Wednesday, 25th September 2013, 22:31 by and into
Resurrecting thread on the basis of ackack's recently posted win with a TrMo with a "vow of silence" conduct throughout the whole game. (A very noteworthy achievement!)
What makes this unrandart interesting is the silence aura—take that away and it is not so special, in my opinion. But the idea of permanently affecting your game so strongly by wielding a weapon has quite a few problems, including the fact that it may not be clear to new players just how big a deal it is. Also the fact that it is a randart only usable by a few species is a problem IMO, especially since there is already Skullcrusher. I also feel it would be cooler if the silence aura didn't just apply to you, but actually covered more than one square, so it could potentially help (and not just gimp) you.
So here would be my modified proposal based on ackack's idea:
Vow of Silence
+7 / +7 Bardiche
Brand: Speed
Special effect:
1.) Never generates cursed, and uncurseable.
2.) Generates a self-replenishing silence aura when wielded. Silence aura eventually fades upon unwield, but only after a certain number of turns (maybe a bit less than the spell to time out, on average, but a significant number of turns nonetheless).
(great sword or great mace or battleax possible weapon types, too, but I don't think there are any unrandart bardiches so I went with that.)
Flavor can be that it is the "brother weapon" of Undeadhunter: They once belonged to two Paladins, comrades-in-arms who fought the legions of Hell, but the weapons were thought to have faded from history, believed to be lost. Undeadhunter can have its description tweaked to accommodate. (This isn't necessary, but I think it is a nice touch.)
Flavor description can also describe that, although not "holy wrath" brand, its association and use for holy purposes by a Servant of Light in ancient times has made it immune to curses.
The silence aura works by basically having VoS "recast" silence after every X number of turns. The exact field of silence will vary (unlike silent specters), but will never become zero—the player character is guaranteed to always be silenced while wielding this weapon.
If unwielded, the silence aura will go away, but not immediately. This effectively removes your ability to use sound-reliant abilities *tactically*, without making it impossible to pray to a god, or use enchant armor, or even use certain spells (flight to cross a particular patch of water to access a new area).
Using this as your primary weapon would still be very risky, obviously, as a lot of your options are limited. But it is far less radical, and is a good enough weapon that some characters could perhaps adopt its use, especially with the speed brand (making it easier to branch out into polearms if you weren't using them already). It is basically like speed brand on an excellent weapon type for it, with built-in anti-magic (of a different type) AND reaching. But at a steep cost.
- For this message the author and into has received thanks:
- dpeg