The trouble with Staff of Enchantment

[danr]

It was mentioned in another thread that people tend not to use staves of enchantment.

I think the problem with the Staff of Enchantment is that it's a staff. One of the major uses of hexes anyway is stabbing stuff. That requires you to wield a dagger, and when you are a squishy spriggan standing next to an ogre who may only be hibernated for one turn, you don't want to waste that turn switching back from a staff to a dagger, never mind the interface tedium that this induces.

So I'd suggest that while it is good to have enhancers for every magic school, in this case the usefulness of that enhancer is diminished by the form it takes.

Is there another form it could take, a la a ring of fire?

A weirder solution would be to make staves of enchantment good for stabbing.

[XuaXua]

A weirder solution would be to make staves of enchantment good for stabbing.

One of those blade-in-the-handle things.

Lajatang of Enchantment?

[danr]

A weirder solution would be to make staves of enchantment good for stabbing.

One of those blade-in-the-handle things.

Lajatang of Enchantment?

Yeah but then it would seem like spears and tridents should get stabbing too, and that would be crazy. I shouldn't have mentioned it.

[cerebovssquire]

Well, normally school staves have a power boost (in this case Charms/Hexes), an effect upon wielding (in this case MR) and an effect upon hitting (in this case, none?). The last of those could be given to the staff in form of a "hitting a monster with it temporarily decreases its MR" effect. This should not be allowed to stack indefinitely.

[BlackSheep]

I would envision an ability like that working similarly to the way the anti-magic brand works. The target might, based on Evoc skill, get an enchantment with a malus to MR. The duration and degree would be functions of the damage dealt and player Hexes skill. Subsequent hits could increase the duration, and potentially the malus, with a cap based on skill.

[XuaXua]

A weirder solution would be to make staves of enchantment good for stabbing.

One of those blade-in-the-handle things.

Lajatang of Enchantment?

Yeah but then it would seem like spears and tridents should get stabbing too, and that would be crazy. I shouldn't have mentioned it.

This is why IMHO, Stabbing should be transformed into "critical blow" and allowed for all weapons; give certain weapon classes (read: short blades) a better bonus to the damage obtained by a successful use.

[danr]

The proposal I'd specifically like to talk about is having an item, other than a staff, that would provide the same boost to charms and hexes that a staff of enchantment does. Because a staff of enchantment would be useful to cast EH/slow/confuse on stuff, but then it sucks that you have to take an action to swap to a weapon. It amounts to an interface tedium issue affecting gameplay.

[crate]

Staff of enchantment is probably good for power-cap-200 hexes, but the hexes that are the most useful throughout the game (EH and invisibility) are both hexes where the staff is useless (EH has too low a power cap, invisibility only gets more duration that you don't need).

It is bad for charms because for most charms spellpower is almost entirely irrelevant ... they last plenty long enough as long as you have the skill to cast them in the first place.

Giving staff of enchantment an on-hit effect is fine.

[neil]

Evoke for Extension

Maybe not...