The Tavern

I find it annoying that the fact that all bracers are archery. It spoilery and boring at the same time. There should be plain bracers. Additionally, there should be at least one other possible ego for bracers.

Some obvious candidates:
Bracers of fumbling (dex -3)
Bracers of giant strength (str +3)
Bracers of shielding (sh + 2)

There are, apparently, other bracers, but it seems I am not the only one noticing a sudden lack of variety from the randomizer.

There are already gloves of strength.

It's pointless, unless it's an artifact.

Real bracers are only used for archery. If anything, the in-game item should just lose the "of archery" ego, with the base item inheriting the effects of the ego. Calling them "bracers of archery" is redundant, basically.

also, why they should interfere with melee? For a sake of balance? Smaller than glowes ac could be better offset.

evilmike: "greaves", then?

I think the problem is that when you see bracers, you don't have to identify them. If some bracers magically improved damage from bows, while others didn't, it would make "of archery" more interesting. But plain bracers would just be gloves with another name, which is kind of boring.

What if bows had a chance of misfiring and causing small damage to the player? The chance of misfire would be reduced by increasing skill with bows (and maybe by enchanting the bow? Increased Dex?) and damage to the player would be eliminated by wearing plain bracers instead of gloves. Wearing a robe would increase the chance of misfires, as loose clothing can catch the bowstring.

Pointless, unless you fumble.
(Which is a moot point- it's our expressed policy not to do things just because nethack did).

More on topic, I wouldn't mind seeing a little more variety in gloves. Having a few 'bracers of' might be interesting to chose between. Right now I treat the bracers of archery as floor trash. :p

I'm pretty sure greaves go on your legs, not your arms.

Bracers of fumbling is from D&D actually, not nethack. Nethack had gauntlets and boots.

I don't see whats wrong with having an ego be negative. It provides interesting choices if the enchantment level is high or you worship Ashenzari or if it is cursed and you dont have ?rc for some reason.

I wouldn't want fumbling to be the only non-archery ego though, or melee characters would still always ignore all bracers.

Inaccuracy.