Weapon of Morgul

[PowerWyrm]

1) Has HOLD_LIFE + DRAIN_EXP: these two contradict each other
2) Has slay UNDEAD_3: for a weapon used by Nazguls, this feels out of place

[Sky]

They should go back to being strongly cursed.

[luneya]

Strongly cursed? In what way? You mean the old-fashioned sticky curse?

Actually, a sticky curse on Morgul items (along with various other harmful curses) might be interesting. But if we were to do that, I'd want to make it a weak version, such as can be easily removed with a scroll purchased in town. We don't want to go back to the days when wielding a weapon without first pseudo-iding it (or real id, but those were pretty rare back then) was a game-ending mistake.

If you mean having non-sticky curses that are simply very hard to remove, that's also fine. But a high-power sticky curse would be bad.

[Derakon]

Sticky curses are antithetical to promoting ID-by-use. Even if the sticky curse is weak, you're now saying "you must have Remove Curse on-hand before you dare wield any weapon with unknown runes, lest you risk losing access to your normal weapon's abilities."

The only reason that cursed equipment is even possible in modern Angband, without turning equipment into the tedious grind it used to be, is because the player is always free to unequip gear.

[luneya]

Sticky curses are antithetical to promoting ID-by-use. Even if the sticky curse is weak, you're now saying "you must have Remove Curse on-hand before you dare wield any weapon with unknown runes, lest you risk losing access to your normal weapon's abilities."

The only reason that cursed equipment is even possible in modern Angband, without turning equipment into the tedious grind it used to be, is because the player is always free to unequip gear.

Remove curse scrolls are always available in town. So what a sticky curse would really amount to is "you must have remove curse or recall on hand before trying weapons." Which isn't so bad, as normal players always carry recall, and ironman is supposed to be an aggravating challenge, so I won't cry about it being made worse.

[Derakon]

Remove curse scrolls are always available in town. So what a sticky curse would really amount to is "you must have remove curse or recall on hand before trying weapons." Which isn't so bad, as normal players always carry recall, and ironman is supposed to be an aggravating challenge, so I won't cry about it being made worse.

Ironman is supposed to be a fun challenge. Nothing about Angband is supposed to be aggravating, except the items with aggravation on them.

But anyway, let's assume we implement your change. The net effect will be that normal players will be forced to abandon levels to go to town and get Remove Curse, and ironman players will, after losing one character to a Morgul weapon, forever more dedicate an inventory slot to Remove Curse until they've ID'd the sticky curse -- and before they find Remove Curse, they'll be unable to effectively use-ID weapons without risking the character being rendered unplayable.

I'm afraid I'm not seeing the upside to this.

[Sky]

no, i mean that they need to go back to being (-8,-8) stuff that can only be wielded by a Ringwraith.
You can actually find Morgul blades with Hold_Life to offset the XP drain. Instead they should be something that any sane player will drop immediately.

[kandrc]

no, i mean that they need to go back to being (-8,-8) stuff that can only be wielded by a Ringwraith.
You can actually find Morgul blades with Hold_Life to offset the XP drain. Instead they should be something that any sane player will drop immediately.

How is that fun?