Infravision

[Mark]

Infravision seems like a truly second-class attribute - sorta like, well if you don't have ESP, See Invis, then Infravision is of some use... ...may that's ok - it's an early-game stat, and some stats being barely significant is ok.

• Are there any invisible hot-blooded monsters that are significantly dangerous?
• Are there any mindless hot-blooded monsters that are significantly dangerous?

I don't consider drinking a Potion of Infravision to have a significant benefit - has there ever been discussion of the affect being permanent? (and drop rates adjusted)

Alternatively perhaps every 10 clevels your infravision could increment - after all, your eyes must get better at seeing in the dark the longer you are in the dungeon.

[Derakon]

Infravision is useful as an early pseudo-telepathy: it can show you monsters that are outside your light radius. If you enter a new level and discover that there's a pack of Gravity Hounds in the same room, well, that's valuable information that you couldn't have gotten without spending a turn otherwise. Amulets of Infravision tend to be the winners for early-game amulets for that reason. It's basically completely obsoleted by telepathy, but that happens pretty late in most games.

That said, potions of infravision are a pretty tough sell, agreed. I could maybe see using them against Smeagol.

[Mondkalb]

There are a few invisible early monsters that can be seen with infravision, so it's nice to have but not vital.
I also like infravision while playing a ranger. You can see monsters for a while if they retreat into a dark corridor and still fire at them.

[Estie]

What Derakon said. The amulet of infravision is the best of all the low tier ones (except for wis, if you are a green caster). Those with high PVAL (3+) are unfortunately very rare; more often than not I find ESP before I find one of those.
I guess this evaluation is only true if you are in the habit of diving agressively though.
If I had room to spare, I would carry a stack of infravision potions, to drink before taking a stairs down. But yes, they fall well below the "inventory slot minimum value" and get squelched as found.

[krazyhades]

!Infravision gets squelched very early, usually immediately after identification. I've never them to fight Smeagol, but I usually descend when I know he's around. I also never go out of my way to get/improve my infravision.

I know it's not technically a worthless stat, but it certainly feels worthless, which is almost as bad.

[Thraalbee]

I usually use an amulet of Infravision at least for a short while since mostly in the early game I rely on ranged weapons, and for this infravision is useful.

[Timo Pietilä]

I know it's not technically a worthless stat, but it certainly feels worthless, which is almost as bad.

It certainly doesn't feel worthless when you don't have it. Humans don't have infravision at all, to them even low-PVAL one is pretty useful early into game.

Dwarves get the other end of the benefit, they have innate +5 to Infravision, so even small addition puts their vision way past torchlight. Gets really handy in early game.

Infravision can be life-saver before you gain ESP. Seeing dangerous group or just couple of big ones at the point you enter new dungeon without using one turn to detect might save your life.

I think the most useless attribute in current vanilla is feather fall (pit-type traps are rarely dangerous anymore at the point when you gain that). It would be nice if that would give you partial gravity resist.

[Estie]

I think the most useless attribute in current vanilla is feather fall (pit-type traps are rarely dangerous anymore at the point when you gain that). It would be nice if that would give you partial gravity resist.

That is an excellent idea. From a "would make sense" perspective, I´d like to see it avoid the knock-around effect of gravity hounds; wether or not the slow should be protected against I dont know.

What exactly is the knock-around, is it the same as a blink ? I certainly wouldnt want immunity to the whole teleport-class effects; tome2 had that, it is more a curse than a blessing and it completely changes the game - feather fall needs just a little bit to become useful.

[bio_hazard]

Some other options for Featherfall- make it like a levitation bonus.

Less likely to set off traps (increase saving throws).

Increase the overburdened limit before speed penalties kick in by, e.g. 25%.

[Timo Pietilä]

Some other options for Featherfall

Increase the overburdened limit before speed penalties kick in by, e.g. 25%.

That's very interesting suggestion. All weak chars would love to have it then, but warriors would not care less... until later when you have so much stuff that it affects your speed again.

+1 for this. Makes this not only useful, it makes it interesting.

[Thraalbee]

That's very interesting suggestion. All weak chars would love to have it then, but warriors would not care less... until later when you have so much stuff that it affects your speed again.

+1 for this. Makes this not only useful, it makes it interesting.

+1 to this too