Re: [Slashem-devel] Balance issues

[J. A. H. <al...@av...>]

On Tue, 27 Mar 2001, Michael Clarke wrote:
> How about having a potion of gain level act like a scroll of enchant
> armor/weapon?  The dipped item gains a +1 enchantment (with the normal
> rules for it melting into slag if over enchanted).  Cursed potions
> would disenchant and curse, blessed would enchant by 1-2 and bless.

As a general philosophy, I'm against what you might call magical effect
bleed. It's much better if every magical item has its own effect rather than
duplicating them. Firstly this makes the game more interesting, secondly it
means you have to think about tactics a little more. Slash'EM already has
shopkeeper services, let's not add yet another way to enchant/bless armour and
weapons.

> Tinker should probably be able to repair damaged items (burnt, corroded
> or erroded) and, maybe, combine items to make other items:

Now this, on the other hand, is an excellent idea. I've commented on your
various examples, but obviously there's quite a bit more to do before it could
be described as a proposal...

> Leather armour + dragon scales => dragon scale armor (with the highest
> plus of either component)).
> 
> Any cloak + can of grease => oilskin cloak
> 
> Any sack + can of grease => oilskin sack

All look good.

> Making magical items should require some sort of spell casting, or a
> way of draining magic from elsewhere.  There should be some sort of
> sacrifice on the players part, as the effect is almost equivilent
> to a wish.
> 
> Any helm + mind flayer corpse => helm of telepathy?

Good. The potential danger from having to kill a mind flayer will keep abuse
under control.

> Any helm + chamelian corpse => helm of opposite alignment?

Good. While chameleons are common monsters, helms of opposite alignment are not
desirable enough to make this an abuse.

> Tin whistle + !oGainLevel => Magic Whistle?

Could do. I think I'd rather just leave it as dip tin whistle into potion of
gain level -> magic whistle however.

> Wooden harp + +ofCharmMonster => Magic Harp?

With an intelligence/wisdom requirement (general limit for all tinkering with
spellbooks).

> Tooled horn + /oCold => Frost Horn?
> 
> Tooled Horn + /oFire => Fire horn?

Good.

> Tooled Horn + Bag of Tricks => Horn of Plenty?

With a chance of going horribly wrong and releasing all the monsters in one go.

> Flint + /oHealing => Healthstone? 

Make it a spellbook of extra healing.

> Any cloak + =oProtection => Cloak of Protection?

With a reduction in charges to compensate for the cloak's inherent AC.

Some ideas of my own:

Robe + =oProtection => Robe of protection
Robe + gauntlets of power => Robe of power
Cloak + =oInvis => Cloak of invisibility
Cloak + gray dragon scales => Cloak of magic resistance
Helmet + amulet of esp => helm of telepathy
Gloves + amulet of magical breathing => gauntlets of swimming
Gloves + ring of gain dexterity => gauntlets of dexterity
Boots + ring of levitation => water walking boots
Sack + wand of create horde => bag of tricks

> If chargable items are used, they MUST have charges and the change
> of success decreases if they are less than fully charged.

Where "fully charged" still needs defining.

> If the skill isn't going to make a change to an item, it should leave it
> unmodified.  There should probably also be a skill check, with a chance
> of ruining one or both of the items if the check is failed.  Hmmm. We'll
> need simpler recipies so they can practice:

Ok. I think we'd want to encourage non-magical improvements anyway so that
low-level characters can do something useful with the technique (as currently).

> Tin pot + dagger => iron helm
> 
> orcish cloak + dagger => dwarven cloak
> 
> Tin pot + corpse => food ration
> 
> Tin pot + rotten corpse => tripe ration

Some of these are a little bit of a stretch. I'd rather allow tinkering on just
one item (as now) to produce minor changes.

> Hmmm. Do we need tools like needles, sheers and hammers?

I'd prefer not. There are enough semi-useless objects floating around anyway
and most characters won't have any use for these at all. I think we can just
assume that gnomes either always have access to such things or can make do with
what's to hand.

-- 
Ali Harlow                              Email: al...@av...
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