Why Makhleb doesn't grant HP when killing dancing weapons?

[kuniqs]

It clearly says He "accepts your kill". Is this a bug or a feature?

[ion_frigate]

Hmm, turns out they indeed don't give HP, but do give piety:

http://s-z.org/neil/git/?p=crawl.git;a= ... h.cc#l2293
http://s-z.org/neil/git/?p=crawl.git;a= ... ct.cc#l772

The relevant lines would seem to be

  Code:

&& !mons_is_object(mons.type)

and

  Code:

{ DID_KILL_NONLIVING, KILL_NONLIVING_RESPONSE },

This certainly isn't precisely a bug - it's clearly intentional that you can never get HP from killing a dancing weapon, and that you get piety for non-living kills - but I don't know if I'd exactly call it a "feature" either. Just two parts of the game (piety gain vs HP-on-kills) that likely developed separately and therefore have slightly different rules.

I'll also point out that Makhleb giving piety for non-living kills is specific to Makhleb, while not gaining HP from 'object monster' kills is actually a general rule, that is, no form of HP-for-kills can give HP for an 'object monster'.

[duvessa]

probably some ancient hack to prevent you from getting HP for killing your own Tukima's creation