Scythe thing


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Lair Larrikin

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Post Thursday, 9th November 2017, 19:26

Scythe thing

Can scythes be a long range stabbing weapon that requires massive skill investment? or is it too unbalanced/edgy/something?
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Zot Zealot

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Post Thursday, 9th November 2017, 23:03

Re: Scythe thing

Sounds too complicated, unless it became an unrand-only weapon type.
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Tartarus Sorceror

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Post Friday, 10th November 2017, 05:44

Re: Scythe thing

I dunno if it's too complicated but I don't think it would solve scythes being bad

Ziggurat Zagger

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Post Friday, 10th November 2017, 06:40

Re: Scythe thing

Well, ranged stabbing is ridiculously powerful (Particularly if you can get it by training a skill that also gets you better at using actually good weapons), but having scythes suck less isn't really much of a priority afaict.
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Crypt Cleanser

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Post Thursday, 23rd November 2017, 12:43

Re: Scythe thing

Evoke reach with partial cleaving in the three tiles forward (example, evoked to the right). That's what you do when you reap.

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Spider Stomper

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Post Thursday, 23rd November 2017, 14:00

Re: Scythe thing

Just remove scythes already. Give Sigmund a halberd.

bel

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Post Thursday, 23rd November 2017, 14:04

Re: Scythe thing

Off-topic, but scythes seem to mainly about flavor, so they can probably be removed if one simultaneously gives the relevant monsters reaching. Probably someone has proposed this already; if so, add my voice to that chorus.
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Tartarus Sorceror

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Post Thursday, 23rd November 2017, 16:56

Re: Scythe thing

I also am for removal/substitution. Otherwise, among the weird effects, there could be disarming.
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Crypt Cleanser

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Post Friday, 24th November 2017, 04:23

Re: Scythe thing

bel wrote:scythes seem to mainly about flavor, so they can probably be removed if one simultaneously gives the relevant monsters reaching.

But flavor cannot be entirely ignored here. Do you really want to have the (grim) reapers running around with halberds? They will go on strike!
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Post Friday, 24th November 2017, 22:14

Re: Scythe thing

Keep scythes but give them halberd stats.

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Halls Hopper

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Post Friday, 24th November 2017, 22:57

Re: Scythe thing

chequers wrote:Sounds too complicated, unless it became an unrand-only weapon type.

One-handed polearms already have a stab multiplier.
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Zot Zealot

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Post Saturday, 25th November 2017, 00:36

Re: Scythe thing

Hellcrawl got around the problem of "what about Sigmund and reaper flavour" by giving those monsters base damage bonus equal to scythe and an innate reaching attack. So it looks like they have a scythe but they will never drop it.
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Tartarus Sorceror

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Post Saturday, 25th November 2017, 01:06

Re: Scythe thing

Lavandula wrote:
chequers wrote:Sounds too complicated, unless it became an unrand-only weapon type.

One-handed polearms already have a stab multiplier.
I thought all stab multipliers besides a shared one for all short blades were removed.

bel

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Post Saturday, 25th November 2017, 04:55

Re: Scythe thing

Majang wrote:
bel wrote:scythes seem to mainly about flavor, so they can probably be removed if one simultaneously gives the relevant monsters reaching.

But flavor cannot be entirely ignored here. Do you really want to have the (grim) reapers running around with halberds? They will go on strike!

I did not say anything about halberds. I was essentially talking about the solution outlined above by chequers.

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Crypt Cleanser

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Post Saturday, 25th November 2017, 05:52

Re: Scythe thing

bel wrote:I did not say anything about halberds.

Not you, but crawlnoob did.
Maɟaŋ

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Post Saturday, 25th November 2017, 09:37

Re: Scythe thing

Get rid of grim reapers.
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Crypt Cleanser

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Post Saturday, 25th November 2017, 12:39

Re: Scythe thing

crawlnoob wrote:Get rid of grim reapers.

You're challenging fate here, man!
Maɟaŋ

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Post Sunday, 26th November 2017, 10:08

Re: Scythe thing

Executioners are the only demons with scythes that are somewhat original, and they dont even technically have scythes. Why do we have grim reapers (and plural at that)? Why not an army of headless horsemen or a demonically possessed santa's workshop? For that matter, can we get pizza back in the game? Oh!, how about a new unique : the Ghost of Charles Dickens! He regails you with impossibly long and convoluted sentences that hang heavy with the depressing pall of an 18th century East London orphanage...

Get rid of scythes, they are uninteresting at best and a constant newbie trap at worst, and they simply do not fit well into the main weapons categories as they have been developing. Reflavor scythe-themed monsters when possible, otherwise just remove or replace them.

Temple Termagant

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Post Monday, 27th November 2017, 00:40

Re: Scythe thing

could just give them cleave.

ranged cleave would be cool.
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Barkeep

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Post Monday, 27th November 2017, 15:51

Re: Scythe thing

Assuming scythes should remain in the game, is there an important reason for them to be bad weapons?
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Tartarus Sorceror

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Post Monday, 27th November 2017, 18:11

Re: Scythe thing

"It would be too good if you could get an endgame quality weapon from Sigmund"

Ziggurat Zagger

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Post Monday, 27th November 2017, 19:02

Re: Scythe thing

njvack wrote:Assuming scythes should remain in the game, is there an important reason for them to be bad weapons?

If they weren't bad, people would be tempted to use them? :)
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Barkeep

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Post Monday, 27th November 2017, 19:03

Re: Scythe thing

There's a lot of room between "endgame quality weapon" and "unambiguously bad weapon base type, except you won't realize that unless you really understand crawl's weapon mechanics, also it is very rare but drops from a notoriously dangerous unique so the game is hinting it's probably pretty good."

I don't understand Crawl's weapon mechanics well enough to *really* propose new numbers, but "better than a halberd but worse than a glaive" seems like a non-broken niche they could occupy while also making them not a "loooool ur using a scythe" weapon.
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Majang, nago

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Post Tuesday, 28th November 2017, 11:26

Re: Scythe thing

ten foot pole spear trident halberd scythe red-hot iron demon trident glaive bardiche pitbull-on-a-stick balderdash thingymcchopper


...clearly we need more polearms.

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Crypt Cleanser

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Post Tuesday, 28th November 2017, 13:34

Re: Scythe thing

crawlnoob wrote:...clearly we need more polearms.

This isn't about more polearms, but about re-designing existing polearms. There are at least as many maces/flails or long blades.
Maɟaŋ

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Post Wednesday, 29th November 2017, 08:21

Re: Scythe thing

The point is that there are too many weapons to make meaningful differentiation possible without resorting to absurd measures. Long blades and m&f have the same problem. It just ends up further confusing new players as to the age old and almost completely impossible to answer question : is weapon X better than weapon Y?

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Barkeep

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Post Wednesday, 29th November 2017, 19:17

Re: Scythe thing

Yeah, there are definitely too many weapons (probably too many weapon classes), which is a thing to talk about in another thread (say, the past threads that have already talked about this at some length). This thread is more "hey there is one particular weapon type that stands out for being very rare and (nonobviously) very bad, probably that is a bad niche for a weapon type to fill."

IMO, it'd be fine if Sigmund had a halberd and reapers had unarmed reaching — I mean, even Yiuf lost his hammers and demons already have a bunch of melee gimmicks. It'd also be fine if scythes were decent weapons. But the status quo is kind of weird.
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Tartarus Sorceror

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Post Wednesday, 29th November 2017, 19:43

Re: Scythe thing

Reapers also have a chance for brand, though. Maybe they should just get a halberd with comparable enchantments.
The thing with Sigmund is that, while an early unique cannot drop too good a weapon, he is very likely to appear after a halberd armed gnoll anyway, or about at the same depth. Sigmund should just get a halberd, too.
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Ziggurat Zagger

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Post Wednesday, 29th November 2017, 20:26

Re: Scythe thing

njvack wrote:Yeah, there are definitely too many weapons (probably too many weapon classes), which is a thing to talk about in another thread (say, the past threads that have already talked about this at some length). This thread is more "hey there is one particular weapon type that stands out for being very rare and (nonobviously) very bad, probably that is a bad niche for a weapon type to fill."
Other weapons are directly relevant to this topic. You yourself brought up halberds and glaives. If the only polearms in the game were spears and scythes, removing scythes would be a very different proposal.

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