Spellbooks

Ideas for cool stuff in the future.
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Unmouseable
Posts: 53
Joined: Sun Aug 17, 2014 3:21 am

Spellbooks

Post by Unmouseable »

Hello, i have been playing a bit of IDDC again, and well i am having a lot of fun i am finding the fragile books in Tomenet to be a little off putting.


I think the big difference here is in vanilla Angband dungeon spellbooks (the high books [Ethereal Openings] etc.) are immune to elemental damage and i believe they changed them, so they are now considered artifacts. They cannot be destroyed or stolen from you.

I really enjoy the option of making your own books in Tomenet Codices, and Grimoires are really cool. They give you the option of customizing your caster, also the new spell levels are a rally great improvement as well.

The big drawback is your books can and will eventually destroyed, unless you have a resistance spell up 100% of the time, and are a pure caster, this is a real pain and not very practical or even possible until late game. Not to mention having to cast a spell every time you detect a Giant slug is kind of a little annoying :)

With Vanilla the spells in spellbooks are set, but you get a lot of spells in each one for example the first spellbook


Magic for Beginners
Name Mage Rogue Ranger Description
Lv Mana Lv Mana Lv Mana
Magic Missile 1 1 N/A N/A Fires a single magic bolt, which has a chance to beam. It's the most efficient in damage per mana at the lower levels.
Detect Monsters 1 1 Detects monsters within the screen for one turn.
Phase Door 1 2 Teleports up to 10 squares away. Not effective when inside a room.
Light Area 1 2 Illuminates a room.
Detect Treasure N/A N/A N/A N/A
Cure Light Wounds 3 3 Cures 2d8 damage and some cuts.
Detect Objects N/A N/A N/A N/A
Find Hidden Traps/Doors 3 3 Detects traps and doors on the screen; essential for survival.
Stinking Cloud 3 3 Shoots a poison ball. Inflicts only light damage.

granted you eventually stop using a lot of the spells in these books, but they are able to stack. So carrying 2-4 copies of each book is usually a safe bet until you find the dungeon version of it , something that the customizable books in Tomenet cannot do, codices and grimoires do not stack, you carefully build a custom set of spells only to have your book go poof with an unlucky attack.

The real time action in Tomenet makes the chance of getting your spellbooks destroyed way more likely than if you played turn based. I have played and won Ironman Vanilla with every class but ranger so far, and can attest to that.

Now you can buy Fireproof Codex from the bookstore but this does not help when you get surprised by an acid vortex or pack of hounds.

Now some of the spellbooks are immune to Acid and Fire but not all of them. Having all the Dungeon found books immune to the elements would be a nice start, having codices, and Grimoires able to have immune element would make playing as a caster or hybrid a lot more fun i think. Especially for casters or hybrids that have no access to resist spells, Rogues, Druids, and Mindcrafters (Mindcrafters High Spell Crystals are Immune to Elements, but before getting them no resist spell)

Maybe an option at the bookstore to upgrade your books to resist the elements? One of the most fun things of playing a caster in my opinion is they have so much utility, instead of having to carry around big stacks of rods, wands, scrolls, digging implements, potions. They just need a spellbook, this kind of loses its lustre, when you need to carry around multiple copies of all your spells.

Now for some fun ideas instead of practical ones :)

What about having ego or randart Codex, Spellbooks, and Grimoires? I was thinking this would be lots of fun and not too crazy.
These books would be immune to the elements and have a chance to have extra properties such as-
-Chance to do extra damage
-chance to cast twice
-chance to cast a random buff
-Activate for spells
-spells you inscribe in this book cast at a higher level
-spells you inscribe in this book cost less mana
-spells you inscribe in this book have less failure rate

Just a few ideas, thanks for your time.
mikaelh
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Re: Spellbooks

Post by mikaelh »

Unmouseable wrote: granted you eventually stop using a lot of the spells in these books, but they are able to stack. So carrying 2-4 copies of each book is usually a safe bet until you find the dungeon version of it , something that the customizable books in Tomenet cannot do, codices and grimoires do not stack, you carefully build a custom set of spells only to have your book go poof with an unlucky attack.
Codices and grimoires do stack in TomeNET but they must contain the same spells in the same exact order. So that's the actual limitation.
Unmouseable
Posts: 53
Joined: Sun Aug 17, 2014 3:21 am

Re: Spellbooks

Post by Unmouseable »

Wow, thank you very much! I have leveled a couple of Shamans and a caster Rogue to 50, as well as an Istar to 47, and had no idea that was an option :)
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tangar
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Re: Spellbooks

Post by tangar »

Didn't know it either. Interesting :)
Tangar's tileset, addon, guides & maps: English TomeNET page ||||||| Russian TomeNet page
http://youtube.com/GameGlaz — streams in English // http://youtube.com/StreamGuild — streams in Russian
My chars @ angband.oook.cz
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PowerWyrm
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Re: Spellbooks

Post by PowerWyrm »

At this moment, you have a completely pointless "Waterproof" mod for books, since all books are now waterproof. It would be nice to change that to "Acidproof", so you have two mods for the elements that can destroy books (fire and acid). Of course this doesn't prevent books from being destroyed (acidproof by fire and fireproof by acid). Maybe add an "indestructible" mod that's much rarer than the other two and much more expensive in shops.
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tangar
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Re: Spellbooks

Post by tangar »

To tell the truth, its quite uneasy to have loads of book in inventory. At I have to take with me:

a) a Tome of Arcane Lore {+,21} {!*} 3.0 lb
b) a Fireproof Codex {+,3} {!*} 2.0 lb
c) a Fireproof Codex {+,3} {!*} 2.0 lb
d) a Fireproof Codex {+,3} 2.0 lb

All books are full with spells atm.

4 slots only for books. And if my tome would burn (it would happen very soon imho :lol: ), I need TWO more fireproof codexes. So it would be 5 slots for books. Mad %)

I can't use normal speellbooks - you can't buy fireproof versions of them (or they cost unreal amount of gold).

So beign magical user is very expensive and.. this fuss with filling books everytime when they burn - really annoys. The only way to have huge amount of fireproof codexes as they are not too rare.. But I do not have any empty space that way.

The gulf between magical users and physical fighters (including archer) in area of usability and friendly-UI is too much atm. May this situation could be changed somehow? Make fireproof spellbookes/grimoires a bit less rare may be?
Tangar's tileset, addon, guides & maps: English TomeNET page ||||||| Russian TomeNet page
http://youtube.com/GameGlaz — streams in English // http://youtube.com/StreamGuild — streams in Russian
My chars @ angband.oook.cz
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PowerWyrm
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Re: Spellbooks

Post by PowerWyrm »

I feel that a spellcaster having to rely on 5-6 books is not a big deal. If you compare with a melee fighter who has to carry scrolls of phase door/teleportation/magic mapping, rods of detection/illumination, something to satisfy hunger and so on, it's not that bad.
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tangar
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Re: Spellbooks

Post by tangar »

I have all this with me also. A lot of potions, scrolls, rods...

My minimum inventory as dru:
a) a Tome of Arcane Lore {+,21} {!*} 3.0 lb
b) a Fireproof Codex {+,3} {!*} 2.0 lb
c) a Fireproof Codex {+,3} {!*} 2.0 lb
d) a Fireproof Codex {+,3} 2.0 lb
e) 5 Red Speckled Potions of Restore Mana {+,17} {@S2900} 2.0 lb
f) 12 Coagulated Crimson Potions of Speed {+,2} {@S700} 4.8 lb
g) 16 Chartreuse Potions of Cure Critical Wounds {+,1} {90% off} 6.4 lb
h) 14 Copper Speckled Potions of Healing {+,16} {@S1400} 5.6 lb
i) 6 Clotted Red Potions of Resistance {+,6} {stolen} 2.4 lb
j) 19 Scrolls "an ornab mebul" of Phase Door {+,1} {75% off} 9.5 lb
k) 12 Scrolls "bucon reafid" of Teleportation {+,3} {stolen} 6.0 lb
l) 10 Scrolls "fuerk whonsef" of Word of Recall {+,1} {@R} 5.0 lb
m) 11 Scrolls "forkli auser" of Identify {+,1} {!X} 5.5 lb
n) 38 Scrolls "xuxumon wergit" of Magic Mapping {+,1} {@r1} 19.0 lb
o) an Adamantite Rod of Illumination of the Istari {+,22} {100% off} 1.5 lb
p) a Zirconium Rod of Disarming of the Istari {+,25} {100% off} 1.5 lb
q) a Zinc Rod of Trap Location of the Istari {+,13} 1.5 lb
r) a Ruby Amulet of Teleportation {+,3} {!*@x0} 0.3 lb
Tangar's tileset, addon, guides & maps: English TomeNET page ||||||| Russian TomeNet page
http://youtube.com/GameGlaz — streams in English // http://youtube.com/StreamGuild — streams in Russian
My chars @ angband.oook.cz
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