New memorable randarts

[PowerWyrm]

a) the Morning Star of Brantel (8d6) (+6,+18) <+4, +2, +1>
     Dropped by Baphomet the Minotaur Lord at 2950 feet (level 59).

     +4 intelligence.
     +2 speed.
     +1 attack speed.
     Slays giants.
     Provides protection from fear.
     Cannot be harmed by acid, fire.
     Grants the ability to see invisible things.

     When aimed, it shoots a bolt of mana that inflicts 12d8 points of damage.
     Takes 125 to 138 turns to recharge at your current speed.
     Your chance of success is 77.2%

     Combat info:
     6.8 blows/round.
     With +0 STR and +2 DEX you would get 7.0 blows/round.
     Average damage/round: 1103.5 vs. giants, and 675.6 vs. others.

And it doesn't even have any brands or slays except slay giant. Imagine slay evil on that...

[Grotug]

I sometimes play with skip 3 levels instead of one, but I've never gotten very far. I almost always play forced descent except when I'm playing something I'm not terribly comfortable with like Hobbit Ranger or Gnome Mage.

So my last Mage game had all randarts tailored to Mage. This game all the randarts are tailored to warrior. How about that!

Let's see... two rings each with <+1> attacks. A bunch of weapons with extra attacks. Gauntlets of damage (+7, +15) and I just found the Halberd of Menniend: 4d5 (+8, +33) <+1> attack speed. Slays evil, branded with lightning and acid which translates to... (drum roll please)...

784 to Sauron and the like, 784 to those not resistant to electricity. 682 vs Evil and my STR is only at 18/141, and dex is at 18/162. Pretty insane damage output given that I'm not wearing any rings of damage.

Why people play standarts when you have the chance of doing this sort of damage. I will never go back! Now to find some telepathy....

[Derakon]

..i dont think the difficulty is the problem. it's that the game is structured like this
nothing happens
nothing happens
...
nothing happens
you die.

Turn on forced-descent. IIRC modern versions of Vanilla have a level-skip setting? Set that to 50% so there's only 50 levels in the game. Turn off selling. If you ever find yourself holding down a direction button, immediately head for the stairs instead. You have all the opportunity in the world to make the game move faster, but it's on you to take advantage of them.

[Grotug]

Dive faster and see what is the lowest experience level or hit point max that you can take on the Bosses. That should increase the difficulty factor.

I have done that to some degree. My fastest game is 32K turns.

[Sky]

..i dont think the difficulty is the problem. it's that the game is structured like this
nothing happens
nothing happens
nothing happens
nothing happens
nothing happens
nothing happens
nothing happens
nothing happens
nothing happens
nothing happens
nothing happens
nothing happens
nothing happens
nothing happens
nothing happens
you die.

which is also why, when you *do* get a interesting fight .. or rather, when *I* get an interesting fight, i have a hard time pulling out. my "i'm spent, i need to bail out" mark is a lot higher than anyone else.

that dangerous unique? FINALLY! something to give me a real bump of XP and possibly a decent drop. CHAAAARGGE!!

[Ingwe Ingweron]

...For me the end game is too easy/less interesting than the rest of the game.....

Dive faster and see what is the lowest experience level or hit point max that you can take on the Bosses. That should increase the difficulty factor.

[Grotug]

I probably win about 1 in 20 games, but I don't know I might win more often. I definitely have lots of games where I die before CL10. Once I reach 700hp or so it's rare I lose. For me the end game is too easy/less interesting than the rest of the game. In my recent mage win I just made a diagonal corridor and put a bunch of ; in it and then hockey sticked Sauron with book 9 before he ever saw me. The M fight was more interesting since you can't do that, but it was still pretty easy. I think the hardest part of the game for me generally is the DL40s when the danger level goes up significantly from the DL30s. Ancient dragons, for example, are much more scary than mature dragons, but I hardly notice the difference between mature dragons and young dragons.

[Sky]

and now to a veteran in town.

[Philip]

I think angband should let you win on roughly 1/100 characters, 1/25 for experienced players. Dying 10 times in a row would feel to me like perfectly normal game balance - I don't know how many O characters I've played, and I've only won once. The premise of angband for me has always been that permadeath is there to make your deaths interesting and meaningful, so the deaths aren't that bad.

[Sky]

i think i died 10 times in a row now. once with a CL40 ranger. i'm just too stupid for this game.

[Grotug]

I'm currently having an aMaging run. First time I've played a mage beyond CL20. The run has been ridiculous in giving me key finds. It took a little while to really get going, but then I was being flooded by +5 CON and +5 INT randarts.

When I found a helm of pBlind and Telepathy I was pretty damn stoked as that is a rare power combo to be found in a helmet. When I found another artifact with the same abilities plus +5 INT I nearly fell out of my chair. Later I found <+13>, <+5> sandals with pConf that pretty much sealed the deal. That's +5 to INT on the fastest footwear I've ever found in this game with a key ability to boot!

I've been ready to take on the bosses for awhile now but I'm trying to find some staves of healing and another staff of the magi or two. Oddly, my sole magi staff for the whole game won't backfire. I've recharged it at least 30 times. My wands of drain life backfire regularly, and the first time I recharged a staff of Holiness it backfired. Yet my staff of the magi has seen me through just about every deep unique in the game. There are very few uniques left now.

I have all immunities, all resistances except light and stunning, ALL sustains and 211AC (no robe of permanence needed), and my INT and CON are at *** and STR at 190 and DEX at 200. I only have 848hp but very few things can do 500 or more damage to me. Alas, I don't have feather falling.

I melee GWMCs without runes of protection. I just shield up and melee them for awhile until they die.

I may have to replay this randart set as a ranger, or some other combos. Just so overpowered. There was a helm of extra shots I found early. I'll post a chardump if anyone is interested to see this overwpoered @.

Oh, and my base speed is +27.
Also, lava is handy permanent ; against Undead seeing as I am immune.

[PowerWyrm]

Every randart that has the dice of Grond without being Grond is broken. Imagine you could have slay evil on that instead of slay orc...

[Antoine]

Not broken imo. A +2 attacks or slay evil MoD is probably hitting even harder and only marginally less helpful

Bummer if you're an orc though

A.

[Sky]

go look at the stuff on the first page http://angband.oook.cz/forum/showthread.php?t=8481

[Thraalbee]

Not broken imo. A +2 attacks or slay evil MoD is probably hitting even harder and only marginally less helpful