Potion Damage

[Tregonsee]

In viewing the descriptions of potions like *Healing* and Life, it mentions that the potion may be thrown for damage. How much? Is it worth it to use it that way?

[Prismatic]

Short form: no.

Long form: If I remember right, thrown potions do 1d1 damage, but because they do any damage it tells you you can throw them for damage.

Of course if I completely blanked or forgot a change, someone tell me, but I'm pretty sure you're way, way better off drinking those.

[Derakon]

Those descriptors are badly misleading; they're appended onto any potion that has damage dice or sides regardless of how big they are. For some reason *Healing* and Life (but not Healing) deal 1d1 damage. That should really be removed.

[Tregonsee]

Good thing that I asked- it seemed like they could be used like the old Potion of Detonations...

Why was that dropped?

[Derakon]

Presumably in the interests of not killing players for drinking un-ID'd potions, same reason we don't have Potions of Death any more.

[Timo Pietilä]

Good thing that I asked- it seemed like they could be used like the old Potion of Detonations...

Why was that dropped?

Same as Potion of Death, to encourage ID by testing. Potion of Detonations caused 1000 points of damage when you drank it.

[Derakon]

Clearly Angband just needs more animal testing. The character should have a supply of rodents to carry with him for testing un-ID'd potions on. You could scratch them up a bit to check for healing potions, poison them, poke out their eyes, etc. And if they go *pop* then you know you've just dosed them with an overlarge supply of nitroglycerin!

Really the only difficulty would be recognizing stat gain potions. You'd have to carry a maze around with you to test their INT scores...

[takkaria]

Clearly Angband just needs more animal testing. The character should have a supply of rodents to carry with him for testing un-ID'd potions on. You could scratch them up a bit to check for healing potions, poison them, poke out their eyes, etc. And if they go *pop* then you know you've just dosed them with an overlarge supply of nitroglycerin!

Problem is, the results in animals won't be the same as the results in humans, so people will end up drinking especially nasty potion of poison thinking they're pretty safe and getting their CON permanently and unchangeably reduced to -5.

[will_asher]

Clearly Angband just needs more animal testing. The character should have a supply of rodents to carry with him for testing un-ID'd potions on. You could scratch them up a bit to check for healing potions, poison them, poke out their eyes, etc. And if they go *pop* then you know you've just dosed them with an overlarge supply of nitroglycerin!

Really the only difficulty would be recognizing stat gain potions. You'd have to carry a maze around with you to test their INT scores...

Also the fact that everything causes cancer in rats. Test a !augmentation on a rat and it'll die. Then the PC won't ever drink one.

In DAJ, potions of detonation do 99d5 (max 495) damage and work as thrown weapons similar to grenades. Seeing as they don't appear till deep anyway, just make sure you'll at full HP before use-ID...

[Starhawk]

Also the fact that everything causes cancer in rats. Test a !augmentation on a rat and it'll die. Then the PC won't ever drink one.

Just don't test a Potion of Experience on a rat.

- You feed the gray rat a Crimson Potion.
- The gray rat looks more experienced!
- The gray rat hits you. The gray rat hits you. The gray rat hits you.
- The gray rat breathes poison.
- You die.