Sacraments

Sacraments in Godhood are ritual battles between the deities. The gods must prepare their disciples with the right skills to win in turn-based combat.

Sacrament Structure
A sacrament begins on a ritual field on battle surrounded by a crowd of villagers who may be influenced by the outcome of the combat. You and your opponent are represented by three disciples who act independently based how you and your opponent have developed them; their faith and fervor have an effect on how they perform.

The sacrament is made up of four rounds with each disciple taking a turn; the turn order is based on the initiative stat of each combatant. With each turn, the disciple acts to aid his fellows and either attack the opponents physically or through morale suasion; this action may induce some of the crowd to the disciple's cause. The sacrament ends when more than half the crowd is convinced by one side or after all four rounds are completed.

If your disciples are significantly stronger than the opposition, you may inspire them to martyrdom. This lowers their health and grants the opposition a portion of the crowd at the start. If your martyrs still win, your resource and follower rewards are increased.

Combat Mechanics
The goal of combat to win over converts to your religion. To achieve this you attack your opponents physically or through morale suasion. These attacks lower their HP and impress the crowd; breaking an opponent by lowering their HP to 0 removes them from combat and lowers their portion of the crowd.

Abilities are generally either physical or morale attacks. The attack success and effect are determined by the derived stats of the disciple.


 * An attack has a base power determined by the disciple's Might (physical) or Charisma (morale) and bonus power as determined by the ability used.
 * In addition, an attack has a chance to cause 50% more critical damage based on the disciple's critical hit or argument chance and the opponent's cunning or knowledge stat.
 * This attack may either hit or miss based on the disciple's physical or morale accuracy and the opponents evasion or defy stat.
 * The attack may also miss if an opponent's ally successfully intercepts the attack (based on that ally's health or devotion); this action is in addition to that ally's own turn.
 * If the attack hits, the damage to the opponent's HP is lowered by the opponent's physical or morale armor.

Another aspect of combat is the effect of the disciple's class element. The element of an opponent can affect the power of an ability based on the ability's element; this is represented by a circle of elements with each element attack weak to the previous element and strong to the next:
 * dark is stronger than nature
 * nature is stronger than divine
 * divine is stronger than ancestral
 * ancestral is stronger than life
 * life is stronger than dark