vampiric -> healthy optimism

[twelwe]

used spellcheck on the title to ensure no one would reply with corrections, so this is serious

what the hell? can`t use vamprirc weps with holy gods? i just want to live a lil longer. i`ve been around along time so i know you gotta justify that shit, and let do it: change it so that vampiric isn`t evil anymore and just like, a really god outlook on life. you kill the orc and feel a little better about yourself and just want to live another say so you get more HP from the kill, the damage. thats what i say, peese out

[Rast]

I think it's good that the crawl gods have a variety of drawbacks and restrictions. "Can't use the best weapon brand" is a reasonable restriction.


fr: remove vampiric

[duvessa]

I don't think vamp is the best weapon brand considering how bad it is on low-damage weapons compared to elec or distortion or draining or even venom. Also, speed is +50% damage against literally everything which is pretty amazing.

[Rast]

I think it's the best brand overall, even though there are some situations/weapons where it's not good. The constant HP gain during combat is extremely powerful.

Vampiric also has unhealthy synergy with damage increasers like axes, slaying, might, haste, etc. With normal brands, those are straightforward: You kill monsters faster, which is fair. Gaining back HP even faster than the normal vamp rate is probably not fair.

Special award to vampiric axes, because they let you heal from popcorn even when the main enemy that you're beating on is hard to damage or completely immune to the brand.


But yes, if we follow the "only D:1-5 is difficult" meme, then the brands you mentioned are best.

[duvessa]

HP gain is only relevant because it makes up for HP loss. If you kill the monster faster you lose less HP in the first place. There is no special synergy with slaying, might, or haste.

[Rast]

Yeah, but you still lose some HP. In tough fights, or prolonged fights, or even just fights with bad damage spikes, the HP loss adds up enough to be relevant. You will have to heal or escape when your HP gets too low.

Or, you can have vamp, and so long as your healing over time is more than the damage you take over time, your only risk is multiple damage spikes close together.

The synergy with damage boosters: They boost your healing in addition to your damage. With other brands, all damage boosters can do is end the fight faster. With vamp, damage boosters can turn a fight where the monsters are outdamaging your healing back into one where your are outhealing them, and they also speed your recovery from damage spikes.