Searing Ray is ferkin cool. What else is new?

[danr]

Hey, it's been a while (both playing and posting).

Love the new Vehumet mechanic. And the second spell offered, Searing Ray, is pretty gnarly. May be a bit overpowered, but I'm loving it.

I also see stabbing is now eliminated as a skill. Nice change too.

What else have I missed? Hill Orcs can fly? Hobbits can turn invisible? Whips can disarm?

[indspenceable]

Have you played with Battlesphere? If not, get on it... it will not make you sad.

[and into]

Gargoyles. Conjurer background (maybe that had been changed before your hiatus?) New skalds. All worth trying.

Experience in midgame was tweaked (lowered), and Vaults and Crypt have major changes that make them more dangerous but also a lot less boring so it is a good thing (usually).

[danr]

Yes, just getting into battlesphere now. Also cool. I like these conjuration spells that are not simply different flavours of blasting away at stuff, but actually add different tactical elements. E.g. with searing ray, you have to stay put and not do anything else. Battlesphere is also a summoned ally which can distract enemy attacks.

What I don't know is with Vehumet's gifts - if I ignore them, am I losing out? I think the Wiki said there would only be 15 gifts. But of course there are also books to be found.

It looks like I am headed into earth magic as my school of conjurations - I got stone arrow, and Iron Shot and LCS also look pretty good. Or should I head for fire or ice?

[danr]

Here is the tactic I am having fun with:
- Conjure flame. Some of the bigger baddies will walk right into this and stand there.
- Battlesphere
- Searing ray.
Then wait three turns. Each turn, the baddie is cooking away in the fire - or safely on the other side of it, and getting pelted with increasing strengths of searing rays, and ALSO the searing ray is being supported by the battlesphere. Lovely.

[Igxfl]

What I don't know is with Vehumet's gifts - if I ignore them, am I losing out? I think the Wiki said there would only be 15 gifts. But of course there are also books to be found.

IIRC, Vehumet offers a fixed number of spells, randomly selected from all the "destructive" ones, which no longer includes Summoning. These are somewhat weighted towards your trained spell schools. If you ignore one and it goes away, you missed it. However, at the end of the gift sequence, Vehumet offers three 8th or 9th high level spells, which never go away.

[Sar]

If I remember correctly, Veh's gifts aren't weighted towards your skills, but against skills you have antitraining with (so having Fire Magic makes receiving Ice spells less likely but you're just as likely to get Earth and Air as Fire).

[duvessa]

They are weighted towards elemental skills you have, just not really by very much:

  Code:

static int _vehumet_weighting(spell_type spell)
{
    int bias = 100 + elemental_preference(spell, 10);
    bias = min(max(bias, 10), 190);
    return bias;
}

int elemental_preference(spell_type spell, int scale)
{
    skill_set skill_list;
    spell_skills(spell, skill_list);
    int preference = 0;
    for (skill_set_iter it = skill_list.begin(); it != skill_list.end(); ++it)
        preference += _skill_elemental_preference(*it, scale);
    return preference;
}

static int _skill_elemental_preference(skill_type sk, int scale)
{
    const skill_type sk2 = _get_opposite(sk);
    if (sk2 == SK_NONE)
        return 0;
    return (you.skill(sk, scale) - you.skill(sk2, scale));
}

static spell_type _vehumet_find_spell_gift(set<spell_type> excluded_spells)
{
    set<spell_type> eligible_spells = _vehumet_eligible_gift_spells(excluded_spells);
    spell_type spell = SPELL_NO_SPELL;
    int total_weight = 0;
    int this_weight = 0;
    for (set<spell_type>::iterator it = eligible_spells.begin();
         it != eligible_spells.end(); ++it)
    {
        this_weight = _vehumet_weighting(*it);
        total_weight += this_weight;
        if (x_chance_in_y(this_weight, total_weight))
            spell = *it;
    }
    return spell;
}