"Of the Transmuter" Fixedart(s)

[BeardTony]

I've been tossing this idea around in my head for a few months now, and I figured I should put it here to see if the general crawl population likes it.

Gloves/Boots/Hat of the Transmuter - fixed artefact

+1 gloves/boots/hat
rCorr

The [name] are magically enchanted to take to shape of whatever form fills them.

This would effectively give a possible +1/+2 defense to races that normally do not have the access to the specified armor slot, but the more unique aspect would be that they would not meld with the character during transmutations. So blade hands / beastly appendage / dragon form / spider form / ice form would gain a small AC boost. This would be a moderately nice find for Tengu, Octopodes, Felids, or Demonspawn with body mutations.

I believe this kind of item properly fits the niche usage meant for fixedarts and gives heavy transmuters a small defensive boost.

[tasonir]

I like it, although I'm not sure if devs would want to add 3 fixedarts with mostly the same behavior, it might work better as just gloves (seems to be the most thematic transmuter slot, and is melded by the most forms).

Might buff it slightly to be +2 or 3 gloves (rCorr). They'd be useful to other characters as well then, but remain most beneficial to transmuters. I assume we'd allow claws to go through the gloves, which would also make it very strong on trolls/ghouls.

Octopodes and felids would still not be able to use them, as they don't have glove slots? I guess you could go either way on this.

[BeardTony]

Perhaps it could be equipable as gloves or boots or helmet because of the shape shifting nature of the object. The only reason I see this as possibly a bad idea is because the UI for equipping objects doesn't take the slot into consideration (by default). Maybe when you equip it some kind of message could pop up asking which slot you'd like to equip it to. This makes it more interesting and more valuable.

[Sandman25]

Also they should probably work as enhancers for Transmutations.

[reaver]

I don't see the interesting decision here?

I guess if you find them late as a Tm you would have to decide between 1 AC + rCorr at all times vs. 2 AC that only works if you're not transformed but I'm pretty sure you always choose the form since you never want to be not transformed.

[njvack]

I don't think there's an interesting decision here, but a bunch of unrands don't really provide interesting decisions, they're just pretty good things for some characters with a unique twist.

I do think an unrand that changes form with you would be neat; I still think Lear's is a pretty reasonable option for that -- it's in that awkward "maybe OK for some characters unless you're Mf or use some forms in which case it's terrible" space.

[tasonir]

It could be an interesting decision if you haven't yet picked up transmutations and this provides extra incentive to go down that route, but that would be unlikely timing. More likely it's just an obvious boost to transmuters, which are generally quite weak, so I don't think offering them a buff in a small percentage of games where this spawns is a bad idea. Probably won't end up changing much of anything, given how rare getting a specific unrand is, but it's nice in theory.