Comp 226

[bron]

what partially resists Nether Bolt? Is it all evil creatures?

This is correct, despite the fact that the monster description you get with the 'r'ecall command will specifically say that it does *not* resist nether, in fact it does (it may not be immune, but it does resist).

And I noticed that the 'r'ecall description for an undead monster remains silent on the issue of nether resistance, even when I specifically hit one with a Nether Bolt.

[DavidMedley]

Sleep Evil

Even though I played a few necros, I'm taking note of Sleep Evil for the first time. I'm very suspicious of spells and items that give monsters saving throws. But it forms a nice complement with Nether Bolt, both in game-play and theme. Necros are evil so they're best at damaging non-evil, but they can form a truce of sorts with evil.

I still side with people that say too many things resist, and obviously the monster recall needs to be updated, but these two spells plus Tap Unlife form a nice trio.

inb4: I know there's still stuff resistant to all three of these, notably evil uniques. Every class should have its challenges.

[DavidMedley]

Follow-Up

The power level of sleep evil is CL*10+500. How does the game determine if something like this succeeds or fails?

[DavidMedley]

Nether Bolt Resist

Is it the same as player nether resist? numerator:6 denominator:8+1d4 - 2/3 to 1/2 of the damage gets through?

[wobbly]

Evil takes 1/2 dam
IMNeth takes 1/2-1/3 dam
Undead takes 0 dam

[DavidMedley]

Vampire Form Discrepancy

Finishing transcribing all the necro spells to my spreadsheet and I noticed a discrepancy: Vampire Form description says it costs you half your HP, but the formula in shape.txt seems to say 1/4th.

spell:Vampire Form:37:20:60:140
effect:SHAPECHANGE:vampire
effect:JUMP_AND_BITE
dice:$B
expr:B:PLAYER_LEVEL:+ 0
desc:Allows you to assume the form of a vampire at the cost of half your 
desc: current hitpoints, than teleports you to the nearest living monster
desc: and drains a level-dependent number of hitpoints, healing and nourishing
desc: you.  When first transformed you will temporarily be able
desc: to take hitpoints from living monsters with your bite attack.

name:vampire
combat:3:3:-5
obj-flags:SEE_INVIS | HOLD_LIFE
values:LIGHT[-1] | STEALTH[3] | INFRA[3]
effect:DAMAGE
dice:$B
expr:B:PLAYER_HP:/ 4
effect-msg:taking vampire form
effect:TIMED_INC:ATT_VAMP
dice:10+1d20
blow:bite

[DavidMedley]

All Necro Spells

All Necro spells are in my spreadsheet now

https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1nAVk2AodMHloqhLBzZm7p_s4mne3My4Kyo9wODJWAFQ/edit?usp=sharing

[bron]

A few random issues with 4.2 I noticed while running in the competition:

The description of both the "Read Minds" and "Banish Spirits" spells say they are effective with creatures that have a spirit. Unfortunately, the monster named "fire spirit" does not have a spirit as far as these spells are concerned. I suppose one could pedantically argue that there is a difference between "having" a spirit, and "being" a spirit. But it looks bad, and is confusing. The monsters or the spells should be renamed.

While in Warg form, you cannot pickup new items off the floor. However, you CAN auto-pickup items that match your existing inventory.

A bolt of "slow monster" does NOT wake up a sleeping monster; it sorta seems like it should.

As noted elsewhere, Sauron and Morgoth cast spells only half as often as they are supposed to. Coupled with the Necro "disenchantment" effect, this tends to make them too vulnerable to ranged attacks. They are still tough, don't get me wrong. But they are much easier than they ought to be.

I think Annihilation wands are too strong and should be deleted from the game entirely.

I think the "device skill" damage boost should be removed.

[Derakon]

How about renaming the elemental "spirits" to wisps? Earth Wisp is a bit of an odd combination, I must admit, but I think it works for the others at least.

[bron]

Maybe "sprite"? I admit the word looks a little too much like "spirit", but would be an improvement.

[Ingwe Ingweron]

While in Warg form, you cannot pickup new items off the floor. However, you CAN auto-pickup items that match your existing inventory.

I think the "device skill" damage boost should be removed.

I never play with auto-pickup and my @ in Warg form has no problem picking up items from the floor, just can't read, quaff, use, zap, throw, or shoot them. Or drop them for that matter, which is just weird since he could pick them up.

I disagree with you about removing device skill damage boost. Rebalance, yes, but not remove. I believe it an important distinction for the gnome race as well as for certain "magic skill" classes.

[Ingwe Ingweron]

How about renaming the elemental "spirits" to wisps? Earth Wisp is a bit of an odd combination, I must admit, but I think it works for the others at least.

Why the need to identify it as a spirit in the first place? How about an Elemental is an elemental, is an elemental? Just like most everything else is the thing itself.

[Ingwe Ingweron]

Necromancer is definitely not my favorite class to play. Maybe it works as a challenge class, but it is far out of whack in balance with the other classes.

[Derakon]

Why the need to identify it as a spirit in the first place? How about an Elemental is an elemental, is an elemental? Just like most everything else is the thing itself.

There's both X Spirits and X Elementals; the spirits show up earlier, with corresponding weaker stats; they're also faster (notably so when it comes to Earth Spirits, which are fast, vs. Earth Elementals, which are slow).

I guess one option would be to have Elementals for the current "spirit" tier, and Elder/Greater/Angrier Elementals for the current "elemental" tier. I'm not personally as fond of so explicitly calling out "this is just a buffed-up version of a previous monster" if there's a way to make them more thematically different, but it does make it clear how the monster works.

[wobbly]

I think the spirit tag is unfortunately fairly arbitrary & unclear. While you eventually start memorizing which are & aren't it isn't that intuitive.

• Ents don't have spirits. Surely they have as much right to the tag as dwarves do.
• None of the big 'C' uniques have it.
• Dragons have it, but not the phoenix. Is the phoenix similar to a dragon or just a big bird?
• Nagas have it but not minotaurs.
• Wolf-Sauron & Serpent-Sauron don't have it. This is probably a bug, as I can see it marked on Beorn's bear form.
• Wererats & werebears don't have it.
• A bunch I've missed.

Plenty of those may be corrected marked, but as a player taking a guess, you might go either way.