Trunk Updates 16 February 2021

As you read the scroll of trunk update it crumbles to dust…

Hello crawlers and welcome to the first trunk updates post of the 0.27 cycle. Things have commenced with a shebang! and there are a lot of new changes to report on. This update will have some thematic organisation to highlight several big sets of changes: curse removal, stat changes, monster spellbooks, adjusted demonspawn facets, and two new spells. There are of course all sorts of tweaks, shifts, changes, and new spells. Read on for more!

Curse Removal

The system of cursed items is no-more, courtesy of PleasingFungus who finally found the collective remove curse scroll and read it for all of us. Practically, this means the following:

• All items that generate are uncursed
• No mundane negative-plus items generate on the floor (though some special shops still place them)
• Scrolls of remove curse, rings of attention and teleportation, and amulets of innacuracy are removed.
• Ashenzari is the only source of curses. In current trunk, Ash uses identify scrolls instead; however this is a place-holder and a larger revision to Ashenzari is currently in-progress but not yet in trunk.
• The Scythe of Curses and Obsidian axe now have *Drain instead of *Curse; the necklace of Bloodlust no longer has a swap penalty.

Stat changes

Several tweaks to the stat system (including the impact of weapon stats) have arrived, to simplify the impact of base stats and remove hidden breakpoints and step-downs. Thanks to hellmonk and chequers for the submissions! Along with these changes are some adjustments to species stats.

• Dexterity and evasion no longer have hidden step-downs
• The percentage damage modifier for strength on weapon damage is derandomzied and simplified. 10 strength corresponds to 100% damage, and each point of strength above adds 2.5 percentage points to the modifier (points below 10 remove 2.5 percentage points).
• Demigod base stats are reduced to 9/10/9, and now gain 4 points of the stat of their choice every 3 levels. This will give players almost divine control over their stats.
• Gnolls base stats are reduced to 7/7/7.
• Spriggans lose one point of base dexterity and have their Dodging apt reduced to +3.

Monster Spellbooks

Monsters with multiple distinct spell books have had their spell sets combined into single sets. For a couple of monsters with multiple iconic sets, new monsters have been created to carry the torch. The full set of changes can be perused in the pull request, here are some of the highlights:

• Psyche has a new, more insane, spell set. She can cast Polymorph, Chain of Chaos (hi Xom!), Invisibility, and Cantrip.
• The named lords of the hells and pandemonium who summon demons now summon demons specific to their realm: Cerebov only summons fiery demons now, Ereshkigal only tzitzimimeh, and Dispater only hell sentinels.
• New monster: Dread Lich. Ancient liches now have an earth-conjurations spell book with LCS and Corrosive Bolt, but lich summoned demons are a classic. Enter the Dread Lich, with Summon Greater Demon, Paralyse, Invisibility, and Haste; appearing in the same places as ancient liches.
• Deep elf mages are removed, replaced with deep elf pyromancers (who have a fire-themed spell book) and deep elf zephyrmancers (with an air-themed spell book).

Adjusted Demonspawn Facets

Thanks to hellmonk for continued demonspawn improvement work! This latest round of mutation changes focused on the tier 2 facets, with the following adjustments and a new spellcasting-focused facet (combine with Big Brain “scales” for a truly demonic mage experience!).

• The mana link facet is re-ordered. The first rank increases MP Regen, the second rank provides guardian spirit, and the third the mana link.
• Foul stench generates miasma at every rank of the facet (scaling with rank) as well as miasma cloud immunity.
• The damage curve of spines is adjusted to be a bit better at high level.
• Ignite blood now ignites blood at every rank of the facet, with power scaling on rank.
• Demonic guardians are summoned when the player takes damage, and the tier of the guardian grows with level.
• The icemail facet shifts from pure AC to AC+SH; at rank 1 it grants a condensation shield for 4SH, with ranks 2 and 3 granting 4 AC of icy armour each.
• A new facet: malignant magic. Demonspawn with this facet attempt to paralyse foes in a radius equal to the rank of the facet whenever they cast a spell; at rank 3 this extends to include wand usage. The power of the paralysis depends on the level of the spell cast.

New Spells

PleasingFungus has developed two new spells aimed at generating new incentives to hybridise.

• Animate Armour. Level 4 Summoning/Earth magic. “Call forth the spirit of your armour, bringing forth a slow-moving ally that hits harder the heavier your armour is. Wham, pow! (Summon limit is 1, as with CCF.)”. Animate Armour appears in the book of Earth and the book of Dreams.
• Manifold Assault. Level 4 Translocations. Manifold Assault launches attacks with your melee weapon against 2-4 random enemies in LOS, depending on spellpower. Manifold Assault replaces Passage of Golubria in the book of Spatial Translocations, and appears in the book of the Warp (along with Passage of Golubria).

The rest of the changes

This has been an active month for trunk, and there is a lot more going on. Read on for the rest!

• Storm clouds no longer make noise; making Qazlal worship quieter at low piety.
• Regeneration is buffed; one pip of regen grants 1 HP per 10 auts (a normal turn). This is 2.5x as strong as it was before.
• Trolls and Vine Stalkers are adjusted slightly to compensate.
• Monsters with ranged weapons now have unlimited ammo. No more running that stone giant out of large rocks. (Except nets; infininetting gnolls are reserved for gnollcrawl.)
• Phantoms have less HP, and now blink the player with them when they blink from attacking.
• Big Kobolds are re-named Kobold Brigands and always spawn with darts (one third of the time curare, yikes!). Normal kobolds can no longer spawn with curare (though they can still pick it up from the ground, if you’re very unlucky!).
• Ranged targeting shows to-hit chance, and a monster’s to-hit chance can be seen in xv.
• Haunt moves from the Necronomicon to the Grand Grimoire
• Scarves of shadows no longer act as a spell de-enhancer
• Wands of disintegrate are now called wands of mindburst, and do not work on mindless creatures.
• Manuals no longer require an inventory slot; once picked up they boost skill aptitude until used up.
• Hats and Gloves can spawn with the stealth ego.
• Wands of random effects are de-spoiled, applying a random buff or debuff to the target (15% chance of a buff), with the list of effects visible in the description.
• Ozocubu’s armour and Frozen Ramparts now break on any player position change.
• Ozocubu’s Refridgeration is now level 7.
• Stone arrow damage is increased.
• Monstrous Menagerie no longer summons harpies.
• Summon Demon and Summon Greater Demon are removed as player spells.
• Gadget shops are removed.
• Rings of Stealth and Boots of Running are removed.

That’s all for right now! In addition to the Ashenzari changes, on the horizon are more demonspawn changes, refreshes of Vaults and Snake, and new vaults from returned vaultsmith nicolae—plus who knows what other twisted horrors we can dig out of the abyss. Until next time, happy crawling!