Current master post-4.1.3

[fph]

It's not clear to me, but looking in the source, it seems that necromancers get dark resistance, even if it doesn't show in the character screen:

	/* Unlight - needs change if anything but resist is introduced for dark */
	if (player_has(p, PF_UNLIGHT) && character_dungeon) {
		state->el_info[ELEM_DARK].res_level = 1;
	}

[Adam]

... But if they don't have light resistance then instead of taking 400 damage from a light attack they'd take 600. So they really need to be wary of Pseudo dragons. Not sure who else has big light attacks in the new bestiary. Maybe to balance out their heavy resistance to dark a few more light attacks could be added (maybe some As aligned with good?)

Ethereal dragons. I hate them (big light/dark breath, blind, confuse, pass wall).

[Grotug]

I haven't played Necromancer yet, so maybe I'm unfit to make the following suggestion, but I think it would help distinguish Necromancers from other classes (and overall make the game more rich and interesting) if they are natively immune to blindness from being hit by darkness of any kind and heavily resist darkness attacks (so that they always take only 1/6 damage--hello Ungoliant, you shall die now) but are sensitive to light (so they take an additional +50% damage from light attacks). If they have rLite then they suffer the same amount of damage from light attacks as everyone else does who doesn't have equipment based light resistance. But if they don't have light resistance then instead of taking 400 damage from a light attack they'd take 600. So they really need to be wary of Pseudo dragons. Not sure who else has big light attacks in the new bestiary. Maybe to balance out their heavy resistance to dark a few more light attacks could be added (maybe some As aligned with good?)

[wobbly]

Typo on one of the hydras.

name:3-headed hydra
desc:A 2-heded hydra with an extra head, it's mouth dripping venom.

[fph]

Bug: necromancer polymorphed as a bat, typing E tells me "you have no food to eat" even if I have mushrooms in my inventory.

[Ingwe Ingweron]

I don't usually find rogues very satisfying, personally. It seems like conceptually rogue = thief, more or less, and as a thief you generally want to avoid fights. Avoiding fights doesn't really play very well in Angband though - it can be done, sure, but it's a bit painful and tedious. So, you end up tweaking the rogue into a somewhat weaker fighter with somewhat better utility spells, but that's about it. Meh. (IMO )

Odd, rogue is my favorite character class. Mostly for the object detection ability so I don't waste time or take risks going after worthless or unhelpful items.

[Derakon]

!Experience is also considerably more rare, so it stands to reason that it'd be more powerful. Plus, if you are experience-drained when you find the potion, having to find !RLL before you drink it just becomes one of those little things that veterans know to do but will trip up newbies. I guess there's some small chance that you'll lose the !EXP before you find !RLL, but that doesn't feel particularly interesting to me.

[Ingwe Ingweron]

Yeah !Experience should restore before increasing as all other stat potions do. Otherwise it would be wasting them.

I must disagree. Stat potions are far less powerful or valuable than !Experience. I see no good reason to further increase their power. If @ has been exp drained, then find a !restore life levels first if you don't want to take the reduction in the !experience effectiveness.

[fph]

Thanks! And how do these light sources affect fail rate? It seems that the randart phial I have found still raises my fail rate, even if it doesn't cast light around the room. Maybe it reduces me to radius-0 light? Is there a way to know how much 'dark/light aura' I project?

[Chud]

OK, probably someone has already explained this, but I'm confused. How does the new light mechanic work with necromancers? I just found a phial with +3 light, and even if I wear it I am still in darkness, apparently.

As far as I can tell, necromancers see in the dark, and they naturally project an aura of dark around them for a certain level-dependent radius. This is not strong enough to darken part of a lighted room, but it does work against any light source you equip.

So, your natural darkness will make an equipped light source not work, but in addition, the light source will actually *reduce* how far you can naturally see in the dark.

Until/unless some necromancer-specific items exist to fill that slot, best to leave the light source equipment slot empty, unless perhaps you find an artifact with enough other benefits to be worth the tradeoff.

[fph]

What do necromancers wear in the light source slot? Maybe there could be a non-artifact item such as a "lantern of unlight" that they can use with some advantage?

OK, probably someone has already explained this, but I'm confused. How does the new light mechanic work with necromancers? I just found a phial with +3 light, and even if I wear it I am still in darkness, apparently.

[Chud]

I lost my necro savefile, but it was a killing machine. Just be careful with mobs.

I haven't played a necro yet that was anywhere near a killing machine... but maybe using a half-troll doesn't work as well, since that effectively caps INT at 17 until I get deep enough to start getting boosts through gear and potions.

My most recent one died to a huorn (which had been summoned by a Q) which kept teleporting me back to it as I tried to escape. Possibly it was just a bad RNG game too.

[Diego Gonzalez]

I'm afraid I have to say that I'm finding my current necromancer pretty frustrating to play; at CL21, DL16, I have to run away from the vast majority of fights.

I used a good bow in the early levels until disenchant became more useful (quite fast actually). Elemental rings help a lot too. The bat shapeshift is quite handy for escape and stealth.

In that stage the necro has to use plenty of extra-resources to level up. I dont think that it's a bad thing, but anyway, I suggest that noxious fumes should get a power boost. The druid has a poison ball spell that is nicer and cheap, 2 sp.

I lost my necro savefile, but it was a killing machine. Just be careful with mobs.

[fph]

What do necromancers wear in the light source slot? Maybe there could be a non-artifact item such as a "lantern of unlight" that they can use with some advantage?

EDIT: also, I guess it would be thematic if necromancers resisted darkness.

[wobbly]

Almost everything "resists somewhat" against nether bolt; what does that mean exactly?

Anything that is evil resists nether:

undead - 0 damage
IM_NETHER - takes 1/2 to 1/4 damage
Evil - takes 1/2 damage

Note this system was made for a game where the player never used nether, where monsters only took Nether damage from friendly fire. It has been changed in CPB (good change in my opinion). I'm not sure that the lowly kobold tanking nether bolts actually makes sense.