Poschengband game mechanic questions

[budswell]

Thanks. Dominate is working sometimes on horses for me. Also finding baby dragons (works around 1/6) are handy pets around these levels. Guess I just need to be higher level for the Griffon.

Thanks for the weapon info, I'm mountless at the moment so the +17 artifact mace is working. The -17 has already risen to -7 even though still "unskilled". Sp on the way up.

[wobbly]

I never managed to dominate a horse last time I tried. Use a capture ball, summon with trump magic or get a staff of animate dead.

-17 sounds about right. It'll improve if you take a swing (hit or miss) at a monster not too far below your clevel. If your tanky compared to your enemies you can just miss until the skill gets good enough. If you'd rather hit use holy chant scrolls & heroism potions.

If I'm reading it right (s_info.txt in the edit files), mace will max at skilled (lvl 2), warhammer at expert (lvl 3), bows/spears/lances/sabres at master (lvl 4), as a rough idea you're generally looking for riding weapons. Spear of Hagen for instance.

[budswell]

So deathsword is dead, now onto a Beasmaster.

I have tried over 100 times to dominate a Griffon (Me L19, Griffon L15). It just keeps resisting.
Are some creature just immune?
Or is it too close to my level?
Or my stats to crap? (18,12,9,15,17,18/10). Does it use Wisdom (mine is only 9). The doco implied CHR was the important one for Beasmasters.

Also: On weapon skills it is giving me -17 to hit for a mace I found. Is that because I'm "unskilled". Have not noticed such a dramatic impact before (but may not have been paying attention properly). Am I effectively limited to the weapons which I have started at "Beginner" level with?

[budswell]

So trying a death sword. This is hard, poor resistance and AC is a struggle for a Melee character.

So absorbing weapons:
- Is there any reason to ID weapons before absorbing them?
- Is there any reason why I would not want to absorb a weapon? i.e. Can it hurt me? Can I absorb negative effects?
- Some times it says I feel "stronger" (usually {good} weapons), but nothing visible in char as to what has changed
- Are their limits on how many abilities I can absorb?
- Are their limits on what types of abilities I can absorb?
- Some times absorbing appears to have no effect. Is there effectively a roll to see if I get a power?

Any important gameplay tips?

Edit: And I just evolved into a different weapon, and so lost all my accumulated stuff. How often is that going to happen? Is it worth saving good stuff until later?

[krazyhades]

Hello.
In my game I found temple in Angwil selling "Lead-filled Mace of Charismatic Cook". Are randarts in ordinary shops intended but rare happening?

Yes, though they'll only appear in appropriate shops (weapons at the weapon shop, and so on...anything can appear in the black market)

[Jiharo]

Hello.
In my game I found temple in Angwil selling "Lead-filled Mace of Charismatic Cook". Are randarts in ordinary shops intended but rare happening?

[Number Thirteen]

So I powerleveled a demigod paladin to level 20 and took Fell Sorcery. The only thing that I noticed is that my weapon damage went down. It was +4 +11 = +15 before I took it and +4 +10 = +14 after. My strength stat didn't decrease, nor did my other physical ones. My cure light wounds was 2d10 before and after and the fail rate didn't go down. My HP went up with the level and didn't decrease when I took the mutation. My carrying capacity stayed the same. Unfortunately I didn't find a potion of self knowledge so I couldn't see my max stats and am unsure if it affected those.

Not really a good indication of what it does, really. I might have to try powerleveling a demigod mage to see if that makes a difference.

[Number Thirteen]

You could probably level a human paladin or rogue on munchkin to lvl 30 pretty easily if you want to take a look in-game.

I might actually do that. I just hit 30 with my human mage so I have to choose. Since I don't know exactly what it does and don't really want to lose HP I'll probably go with One with Magic.

[wobbly]

You could probably level a human paladin or rogue on munchkin to lvl 30 pretty easily if you want to take a look in-game.

[Number Thirteen]

I guess? I don't actually know what the stat_add structure refers to though, so it could be more complicated. Or, y'know, something completely different.

Hmm, okay. I guess I'll have to dig around to see what these variables do.

[Derakon]

Thanks for the quick reply.

So say that I had 18 STR, DEX, and CON. Would this mean that I essentially have 17 on those scores now? Would this lower my carrying capacity, HP, etc?

I guess? I don't actually know what the stat_add structure refers to though, so it could be more complicated. Or, y'know, something completely different.

[Number Thirteen]

I'm not familiar with Poschengband at all, but my reading of that is that you actually trade off your STR, DEX, and CON in exchange for a boost to spell power. Note the "--" in the stat_add lines, which is decrementing those values, while spell_power gets a ++, to increment it by one.

spell_power, assuming it works like in other variants, improves the effectiveness of your spells in ways appropriate to the spell in question (better damage, duration, area of effect, etc.).

Thanks for the quick reply.

So say that I had 18 STR, DEX, and CON. Would this mean that I essentially have 17 on those scores now? Would this lower my carrying capacity, HP, etc?

[Derakon]

I have a question about one of the human/demigod mutations, Fell Sorcery. I found the following in mut_a.c but am not literate enough in the code to understand what it does. Can someone explain it to me?

void fell_sorcery_mut(int cmd, variant *res)
{
    switch (cmd)
    {
    case SPELL_NAME:
        var_set_string(res, "Fell Sorcery");
        break;
    case SPELL_MUT_DESC:
        var_set_string(res, "Your spells are more powerful.");
        break;
    case SPELL_GAIN_MUT:
        msg_print("You feel your magic grow more powerful.");
        break;
    case SPELL_LOSE_MUT:
        msg_print("You feel your magic return to normal.");
        break;
    case SPELL_HELP_DESC:
        var_set_string(res, "Your spells will grow more powerful.");
        break;
    case SPELL_CALC_BONUS:
        p_ptr->spell_power++;
        p_ptr->stat_add[A_STR]--;
        p_ptr->stat_add[A_DEX]--;
        p_ptr->stat_add[A_CON]--;
        break;
    default:
        default_spell(cmd, res);
        break;
    }
}

From what it looks like you now add STR, DEX, and CON to spells? But what does spell_power++ do? What exactly are the in game mechanical changes upon taking this mutation?

I'm not familiar with Poschengband at all, but my reading of that is that you actually trade off your STR, DEX, and CON in exchange for a boost to spell power. Note the "--" in the stat_add lines, which is decrementing those values, while spell_power gets a ++, to increment it by one.

spell_power, assuming it works like in other variants, improves the effectiveness of your spells in ways appropriate to the spell in question (better damage, duration, area of effect, etc.).

[Number Thirteen]

I have a question about one of the human/demigod mutations, Fell Sorcery. I found the following in mut_a.c but am not literate enough in the code to understand what it does. Can someone explain it to me?

void fell_sorcery_mut(int cmd, variant *res)
{
    switch (cmd)
    {
    case SPELL_NAME:
        var_set_string(res, "Fell Sorcery");
        break;
    case SPELL_MUT_DESC:
        var_set_string(res, "Your spells are more powerful.");
        break;
    case SPELL_GAIN_MUT:
        msg_print("You feel your magic grow more powerful.");
        break;
    case SPELL_LOSE_MUT:
        msg_print("You feel your magic return to normal.");
        break;
    case SPELL_HELP_DESC:
        var_set_string(res, "Your spells will grow more powerful.");
        break;
    case SPELL_CALC_BONUS:
        p_ptr->spell_power++;
        p_ptr->stat_add[A_STR]--;
        p_ptr->stat_add[A_DEX]--;
        p_ptr->stat_add[A_CON]--;
        break;
    default:
        default_spell(cmd, res);
        break;
    }
}

From what it looks like you now add STR, DEX, and CON to spells? But what does spell_power++ do? What exactly are the in game mechanical changes upon taking this mutation?

[budswell]

Edit 2: From memory the warg skeletons on warg quest would sometimes give ridiculously good arrows/bolts

I think that was Tome2. The Warg quest in Lothlorien was full of skeletons