Re: CF: Experiments

[David Andrew Michael Noelle <dave@Straylight.org>]

Mark Wedel wrote:
>  I agree - I think god consecrated item should probably only apply to ARMOUR or
> the like (more interesting/realistic would be for gods to have various symbols.
> Ie, mostrai may be known to be using a hammer and chain mail, so that is the
> only things mostrai may improve.  Where as some other god may use a bow, or
> another leather, etc).
> 
>  Chance are, this may not play big into which god a player chooses.  But would
> add a nice extra touch of flavor into the game.

    How about having gods bless armor and weapons of archetypes that have an
artifact version for that god?  For example, there are helmets of Lythander,
but no other type of armour, so Lythander might reward a priest's worship by
applying the helmet of Lythander artifact definition to whatever helmet the
priest is wearing, and further worship would increase the magic bonus up to
some maximum, like +1 per five priest levels, the same as the current
maximum for weapons.
    So, Lythander would give his +1 luck blessing and magical bonuses to a
priest's helmet and weapon, but nothing else.  And the weapon might also be
given his attacktype, confusion, and his slaying list, goblins and trolls.
    Unfortunately, most of the gods have no sacred weapons or armour, except
for a few cases I just added.  If this change is implemented, it would
probably be a good idea to give each god one type of armour, maybe two for
protective gods, and at least some type of weapon.
    Lythander, as the god of elves, should probably have a bow.  Since bows
and crossbows are favored weapons of angels and devils, Valriel and Gorokh
might bless missile weapons in general.  Gnarg already has shields, but
needs some weapons.


>  I would personally argue that most all player controlled improvements on armor
> and weapons be removed, and instead more limited by interaction with your god,
> powerful wizards, and the like.  Such a system is likely easier to balance - the
> improve weapon scrolls/effects has already gone through 2 major revisions to
> improve playbalance - I don't really want to see having to do the same thing for
> armor.

    I rather like the weapon and armour improvement.  As a player, I like
the chance to be creative in choosing a weapon to start with and allocating
my limit of enchantments to create whatever unique artifact that character
would find most helpful.
    On the other paw, from a game design point of view, I agree that the
Prepare / Enchant / Improve Bonus / Lower Weight scrolls probably aren't the
best way to do this.  I'd be in favor of removing them entirely, as long as
they're replaced with some other means of artifact creation or modification.
    The various armour and weaponsmiths in certain shops are one example,
but they're far too limited.  So far, they can create eyeshields,
dragonshields, and dragonmail.  There's also this one smith who knows how to
make mithril chainmail, but it requires a whole lot of mithril, and that's
not easy to come by.
    If there were more different kinds of smiths, who could make various
kinds of armour and weapons that were otherwise difficult or impossible to
find, that would be a step in the right direction.  If they could also
incorporate some customizations in the product, that would be better.  What
I'd really like to see is the ability to bring a weaponsmith a design and
raw materials and have him create the artifact for you, even if the item
wasn't available for a couple days, and was prohitibively expensive, and
couldn't be modified at all after it was started.
    Without the scrolls, the only way to permanently modify an artifact
would be divine intervention, which is probably as it should be.  Let
players find existing artifacts in dungeons or pay a powerful mage or
weaponsmith to create a new one, but once it's finished, only the gods
themselves should be able to alter it.

    As for how to let players design weapons and armour for an NPC to
create, I have a few ideas.  First of all, it would require an example of
the form the result should take.  That's simply a matter of giving the smith
some existing object to base it on.  If you want someone to create a new
kind of magical axe, you have to give him an axe to copy its shape from. 
Then you'd have to provide the raw materials, which should be the hard part.
    Any smith should be able to copy a simple, non-magical weapon, with raw
materials as specified by the weapon's "material" field.  Artifacts and
other magical weapons are a different story.  If that smith doesn't happen
to know exactly how to construct that particular item, then he doesn't know
how to make a new item based on it.
    The tricky part is customizing the result.  I would suggest that stat
potions still might be used, but they would have to be provided beforehand. 
To keep things limited, the resulting artifact might have stat bonuses equal
to the square root of the number of potions provided, so a battle axe with
+4 strength would require 16 potions of strength to start with.  And the
total enchantment and number of different enchantments would determine the
minimum value of the basic raw materials, as well as the final cost and time
to create the item.
    Rings and amulets might also make good components for custom artifacts. 
To get a +5 wc bonus, you might have to give the weaponsmith 25 rings of (+1
wc).  For lighter armour with better ac, you might need to collect a large
number of amulets (+1 ac), in addition to a great deal of iron and a couple
million platinum.  Making powerful objects this way could be extremely
expensive, a good way to use up the vast amounts of wealth high level
characters are likely to accumulate.
    Smiths might also have a maximum level of enchantment they can achieve
reliably, beyond which there's an increasing chance that the result will be
flawed, wasting some of the expensive ingredients or adding random negative
modifiers.  Truly skilled mages and smiths, the ones who know how to make
weapons with special attacktypes and armour with protections or even
immunities, would be the ultra-reclusive guys hiding in tower fortresses
surrounded by monster infested mountains and caves.  (Complete the quest
once to deliver the materials, then again a week later when he sends a
messenger to inform you that it's time to pick up the result, and that you
should bring as much money as your Luggage full of pouches of Holding can
carry.)

-- 
            -Dave Noelle,                 dave@Straylight.org
            -the Villa Straylight,  http://www.straylight.org
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