Racial ability brainstorming

[wobbly]

The thing I usually find the most interesting on humans is the lack of infravision.

[AnonymousHero]

ToME2 had split up ESP and I basically ignored it, along with most others I believe. In theory, its possible to get "full" ESP by equipping all the different sub-ESPs, in practice thats so much additional strain on your equipment setup that it falls below the threshold. There were some special places that had mostly one type of creature (unlike vanilla), and there the appropriate ESP was useful, but even that wasnt enough for me to bother. Once learned, the orc dungeons or dragon meadows could be navigated without, and you didnt spend that much time there anyway.

It's certainly true that partial ESP quickly loses its usefulness, but ESP evil retains its usefulness rather longer, I find. Partial ESP is also most useful if it's a race-intrinsic and available from an early level. It's not very useful on equipment, really.

[Carnivean]

There was talk about an anti-magic class, but what if it was one of the races that was either actively anti-magic, or hilariously inept at it?

[Derakon]

A single type of ESP on its own (orc-ESP) is not very useful in assuring you are going to survive walking into the next room, unlike full ESP. The important info isnt "what kind of monster is in the next room", its "what kind of monster _isnt_ in the next room".

If you're a weenie little mage, it's very helpful to know that there's a pack of Snagas over that way at 250', because they will kill you unless you've been lucky enough to score a Wand of Light already (and hey, if you have, there's a pack of Snagas over that way! Free experience!). And yeah, mages get monster detection; that doesn't mean that the ESP is useless.

Anyway, it's fine if some of the racial intrinsics are just "flavor". I mean, gnomes auto-IDing wands and hobbits auto-IDing mushrooms are both pretty pointless, and the dwarfish treasure detection is similarly low-impact.

[wobbly]

Strangely I've always found orc-esp more useful as a kind of dungeon layout detection then for seeing the orcs themselves. The really useful partial detection is natural-esp for seeing hounds.

[klassik]

maybe an ability for racial hatred. i tried explaining and giving examples, but none of it looked right after i was done typing it out.

so what can be done with racial prejudice

[Derakon]

maybe an ability for racial hatred. i tried explaining and giving examples, but none of it looked right after i was done typing it out.

so what can be done with racial prejudice

We can bring back asshole racist shopkeepers. Used to be the shopkeepers would charge different rates to different races, so e.g. if you got Ithyl-Mak the Beastly (who is a half-troll) in the weapons shop, then unless you were yourself a half-troll or half-orc you'd be paying somewhat more for items (and getting less if you sold things, though that's less relevant now).

It was a nice bit of flavor and I was sad to see it go.

[klassik]

We can bring back asshole racist shopkeepers. Used to be the shopkeepers would charge different rates to different races, so e.g. if you got Ithyl-Mak the Beastly (who is a half-troll) in the weapons shop, then unless you were yourself a half-troll or half-orc you'd be paying somewhat more for items (and getting less if you sold things, though that's less relevant now).

It was a nice bit of flavor and I was sad to see it go.

i would like to see that come back. especially if the dialog had a meaner tone to it.

also, how about natural slays. to reflect certain races have been brainwashed into hating other races during childhood.

with natural slays should also bring on natural defense like increased stealth after sight of race that is abusive toward @.


an expansion on the stealth: it could be triggered to natural slay. an victim to abuser response.

[Zireael]

Add me to the list of people who would like to see "racist" shopkeepers.

[bio_hazard]

While I like the flavor, racist shopkeepers might cause people to scum for changes in shops or even worse, scum the start.

I love TOMEs partial ESP. Flavor and situationally useful.

Humans: Kind of agree with the no-ability take, although reduced level for class abilities makes some sense.

Elf: the suggestions in the OP are good

Gnome: auto trap disarm at level 10

Dwarf: + 25% gold from mining, pass/see through rubble (or special treatment of rubble),

Half-Orc: At level 10 arrows are auto poison branded.

Half-Troll: How about for each 10 levels, monster melee damage per dice reduced by 1.

Dunedan: Auto-detect stairs. At level 10, ignores hunger.

High-Elf: Auto-ID, immune fear.

Hobbit: I like the no-boots or boot-penalty ideas. Also, roll saving throws twice, maybe roll hits twice against uniques.

Half-Elf: not sure...

[Ingwe Ingweron]

Currently, half-trolls become hungry faster than any other race. I've always thought this should apply to hobbits, given their desire for breakfast, second breakfast, elevensies, luncheon, tea, dinner, supper....

[Jungle_Boy]

Currently, half-trolls become hungry faster than any other race. I've always thought this should apply to hobbits, given their desire for breakfast, second breakfast, elevensies, luncheon, tea, dinner, supper....

The extra hunger is a side effect of the trolls natural regeneration, maybe hobbits should get the hunger without the regeneration.

[Nomad]

Actually, more variable hunger (and healing?) rates for the different races could be an interesting little bit of flavour. Maybe Hobbits get hungry fast, Gnomes need less food to be full while Trolls need more, Elves recover SP faster than other races, etc. Regen on equipment could stack with the species' natural regeneration rate, so a Troll with an Amulet of Regeneration would both heal and hunger super fast, while a species with slow regeneration would still be worse off than a baseline Troll even with the amulet on.

Or maybe Hobbits could have the quirk of being unsatisfied by Satisfy Hunger! Only real food will do for them.

[Timo Pietilä]

Or maybe Hobbits could have the quirk of being unsatisfied by Satisfy Hunger! Only real food will do for them.

And get a bit more nutrition from mushrooms than other races.

[TJS]

I am probably a lone voice here, but I really don't like the idea of adding loads of extra quirks and rules for each race (or class).

It makes the learning curve worse for new players as there is loads of extra stuff to learn, 90% of the suggested differences seem pointless/boring to me and it detracts from the purity of the design (as well as presumably adding in loads of complexity to the code/introducing bugs etc.).

But I've always disliked rules such as "Orcs get a 10% attack bonus versus elves" etc.

Angband is bloated enough as it is, although to be fair a lot has been removed/cleaned up in the last 5 years. I can just see a lot of the bloat is going to be put back again just in a different form.