You start singing a song of trunk updates…

Hello Crawlers, and welcome to a charming round of trunk updates fresh from the ever churning chaos of the changelog abyss!

The big news this update is that the long awaited Charms overhaul has arrived. For many years the devteam has tossed around different ideas for what to do with charms, and the school had become quite thin and unfocussed because of a fundamental tension: pure buff spells don’t fit well with crawl’s MP and tactical systems. Some forks experimented with various “permabuff” systems that reserved max-MP, but to us these felt more like items. The result of all this is that the Charms school and skill are no more. The remaining spells in the school have either moved to other schools of magic or to item effects. Without any charms to cast, Skalds have sung their last and are removed. Here are the spell changes:

  • Ozocubu’s Armour is now Ice only.
  • Swiftness is now Air only.
  • Death’s Door is now Necromancy only and Level 9.
  • Excruciating Wounds is now Necromancy only, prevents unwielding your weapon for the duration, and applies a Wizardry penalty as well as noise.
  • Battlesphere is now Conjurations only and its targeting has been adjusted to work with all Conjurations school spells other than Servitor.
  • Song of Slaying is now Transmutations and renamed Wereblood; the noise is reduced somewhat.
  • Infusion, Shroud of Golubria, Spectral Weapon, Darkness, and Ring of Flames are removed.

Then there are the new or revised items that take up some of the old charm effects:

  • A new scarf of shadows that reduces LOS and acts as a spell power de-enhancer, stacking with nightstalker and the robe of night, replacing Darkness.
  • A new spectral weapon ego appearing on clubs, giant (spiked) clubs, staves, and two-handed randarts that on hit summons a spectral weapon to fight along side the wielder. The strength of the spectral weapon scales with evocations.
  • The salamander hide armour loses +Rage and gains a fire spell enhancer, ring of flame clouds, and rC– picking up Ring of Flames’ old effect.

These changes of course led to background tweaks, other than the removal of Skalds:

  • Artificers now start with better defensive skills, no weapon skill, and a spectral club in place of the short sword.
  • Transmuters no longer start with arrows, and Wereblood replaces Sticks to Snakes in the starting book.

It wouldn’t be trunk without a host of other changes, so let’s take a look:

  • Gozag no longer offers flight potions in petition and occasionally offers lignification.
  • Viewing a monster with xv now shows to-hit chance with your current weapon.
  • The “view stack/pickup key” ; can be pressed twice to force autopickup even in unsafe situations.
  • Beastly Appendage now melds auxilliary armour slots, weapons, and shields, and gives two levels of both Horns and Talons (octopodes keep their tentacle spike) instead of randomly choosing.
  • Alistair’s Intoxication prompts when nothing in view can be affected, always applies Vertigo when successful, and has a higher power cap.
  • Sticks to Snakes is removed.
  • Palentonga charge now provides a to-hit bonus as well as the damage bonus.

That’s all for now. Still on the horizon is a look at Kobolds; for a preview look out for the kobold-nightstalker experimental on CPO and possibly coming soon to CKO. Beyond that who knows what might emerge from the seething chaos! Until next time, happy crawling!

As the wereblood boils in your veins your song becomes a howl!!!