Remove mummies' stat regeneration

[Zooty]

Since mummies can't drink potions of restore abilities, their main way to restore lost stats is to use their self-restoration which costs permanent MP or wait. However the lack of food clock means that unless the situation is dangerous or the mummy is in pan/abyss, the optimal way to play is to go mash 5 in ecumenical temple until stats are restored. This costs nothing but a bit of score. Hence I propose that mummies' natural stat regeneration is removed. To compensate, self-restoration could be move to a starting ability for mummies so that unlucky encounters won't leave them crippled. Overall this is a nerf, but mummies are supposed to be a challenge race so it's alright.

[ion_frigate]

I'd say that stat regeneration should just be XP-dependent, instead of turn-dependent, for all species.

[duvessa]

With most gods it costs enough piety to be really bad, but yeah.

IMO not regenerating stats is terrible gameplay right now though (ever tried playing DD?) because of the things stat drain typically comes from. Putting max MP drain on monsters is basically like putting rot, item destruction, permanent corrosion, etc. on monsters, it leads to excessively slow play. Malmutate is more than enough. So instead I'd probably suggest making statloss stronger but expire as fast as a typical status. As a bonus this lets you get rid of restore abilities.

[Zooty]

With most gods it costs enough piety to be really bad, but yeah.

IMO not regenerating stats is terrible gameplay right now though (ever tried playing DD?) because of the things stat drain typically comes from. Putting max MP drain on monsters is basically like putting rot, item destruction, permanent corrosion, etc. on monsters, it leads to excessively slow play. Malmutate is more than enough. So instead I'd probably suggest making statloss stronger but expire as fast as a typical status. As a bonus this lets you get rid of restore abilities.

Good point about the piety. Changing the regain to be exp-based would be a nice improvement too.

[damiac]

Definitely makes sense. I'd rather see stat loss go the way of corrosion, and become a severe tactical problem, rather than a mild strategic annoyance.

[dynast]

AFAIK the self-restoration is used to recover from hp rot, since you dont start with a heal wand.

[PleasingFungus]

With most gods it costs enough piety to be really bad, but yeah.

IMO not regenerating stats is terrible gameplay right now though (ever tried playing DD?) because of the things stat drain typically comes from. Putting max MP drain on monsters is basically like putting rot, item destruction, permanent corrosion, etc. on monsters, it leads to excessively slow play. Malmutate is more than enough. So instead I'd probably suggest making statloss stronger but expire as fast as a typical status. As a bonus this lets you get rid of restore abilities.

I largely agree, but there are some things that use int loss as a strategic cost: XXX & Malign Gateway (not that anyone uses the latter), CBoE and Wucad Mu. I don't feel strongly about the former two, but I think the int cost on the latter two is pretty important, strongly discouraging out-of-combat spam. Wouldn't work as an int-loss status.

[duvessa]

Huh, I didn't think those were supposed to be strategic costs. You could change them to draining?

[PleasingFungus]

I'm not sure they were *intended* as anything (just more leftovers from divination miscasts), but I think they work pretty well as strategic costs.

You're right that we could switch over to some other kind of strategic cost; draining is feasible. I'll mull it over.

[TeshiAlair]

I don't think it has to be an all or nothing solution: MG make it an interesting consequence because it only affects magic, quasits are not interesting.

[archaeo]

I'm not sure they were *intended* as anything (just more leftovers from divination miscasts), but I think they work pretty well as strategic costs.

You're right that we could switch over to some other kind of strategic cost; draining is feasible. I'll mull it over.

misclicked thanks, but hey, thanks anyway PF.

Why not just find some other miscasts to apply for some of those items and spells? As it is, stat loss just means that you don't just learn the spell or use the item, you have to add in a =sustab. I'm not sure what the alternate "strategic cost" could be, but stat drain does seem awfully problematic. What if, I don't know, the CBoE cast Dazzling Spray at you, Malign Gateway had a chance to do a Starspawn mutation at you, XXX gave you draining, and Wucad Mu gave you -Wiz?

Actually, why isn't -Wiz the go-to malus now? Or -Archmagi? Both seem like they'd accomplish the same thing as Int drain.

[crate]

Or you could just remove the int drain from both spells. Until Menagerie is adjusted XXX is not really much better anyway and is much harder to cast, and Malign Gateway is pretty much only useful because it's not really a summon so it can do things like attack out-of-los.

[celem]

Been playing pretty much nothing but Mummies lately, so i'll chime in with my 2 cents.

Personally I dont use the regeneration ability to restore stats. If im in Hells or Tomb im wearing SustAb, without that resist I generally wont run those branches. What little seeps through I just deal with and stat drains beyond the hell effects/death curses I just weather.(brains and such) If I they get hammered enough to make progress difficult then I'll usually go and play somewhere else while they recover, often an Abyss trawl since Ash doesnt like me spamming 5 (my Mu's are almost always Ash for intrinsic Clar) and I dont see much stat-loss in the Abyss.

I use it to regen rotted HP (since its the only way of doing so), but must say I can usually make it to the lategame without using it more than once. I should add that I do not use XXX or gateway.

I quite like the idea of stat recovery being tied to xp gain rather than time elapsed, since waiting out anything in the Temple feels lame.