New version of v4

[bio_hazard]

Not sure this deserves its own thread, but I wonder what people think about removing the experience gain from casting spells for the first time. This has always felt unnecessary to me.

[Derakon]

While I admit it's not really all that significant, at the same time I think it's a nice bit of flavor, and thus so long as it's not getting in the way we should leave it be. Is there something specific about it that bugs you?

[Therem Harth]

No problem here. It always seemed odd to me that characters would gain experience from just casting a spell.

OTOH, I think it would be interesting to give experience bonuses/maluses depending on how a player killed a monster. For instance a warrior might not gain so much experience for killing something with a wand of Magic Missile.

[bio_hazard]

While I admit it's not really all that significant, at the same time I think it's a nice bit of flavor, and thus so long as it's not getting in the way we should leave it be. Is there something specific about it that bugs you?

It's not a deal breaker. I guess what bugs me are 1) there's no equivalent for warriors 2) It encourages me to cast spells I'm perfectly happy ignoring for the rest of the game and/or cast spells in inappropriate situations (i.e. Call Light when room already lit, Remove fear when not afraid), etc.

This would probably be a pain in the ass to code, but it would be less jarring for me if you only got experience if casting spells at a logical point in the game (i.e. healing/poison/remove fear when actually hurt/poisoned/afraid, rFire when a fire-dealing monster is in LOS, satisfy hunger when not full, etc). Kind of like how you can't ID some consumables/runes until their function would be come obvious.

It also makes the early game just a little bit easier for spell users, and I don't really see the need for the bonus.

[buzzkill]

Is there something specific about it that bugs you?

I'll often cast meaningless spells at meaningless times just to gain the experience, which makes it sort of silly. This usually occurs in town. If I've got full mana, I'll just fire off a few spells that I've never actually found to be useful enough to cast in the dungeon. Maybe I'll gain a level or two. The XP isn't insignificant at low enough character levels.

If the reasoning behind it is 'you're using your characters abilities, here's a bonus for you' then I say scrap it. Using the spells effectively is it's own reward, as surely as quaffing an already identified potion is. Should we hand out extra XP for that too?