Re: Call for mixed blessing-style jewellery and consumables

Ray Dillinger wrote:

> Andrew Sidwell wrote:
> 
>> Anyway, I would like to remove entirely-bad stuff from the object
>> list and instead have some mixed-blessing items that might
>> plausibly be used. This especially applies when it comes to rings
>> and amulets.

> Rings of slow digestion could also make you vulnerable to confusion
> (at least, *I* get dizzy and lightheaded when I've been not eating
> enough...),

Why would they produce a "not been eating enough" effect? What they
effectively do is reduce the rate at which your body consumes its
resources, and so reduce the rate at which you need to replenish those
resources by eating again.

> reduce your strength or constitution while being worn,

Why?

> or reduce the rate at which you heal or recover mana.

This could be plausible (slowed metabolism could easily cut both ways),
but I at least probably wouldn't like it, because it would simply mean
that using slow digestion would never be worthwhile; reducing
inconvenience (having to eat every so often, and thus having to have
food on hand) in exchange for reducing survivability is just plain not a
good trade-off, but the increased inconvenience translates into less
fun.

> Potions of speed could have a small chance of reducing your
> constitution.

Why?

> Healing potions and speed potions should inflict hunger when used.
> This should be severe enough that you can't use 3 of them
> back-to-back without stopping to eat.

Why in the world?

> Boots of speed could have a "break-in" period where you occasionally
> misstep or fall down while you get used to them.  Maybe the first
> thousand turns you wear them?  But don't count time on this clock
> unless there's an active, hostile monster with at least half the
> player's HP around, otherwise you'll get people just sitting there in
> a locked room for a thousand turns.

How would this be implemented? I presume that a misstep/fall-down would
correspond to simply having the preceding action take more energy than
normal, so that it takes longer to get your next turn...

(I don't much like this one, FWIW, but I don't have much in the way of
arguments against it.)

> Scrolls of enchant weapon could become a lot more fun but riskier, if
> they were a lot more trouble to use.  For example, if after reading
> them, you had to actually wield the weapon you were enchanting for
> at least a thousand hit dice of monsters vanquished (no switching
> weapons, no unwielding, no digging, no using wands/anything else in
> your hands, etc) before the enchantment took effect.  For bonus
> coolness, the enchantment could vary depending on what you actually
> did with the weapon during that time.  If you fought mostly orcs,
> you'd be likely to get a sword of orc slaying, for example - instead
> of having the same "plus-one" effect from every scroll that works.
> Natch, you'd need to make them rarer and increase the odds of them
> actually working.

Way too complicated, impractical for anything resembling the early game,
and how in the heck would this work for enchanting ammunition?

-- 
    The Wanderer

    My usual .sig is on vacation while I adjust to my new computer