Taking advantage of multiple pvals

[bulian]

Why not just lower damage bonuses on items? The key factor is that damage bonuses are multiplied per blow. Discounting haradrim shield, a typical endgame kit probably consists of: Elessar (7) + cambeleg(8) + narya (6) + hammerhand (9) = +30. So that's an extra 120-180 damage per round against everything, regardless of weapon, before slays/brands/etc.

Wearing those items alone, Sting is a viable weapon for fighting morgoth with 534 dmg/round against evil as a level 50 high elf warrior, compared to 290 dmg/round without any of them.

Along those same lines, combat +to hit bonuses from heroism(+12) /berserk(+24)/holy chant(+10) also stack, which has a large impact on non warriors. For example, a level 50 mage goes from a 64% chance to hit Sauron (AC 160) wielding Aule with the above kit to 74% chance with the above 3 buffs, which is a pretty substantial bump.

So, with multiple pvals, I would reduce melee damage bonuses across the board, perhaps by half, but keep melee to hit bonuses intact., though I think that was possible before.

I'd also make the speed bonus "trickery independent of the dex bonus.

IMO the speed bonus on Thror is too low and its deep enough where it isn't competitive with any of the other boots that you have already likely found.

[camlost]

Sangband made the RoP must-wear items by granting them a speed boost of +10. I'm guessing the Vanilla crowd likes that they're not must-wear items, but perhaps a speed of +5 would make them more interesting? I guess it comes down to whether you think people should be wielding the RoP preferentially.

(as a side note, I like that Nenya gives +2 str,con,cha, and nenya gives +4 int/wis/dex)

[Atarlost]

Indeed. There's already a separate movement to fix the light weapon problem, at which point the *thancs will only be better than medium weight branded egos for low strength characters. Let's not make a balance change that will have to be reversed soon because of a more fundamental fix.

[Magnate]

Indeed. There's already a separate movement to fix the light weapon problem, at which point the *thancs will only be better than medium weight branded egos for low strength characters. Let's not make a balance change that will have to be reversed soon because of a more fundamental fix.

Well, they will get the weaker brands in any event, as befits early-game artifacts. But your point is more generally valid - we shouldn't agonise too much over the exact stats of artifact weapons until after the light/heavy rebalancing is done.

[dos350]

id say the real goodness of multi pval is extreme overpower leetness, ee anyway stealth - not bad cos can get other +stealth thing, actually make wanting stealth more- there is no cure for aggreivve i dont think, ee~!

[NotMorgoth]

Sangband made the RoP must-wear items by granting them a speed boost of +10. I'm guessing the Vanilla crowd likes that they're not must-wear items, but perhaps a speed of +5 would make them more interesting? I guess it comes down to whether you think people should be wielding the RoP preferentially.

(as a side note, I like that Nenya gives +2 str,con,cha, and nenya gives +4 int/wis/dex)

However, as far as I can tell, speed is generally much harder to get in Sangband than Vanilla; I have had winning games where the only permanent sources of speed I found were RoP and Tulkas, so without that +10 it would probably have been impossible. However, in V there seem to be more available sources of speed so +10 speed from a the RoP is less vital.