Caltrops

[ohmi]

New throwable consumables that provide slow+poison/paralyze/> effects, perhaps with aoe similar to Mephetic Cloud? Could be less effective vs the well-shod or flying, degrade (every time|first time) something steps on/into them (even the caster). Perhaps could prevent certain classes of creatures from entering (centaurs and yaks, for example). Short throw distance: 2 squares away, or perhaps only adjacent. Would stack with clouds. Perhaps we could reuse the fungus tiles at least for Tiles -- perhaps colored dots for ascii, if not already used.

This could provide some nice tactical gameplay, for example, stair-dancing and pursuit by overwhelming forces. They should only be available in small quantities, like 1d3 and reasonable rare, like steel darts. Not recoverable would be fine, although perhaps not necessary.

[szanth]

I like the idea, but I think others' response will be something along the lines of "We already have Evaporate."

[danr]

What about a single-tile effect? This would work a bit more like "conjure flame" - it would keep intelligent, non-cocky monsters at bay, or weaken mindless ones - though undead would be immune to the poison.

Also, they should not be permanent, but be removed after 1d3 monsters have stepped on them, perhaps with lessened effect each time.

They could come in a canister or bag with a certain number of "charges".

Players with high T&D skill could manufacture them out of darts.

[ohmi]

Evaporate is not available often.
Blowguns require wielding, must hit, don't necessarily slow pursuit even if they do hit, and can't be used ahead of time.
I'm trying for something that creates tactical options.

A single-tile effect would be fine, although if caltrops are rarer than, say, silver or steel darts, then having 2 or three squares effect doesn't seem overpowered. Gone after 1d3 monsters or players or however arrow traps work. They are very much like player-creatable traps.

Just a slow effect (hard to resist, 1d3 turns?) and maybe 1 arrow worth of damage (normally resisted) would be good enough for a more common bag containing 2 charges. I suppose that means they would be Evoked instead of Thrown. Poison or sleep or Paralysis would be rarer. Shouldn't be possible to use them on an occupied square, but I really like the idea of stacking with clouds. They could be rather heavy, thus making them less attractive to lug several bags around.

[szanth]

I like the single tile effect. It reminds me of how in Zot Defense the traps go away after a while.

[danr]

Also, they should not be permanent, but be removed after 1d3 monsters have stepped on them, perhaps with lessened effect each time.

That does not at all address the problem. Players will still drag monsters across the level to get them to step on caltrops even if they go away after several steps. If it worked only on a single monster, that would be better, but there's still the problem of those that the monster avoids. Either short duration (clouds) or being pickupable is needed.

Give me due credit here! It at least *partially* addresses the problem. If it only works well on one monster, then less well on 1-2 more, there's not much incentive to try to lure more than 1 or 2 monsters over them.

I'd support them being pick-upable though, because being both rare and limited use they'd really add very little to the game if they could not be used repeatedly. They could have a mulch rate or deteriorate like throwing nets do.

[ohmi]

I don't quite understand why one would want to drag monsters over caltrops in the first place -- if players are affected themselves they can't avoid them in a corridor and that sort of defeats the purpose by slowing the player. If one is in an open area and uses single-tile caltrops in a single tile then either the monster will avoid (much the same effect as stepping but not actually slowed), or stop and do something ranged if they can, or plow on through. Hard to imagine why one would spread some caltrops and then attract attention in order to get them slowed -- if you're not being pursued then you are attacking them or sneaking away already.

If the monster is already pursuing then using caltrops will slow them down -- that's the point.

Stair dancing would be fun - spread some in a tight corridor to get those pesky orcs to come up on top of them -- or perhaps not! If they do come up you still have to deal with them or perhaps go back down the stairs while they follow, but at least they are slowed. Or if the foes are a bit aways, spread them next to the upstairs -- trading the turn to spread them for the benefit of a slowed foe or foe that might not close to melee at least through that one square.

Reusable is fine with throwing-net-like deterioration (perhaps good for x uses, each use reduces by 1 until gone). If they are weapons then they could get bonuses like any other thrown items, not sure what that means for throwing nets.