: Here's what I think: Well, you know how the D's supposed
: to be some really ass-kickin' sorcerer, even without
: Balor's help. Let's review the magic that he uses
: throughout the games: 1.Ribbons of fire that tear
: flesh from bone (shadow of the mountain)
: 2.Clouds of poison that rotted men to peices in mere
: seconds (also shadow of the mountain)
: 3.Converting units (shadow of the mountain, relic,
: shiver, summoner)
: 4.withering (relic, summoner, shiver)
: 5.call down lightning (murder of crows)
: 6.Travelling through odd angles (the wall)
: 7.stasis (deceiver)
: 8.Teleport along with others (deceiver)
: 9.almost any other thing you could think of.
Not to play devil's advocate, but he probably drew on the Leveller's power for his stasis and mass conversion abilities, and the cloudkill/ribbons of fire attacks seemed to be him magically controlling and enhancing a nearby erupting volcano (the journal doesn't really make it clear whether the fire and poison is produced by the Deceiver and his warlocks or by the volcano itself, so I'm assuming they worked together). He's great at mind control, space warping and energy extraction, but I don't think he attacks with the sheer power of Shiver or Damas or the Watcher unless he has some external power source, like Balor or the volcano.
How do we know the guy we saw was *ever* the Deceiver? Notice that about half the time he doesn't even have his eyepatch on; look at his headshot, or zoom in and look at him. *My* theory is that he found some poor old guy who looks a lot like him and possessed him from a distance throughout the game. Once he got his revenge on Shiver, he let his pawn get killed and went about his business, which is why all the Warlocks are gone for the last two levels.
--SiliconDream
