[crossfire] The problem with Valkyrie

[Robert Brockway]

Hi all.  Let me start with a story.

Throth is a troll barbarian.  He had humble beginnings.  He was illiterate 
and had learning difficulties.  All he knew how to do was hit things real 
hard.  As time went on Throth became smarter and wiser.  Eventually he 
learnt to read.  As one would expect this opened up a world of new 
opportunities.

Throth dabbled in various cults, following Gnarg and Ruggilli for a while, 
before eventually committing himself wholly to Valkyrie, blessed lady of 
hitting stuff really hard.

Throth became wealthy and experienced with many battles under his belt.

There was a problem though.  Throth had found a powerful rod that banished 
Valkyries enemies.  When his first was destroyed he sought another. 
Eventually he held two rods, each more powerful than the original. And 
with them he could smite the enemies of his goddess, righteously.

The problem though was that almost all of Throth's experience is now in 
use magic item.  He's actually not that good with a sword.  He's 96th 
level overall, 95th level in use magic item and and 33rd in one handed 
weapon, his highest melee skill level.  It's also fair to say that this is 
really not in keeping with the style of Valkyrie that was probably 
intended, but given the wide range of enemies available it is almost 
inevitable.

This has bothered me for a while so I've changed Valkyrie on my server. 
I've allowed followers of Valkyrie the Turning path only.  I intend to 
block their access to rods, staves and wands but that isn't working right 
now.  I've set can_use_range 0 in the Object Valkyrie archtype but it 
isn't getting inherited when a test character converts to Valkyrie as I 
thought it would.  I am a few months behind head on SVN so will update and 
retest.

Anyway the main point I want to make is that I think this will make 
Valkyrie more interesting and playable and should broadly gel with the 
idea of the goddess.  And this would leave Throth high in praying which 
seems better for a follower of Valkyrie than use magic item.

Naturally magic weapons, armour, rings and amulets are still allowed. 
Valkyrie isn't crazy.

I am planning a few other changes and will be opening up my server soon so 
people can try them.

Rob