Blessings

             Blessings
             =========

The Gods of the elements can bestow blessings upon players
who are in their favour. These blessings can improve various 
attributes of the player or be helpful in other ways. A player
needs to have a sufficient amount of Divine Favors in order to
gain a blessing and to maintain it. Blessings can be gained by
praying to the Gods in the Temple of Elements which resides in
the southwestern part of Vaerlon. The sign there will inform you
of the exact commands to be used in there. You can use the
"blessings"-command to view your blessings. We welcome ideas for
new kinds of blessings. 

        Becoming a worshipper
        ---------------------

To get any blessings you have to worship an elemental god. 
Becoming a follower of a certain element is fairly easy,
all you need to do is to find an altar of the god and
worship it.

        Types of blessings      
        ------------------

Blessings are of three varying degrees of power: minor, normal 
and major. Normal blessings give better effects than minor
blessings, and major blessings give best effects. Naturally the
cost for gaining and maintaining a blessing is also dependant on
the degree of its power. 

Currently blessings can do the following:
        -improve one stat (str/con/dex/int/wis/cha)
        -improve your percentage in one skill or spell
         you already have studied or trained
        -improve your resistance to one damagetype
        -improve your hp-, sp- or ep-regen
        -do special things
        
So, blessings of higher power increase your stats more than those 
of lower power, improves spell/skill percentage more and so on. 
Also note, that skill and spell blessings help only 1/3 above
your train/study maximum at the guild. Blessings don't boost the
skill / spell over 100%.

        Gaining blessings
        -----------------

To gain a normal blessing, you first have to have a minor
blessing of the same category, and to gain a major blessing a
normal blessing of that category.

        Current BASE costs for gaining blessings are:
                -200 Divine Favors for the first minor blessing
                -3200 Divine Favors for the first normal blessing
                -16200 Divine Favors for the first major blessing

This cost is often modified according to what element you have 
chosen to worship. 

        Current costs for gaining special blessings are:
                -50, 75 or 100 Permanent Divine Favors for a quarter
                  of a constant blessing. The cost depends on your
                  element. A full constant blessing will always cost
                  a total of 300 PDF.
                -Varying costs for special blessings
                -Constant and normal DF blessings can't be stacked

The cost for additional blessings of the same power as a blessing 
you already have is the cost for the first blessing of that power
multiplied with the number of blessings of that power you
have. This does not apply to blessings whose costs are in
permanent divine favors (ie. constants and  specials); their cost
is fixed. 

Once gained, a blessing will not immediately be at its fullest
power. Its power increases slowly with time. Only when it is at
full power it gives full bonus. You will feel when the blessing
reaches 1/4th, half, 3/4th and full power. 


        Maintaining blessings
        ---------------------

Blessings require divine favors to maintain their power if the
player is active. If a player has one or several blessings, they
will reduce her Divine Favors every time she regens hp, sp or
ep. Since no upkeep cost is required when the player's hp, sp and
ep are full, a player can idle without fear of her blessings
being deactivated due to lack of Divine Favors. The current
upkeepcosts are : 

                -4 Divine Favors for a minor blessing 
                -7 Divine Favors for a normal blessing
                -10 Divine Favors for a major blessing

Please note that the your element modifies the upkeep costs of
the blessings.

        Special and constant blessings do NOT require an upkeep cost.

If a player doesn't have enough Divine Favors to maintain a
blessing, it will start waning, ie its power will begin to
decrease rapidly until it is completely deactivated. Deactivated
blessings can be reactivated at  the Temple of Elements. The cost
for doing this is half of the cost for gaining that blessing in
the first place.


        Relinquishing blessings
        -----------------------

If a player for some reason wants to get rid of a blessing, it
can be relinquished at the Temple. Note that you cannot
relinquish a minor blessing of something you also have a normal
blessing of, and you cannot relinquish a normal blessing of
something you have a major blessing on. The Gods do not
like their blessings being relinquished. Although there currently
is no averse effect from this, there will be in the future.