Amulet of Resistance

[MainiacJoe]

The idea is an amulet that gradually builds resistance to elemental damage as enemies deal that kind of damage to the player. Each time a player receives elemental damage a deposit is made in that element’s account, perhaps a function of damage/maxHP or poison level for poison. Benchmarks give rF+, rF++, rC+, rC++, rN+, rN++, rElec, and rPois. Each element’s account will decay slowly with time like piety can. The swap penalty would be XP-gated rF-, rC-, rPois-.

Potential for abuse is a big problem. I said above “elemental damage enemies deal to you” for things like casting Conjure Flame and sitting in it, farming a Qazlal altar vault, zapping yourself with bounced Shock, etc. This isn’t foolproof, you can still farm an ice statue for rC++ I guess. Maybe no deposit at all from clouds—but what about breath weapons? I don't know if this grinding problem can be overcome, but at least I hope the amulet fits the new ethos for amulets as long-term character buffs.

[and into]

Still encourages scumming if it is enemy-only elemental damage. In fact it would be scumming of a more annoying variety than walking into your own clouds: Kite around a fire drake and let it pepper you with flame blasts until you get enough rF.

The idea of an item that "powers up" over time is cool, and I think there's enough room in the game for another unrandart that does it (in addition to wyrmbane). I just don't think "amulet of the alchemist, with a twist" would be very interesting, even if you circumvented the scumming problem, tbh.

[MainiacJoe]

The scumming is going to be a problem for any such item. Wyrmbane gets around it by only giving you rare opportunities to level up, and increasing the benchmark each time--and by being an unrand. And since there's not much point to another "just like Wyrmbane except with demons" or whatever, it's hard to come up with something. A piece of armour that has an ever increasing enchantment and encumberance? But what would you choose as a trigger?

[infinitevox]

The scumming is going to be a problem for any such item. Wyrmbane gets around it by only giving you rare opportunities to level up, and increasing the benchmark each time--and by being an unrand. And since there's not much point to another "just like Wyrmbane except with demons" or whatever, it's hard to come up with something. A piece of armour that has an ever increasing enchantment and encumberance? But what would you choose as a trigger?

unrandart:
+XX plate armour "ironwood" (rN++, rElec, rF-, Regen, Dex +5)
This plate armour, made from the fabled ironwood tree, provides more protection than a standard plate armour. Creation of this living armour is only possible by carefully guiding its growth through Earth Magic. Its living properties insulate and protect the life force and vitality of those who don it. Be warned, while it may be stronger than steel, it is flammable.

+XX is based on your Earth Magic skill, scaling linearly (up to AC+27)

The compensation for the large enhancement bonus to AC is rF- and the XP investment in a skill that isn't useful for anything else for most melee builds, if they even happen to have access to a geomancy book in the first place.
Something like that could be fun

[Shard1697]

Probably wants +Int instead of dex if it requires a magic school on plate.

[dpeg]

infinitevox: This could be interesting. What ER? Constant or scaling as well?

[infinitevox]

Probably wants +Int instead of dex if it requires a magic school on plate.

I originally was going to slap Wiz on it instead of Dex+, but decided that would almost be designing an armour specifically for xxEE, I kinda feel like Int+ would be doing the same? Maybe I'm wrong here, but someone on this forum had said something about designing for general use and not specific and I've kinda taken it to heart.

infinitevox: This could be interesting. What ER? Constant or scaling as well?

I was thinking same as regular plate armour, as you'd already be getting a lot of AC out of it. But otherwise maybe -16, so slightly better ER than regular plate?
I'd say constant ER, I think scaling ER might be too much of a drawback for it to actually get any use, it's already going to be an XP sink as it is currently.

[MainiacJoe]

What if the armour starts out thin like leather armour Base Ac 4 and EVP 4, and scales +2/+2 per 3 skill levels to that +22/+22?

[infinitevox]

An armour that "grows" with you would certainly be interesting, and something I'd definitely want to try playing with.
The only issue I would see with that, is that it would essentially make the armour "useless" for melee characters until they found a book with an earth magic spell, whereas if its base is Plate, it's a decent item on its own, kinda like Wyrmbane. I like the idea though

[MainiacJoe]

Agreed, the EVP gain is not a good fit for the grow-with-Earth-magic armour.

I'm glad you like the growing armour idea, though, and perhaps make it something that works well for melee only and also regain some of the "piety bank" idea from the OP:

  Code:

+0 Prismatic Dragon Armour

A suit of multicolored scales that are impossibly thin yet feel vaguely alive.  Rumour has it that as it is worn it actually grows into the skin of the wearer, eventually imparting all the protections and clumsiness of dragonkind.

Starts at 0 AC / 0 EVP.  XP gating while worn continuously gains rPois, rF+, rC+, rN+, rElec, rCorr, MR+ in random order.  Each gain comes with +4 AC and +4 EVP (up to 28/28)

It needs to be something that you'll be willing to wear when it's weak, because it will become strong enough at the end that it's worth the period of vulnerability.

[infinitevox]

It needs to be something that you'll be willing to wear when it's weak, because it will become strong enough at the end that it's worth the period of vulnerability.

I'm assuming its benefits would completely reset if you ever took it off?

[MainiacJoe]

Yeah that was what I was thinking, if you take it off you lose all the benefits and it's +0 +0 the next time you put it on. Indeed this makes me wonder whether the random order of the resistances that appear is a good idea.