vorpalize staves

[ajon]

Would it be possible to have scrolls of vorpalize be able to change a staff's type?

[reaver]

I don't think this would be a good idea for a couple of reasons.

1) By the time I get vorpal scrolls I'm normally flooded with staffs. I think this would basically ensure you get any staff you want almost every game, which isn't desirable.

2) Vorpal scrolls are already the most difficult/complicated to use scroll in the game. One way to explain their function:

Gives a chosen weapon the vorpal brand unless it's temporarily branded in which case you get that brand permanently unless that brand is on an arbitary list of brands you can't get in which case you get a bad effect associated with the brand unless it has a permanent brand (which means you can't temporarily brand it) in which case it gives you a brand that's on a different arbitrary list at arbitrary weights.

[drywall]

I don't think this would be a good idea for a couple of reasons.

1) By the time I get vorpal scrolls I'm normally flooded with staffs. I think this would basically ensure you get any staff you want almost every game, which isn't desirable.

2) Vorpal scrolls are already the most difficult/complicated to use scroll in the game. One way to explain their function:

Gives a chosen weapon the vorpal brand unless it's temporarily branded in which case you get that brand permanently unless that brand is on an arbitary list of brands you can't get in which case you get a bad effect associated with the brand unless it has a permanent brand (which means you can't temporarily brand it) in which case it gives you a brand that's on a different arbitrary list at arbitrary weights.

This might be better suited for a different thread, but I think current vorpal would be better off if it only had the brand change feature and was simply called a "scroll of re-branding" - the scroll would be more in line with the others if it only had one clearly defined function instead of having 3 different use cases. Aside from very rare cases like affixing a card-granted elec brand, the temporary -> permanent function is only used once per game at best and doesn't have any interesting behavior other than to reduce pre-fight casting annoyance and leave a useless spell in memory. The fairly common use case of memorizing a spell only to immediately read a vorpalize scroll and then forget the spell is kind of clunky and bad. Unbranded weapons could just get a random brand instead of always getting vorpal.

I don't like re-branding enchanter staves because it's basically an enchanter staff spawn rate increase in disguise (you would never re-brand one you actually use and rely on) and a better way to adjust the staff spawn rate if you don't like it is to do so more directly by editing the numbers. This is different than weapon re-branding because weapons have more of an investment involved, especially if you decide to re-brand your primary weapon.