Wands/Staves/Scrolls discussion.

[Variaz]

I have decided that all of the codes for these will be transferred to lua scripts. Scrolls are already done(I removed many of the worthless scrolls, like scrolls of curse armor, darkness, curse weapon. The Enchant scrolls were next to useless, so they're gone. All effects are scriptable, so if you want to add more scrolls, it can be done).

The question is: what do we do with staves and wands? Wands are the laughing stock in terms of monster-killing methods. They are weak, and don't get much better. Staves are a bit more useful, but they're not very different from scrolls.

So what do we do with staves and wands? Any ideas what kind of effects they could have? Remember we have scrolls and licialhyds already, so if staves are just a clone of these, and wands are just weaker rods, then there's not much point in having them at all.

[grindorin]

Except that a staff can have enough charges to be less weight than an equal number of scrolls. Staves may also be used while blinded, where scrolls are worthless (staff of teleportation can save you from getting crunched by a cursing elite/boss).

I would have to agree that wands are just about next to worthless though. The only useful ones are Heal Monster and Haste Monster, and those only if ye play a summoner.

[Gando]

Staves could concievably carry multiple activations (cf staff of power/magi in AD&D)
Staves could also be equipable (as per weapon/shield) and give a defensive bonus
Staves could carry class abilities that are active (or even passive if equipped)
Staves could do the following: Teleport, Water Breathing (for those pesky water levels), Curing (restore status + heal), carry high mana cost spells like chains and radius effects (It seems reasonable to assume mages would develop these to save themselves mana during high stress situations), Alter reality (polymorph monsters, degrade bosses/elites, paralyze enemies, teleport attackers, etc)

Just a few ideas.

[sekira]

I like the idea of wands being like the BFG 9000. In a pinch? then just aim your wand at the problem and it goes away, regardless of your skills and stats.

What I mean is I think wands should be like rods and crystals, but the power level should be MUCH higher, and damage would be based on power alone, no skill, no stat adjustment, only spellcraft would alter the final damage. I think this would be balanced much better if you can't ever recharge them, or if you can, then they should have 2 stats, current charges and max charges, and every time you recharge, it gains current charges, but loses max charges... eventually you won't be able to charge it at all. They should have bolt, ball, and chain effects. I can just imagine pulling out my

wand of frostfire chain (Power 40000, radius 3, 2 charges)

and watching the pretty explosions light up the next room as monsters freeze and burn

So the Power should be random for every wand, but based on the depth of that wand or at least on the current dungeon level, or both. Also, it would be nice if the power increased as a square of the depth/dlevel, to keep up with all those spells that increase based on several values all increasing and multiplied by each other (power x stat x spellcraft/elemental)

Staves should be split into 2 categories... there are staves that are like the wands above, but they only do circle effects (large radius) and they would be similarly powered, also not boosted by skills or stats, just spellcraft, and not rechargeable or limited rechargeable. Perhaps these could be renamed as orbs?

The utility staves are useful still, and do allow use while blind, and reduced weight in some cases. I think one way to make these more attractive is to make them easily rechargeable and can be recharged any number of times. Limit the number of charges maximum, but not the number of times it can be recharged. Some exceptions to the recharging thing would be the obvious staff of wishing (and staff of learning if it is ever implemented).

To set apart the damage dealing staves (orbs?) is to have multiple circle effects on some of them...

an orb of fire and poison (power 6000 radius 8 charges 4)

do the same thing for staves, have a staff that heals and restores stats and status (as was stated above), also one that detects lots of stuff and provides a temp telepathy, etc, etc.

I have one last idea... maybe a new skill (invoking?) that doesn't boost damage, but provides a chance that using a wand, staff, or orb won't use a charge (doesn't work with staff of wishing) and maybe reduces the time to use them slightly?

INVOKING:
When using a wand, staff, rod, or orb, you have learned to reduce the drain on the object by using your own magic energy and the magic energy of your surroundings. Because of this, the items that you use will deplete their charges less quickly, and it may even take less time each time you use them. Note that this skill only affects the zapping of rods & crystals, it has no effect on melee with rods.

Effects: - each time a wand, staff, rod, or orb is used, the item will attempt to resist. This contest involves your power of 5 * your Invoke skill, vs the item's depth. If it fails to resist, no charge is used for that use. Your power is limited to three times the item's depth for this resistance contest.

SPECIAL FEATS:

- Novice Invoker (Passive, level 5): You have learned the most basic ways of using items more efficiently

Effects: Each time you use a wand, staff, rod, or orb, it takes only 90% of a the normal time.

- Expert Invoker (Passive, level 10): You have learned more advanced ways of using items more efficiently

Effects: Each time you use a wand, staff, rod, or orb, it takes only 75% of a the normal time.

- Master Invoker (Passive, level 20): You have mastered the ways of using items more efficiently

Effects: Each time you use a wand, staff, rod, or orb, it takes only 50% of a the normal time.

[Variaz]

Interesting idea, though not sure about the skill... But wands having fixed power not based on anything do set them apart from other items, which is a good thing.

By the way, I just added one new scroll: Scroll of Item Leveling. Can't find those blue items? The artifact you just found is cool, but can't gain levels? This scroll will solve the problem.

[grindorin]

Will this new scroll have a chance to show up in the Rare Items Shop?

[Variaz]

Of course. It's already been added to Jindar's rare items shops. It's even more expensive than the Magic Item scroll, but it's well worth it. You can apply it to any wieldable items, whether they are already magic or not, and even artifacts.

[sekira]

I love the addition, but...

I hope you can't use them on crafted items... getting all those tweak points from crafting and then letting it get tweak points from leveling too?

I'd say that would be broken.

[Variaz]

Nope, you can't use them on crafted items. Sorry. Nor can you use them on crystals, even though they're wieldable.

[junyortrakr]

I had an idea for a new scroll:

Scroll of the Mundane

This scroll would take any item and remove any effects of any kind from it, making it a purely normal, store-new item. It would remove any stat, skill, soul binding, misfortune, resist, crafting bonuses, everything. This way, if you happen to find an item that you like that has some effect on it that is undesirable, you could take it back to a normal condition so you could decompose it and craft with it(without any misfortune if it's a rare material), run it through the flow again, remagic it, bind a new soul, whatever you wanted. I was thinking something about lvl 25 so it would show up in the black market but wasn't available anywhere else.

Does anyone have any thoughts?

[Variaz]

Interesting one.

Although it would make decomposing items rather easy for crafters, they wouldn't have to find new materials. Then again, it's not a big issue either.

Definitely a scroll that could be added!

[Gando]

How about a Scroll of Transmute Material...you read it on an existing base item and it changes the material to something random. That way if you never ever see a blue steel item (because we dont ever get that low in the dungeons) you could possibly transmute something into one. This would only work on raw materials so you dont just get a retroactively blue steel katana out of your bronze katana...you have to be able to craft it still. % chance of any material showing up would be based on its depth. So you are much more likely to transmute steel to bronze than vice versa. Maybe Alchemy skill would influence this a bit since Alchemy is the art of Transmuting.

[Variaz]

Not sure about this one. You WILL eventually get down to dlv 120, just because it's not available yet doesn't mean it will never be!

I like the idea of using Alchemy to do that better than using a scroll. Could be an Alchemy feat.

Transmutation, as an alchemy feat, could perhaps also be used to change the elemental damages type of weapons. It could be an alternative to Essence Fusion, and allow humanoid monsters to use that on their weapons.

[Gando]

eventually maybe but at that point you wont need new weapons

[junyortrakr]

Transmutation of damage type seems like a cool idea for crafting. Perhaps some particular item would be needed to attempt it, such a dragon scale, crystal, or such. Better components would be needed for weapons made of better metals.