Adding reflection(ego) on two handed weapon

[yingyeo]

I'm a newbie on dcss. I'd like to offer an ideas.

Like the reflection(ego) on the shield, what about putting the effect on two-handed weapon.

I do not use two-handed weapon generally, cause HP decrease quickly.

But if it did, I think I use it more.

There is a similar concept in a game named Nox.


ps. My native language is not English. Plz, forgive if spelling is not correct.

[KoboldLord]

The reflection ego on shields feels pretty cool when it kicks in, but mathematically it's probably the least-valuable shield ego. It doesn't kick in very often and doesn't usually change the flow of battle when it does. If that reflected attack kills your enemy, your enemy was probably in range of being finished off by your next normal attack anyway.

As far as adding it to two-handed weapons goes, it really wouldn't do anything because the reflection effect kicks in only when your SH stat successfully blocks an attack… and there are few ways to raise your SH stat without equipping a shield. It would be usable only in extreme niche cases like by casters with Condensation Shield, and even then any character who wants to go with a two-handed weapon will probably prefer a +damage brand over a reflection brand, because choosing two-handed weapons is all about the extra damage instead of defense.

[XuaXua]

I am of the mind that SH should be renamed to Blocking to represent blocks with shields and certain weapons, and weapon parrying in general. Certain weapons could be used for Blocking based on a combination of weapon skill and shield skill; this could apply to staves and short swords at low skill levels and and certain larger (read: two-handed) weapons at higher skill levels.

[KoboldLord]

That would still dilute the underlying choice. You're obviously not allowed to choose to have the best of both offense and defense, because otherwise there wouldn't be a choice but to do exactly that. A hypothetical SH-staff of reflection couldn't be as good at dealing damage as a triple sword or executioner's axe, because otherwise you're getting the extra defense for free, so you wouldn't choose it in cases where damage was important. The hypothetical SH-staff of reflection also couldn't be as good defensively as a large shield of reflection, though, at least unless it did just as little damage as any other one-handed weapon.

[TehDruid]

I've already made a silly suggestion quite some time ago in Crazy Yiuf's Corner (in the Generic Brainstorming topic) about some light saber unrandarts (blue and red, which would deal ice and fire damage respectively or holy/pain or drain) which can be evoked to be changed from single handed to double handed and back at will and increase your SH by quite a bit when wielded with both hands. You could add reflection as a second, "hidden" brand though, and have their base damage lowered by a bit if it seems too great of a gift.

But yeah, in general you shouldn't be allowed to get the best of both worlds.