Maybe a bug??

[Jungle_Boy]

Playing august 15th nightly and discovered that my new splendid whip sustained charisma when i drank a potion of nimbleness. Unfortunately i wasn't paying enough attention to determine if it actually reduced my charisma or not. Although looking at my character screen shows base charisma of 9 so something at some point reduced it. What is the expected behaviour of stat swap potions with regards to sustained stats? It seems to me if it is going to reduce it anyway I should not learn about the sustain, if the sustain prevents the loss then learning about it would work.

[takkaria]

Playing august 15th nightly and discovered that my new splendid whip sustained charisma when i drank a potion of nimbleness. Unfortunately i wasn't paying enough attention to determine if it actually reduced my charisma or not. Although looking at my character screen shows base charisma of 9 so something at some point reduced it. What is the expected behaviour of stat swap potions with regards to sustained stats? It seems to me if it is going to reduce it anyway I should not learn about the sustain, if the sustain prevents the loss then learning about it would work.

The potion tries to drain one stat. If this fails because of a sustain, you learn what items have that sustain. If it doesn't fail, you get another stat increased.

[Jungle_Boy]

So the sustain does prevent the drain, cool. So carrying a ring of bodykeeping or soulkeeping to put on before drinking a stat-swap potion would ensure that no important stats get drained and basically turn them into stat gain potions?

[fizzix]

The potion tries to drain one stat. If this fails because of a sustain, you learn what items have that sustain. If it doesn't fail, you get another stat increased.

I think permanent stat draining, like from swap potions should override sustains. The behavior that you're describing seems very counter intuitive, and it also removes some randomness to these potions. i.e. I'll put on this ring of bodykeeping and =int because I only care about increasing this stat at the expense of wis or chr. I guess this is the intended behavior, but I don't like it.

[Raxmei]

From what I remember the stat reduction overrides the sustain but the glowy stuff lets you know that your previously unknown sustain tried to work.

[Timo Pietilä]

The potion tries to drain one stat. If this fails because of a sustain, you learn what items have that sustain. If it doesn't fail, you get another stat increased.

Do I understand that right that failed decrease caused by sustain causes also stat increase to fail? So in order to get benefit from a potion you should remove all stuff that sustain or potentially sustain a stat?

[takkaria]

Do I understand that right that failed decrease caused by sustain causes also stat increase to fail? So in order to get benefit from a potion you should remove all stuff that sustain or potentially sustain a stat?

That's right. You either get all of the effect or none of it.

[Jungle_Boy]

That's right. You either get all of the effect or none of it.

This may be correct but I drank a potion of brawn that reduced my CON and increased STR. I got the effect but I am a Dunedan, CON sustained. Do racial sustains not count?

[Jungle_Boy]

That's right. You either get all of the effect or none of it.

This does not seem to be working as intended. In my current game I am wearing a robe of permanence (I thought I read those had been removed?) and the stat swap potions all seem to work fine.

[Derakon]

Robes of Permanence are still in, but Dragon Scale Mail of Permanence is gone, and good riddance.

[Jungle_Boy]

Robes of Permanence are still in, but Dragon Scale Mail of Permanence is gone, and good riddance.

I see, the fact remains that the neither the racial sustain nor the sustains from a Robe of Permanence prevent you from using the stat-swap potions as mentioned by Takkaria, so either the intended behaviour is different from explained or something is not working as intended.

[takkaria]

I see, the fact remains that the neither the racial sustain nor the sustains from a Robe of Permanence prevent you from using the stat-swap potions as mentioned by Takkaria, so either the intended behaviour is different from explained or something is not working as intended.

Ah, I didn't read the code closely enough. Sustains apparently make no difference to the stat decreases.

[Jungle_Boy]

So know we are back to my original post about learning an items sustains by drinking a stat swap potion even though the sustain does nothing.

Playing august 15th nightly and discovered that my new splendid whip sustained charisma when i drank a potion of nimbleness. Unfortunately i wasn't paying enough attention to determine if it actually reduced my charisma or not. Although looking at my character screen shows base charisma of 9 so something at some point reduced it. What is the expected behaviour of stat swap potions with regards to sustained stats? It seems to me if it is going to reduce it anyway I should not learn about the sustain, if the sustain prevents the loss then learning about it would work.

[Timo Pietilä]

So know we are back to my original post about learning an items sustains by drinking a stat swap potion even though the sustain does nothing.

That indeed sounds like a bug. I don't know if it is deliberate, but since sustain didn't have effect it shouldn't have been noticed either.