memorable randarts

[PowerWyrm]

It's not THAT stupid.

(But it is probably the best name ever for a heroic sword of yore.)

  
t) the Main Gauche 'Moron' (2d5) (+8,+5)
     Dropped by Lagduf, the Snaga at 1350 feet (level 27).
     
     Slays orcs.
     Cannot be harmed by acid, electricity, fire, cold.
     Grants the ability to see invisible things.  
     
     Combat info:
     1.1 blows/round.
     With +3 STR and +0 DEX you would get 1.3 blows
     With +0 STR and +2 DEX you would get 1.3 blows
     Average damage/round: 39.4 vs. orcs, and 24.9 vs. others.

I find the name appropriate! Lagduf is indeed a moron for carrying a blade that can slay him...

[MattB]

It's not THAT stupid.

(But it is probably the best name ever for a heroic sword of yore.)

  
t) the Main Gauche 'Moron' (2d5) (+8,+5)
     Dropped by Lagduf, the Snaga at 1350 feet (level 27).
     
     Slays orcs.
     Cannot be harmed by acid, electricity, fire, cold.
     Grants the ability to see invisible things.  
     
     Combat info:
     1.1 blows/round.
     With +3 STR and +0 DEX you would get 1.3 blows
     With +0 STR and +2 DEX you would get 1.3 blows
     Average damage/round: 39.4 vs. orcs, and 24.9 vs. others.

[MattB]

The damage is too low for my late-game warrior to get much use out of this now, but otherwise wow:

the Short Sword of Fearad (1d7) (+6,+16) <+4>
Found lying on the floor in a vault at 3800 feet (level 76).

+4 dexterity.
Slays giants, dragons.
Provides immunity to lightning, cold.
Provides resistance to disenchantment.
Provides protection from fear.
Cannot be harmed by acid, electricity, fire, cold.
Grants telepathy.

immelec, immcold AND ESP. Yes, wow!

[Nomad]

The damage is too low for my late-game warrior to get much use out of this now, but otherwise wow:

the Short Sword of Fearad (1d7) (+6,+16) <+4>
Found lying on the floor in a vault at 3800 feet (level 76).

+4 dexterity.
Slays giants, dragons.
Provides immunity to lightning, cold.
Provides resistance to disenchantment.
Provides protection from fear.
Cannot be harmed by acid, electricity, fire, cold.
Grants telepathy.

[Timo Pietilä]

I've never stuck around long enough to break a *heavy curse*. Do regular Enchants have any chance of breaking one? Is it currently a dice roll to break, or is it an incremental decursification process?

Every scroll has chance to break the curse. Even when actual enchantment failed. Also priest "dispel curse" breaks heavy curses (dungeon book spell, not the "remove curse" -version). Those spells have been removed from 3.4, but they are in 3.3 (I think).

[scud]

As I recall, it would have given my High Elf warrior something like 99.8 damage vs. demons.

...And 8 vs. everything else.

Heh. Be grateful it wasn't an orc slayer.

At least its a good sink for Enchant scrolls.

I've never stuck around long enough to break a *heavy curse*. Do regular Enchants have any chance of breaking one? Is it currently a dice roll to break, or is it an incremental decursification process?

[emulord]

At least its a good sink for Enchant scrolls.

[Nomad]

Slays multiply the dice damage, and have no effect on pluses. This weapon would deal 15d3 - 7 damage to demons, which honestly isn't too bad...

As I recall, it would have given my High Elf warrior something like 99.8 damage vs. demons.

...And 8 vs. everything else.

[Derakon]

Slays multiply the dice damage, and have no effect on pluses. This weapon would deal 15d3 - 7 damage to demons, which honestly isn't too bad...

[scud]

... but hey! It *slays* demons! That's gotta be worth something, right?

I've never considered how slays, *slays*, and elemental brand To Dam numbers are calculated. Would the *slay* on something that's at –7 increase or reduce damage?

[AnonymousHero]

... but hey! It *slays* demons! That's gotta be worth something, right?

[Nomad]

And you IDed it before use?!?

Well, fortunately the {cursed} status showed on pickup. (I'm playing 3.5 dev.) Though the character managed to die of stupidity a few levels later anyway.

[scud]

the Whip of Anilmar (3d3) (-14,-7) [-24] {cursed}
Dropped by Nár, the Dwarf at 1000 feet (level 20).

Heavily cursed.
*Slays* demons.
Cannot be harmed by acid, electricity, fire, cold.
Aggravates creatures nearby.

And you IDed it before use?!? Good work. I've only encountered a single heavily cursed randart in 3.4.1. Can't remember what it did, but the only viable solution was suicide.

[Nomad]

The first artefact my warrior found so far this game:

the Whip of Anilmar (3d3) (-14,-7) [-24] {cursed}
Dropped by Nár, the Dwarf at 1000 feet (level 20).

Heavily cursed.
*Slays* demons.
Cannot be harmed by acid, electricity, fire, cold.
Aggravates creatures nearby.

[Bagplant]

That's going to result in an awful lot of things getting Feather Falling (or +1 CHA or +1 Searching).

This happens when the base item is significantly 'better' (in terms of damage dice or base AC) than the standart's base item, so there's not much room for abilities. Personally I'd rather have +hit/dam on a weapon than FF or +1 stat.

We could address this by narrowing the range of allowable base items - at the moment they're allowed to take up to 85% (IIRC) of the available power. We could lower this limit to something like 60%. My instinct is that this would make randart generation take noticeably longer (many more rejected items and sets), but it might not.

I would also call this a bug I think. There are definitely examples in the standart set that are comparable to a normal ego item in power (the -thancs for example are basically just branded weapons with an extra damage die and activation). However this one would pseudo-id as 'good' if it were a non-artifact and I can't think of any in the basic set for which that's true. (The Glaive doesn't count as the huge boost to damage dice and +damage makes it out of the ordinary - compare DSM of craftsmanship or launchers of accuracy/power).

If the base item can take up to 85% of the power calculation, that seems way too high and more or less guarantees that you will see artifacts of this type. (I wonder what the maximum base item percentage is in the standart set? Well below 85%, I'd bet).