Revamped Repel Missiles + Shroud of Golubria

[cooldog]

Hi,I have an idea to make those spells more situational,fun and unique

Basic idea is to make them permanent and toggleable but cost MP whenever their effects activate (like infusion)
And their effects aren't always good
For both spells,you have to cast them once (still costs the base mp) and then they're on permanently until you cast the spell again to deactivate them (which doesn't cost MP but still takes a turn). Meaning,there is more reason to not keep them always active,because if you end up in a situation where you don't want them you can't instantly switch them off.
Spell power would determine the % chance of them activating whenever you're attacked (based off your current spell power,not spell power when casting)

And they would have,new more situational effects so there would be reasons not to use them all the time.

Repel Missiles- Whenever you're hit by a missile chance to make it stray off course by moving it to the side,using 1MP to do so
Missiles moves 1 tile to the side depending on it's relative direction. If both sides are free it's random,otherwise it's whichever one is free. If neither of them are it doesn't do anything but still costs you the MP
Meaning it wouldn't work in 1 tile corridors and can cause friendly fire.
(example: a centaur to the right of you fires an arrow at you,when the projectile is about to hit you repel missiles activates,the arrow is shifted 1 tile up or down of you and continues flying until it hits the orc northwest or southwest of you)


Shroud Of Golubria- Chance whenever hit by a melee attack to blink out of the way to dodge it,costing 1MP
Basically works the same way as Repel Missiles only it moves your character
(example: an orc southwest of you hits you,shroud of golubria activates. if tiles west or south of you are free you're blinked to either of them and don't take damage. or if they both have monsters/walls on them you just blink in place and still take the damage and lose the MP)

Sorry for bad english

[celem]

Repel Missiles already has the friendly-fire bit you mentioned. Its entirely possible for a deflected projectile to strike an ally, or another hostile, or whoever is in the nearby area. It doesnt offend Oka or piss off the ally, the attack does not originate with you. Im not sure exactly how it currently works, but it seems it can deflect the missile into a number of directions, or permit it to pass straight through as if you had dodged.

It also feels (though obviously isnt the case) like RMsl is already a togglable effect. This because it doesnt expire over time but over 'charges', a pretty unique mechanic. I wouldnt mind some alteration to try and stop it being an automatic spell (I would learn RMsl on every non-trog, regardless of species/background/apts, I will always learn RMsl). Drawing MP might work for this. I wouldnt really be a fan of making it expire normlly over time however, buffing yourself is tedious as is, and this spell is the least obnoxious to reapply. Infact, I'd be tempted to make Shroud behave in the same fashion, its already got a charge counter in addition to the clock. Then I might use shroud, which I otherwise just cant be bothered to cast 99% of the time since it falls off fast and busts if you get spiked anyway, the aut spent casting it and the aut closer to expiry all my other buffs move is rarely worth it to me.

Blink on hit is interesting, but i'd stop using it again then and just cast Blink if I want to move. My character moving uncontrollably is a deal-breaker for me, might make an interesting item property though.

[mps]

Blinking is a pretty annoying/potentially dangerous effect. Think of weapons of distortion: Don't you think they'd be a lot more popular without the blink effect? Shroud would be used substantially less if it caused blinking, I think.

Is there a particular reason shroud doesn't have the same kind of toggly mechanics as rmsl? They're remarkably similar spells and the 2 mp you use casting shroud constantly is rarely significant tactically.

[duvessa]

The time you spend casting it can be significant tactically, since it's effectively only +10 hp

[tasonir]

Yeah the turn to recast it is the main reason I don't use shroud. If it didn't break on your first serious hit then I'd keep it up all the time. If you want to revamp it, I'd do something like this:

Level 4 Charms/Translocations: perm buff like Rmsl, X% chance to absorb damage, chance to break dependant on damage vs your spellpower, so higher spell power is less likely to break.

It's basically the same as it is now, just that my intention is that with decent spell power you wouldn't have it break on 10 damage, and this would actually last you through a floor or two. Melee attacks only. X% change to absorb is also based on spellpower, but probably less than the 33% chance it has now (for 10 damage attacks), something like 15-20% sounds reasonable since it'll last longer. This version is much more powerful, so it's level 4 and additionally needs more spellpower to last.

I think this would be a better spell, but it'll never work because it's a charm spell and buffing charms is a bad idea. It also (both currently, and my new version) overlaps a lot with phase shift. This is less of an issue when it's level 2, but if it moved up to level 4, now it's right next to phase shift. Ah well.

Shroud is kind of in a tough spot because if it's easy to keep up, then everyone should. Since it's a pain to keep casting precombat for a small benefit, almost no one actually does. Recasting it in combat is likely little or no net gain.

[and into]

Recasting shroud in a combat situation can definitely be worthwhile relatively early in the game, which is where it makes sense for a level 2 spell to be most helpful. The problem is, as usual, from possibly getting a benefit by casting "outside of combat" (when no enemies are in LOS, but when you expect or know that some enemies will soon be in LOS).

[mps]

rmsl has exactly the same casting time issue and expires in roughly the same way in combat. I don't see an important difference there.

[tasonir]

rmsl isn't likely to wear off on the first non-zero hit.