So what do you carry around?

[XuaXua]

What do you tend to carry or leave?

I always try to carry (depending on the character resources):

WEAPONS
1 hand weapon (2 if I don't have a rCorr weapon or throwing stones)
- at most 2 artefact weapons with wacky helpful brands not compensated elsewhere (+Blink, +Tele, rElec, etc.)
1 blowgun + pois or +curare (I drop pois after Lair/Orc/Spider branch)
1 ranged launcher if I'm not throwing
launcher / throwing ammo

ARMOUR
something for every slot; nothing duplicate unless it has a situational brand / resist for a portal I haven't encountered and is light
usually not a shield

EQUIPMENT
2 large permafood
1 slot of 2+ small permafood
3 large damage wands (Fire / Cold / Draining / Lightning if all else isn't available)
Any rod but Striking
Every Ally evokable I can (stone, lamp, etc.)
Any manual I'm using
No books

SCROLLS
3 Teleport
2-3 Blink
1 Magic Mapping
2-3 Fog
2-3 Fear
1 Summoning
1 Remove Curse

POTIONS
5-6 Curing
2-3 Heal Wounds
2-3 might / agility (early game)
1 Restore Abilities

If I need slots, I drop (in order of appearance above)
Scrolls: Fog / Fear
Potions: Might / Agility
Wands: low-quality wands if auto-picked-up.

JEWELERY
Clarity
Resist Mutation
SINV
up to 2 rF rings (depending on other resists)
up to 2 rC rings (depending on other resists)
ring of teleporting
ring of teleport control (though I find this less useful now that it requires evocation)

Assuming I find any of it.

[duvessa]

the items that are useful to carry

[Klown]

Everything on autopickup. I use consumables so liberally, I never have a stacked inventory/need for a stash.
I don't use wands of flame, frost, confusion, random effects, and such.

[Laraso]

I don't use wands of flame, frost, confusion, random effects, and such.

Those are the specific items that I believe should be used most liberally, because if you don't you end up never using them and then you turn them off in autopickup after your stash gets filled up with like 30 of them.

[Sandman25]

Lately I try to have only 1 haste/agility/might/brilliance/resistance/fog/fear without conservation, can have more with conservation, these items are too valuable to be destroyed.

[Laraso]

Lately I try to have only 1 haste/agility/might/brilliance/resistance/fog/fear without conservation, can have more with conservation, these items are too valuable to be destroyed.

I like to keep two, for the very reason that you mention makes you only want to bring one. If the item gets destroyed and you don't have a spare, you're SOL.

[Sandman25]

Lately I try to have only 1 haste/agility/might/brilliance/resistance/fog/fear without conservation, can have more with conservation, these items are too valuable to be destroyed.

I like to keep two, for the very reason that you mention makes you only want to bring one. If the item gets destroyed and you don't have a spare, you're SOL.

Yes, it depends on power of character IMHO. My current one has two of each because he needs them to survive.

[Klown]

I don't use wands of flame, frost, confusion, random effects, and such.

Those are the specific items that I believe should be used most liberally, because if you don't you end up never using them and then you turn them off in autopickup after your stash gets filled up with like 30 of them.

Sorry. I meant I just drop them and turn them off my autopickup. Unless it's early game on a weak combo.

[Igxfl]

the items that are useful to carry

This is the reply that's appropriate to make.

[Bloax]

Everything of use since I'm always living fast and splatting hard. (Even cure mutation!!!!)
And if I crash into the item limit, then the least useful thing gets the gallows pole.

[damiac]

the items that are useful to carry

This is the reply that's appropriate to make.

If by appropriate you mean useless and unhelpful.

[Sar]

I think what he meant is that those items depend on character and depth (apart from something everybody can use, like buff and healing potions), and it's not very useful to talk about it broadly.

[vengefulcarrot]

Depends on the character and what items I believe are higher priority. E.g. If I have a rCold ring and find another, I wouldn't rate the second find as high priority. Books aren't a high priority for me to carry on a trog-dude unless im doing some weird book-conjureflame strat. There are some less obvious decisions and that's where individual preference comes in.

Generally, I carry things until I fill my slots, when I see a new item and can't carry anymore, I just replace a lower priority item if possible.

[Hurkyl]

I think what he meant is that those items depend on character and depth (apart from something everybody can use, like buff and healing potions), and it's not very useful to talk about it broadly.

Maybe that's what he means, but anyone can sound wise if they just make essentially content-free comments that let you fill in whatever you think is right.

General patterns do emerge after playing lots of games, though: there are things you can talk about broadly. (and you can speak even more broadly if you talk about how the patterns vary in response to circumstances)

[damiac]

anyone can sound wise if they just make essentially content-free comments that let you fill in whatever you think is right.

This is also applicable to politics.

I always carry a bolt wand, a dig(or disintegrate)wand, heal/haste/tele wands, 5 cure and heal potions, 1 or 2 of might, agi, resistance pots, basically all scrolls I find, maybe a backup weapon if mine isn't corr resistant and I don't cast spells, sinv/RF/RC rings, clarity/rmut/rcorr amulets, elemental evokers, a rod or 2, 4 or 5 bread and meat rations...

Looking at this, I carry too much crap around.

[and into]

But that's the thing. It is a deadpan comment but not actually a content-less one, because the question really isn't that deep and precisely should not be over-thought.

Carrying capacity is one thing, but if you keep running up right against the slot limits, probably you are carrying around stuff that is of very marginal/negligible value, "just in case," yet you never use it, and probably just an extra attack wand that you actually use occasionally would be helping your character out a lot more.

The major area I see over-thinking inventory real estate being potentially harmful to a character is with jewelry. Now sometimes a bit of jewelry swapping is just too helpful/good/necessary, depending on your character and what you got. But carrying lots of jewelry to swap in means you are using up inventory space for niche-case items and this is bad. I suppose it is fine if you have nothing better to carry, but if you are sacrificing tactical consumables with much wider applicability, then you are probably gimping your character overall. You should really stop and ask, "How much am I switching to these things? And how much are they really helping me when I do?" Carrying around anything other than jewelry and weapons to swap in just seems utterly insane, I never knew anyone does that.

Other than that: You carry as much potentially useful stuff as you can, and when you are running low on slots or carrying capacity, you start making cuts. A good piece of advice is one that people often give IRL to pack rats: If you find you basically never use something, strongly reconsider keeping it around. In Crawl there are some exceptions, though, like keeping a ?vulnerability on hand to cancel a dangerous Mark in the Vaults. Even if you never used one before, a ?holy word is nice anti-Lich measure in Zot. Etc.

Early on I carry lots of attack wands, later on I carry fewer, or even none, depending on the character.

!might, !agility, and !brilliance are enormously helpful on applicable characters throughout the whole game, all the way to Zot:5 and including any optional content you might care to take on.

[Hurkyl]

I've carried rF+++ and rC+++ armour kits into Pan before, so I can switch when I find Cerebov or Lom Lobon's floor, although it was annoying.

!might, !agility, and !brilliance are enormously helpful on applicable characters throughout the whole game, all the way to Zot:5 and including any optional content you might care to take on.

Are they? I've trimmed these out of my typical carry because I find I'm not using them, and therefore I don't have them around to consider experimenting with them to see what they can do for me.

[dck]

All of those potions are incredibly strong wtf.
Might alone is ten slaying in a bottle.

[duvessa]

Thanks and into, for telling people my seven-word post meant that I share your exact opinions. I'll make it again in more detail for the benefit of Sar and damiac, since there seems to be some confusion.

I carry the items that are more useful to have in my inventory than on the floor. This means items that I will use during fights. In addition, for the sake of convenience, I will often carry items that are more useful on the floor but inconvenient to retrieve - consumables past the first 1 or 2 or whatever, food, scrolls of remove curse, stuff like that.
I have never played a crawl game in which I had enough useful items for carrying capacity or item slots to be a limitation. I only ever reach the limits with the aforementioned "convenience" items (although I do so very often).

I know XuaXua and a couple of other people gave lists of some sort, but I don't understand what they represent. Is that a list of items they always carry if they have? Surely XuaXua didn't mean that he uses missiles/throwing on every conjurer, and surely he didn't mean that he doesn't ever carry potions of resistance.

[damiac]

That's about as useful as saying "The best way to win the game is to always take the action that has the lowest odds of making you lose the game". OK, we can close the forum down now, nobody can top that advice, it's 100% true and applicable to all situations.

Oh, also, if you want to make millions on the stock market, just buy the stocks that are going to increase in value, and sell the ones that are going to decrease in value.

I'm a crawl genius and a stock market expert, and I've transferred that knowledge to you in one tiny post! I'm obviously also the best teacher ever.

[Laraso]

That's about as useful as saying "The best way to win the game is to always take the action that has the lowest odds of making you lose the game". OK, we can close the forum down now, nobody can top that advice, it's 100% true and applicable to all situations.

Oh, also, if you want to make millions on the stock market, just buy the stocks that are going to increase in value, and sell the ones that are going to decrease in value.

I'm a crawl genius and a stock market expert, and I've transferred that knowledge to you in one tiny post! I'm obviously also the best teacher ever.

Do you just like to argue or something? I mean, really, I'm starting to get tired of reading your sarcastic and sometimes spiteful posts in every thread talking about how useless you think other people's posts are while contributing nothing of your own. Already in this thread you have two posts which do nothing except attack duvessa, even after duvessa bothered to make a more in-depth reply after you mentioned how "useless" his first one was. I really don't see any point behind your aggression, or whatever word you would use to describe what you're doing.

This question is rather shallow and ambiguous because you don't always get the same items in every game and not every item is useful to every character, so really duvessa is right on the mark by simply saying he carries "the items that are useful to carry", because that's what basically any relevant reply you could give boils down to. Sar and and into already explained it perfectly,

I think what he meant is that those items depend on character and depth (apart from something everybody can use, like buff and healing potions), and it's not very useful to talk about it broadly.

But that's the thing. It is a deadpan comment but not actually a content-less one, because the question really isn't that deep and precisely should not be over-thought.

[dck]

I still don't see what you're getting from that explanation that leaves only empty vitriol as your whole reply though.
It's inconceivable to actually make a real list of what you carry, because what you carry depends completely on what you are playing and what tools you have already found.
One could make a list of what amounts of what consumables are more or less optimal to carry to nullify itemdest and could reasonably push them up to also cover a fair amount of fuckups by the player and being lazy, but I don't see any point in going through such thankless work just to appease whatever issues you have with people on an internet forum.

I think the best that can be said about what to carry is, just make sure you know what each of the things you're carrying or leaving behind does and then think if that effect could be of use for your character.
and don't you walk around with zero !might when !might exists are you literally retar

[Sar]

BTW there's one thing I was always curious about, I remember reading somewhere that might gives you 10 oldslaying (added to base damage), is that correct? I mean, it does sound silly, but some things in Crawl just are.

[Sandman25]

Carrying around anything other than jewelry and weapons to swap in just seems utterly insane, I never knew anyone does that.

Well, ignoring leather armour of rC+ when you are wearing leather armour of rF+ but haven't visited Ice Cave yet looks insane to me too

[Hurkyl]

Do you just like to argue or something? I mean, really, I'm starting to get tired of reading your sarcastic and sometimes spiteful posts in every thread talking about how useless you think other people's posts are while contributing nothing of your own. Already in this thread you have two posts which do nothing except attack duvessa, even after duvessa bothered to make a more in-depth reply after you mentioned how "useless" his first one was. I really don't see any point behind your aggression, or whatever word you would use to describe what you're doing.

There's an easy way to get people to stop arguing against content-free posts: stop making content-free posts, and stop defending content-free posts.

This question is rather shallow and ambiguous because you don't always get the same items in every game and not every item is useful to every character, so really duvessa is right on the mark by simply saying he carries "the items that are useful to carry", because that's what basically any relevant reply you could give boils down to.

While true, and maybe even useful if we have some strawmen reading the forum who think that their inventory should consist exactly of some fixed list, it conveys exactly zero information to the reader who is curious what items people find useful enough to carry around.

Admittedly Duvessa didn't manage to completely avoid giving any content; e.g. he advises that consumables beyond the second aren't often useful.

[duvessa]

BTW there's one thing I was always curious about, I remember reading somewhere that might gives you 10 oldslaying (added to base damage), is that correct? I mean, it does sound silly, but some things in Crawl just are.

No, that's not correct. It's not even newslaying, it's just +1d10 melee damage (for players).

[and into]

duvessa: I supported what you said only in the sense that I don't think folks should be over-thinking what they are carrying. After that I was simply pontificating as to my own precious, precious opinions (tm). Didn't mean to, and I don't believe I did, put words in your mouth or anything.

There's an easy way to get people to stop arguing against content-free posts: stop making content-free posts, and stop defending content-free posts.

And stop responding vehemently to every post that you feel is low-content.

No one on this forum is under any obligation to make every single post a glowing work of artful eloquence and comprehension. If bad posts are in danger of derailing a thread, that's one thing; report it. Otherwise just let it go. Folks should argue about things you actually disagree about, where there's some substance.

Let's try not to have another DCA thread devolve into a flame war, please. (I mean, is it that time of the week again, already?)

[Sar]

+1d10 damage? How's that different from newslaying? I thought having, say, 5 slaying now meant you get +1d5 damage roll at each melee attack.
And yeah, I know monster might is +50% damage.

[dck]

I suppose it's effectively the same but doesn't work for ranged weapons.

[TheDefiniteArticle]

Yes, carrying rF/rC stuff around in the early game waiting for Volcanoes/Ice Caves is a thing that happens. (Volcano/Ice Cave design is terrible FYI)

[Sar]

Ah right, "melee". Duh.

[Laraso]

There's an easy way to get people to stop arguing against content-free posts: stop making content-free posts, and stop defending content-free posts.

The problem here is that duvessa's post was not lacking in content, especially not his second post. damiac's post, on the other hand, was completely devoid of any content, and was nothing but sarcastic remarks towards duvessa. This is besides the point though.

While true, and maybe even useful if we have some strawmen reading the forum who think that their inventory should consist exactly of some fixed list, it conveys exactly zero information to the reader who is curious what items people find useful enough to carry around.

If everyone did post exactly what they find "useful enough to carry around", and someone actually did come into this thread curious to see what people have in their inventory, I doubt they are going to look at all the posts and go "Oh, this guy carries potions of heal wounds, interesting. Apparently this guy does too! And this guy... And this guy... Good to know". I really think this kind of question belongs in CYC. If this was a question asking "Which items are generally useful to keep in your inventory, and which items are generally better left in your stash?" it would be different, but even then the replies would largely be stating the obvious with only a few outliers, similar to how if someone asked "Which mutations are helpful and which mutations are bad" you would get replies stating the obvious like "+10% HP is good" and only a few replies clearing up possible misunderstandings such as "Wild Magic isn't necessarily always bad, depending on your character" and "Shouting isn't as dangerous as you might think".

(Also, I don't think you understand what a straw man actually is.)

[WalkerBoh]

I'm just going to go ahead and answer the spirit of the question. You guys nitpick over useless shit too much, I mean jeez. These are the general (emphasis on general) guidelines I follow for choosing to drop or not.

First, only carry things you actually intend to use. I never carry things around because theoretically they're useful - if I know I won't use it then I drop it. Most wands, rods, decks, evokables, and weapons fall here (I have strong dislike for rod interface; you should use rods, I just choose not to).

Second, don't carry more consumables than you need for one fight. So I keep 1 might/haste/blink/agil/etc and 2-3 hw, curing, tele. Never carry strategic consumables (enchant scrolls, recharging, cMut, etc.) I carry one mapping, restab, and similar things for convenience.

Third, don't carry tons of different food items. Choose a ration type and a fruit type and carry a stack of those (e.g.: bread rations and apples).

That's basically it for me. I keep some ring types around for swaps, but I never carry like sustab or tele control (they fall into category 1). Only wands I really keep are dig/disint/one attack wand/yellow wands. I also don't do stashes, I drop things where I find them. And I tend to get tired of managing shit and just pick up whatever until I hit the limits. But if I'm paying attention, the above stuff applies.

[Lasty]

+1d10 damage? How's that different from newslaying? I thought having, say, 5 slaying now meant you get +1d5 damage roll at each melee attack.
And yeah, I know monster might is +50% damage.

In addition to the existing answers, lemme be pedantic for a sec: slaying isn't +1d{slaying}, it's +random2(slaying+1), which can return between 0 and slaying. Might actually does add 1d10 damage, so quaffing might guarantees at least 1 bonus damage on each attack.

Edit: Also, while Starving and not a vampire, you do between 0 and 5 less damage. TIL.

[Hurkyl]

If everyone did post exactly what they find "useful enough to carry around", and someone actually did come into this thread curious to see what people have in their inventory, I doubt they are going to look at all the posts and go "Oh, this guy carries potions of heal wounds, interesting. Apparently this guy does too!

Of course not. Although they might see someone that tries to carry 6 heal wounds, and consider carrying more than they usually do. Or if/how many haste potions to keep around.

But more significantly, we can see

but even then the replies would largely be stating the obvious with only a few outliers

the variations. Unless this community has fatally succumbed to groupthink, there is surely going to be a fair amount of interesting variation, rather than a bloc of essentially identical posts with some outliers from those who haven't succumbed.

e.g. carrying a scroll of magic mapping around all the time whereas others just do so for special occasions is an interesting variation. Do you carry a stack of identify and remove curse scrolls around with you? I do when I visit Pandemonium or a Ziggurat. What does that guy carrying around 15 evokable items sacrifice to make room? Does anyone carry around rN+ for Shadow Dragons or other draining attacks? et cetera

[Hurkyl]

I don't use wands of flame, frost, confusion, random effects, and such.

Those are the specific items that I believe should be used most liberally, because if you don't you end up never using them and then you turn them off in autopickup after your stash gets filled up with like 30 of them.

Sorry. I meant I just drop them and turn them off my autopickup. Unless it's early game on a weak combo.

I think his point was that if you aren't really going to use them in the future, then you might as well use them now for simple things. e.g. if you're not using a ranged attack, then you might as well poke at that Ogre with your wand of flame while you're waiting for him to come into melee range. Just burn through the charges for simple things rather than leaving them on the ground.

[WalkerBoh]

@hurkyl: To be fair, if those are the things you are interested in knowing, it's better to ask those questions specifically and not a super broad question.

[moocowmoocow]

Now that I've learned about breadswinging, I must always carry bread to swing, and some spare bread just in case.

[duvessa]

+1d10 damage? How's that different from newslaying? I thought having, say, 5 slaying now meant you get +1d5 damage roll at each melee attack.

5 slaying is 1d6-1, not 1d5
5 slaying plus 10 slaying is 1d16-1
5 slaying plus might is 1d6-1 + 1d10

[Hurkyl]

@hurkyl: To be fair, if those are the things you are interested in knowing, it's better to ask those questions specifically and not a super broad question.

But many things you may very well not even know you are interested in knowing until after see someone doing something differently than you. e.g. I think potion of brilliance looks like a rather niche item for people who haven't yet trained up their spell skills but want to be cast a big spell in an emergency, and I wouldn't have even been curious to ask for other opinions without and into's comment on it being a whole game thing.

[damiac]

The problem here is that duvessa's post was not lacking in content, especially not his second post. damiac's post, on the other hand, was completely devoid of any content, and was nothing but sarcastic remarks towards duvessa.

I always carry a bolt wand, a dig(or disintegrate)wand, heal/haste/tele wands, 5 cure and heal potions, 1 or 2 of might, agi, resistance pots, basically all scrolls I find, maybe a backup weapon if mine isn't corr resistant and I don't cast spells, sinv/RF/RC rings, clarity/rmut/rcorr amulets, elemental evokers, a rod or 2, 4 or 5 bread and meat rations...

Looking at this, I carry too much crap around.

See, I actually answered the question, I just called out duvessa's useless non-answer at the same time. This is an advice thread after all.

Various lists of inventories could be useful to someone wondering what items they should keep on them.
Saying "I keep what's worth keeping" is useful to nobody at all, and to watch people bend over backward to make Duvessa's snarky nonsense into good advice is pretty hilarious.
Even funnier is to see Duvessa then give an even snarkier comment on why they were wrong.

[Igxfl]

the items that are useful to carry

This is the reply that's appropriate to make.

If by appropriate you mean useless and unhelpful.

Yes, I was drawing attention to the tautology.

[Igxfl]

To actually answer the question:

I usually carry all tactical consumables and two differently-branded weapons of the type I'm training, if I can find them. Ideally at least one is an appropriate hydra-killer.
I carry all jewelry that isn't =sustab or whatever, in case I need to swap.
I usually pick up all evokables, except box of beasts, which I don't really like using.

After the early game, I drop the weaker or more dubious items like /magic dart, /random effects, !lignifaction, etc.

When I hit weight limit, I drop books and strategic consumables in secluded corners of whatever level I'm on.
If those are all gone and I'm still burdened, I have to make actual choices and think about what's useful.

[Laraso]

The problem here is that duvessa's post was not lacking in content, especially not his second post. damiac's post, on the other hand, was completely devoid of any content, and was nothing but sarcastic remarks towards duvessa.

I always carry a bolt wand, a dig(or disintegrate)wand, heal/haste/tele wands, 5 cure and heal potions, 1 or 2 of might, agi, resistance pots, basically all scrolls I find, maybe a backup weapon if mine isn't corr resistant and I don't cast spells, sinv/RF/RC rings, clarity/rmut/rcorr amulets, elemental evokers, a rod or 2, 4 or 5 bread and meat rations...

Looking at this, I carry too much crap around.

See, I actually answered the question, I just called out duvessa's useless non-answer at the same time. This is an advice thread after all.

Various lists of inventories could be useful to someone wondering what items they should keep on them.
Saying "I keep what's worth keeping" is useful to nobody at all, and to watch people bend over backward to make Duvessa's snarky nonsense into good advice is pretty hilarious.
Even funnier is to see Duvessa then give an even snarkier comment on why they were wrong.

Actually if you were paying attention (or maybe you were and you just didn't care) you would have realized that I said "you have two posts which do nothing except attack duvessa" at a point in time in which you had three posts in this thread. I was obviously referring to the other two, in which you did in fact do nothing but attack duvessa. One of these also happens to be your first post in this thread.

"the items that are useful to carry" isn't exactly top-quality information, but you have to consider that this question isn't exactly thought provoking or important either. I don't think it's necessary to make a thorough and in-depth response to every passing question stemming from someone else's fleeting sense of curiosity. It would be one thing to ask "What are important and useful items to carry?" and request examples of useful items, but instead this thread asked "What items do you carry?" and provided a long list of someone's idealized inventory while at the same time asking other people to post their own list. Just the mere presence of a list isn't helpful information as it doesn't mean the list represents an optimal inventory, and also doesn't take into account that not all types of characters benefit equally from the same items and therefore what is optimal for one character might not be for the next, which could actually end up being harmful because it may persuade someone to do something they shouldn't. I suppose you could then provide criticism against those lists which aren't optimal in general (e.g. suggesting to carry around scrolls of random uselessness for the chance of butterflies or carrying around distortion for self-banishment), but I don't think you would be satisfied with that either because from what I've seen from other threads you would likely feel compelled to disagree with their criticism and make a sarcastic comment which implies in some way that the people who are giving the criticism are elitist or "snarky". Furthermore the act of posting and then nitpicking these lists would itself be pointless. As much as you might believe otherwise "What items do you tend to carry?" makes for a rather fruitless discussion that will only really boil down to "the items that are worth carrying".

You're right about this being an advice board, which is why I believe this belongs in CYC instead, because this thread isn't requesting or giving advice but rather it's just polling the members of the tavern.

I really don't want to bother discussing this further with you, so consider this my last reply.

[Lasty]

I think potion of brilliance looks like a rather niche item for people who haven't yet trained up their spell skills but want to be cast a big spell in an emergency

In case you don't know, the main reason to use potion of brilliance is that it gives a substantial bonus to spellpower -- I think it's equivalent to a power enhancer for all spells. So, if you want !might for spells, it's !brilliance.

Generally speaking, if you think a consumable/evokable item has no significant uses, it's worth double-checking.

[Sandman25]

Brilliance is the effect of a potion of brilliance. The boost is equal to three average skill levels, but is still applied even if your average skill level has reached the max of 27. This boost is wholly separate from the wizardry effect and from the temporary Intelligence gain (which also affects spell power).

http://crawl.chaosforge.org/Spell_power

[mopl]

Generally speaking, if you think a consumable/evokable item has no significant uses, it's worth double-checking.

What about lantern of shadows ?

[dck]

LoS is incredibly annoying to find because it's so god damn strong not using it is ridiculous if you actually are a character who has concerns about survival.

[Hurkyl]

I think potion of brilliance looks like a rather niche item for people who haven't yet trained up their spell skills but want to be cast a big spell in an emergency

In case you don't know, the main reason to use potion of brilliance is that it gives a substantial bonus to spellpower -- I think it's equivalent to a power enhancer for all spells. So, if you want !might for spells, it's !brilliance.

But unlike might, spell power goes through all those stepdowns and even after that, spell power isn't proportional to damage done anyways.

I think with 10 spellcasting, 12 conjurations/ice, and 25 intelligence, brilliance means the difference between averaging something like 32.5 and 37 damage with bolt of cold.

So I suppose it's comparable to might in terms of damage added per attack for this particular example, but it's not really noticeable through casual observation, and certainly doesn't compare to the roflstomp that it feels like happens when I drink might. Possibly the fact the characters I tend to use might on are low damage fast weapon types skews my perception of the usefulness of might.

[Sandman25]

Brilliance is great for casters, going from yellow 7% Orb of Destruction to grey 1% and increasing spell power as extra bonus.