Half-troll + regen

[Scraper]

So in my latest game, i'm playing a half-troll warrior. I've just found an amulet of regen and was wondering if it stacked regen or not.

I can understand pblind etc is binary (on or off) but what about regen?

Does regen stack (increase for half-trolls) or is regen the same for every class/ race and binary like pblind and pconf?

[Narvius]

I'm pretty sure everything except elemental resistances (which are ternary) is binary, including Regen.

[Derakon]

Anything that doesn't have a number next to it is binary, so no, regen doesn't stack. This rule includes resistances, but the trick is that there's two kinds of resistance: permanent and temporary. Those two kinds stack. So if you have 8 sources of permanent resist fire, that's like having 1 source of resistance; but if you have 1 source of permanent resist fire and then you drink a Potion of Resist Fire, then you'll have 2 sources of resistance.

[Scraper]

Anything that doesn't have a number next to it is binary, so no, regen doesn't stack. This rule includes resistances, but the trick is that there's two kinds of resistance: permanent and temporary. Those two kinds stack. So if you have 8 sources of permanent resist fire, that's like having 1 source of resistance; but if you have 1 source of permanent resist fire and then you drink a Potion of Resist Fire, then you'll have 2 sources of resistance.

I have a couple of questions about this, if you don't mind answering.

1) Is it only fire and cold damage that needs a perm and temp source of resist?
2) What was the reasoning behind requiring both perm and temp source of resist?
3) What is the affect of having only 1 source against big breathers?

Thanks

[Timo Pietilä]

I have a couple of questions about this, if you don't mind answering.

1) Is it only fire and cold damage that needs a perm and temp source of resist?
2) What was the reasoning behind requiring both perm and temp source of resist?
3) What is the affect of having only 1 source against big breathers?

Thanks

"required" or "need" are wrong words. You can have temp and permanent resists for all four base + poison, for total of five elements, but you don't have to have double resists.

Single resist is 1/3 damage, double is 1/9 damage. Base four element max damage is 1600 points, so if you get that and have only single resistance you get 533 points of damage. Poison is max 800 points. Also acid gets halved by armor assuming it doesn't try to damage item slot that doesn't have armor or armor in that slot already has zero AC.

[Narvius]

I just realized I should be much more scared by the really big base-element dragons than I am (especially since I often lack rBase even below 2500' ).

[Scraper]

I just realized I should be much more scared by the really big base-element dragons than I am (especially since I often lack rBase even below 2500' ).

Yeh, I couldn't agree more. I guess I'll have to start carrying !resist heat and cold on my warrior.

So much to carry... so little room

Thanks for the information Timo, it's greatly appreciated.

[Derakon]

The amount of damage dealt by a breath is (monster's current HP) / 3. Great Hell Wyrms only have 3344 HP, so they can't hit the damage cap; a single-resisted breath from them would deal 371 damage when they're at full health. And of course when they've been hurt, they deal less damage.

Double-resisting is still good for reducing the total damage you receive, and it can be especially helpful against elemental uniques, but it's not a necessity. Warriors have gobs of HP, which really does help with dealing with big enemy attacks.

[Narvius]

...I always though that was based on max HP. :O

[Derakon]

Nope; you might have noticed that nearly-dead monsters deal very little damage with their breath attacks, when they decide to use them.

Monster spells, on the other hand, are based off the monster's level and remain potent even when they're almost dead. So watch out for those nether balls and mana storms!

[Timo Pietilä]

Nope; you might have noticed that nearly-dead monsters deal very little damage with their breath attacks, when they decide to use them.

Monster spells, on the other hand, are based off the monster's level and remain potent even when they're almost dead. So watch out for those nether balls and mana storms!

Nether ball isn't that potent but darkness storm is. Without dark resist Sauron can make more damage with it than full health Dracolich with nether breath. Manastorm and darkness storm are only spells in the game that can make more damage than any high element breath.

Which is BTW why I suggested giving all balrogs darkness storm as spell. They are "demons of fire and shadow", and if you read LoTR they are strongly magical and intelligent, not big mindless beasts like the one in the movie.

I actually would like to see "storm" -variant for other elements too, with comparable damage to darkness/manastorms, so that you could give some high-level monsters spells that can compare to breath-weapons without always relying to those two spells.

[Derakon]

I actually would like to see "storm" -variant for other elements too, with comparable damage to darkness/manastorms, so that you could give some high-level monsters spells that can compare to breath-weapons without always relying to those two spells.

Good idea. It's kind of weird how heavily-focused late-game spell (i.e. not breath) damage is on mana and nether attacks. Firestorm, blizzard, ball lightning, corrosive glob, etc. would all make decent upgrades to the not-very-damaging elemental ball spells the monsters currently have access to.

[Twilight]

Nether ball isn't that potent but darkness storm is. Without dark resist Sauron can make more damage with it than full health Dracolich with nether breath. Manastorm and darkness storm are only spells in the game that can make more damage than any high element breath.

Which is BTW why I suggested giving all balrogs darkness storm as spell. They are "demons of fire and shadow", and if you read LoTR they are strongly magical and intelligent, not big mindless beasts like the one in the movie.

I actually would like to see "storm" -variant for other elements too, with comparable damage to darkness/manastorms, so that you could give some high-level monsters spells that can compare to breath-weapons without always relying to those two spells.

Beware the timestorm-caster!

Seriously though, this idea seems good. Got my attention enough to de-lurk anyway.

[debo]

Good idea. It's kind of weird how heavily-focused late-game spell (i.e. not breath) damage is on mana and nether attacks. Firestorm, blizzard, ball lightning, corrosive glob, etc. would all make decent upgrades to the not-very-damaging elemental ball spells the monsters currently have access to.

tbh the endgame of Vanilla reminded me a lot of the Final Fantasy Legend / SaGa games the first time I made it that far. In the SaGa games, you spend a lot of time building up resistances to different elemental and status attacks that monsters use against you. However, the last two bosses invariably use "non-elemental" attacks against you -- i.e. attacks which you can't defend against at all, and so you're just forced to out-damage and out-heal them, which sort of renders moot all that work you did to get there in the first place.

I'd agree that giving late-late monsters and uniques a bit more variety in their damage types would be more fun than just wondering when you're going to get manastormed again.

Edit: I like Timo's idea a lot as well!!