Thursday, 3rd April 2014, 17:03 by and into
But then you'd be (in at least some cases) punishing people for having stealth. In lots of areas, just shooting dudes with arrows without some "stabbing-like" component and the noise or Mark (!) it gave would be preferable.
By contrast, if that play style were supported by a god, you have the choice to take it or leave it, which avoids balance issues in main game, and means that you can have a specifically "sniper (stealth archer)" style with a different set of costs and benefits, without that interfering with everyone else who uses ranged attacks. Ranged combat is already very strong, albeit not always very exciting and, at least to some people's taste, rather fiddly and unfun to use as your primary mode of engagement. Making it more niche by having a strong, special interaction with stealth seems like it would detract a lot more than it would add, and at the end of the day would only serve to add a different stabbling-like component to the game (actually decreasing, rather than increasing, diversity).
A different take: A special type of thrown weapon that, similar to (but less intense than) stabbing, dealt good damage to enemies based on their asleep/dormant/confused/disabled etc. status, based on your throwing and stealth skills. That seems thematic and supportive of current styles, potentially interesting (more incentives to train throwing skill which is currently undervalued for most), but without messing with other ways to use ranged combat. (Or a combination with above: A god who adds damage to all non-stone thrown weapons based on how disabled/unaware enemies are. Darts and tomahawks are suddenly useful throughout game.)