New memorable randarts

[PowerWyrm]

q) the Mage Staff of Moron (1d1) (+8,+0) <+2, +3>
     Dropped by Smaug the Golden at 2600 feet (level 52).

     +2 intelligence.
     +3 constitution.
     Provides resistance to lightning, poison.
     Cannot be harmed by acid, fire.
     Sustains strength, dexterity.

     Combat info:
     This weapon should be wielded with both hands.
     2.0 blows/round.
     Average damage/round: 10.

Despite its name, it's quite nice for a spellcaster...

[Nick]

How do you generate the spoiler file for a given save-game?

You can also generate spoilers from the death menu - I suspect that's how most people generate randart spoilers.

[PowerWyrm]

Been a while I've gotten a pair of cursed randart gloves... This is PWMAngband though, and those are clearly not suited for a spellcaster.

s) the Set of Gauntlets 'Nindirn' [3,-14] <-2, -10> {cursed}
     Dropped by a Nether wraith at 3800 feet (level 76).

     Heavily cursed.
     -2 dexterity.
     -10 mana capacity.
     Cannot be harmed by acid, fire.
     Drains experience.

[PowerWyrm]

Not the best tohit/todam ever... but +2 ES on a heavy xbow is really nice.

b) the Heavy Crossbow of Narfin (x4) (+8,+15) <+2>
     Dropped by a Bandit at 3800 feet (level 76).

     +2 shooting speed.
     Provides resistance to lightning, fire, light, nether.
     Cannot be harmed by acid, fire.
     Sustains constitution.
     Speeds regeneration.
     Grants the ability to sense evil.

[Nivra]

How much AC can you get from a Crown?

I saw this artifact on the ground and got super excited. I thought it was sourced from a really deep art and had tons of value. Apparently, all the value was in the AC bonus.

t) the Jewel Encrusted Crown of Narrin [0,+48]
     Taken from a chest found at 3850 feet (level 77)
     
     Provides protection from confusion.
     Cannot be harmed by acid.
     Prevents paralysis.  
     
     When activated, it heals cut damage, and cures all stunning,
     poison, blindness and confusion.
     Takes 167 to 186 turns to recharge at your current speed.
     Your chance of success is 95.2%

[PowerWyrm]

I saw this artifact on the ground and got super excited. I thought it was sourced from a really deep art and had tons of value. Apparently, all the value was in the AC bonus.

I've had randart crowns in the past with nothing more than an AC boost. Or randart weapons with only tohit/todam boosts. Those are clearly marginally better than a "good" item, and clearly worse than any ego... No idea if randart generation will be rewritten someday, but it would be nice to ensure that artifacts get at least one extra ability besides tohit/todam/toac, even if it's something useless like feather falling.

[Estie]

I've had randart crowns in the past with nothing more than an AC boost. Or randart weapons with only tohit/todam boosts. Those are clearly marginally better than a "good" item, and clearly worse than any ego... No idea if randart generation will be rewritten someday, but it would be nice to ensure that artifacts get at least one extra ability besides tohit/todam/toac, even if it's something useless like feather falling.

Is that really horrible ? I find it amusing when I get one of those randarts. As long as there are bad randarts in the game, it doesnt matter in which way they are bad - they arent getting used anyway.

That crown by the op is perfectly fine, just not stellar. It has FA and pconf.

[Derakon]

I've had randart crowns in the past with nothing more than an AC boost. Or randart weapons with only tohit/todam boosts. Those are clearly marginally better than a "good" item, and clearly worse than any ego... No idea if randart generation will be rewritten someday, but it would be nice to ensure that artifacts get at least one extra ability besides tohit/todam/toac, even if it's something useless like feather falling.

One of the big lessons we learned in the ego remix project that was part of v4 is that pluses are one of the better attributes weapons can get. Think about it: would you rather have a Mace (2d4) <+0, +0> with See Invisible, or a Mace (2d4) <+10, +10>? It's not remotely a straightforward choice (unless you're a mage). The fact is that in current Vanilla, ego items are always built "on top of" good items, so they get the pluses from the good item and then often get additional pluses on top of that. Which isn't necessarily a bad thing, but oftentimes the pluses overshadow the other abilities on the item.

Of course, for armor pluses are less relevant, because AC has less impressive effects.

[Pete Mack]

Well combat pluses are always a huge deal on armor: even Gorlim is tempting to try, though I've never quite pulled it off.

[Nick]

Well combat pluses are always a huge deal on armor: even Gorlim is tempting to try, though I've never quite pulled it off.

I guess you mean you've always pulled it off

[Timo Pietilä]

Of course, for armor pluses are less relevant, because AC has less impressive effects.

That's mostly because you have five slots for armor and one for weapon. If you would get all of your AC from just single item, then that AC would become pretty d*mn important.

You can sacrifice one piece of armor completely for other features if the rest still give you usable amount of AC. The way angband is made makes AC a side-effect of other armor features: when you have a good set of armor-related features, you also have good AC almost without exception.

[PowerWyrm]

Well combat pluses are always a huge deal on armor: even Gorlim is tempting to try, though I've never quite pulled it off.

Especially when you play a martial artist: http://angband.oook.cz/ladder-show.php?id=16703

[Pete Mack]

Nice! Gorlim AND Haradrim (and Vilya and Cambeleg too.)

Especially when you play a martial artist: http://angband.oook.cz/ladder-show.php?id=16703

[Pete Mack]

I got a weapon with four out of five brands, along with *slay* demon and some others. It also activated for healing. Unfortunately it was only (2d6) (+10,+13). Putting on slays does not make that weapon more powerful. More powerful means it can do more than 220 damage per turn after the slays are applied.
Weapon power should be based on dice and max damage after slays; if it is only mediocre all the slays in the world don't make it more powerful.

[Derakon]

I got a weapon with four out of five brands, along with *slay* demon and some others. It also activated for healing. Unfortunately it was only (2d6) (+10,+13). Putting on slays does not make that weapon more powerful. More powerful means it can do more than 220 damage per turn after the slays are applied.
Weapon power should be based on dice and max damage after slays; if it is only mediocre all the slays in the world don't make it more powerful.

The randart generator takes into account how much more powerful each brand makes the weapon, I believe including examining the monster list to say "okay, if this brand is added to this weapon, then it will do X bonus damage against Y additional enemies of respective power levels Z, that it didn't already do bonus damage to." In other words, the randart generator is perfectly aware that the marginal additional utility of an extra brand on a small-dice weapon is pretty small, so it doesn't assign much value to those brands when calculating the randart's power.