Currently -Cast and -Tele properties on randarts are very “no-brainy”. You use items with -Cast only if you don’t cast spells, and with -Tele only if you’re a Formicid (there are a couple of very niche -Tele uses that can be ignored here, I think).
Proposal:
Change -Cast and -Tele for randarts into *Cast and *Tele, to give player a more meaningful choice when evaluating a strong randart with a non-trivial downside a-la *Slow and *Corrode.
*Cast: makes your minimal spell failure rate for all spells be at least 10% (stacks additively from multiple sources). Blaster casters would probably be wary about wearing something like this, but summoners and hybrids very well might sack some casting consistency for good resistances or stats. (Alternative version: *Cast makes all your miscasts one “tier” worse, gray → white → yellow → red → purple).
*Tele: adds 1-3 turns to your teleportation delay (stacks additively) and makes your blinks semi-controlled (similar to barachi hop). Again, downside is pretty harsh, but is actually worth considering if other stuff on a randart is strong enough, unlike -Tele.
I agree about -cast, but not -tele. It’s completely manageable in most of a 3 rune game for most builds, and can save valuable ?blink for Zot and the orb run.
I don’t care for 10% minimum… If I’m a summoner it’s not worth risking all my minions being abjured. It would synergize well with orb of energy though for blaster casters. Maybe a chance for a minor (2-4 turn) sap effect instead?
I do like your proposal for *Tele, but to clarify you’re saying ?blink become semi-controlled. Maybe the -blink status lasts longer too. Could also extend out to some of the stuff -Tele traditionally misses that can be used to work around it.
I agree about -cast, but not -tele. It’s completely manageable in most of a 3 rune game for most builds, and can save valuable ?blink for Zot and the orb run.
Hmm, I don’t think that it’s possible currently for a game to generate a -Tele randart, that I’d consider using, even if all I have is a single teleportation scroll, and you don’t need -Tele to be thrifty with your blinks.
I agree that you can win a game without using tp and blink scrolls, I just don’t think that it’s ever worth it to willingly give up the ability to use 'em. For some of the scariest situations, that can kill even the most prepared and careful player, the only clean way out is blink.
I do like your proposal for *Tele, but to clarify you’re saying ?blink become semi-controlled.
Yeah, I meant blink scrolls, not blink spell or evocable blinks. I don’t think it’s a good idea to make an item property that has a special interaction with a specific spell, seems a bit too spoilery.
I agree that -Cast should be changed in some way. *Cast that applies -Cast status (which already exists) with chances simillar to *Slow seems the best to me. In cases where it really matters the player can use !cancelation to get rid of it, otherwise they can do something else. Casters usually don’t take much damage so it won’t trigget that often, I think I had a run with The Robe of Misfortune where it never triggered in a relevant scenario, mostly because I was blasting things long before they could hit me. If straight up -Cast is too harsh for some reason, it could be *Sap instead, so the player gets to cast one more spell.
As far as -Tele goes, I think it’s good still. I don’t know how randart generation works, maybe if items with -Tele tended to be a bit better it would be fine. But there are plenty of non Fo chars that can make use of -Tele without worry (like Ru, Zin, Yred char for example).
I’m quite surprised you stand up for -Tele (although you are probably the biggest Harm enjoyer in the community :p, so maybe not that surprised). The few times I’ve seen -Tele used was to safe-proof Zot:5 from random teleports… Maybe I’m too harsh on it, but still, there’s no amount of stats that can realistically be more appealing to me than having access to teleports and blinks.
Sap chance might be a good fit for *Cast, will make it easier to display the info about it as well. I almost never encounter Sap in my runs, cause no-extended conduct.
brawl has scarfs of Stasis, which are genuinely useful. Often not worth keeping around, but stasis can be good in Zot and Tomb. It prevents slowing and paralysis, which means you’re more in control of your ability to escape too. It can also get you killed.
Which is to say, there’s even more options to consider for *Tele
I do agree with your points about the current -Tele and -Cast.
