Newsgroups: rec.games.moria
Date: Thu,  7 Jan 1993 11:58:46 -0500 
From: "Joseph E. Beck" <jb8n+@andrew.cmu.edu>
Subject: Re: As long as we're taking suggestions...
	<1ifnalINNc0@gap.caltech.edu>
Distribution: world


ljones@cithe501.cithep.caltech.edu (Lawrence Jones) writes:
> In article <1ifgcvINNauk@shelley.u.washington.edu>, varin@hardy.u.washington.e\
> du (Byron Varin) writes:
>  
> |> I don't see how making the weapons break would even out the classes at all.
> |> Warriors use weapons in hand-to-hand combat throughout all of their existan\
> ce.
> 
> Please read the original article
I read the original article and agree fully with the above poster.
This mod weakens warriors.

> - the chance of your weapon breaking is
> lower if you are a warrior, higher if you're a mage. 
Ok, now who uses the weapon more?  Who *needs* the weapon more?  If a
mages +6 +6 Claymore breaks he simply shrugs and wanders around
identifying weapons until he finds something else and is stuck using
his spells (what a hose!) until he finds a new weapons.  The warrior
is stuck with...nothing.  And since the warrior is using his weapon
*much* more often than the mage, he'll probably lose it (I can't be
sure, you didn't post any exact probabilities).  

> If you're a mage you 
> should have your spells to fall back on,
"Fall back on"?  They're usually my first line of defense. 

> if you're a warrior well it's
> very bad luck but such things happen - warriors might take to
> carrying several weapons 
Definitely.  The warrior class was far too powerful.  It's definitely
advisable to make them carry serveral weapons that take up inventory
slots.  Wouldn't want them carrying those nasty wands on staves.

> and as I mentioned in the last post you would probably have to increase
> the probabilty for finding a weapon globally for all classes.
This makes spellcasters *more* powerful now.  If DF's are more common
mages and priests are in heaven.  A DF should *never* break except due
to a typo.

> I was envisaging a scenario in which the probability for breakage was very
> low for warriors (say, you might expect your weapon to break every hundred 
> million or so turns) whereas it was quite high for mages (say 
> every million) with enchanted weapons having lower probabilities.  
Come on, go all out.  How about  a 0% chance of warriors and rogues
breaking their weapons, and keep the chance of finding weapons the
same.  This (unlike the original proposal) actually makes non spell
casters a bit tougher, and weakens priests and mages a little bit.

> I originally thought of the idea as comparable to when a mage tries to 
> recharge a wand and instead the wand disappears; the consequences 
> are a bit more dire (especially if you happen to
> be fighting an AMHD at the time) but that's the fun.
You don't usually recharge wands in combat, you do use sword in
combat.  Recharging an item is one of the several cool powers mages
get, swinging a weapon well is about the only warrior power.  Spell
casters are tougher than non spell casters and IMO this mod makes
spell casters even tougher.  Sorry, I don't see the parallel you're
trying to make.

> I'm playing a level
> 36 ranger at the moment and although I have a lot of spells I would
> certainly miss it if my weapon broke. I regard rangers as closer to mages
> than warriors hence my chance of my weapon breaking would be relatively
> high. 
But consider the effects this would have on a high level mage/priest.
None (if they have a DF).  Moderate if they have an HA.  The warrior
almost *has* to swing his weapon to fight, mages and priests have
other options.  
 
> However, I've never played a mage so I don't know if they, in general,
> engage in hand-to-hand combat at all at higher levels. If high level mages
> expect to kill every creature they meet with spells and never use their
> weapon at all then you're right - it would just penalize warriors.
Mages can do this for most things except *MHD's (probably a few others
too).  But mages have a superior arsenal of wands than warrior (with
ID and recharge).  I think if the chance of weapons appearing was kept
constant, and warriors and rogues had a 0% of weapons breaking, this
would be a good mod.

	joe

Newsgroups: rec.games.moria