Class/magic feature branch

[Estie]

http://angband.oook.cz/ladder-show.php?id=21393

Priest in mid game, after the transition orb -> melee. I found an early buckland sling which I avoided using on purpose. Not much to report because I havent found many dungeon books yet. The one I have has a slay evil buff which might come in handy later, but atm double brand takes care of damage.

As for the minor healing, I almost never used it. Once orb kicks in, I rarely take damage.
And speaking of orb, please leave that one alone. I dont care if priest is supposed to nuke or not, but for a while you get to use mouse and escaping rings, and defender weapons that dont do damage; I wouldnt want to miss that phase. At some point orb falls off and you need to build melee and/or archery, or possibly other spells; priest is a caster class, so orb is arguably no more out of character than melee.

Hopefully I´ll see some dungeon books soon.

Edit: a fingerslip and Ancalagon got to breathe 2 times. I had all the books, but was waiting for reasonable failrates before testing spear of Orome. All in all, it feels like the old priest minus some utility spells.

[Huqhox]

Maybe just not affecting good monsters. Priests aren't supposed to be using their magic to walk around dealing death and destruction from their holy magic (at least not at first!)

Or go down the D&D cause light wounds route as a bolt spell maybe just to give them something ranged

[Derakon]

Making the priest's first attack spell only damage evil monsters is maybe a little mean...but would also have a big impact on how priests play. Seems worth trying.

[Huqhox]

Been playing a bit with the new priest class; priest is my favourite class from V but it has always seemed there is one thing that makes it quite a bit unbalanced: Orb of Draining. An issue that has been raised before.

The great thing about OoD is that it's an unresistable cheap ball spell that works on everybody, and doubly so against evil opponents. The only disadvantage it has is that you need to wait for a few levels to get it. But once you have it the game turns into an OoD spam fest. The best time as a priest is clearing a Hell Pit; it's not hell at all, more a shooting gallery with only the odd powerful unique that needs special care.

Is there scope now we are retooling the classes to avoid this? Presumably the basis of OoD is that it drains something from the monsters that it hits. Does that sound like a holy realm 'thing'? Surely it would suit necromancers better?

Obviously the whole doing double damage to evil opponents is in line with the holy magic scheme; but it also damages good monsters.

Perhaps this is the time to bite the bullet. Rename it to 'Holy Orb' and have it do zero damage against good monsters, normal against neutral and double against evil. Or only damage evil. That is bound to make playing a priest a lot more interesting.

[Huqhox]

My first two priests on the latest build and both gained Sense Invisible as their first prayer. Which is nice but I can't cast it because it takes 4 mana (and I start with 2). Shouldn't this either be a higher level or don't choose spells with too high a cost when gaining?