Potion/scroll generation and identification
- Vulnerability, acquirement, summoning, silence, brand weapon, torment, holy word, poison, and berserk rage don't generate if the item level is low enough, meaning they don't generate at all on certain early dungeon levels. If you found a scroll on D:1 and it's not in a certain vault, you can eliminate 1/3 of the possibilities and should inscribe it. Same for potions, but you only eliminate one or two.
According to a comment, berserk rage is "too dangerous on monsters early on". Then why are monsters allowed to use it in the first place????
Potions of poison are presumably excluded since they can kill you, but they already generate on D:2 and they can kill you just as well there. Seems unnecessary.
None of these scrolls are dangerous except for summoning when used by monsters. Again, if it's too dangerous, why do monsters use it at all?
- Brand weapon, acquirement, torment, holy word, silence, beneficial mutation, and experience are not allowed to generate in stacks. So if you find a scroll or potion in a stack you can eliminate several of the possiblities and should inscribe it. What makes preventing stacks better than reducing their weight by 9.434% (scrolls) or 8.722% (potions)? Is the slightly decreased variance really that important?
- Monsters will never have certain scrolls or potions in their inventory. So if a monster drops a scroll or potion, you can eliminate several of the possibilities and should inscribe it.
- Various portal vault vaults have special lists of scrolls or potions, so when you find a consumable in a sewer, ossuary, bailey, volcano, ice cave, etc., you should inscribe it and note which vault.
This is all spoilery knowledge that gives a noticeable advantage when taken together.
I do not think it would throw off balance in any significant way to:
- remove depth restrictions on scrolls and potions
- make unstackable scrolls and potions stackable, but decrease their weight by 9.434% (scrolls) and 8.722% (potions) so that the same average number of each is generated; you could replace the lost weight with no item at all to keep other item quantities the same as well
- make vaults use either "any" or pre-identify the item
- identify consumables dropped by monsters, or remove monster consumable usage
It would, however, unbreak a seriously broken part of identification.
I know monster consumable usage is popular for the flavour, but if you want to keep it then the only way leaving the items unidentified can work is if all the consumables are picked up and they generate in inventories with the same weights as they do on the ground.