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I few things that struck me while playing through competition 83:
1) The magic-using penalties for wielding a Ring of Escaping need to be harsher. Right now, it just adds to the base failure rate, but if the character is high enough level, and/or the spell low enough level, you can get down to the normal minimum fail level. This is really only a problem around level 30, where the standard mage attacks are elemental bolts (both rods and spells). Even with a RoE, the fail rate for these is the minimum or nearly so, meaning a mage can wield it as if it was a RoS +4. I think that a RoE should increase the minimum fail rate (like stunning does). I think 33% sounds about right (character is moving 1.4x faster, but with only a 67% success rate, so it would do slightly less damage per game turn).
2) I like the new lower costs for magic damage spells. It does seems to have had the desired effect of allowing a mage to be played as an (almost) pure caster, with the occasional resort to melee or bows, just as a fighter can be an (almost) pure melee character, with occasional resort to potions and scrolls. I had thought it would be unbalancing, but surprisingly I did not find it to be so. I do think the SP cost should be tweaked up a little bit, but not much.
3) Staff of the Magi should recharge for only 1 charge, not 3 or 4. Right now, when coupled with Greater Recharging, it just puts too much SP into the hands of a high-level spell caster. And it should start out with only 2 charges when it is first found.
1) The magic-using penalties for wielding a Ring of Escaping need to be harsher. Right now, it just adds to the base failure rate, but if the character is high enough level, and/or the spell low enough level, you can get down to the normal minimum fail level. This is really only a problem around level 30, where the standard mage attacks are elemental bolts (both rods and spells). Even with a RoE, the fail rate for these is the minimum or nearly so, meaning a mage can wield it as if it was a RoS +4. I think that a RoE should increase the minimum fail rate (like stunning does). I think 33% sounds about right (character is moving 1.4x faster, but with only a 67% success rate, so it would do slightly less damage per game turn).
2) I like the new lower costs for magic damage spells. It does seems to have had the desired effect of allowing a mage to be played as an (almost) pure caster, with the occasional resort to melee or bows, just as a fighter can be an (almost) pure melee character, with occasional resort to potions and scrolls. I had thought it would be unbalancing, but surprisingly I did not find it to be so. I do think the SP cost should be tweaked up a little bit, but not much.
3) Staff of the Magi should recharge for only 1 charge, not 3 or 4. Right now, when coupled with Greater Recharging, it just puts too much SP into the hands of a high-level spell caster. And it should start out with only 2 charges when it is first found.