Re: [Crawl-ref-discuss] Paralysis and stab

[Rachel E. D. <ra...@ak...>]

On Wed, Apr 09, 2008 at 06:32:16PM +0200, David Ploog wrote:
> Hi all,
> 
> during the TSO implementation, we (dolorous and me) settled for allowing 
> paralysed monsters to be stabbable. The advantages:
> * very much fitting
> * TSO conduct
> 
> The disadvantage:
> * completely broken
> 
> The problem is of course not the wand of paralysis but the spell (as usual 
> in such cases). There are several solutions to the problem I can see, but 
> we should definitely take one. Leaving things as is would be game breaking 
> (Stalkers start with Paralysis in their book, for example).
> 
> a) return to the old state; just declare attacking paralysed monsters to
>     be a violation of the TSO conduct

I agree with you that not stabbing paralyzed monsters doesn't make sense. 

> b) replace the Paralyse spell with something different (in general, not
>     just in the Stalker spellbook)
> 
> Of course, a) would be the simple solution but I _always_ wondered why I 
> can't stab paralysed monsters. (I figured out later and should have 
> thought of it here.) If someone has a better solution for a), for example 
> a nice spell to help in b), that would be really nice.

Well, here are a few ideas, along with ideas I think are good and/or bad.

 * Make paralyzed monsters only sometimes stabbable like confused monsters.
   This is good (less imbalanced) but doesn't make that much sense and
   is still more powerful than Confuse (since paralyzed monsters won't hit
   you and won't move).

 * Change the Paralyse spell to be something like how a net works now ---
   the monster is in place struggling and might be able to hit you and
   might or might not be stabbable until it gets out. Except I hear that
   things in nets are always stabbable now, but I think you know what I 
   mean. If it wanted to be something that only worked sometimes, it could
   be tied to earth (The ground beneath the gnoll rumbles! The gnoll must 
   hold on for balance!) or plants (The vines descend from the ceiling and 
   surround the giant lizard! The giant lizard struggles against the kudzu!)
   and wouldn't work on water or lava squares. This I think is the best of
   my suggestions, though it might still be too powerful.

 * Replace the Paralyze spell with something that temporarily prevents the
   monster from moving --- maybe let them hit things next to them but not 
   change squares or cast spells? "Root?" This would be a dangerous spell
   for monsters to cast on players as well --- less deadly than straight
   paralysis but if you can't handle what's coming here's hoping you have
   a teleport to burn... This would help players who wanted to flee or 
   stick someone full of ranged attacks as much as Paralyze but would not
   help stabbers. Actually, maybe this one is better, though I like the 
   idea of it being _somewhat_ useful to stabbers... though Confuse already
   is and is the same level and school... 

Hope this is helpful...

-r.