About dragons and potiona (was Re: [CF-Devel] Improved invisibility ... isn't)

Sun Jan 25 13:24:59 CST 2004

On Sunday 25 January 2004 01:37 am
Mark Wedel wrote:

>

      ERACC wrote:

     >

      >>Cyclops are tough monsters.  They have 50% resistance to every

     >

      >>dragon attack type (and 100% resistance in one instance) unless

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      >> the dragon has an attack type granted through their god.

     [...]
>

      > Maybe I should wait to see how my dragon char does at much higher

     >

      > physical levels. Maybe I've never gotten a dragon's phys high

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      > enough to be effective against Cyclops without lots of help.

     >

     >

        Note that not all races/classes are necessarily balanced with

     >

      respect to each other.  I believe dragons are at some of a

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      disadvantage in that they can't use weapons.  The 'advantage' of

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      that is they can now 'safely' choose a good that also prohibits

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      weapons/armors.  But given that weapons are generally the most

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      powerful items in the game, and give ways to get new attacktypes

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      and other bonuses, not being able to use weapons is probably a bit

     >

      of a disadvantage.

Not having weapons is not a great disadvantage if it is balanced out
by the race's natural and learnable abilities. Plus playing some
classes gives other benefits that can help balance across race. IMO
dragon race is one of the most satisfying to do well with.

>

        OTOH, with the 'new' (newer than the original dragon code I

     >

      believe) body code, something like dragon claws could be added as a

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      body location, and the dragon guild shop perhaps sell claw

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      coverings that give additional abilities. That could swing things

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      in a different direction.

I mentioned something along this line on IRC. A bite attack. Instead
of making the claws poisoned make the bite attack poisoned and give
another goal of paralyzing bite. In my mind a dragon, being basically
a big lizard with teeth, would claw *and* bite during melee. The bite
attack, with those powerful dragon jaw muscles, would do more damage
than clawing but would be slower and come less often during melee.
Bite would be combined with the claw attack and a successful bite
attack that results in "You bite a chunk from the ..." would also
offset hunger by a tiny amount during melee. The idea of a paralyzing
bite comes from snakes that bite their prey and paralyze it.

Biting a poisonous critter would of course be bad. :-) Critters that
are immune to poison but not paralyzation would be affected only by
paralyzation and vice versa.

To make getting paralyzing a challenge require that the dragon
character have at least three of the other dragon subclasses
completed before it can work on paralyzing bite. For example the
dragon char would have to have all possible advances for fire, poison
and cold or for cold, poison and lightning before it could work on
paralyze. Maybe also give dragon characters a natural 50% resistance
to paralyzation as the final goal for paralyzing bite.

No, I can't code this, I'm too green, but it sounds good to me. :-P
If this sounds insipid feel free to say so.

[...]
>

        It'd probably be nice to fill in the msg strings of a bunch of

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      these objects to actually describe what they do, eg, if the object

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      is identified, you can know if it gives 90% or 95% or whatever

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      protection without trying to remember what it is.

I like that idea.

>

        Also, should probably be a shop with near unlimited supplies of

     >

      these potions. One of the past laments is that players have too

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      much money - one reason is they have nothing to spend it on. 

     >

      Perhaps if there were piles of these potions available for

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      purchase, players would end up buying them and using up at least

     >

      some of that money.

Another excellent idea you have there. How about a "magical potion
vending machine" that dispenses fire, cold and invulnerable potions
on demand but costs more than finding them in a magic shop? Say at
double the normal price based on ignoring Ch level. Charisma would
not affect a vending machine. Perhaps this could be one of the blue
icons (sorry, don't know the name) like one uses to buy diamonds,
pearls, etc. in the shop entrances. Ok, this sounds silly but I
believe it gets the general idea across. :-D

Gene (aka eracc, aka poof)
-- 
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