Do different races level up differently?

[TJS]

Hello everyone I'm new here,

I've been playing Angband for a few months now and loving it (although I'm a bit rubbish at it).

I can't work out if different races improve different stats at each level. I know that different classes do. Would for example a half-troll priest improve his fighting faster than say a gnome priest?

[will_asher]

For skills like disarming, saving throw and fighting & shooting to-hit, classes affect how the character improves with level. Race affects your starting skills, but not how it improves with level. (a half-troll priest will start with much better fighting skill than a gnome priest, and they will gain skill at the same rate, so the half-troll will always be the better fighter apart from equipment and stuff.)
Race is a factor in how fast you level up, and how much hit points you get when you gain a level.
Stats (STR, INT, WIS, DEX, CON, CHA) do not improve when you gain a level.

[Nick]

Hello everyone I'm new here

Greetings

I've been playing Angband for a few months now and loving it (although I'm a bit rubbish at it).

Aren't we all.

I can't work out if different races improve different stats at each level. I know that different classes do. Would for example a half-troll priest improve his fighting faster than say a gnome priest?

No, they don't (assuming you mean skills, not stats like STR, etc, which are only affected by potions). Different races have a different base contribution to skills, but it's only the class that determines how much they increase with level (which, btw, they only do every 10 levels).

[TJS]

Hey thanks for the replies. I think I understand how it works.

It seems to me that as a character increases levels then the race becomes less important than the class, since the class bonuses which increase at each level begin to outweigh the initial race bonus.

It might be quite nice if different races improved their abilities at a different rate with each level as well. So a high level half-troll priest would increase his fighting skills faster than say a gnome priest, but increase his magic capibilities less.

Perhaps an elf warrior could eventually get a couple of useful spells to make up for his lack of fighting ability on higher levels, but a half-troll wouldn't (or wouldn't have enough mana points to make carrying the books around worthwhile). It would be nice to customise the characters a bit more and give a bit more reason to play the less popular race/class combinations.

Anyone else like this idea?

[Bandobras]

What idea, exactly? To some extent this has been done in variants, but then, you mention many things...

Two things closest to V:

Yes, I like the current simplicity of no race per-level skill bonuses. Yes, they are too low right now to make any difference --- so increase them.

Yes, I don't like how many of the V skills are insignificant altogether.

[TJS]

What idea, exactly? To some extent this has been done in variants, but then, you mention many things...

Two things closest to V:

Yes, I like the current simplicity of no race per-level skill bonuses. Yes, they are too low right now to make any difference --- so increase them.

Yes, I don't like how many of the V skills are insignificant altogether.

Yes I guess you could just increase the starting bonuses/penalties for different races, although it might mean a few characters are overpowered at the start of the game (the half-troll warrior I guess would have very good starting fighting abilities).

Also it seems a bit strange that your abilities only go up every ten levels. It's nice to feel you're making progress each time you level up I think.

[Bandobras]

Yes I guess you could just increase the starting bonuses/penalties for different races, although it might mean a few characters are overpowered at the start of the game (the half-troll warrior I guess would have very good starting fighting abilities).

Yes, but then what's wrong with having Troll Warriors as munchkin combo instead of or in addtion to High-Elf Whatever? But if other skills are significant, as they should be, the bad searching, shooting, throwing, magic devices, stealth (this one is significant allright already), etc. of Trolls would make a difference even at the start.

Also it seems a bit strange that your abilities only go up every ten levels. It's nice to feel you're making progress each time you level up I think.

They go up almost every level, just not every level more than 1 skill point, for some skills, so then there is no game-play difference until the next level.

[Nystul]

Now that I've played fairly deep with a half-troll warrior, I really appreciate the significance that your skill bonuses can make in this game. I guess you don't know what you have until you've lost it. Level 50+ magic devices are virtually unusable even at level 50 without significant intelligence boosting gear. Saving throws aren't exactly reliable. The lack of stealth makes a big difference. The only things that really don't play a factor are searching and disarming, in so far as they can easily be compensated for by using items. But yeah, the attack skills especially are mostly dependent on class in the later stages and race is mostly significant early on. I'd guess that is probably for the best.

As far as the unpopular combos go, I think it is mostly just the fact that high elf and dunadan are so good at everything. With maximize mode on, the benefits of those races just seem way too great to be balanced with a small experience penalty.

[Bandobras]

Level 50+ magic devices are virtually unusable even at level 50 without significant intelligence boosting gear. Saving throws aren't exactly reliable.

You are talking about 50+ magic devices and (gasp!) non-perfect saving throw, which is understandable for a person conditioned by serious attempts to _win_ V. I'm conditioned by serious attempts to have fun in Un, where some builds can't use a rod of Trap Detection at all at CL50 (no 5% guaranteed activation chance in Un) and have absolutely negligible saving throw. Some of these builds are supposed to be playable and even winnable. I think it would make V better to introduce just a little bit of this kind of character variety...