suggestion is simple enough, and probably just requires about 10 minutes of gruntwork on the part of anyone who knows enough (I don't or I'd do it myself). Pretty much, just setting all environmental variables to whatever they'd default to in absence of the variable being set - ie, $HOME being changed to . and so on. The result would be a client contained in its own directory, not dependent on anything except the GTK files it requires, and those may even be included in the install of the client (only the files it needs, rather than the rest of GTK). Perhaps this is harder than I thought, and perhaps someone here knows enough to just tell me which environmental variables are in which .c files and what they need to be changed to. I have a lot of spare time.
Getting to the other - a "god of magic", opposing Valkyrie - sort of. One's enemies would not be the other's race, though I haven't thought through what they should be yet - he might have no enemies. The god of Magic (called Chakram as a working name hereafter) attunes to ALL spellpaths - he wants his disciples to be as powerful as they can be, and not to rely on anything else. Thus, he prohibits wand/rod/horn (no GUH may well balance his spell attunements on its own). He also does not remove damnation, curse or depletion - he wants his disciples to learn to do that themselves, and may teach them himself if he loves them enough. He'll bless a weapon to +12, and hopefully have a mighty attacktype - this will make up for it if he has a weaksauce, or absent, slaying. He only protects his disciples from draining and (maybe) fear, because any other protection would inhibit the growth of their power. His artifacts would include a Glowing Crystal with an unheard-of capacity (4 or 5k). Chances are he'd be a "quest cult" - like Valk, only a lot tougher to reach his altar. The difficulty of conversion should also make him more balanced.
Finally - I SUCK at balancing things, Chakram probably needs tweaked a lot. Attuned all, attacktype godpower or weaponmagic, weaponbless to +12, 5K glowing crystals, and insane granted prayers might not be balanced by skimpy protections, no remove curse and no wand/rod/horn. Someone more experienced, input?
Two suggestions: Self contained client, and new god
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While not being very experienced, I like the idea of a "God of Magic", and it being opposed to Valkyrie. I have a few thoughts.
--When you say that he doesn't grant remove curse, damnation, etc, does that mean the only way for a player to get rid of a cursed item is by using a scroll? If he also prohibits using magic items, there wouldn't be any way to uncurse/remove items, unless he gave some special prayer, as you mentioned.
--I like attuned to all spell paths, this fits with the theme.
--Blessing weapons to +12 seems out of place, even if he is the god of magic.
--I like the glowing crystal, but it seems overpowered.
--As opposed to blessing against drain and fear, what about granting protection against magic?
--Finally, if he is the god of magic, I'd think his enemies would be anti-magical or magic-immune creatures. (beholder, dread, etc) It would be cool/fitting if he granted disciples a unique spell that damaged such creatures.
--When you say that he doesn't grant remove curse, damnation, etc, does that mean the only way for a player to get rid of a cursed item is by using a scroll? If he also prohibits using magic items, there wouldn't be any way to uncurse/remove items, unless he gave some special prayer, as you mentioned.
--I like attuned to all spell paths, this fits with the theme.
--Blessing weapons to +12 seems out of place, even if he is the god of magic.
--I like the glowing crystal, but it seems overpowered.
--As opposed to blessing against drain and fear, what about granting protection against magic?
--Finally, if he is the god of magic, I'd think his enemies would be anti-magical or magic-immune creatures. (beholder, dread, etc) It would be cool/fitting if he granted disciples a unique spell that damaged such creatures.
He'd grant a special prayer to remove damnation. He also wouldn't forbid scrolls, as those can be created by the player to store their own power for later. Last I checked those don't get classed as wand/rod/horn, though I could be wrong.
Perhaps the "God's Crystal" is too powerful, but I'd need someone experienced to balance it.
He wouldn't grant protection against magic as a constant resistance. A prayer for it would work, as he encourages the growth of power of his disciples. Drain and fear work against the growth of his disciples, so he will protect them from it himself.
Enemies would be anything thoroughly unmagical, unfantastical and mundane. It's difficult to find that in Crossfire. Perhaps CORRUPTIONS of magic, such as undead, unnatural, demons and dragons, might be enemies.
Perhaps the "God's Crystal" is too powerful, but I'd need someone experienced to balance it.
He wouldn't grant protection against magic as a constant resistance. A prayer for it would work, as he encourages the growth of power of his disciples. Drain and fear work against the growth of his disciples, so he will protect them from it himself.
Enemies would be anything thoroughly unmagical, unfantastical and mundane. It's difficult to find that in Crossfire. Perhaps CORRUPTIONS of magic, such as undead, unnatural, demons and dragons, might be enemies.