Ohhhh I didn't realized disease immunity even existed anymore...

Also I never look at the messages when eating mushrooms. I tend to farm them (if I find a patch and can get around, I leave one alive; he's not a threat and he makes me more food) then come back to a feast of 5-10 mushrooms which I eat all at once.

Is Leprosy the reason for the "You are suddenly afraid of germs" messages? I've been curious about those

Fair but most wins I've seen using two weapons (with the rare exception, such as my own win) use twinned short swords.

Also maces are even better than halberds at blocking.

It seems probable. Based on this which I did some time ago, short swords and whips are some of the worst blockers while halberds are some of the best. Spears are somewhere in-between. So, it's likely that more attacks are getting past and hitting you. Since plants don't have high dexterity they're going to be hitting your chest, mostly, and your poor armor means they hurt. Two-weapon builds typically rely more on agility to evade attacks, with a side of block, than on the blocking and armor itself.

Can we add kittens too. And have one that sometimes spawns (the Lost Kitten) who spawns tame and starts following you around.

That could be terrifying, but amusing.

I was wondering if maybe they just shouldn't work at all (after all, you can't save someone's life after they are already dead). Or, maybe it would fire immediately and return them to living status.

Just something that happened...

To be fair, Magalor: Not a lot people have win ANY version of IVAN. I've been playing on-and-off since 2005, and have only won once. The current version is, IMO, rather difficult, owing to early enemies with 2h swords.

Seasonal "dungeons": So, some other games (notably ADOM) have special starting messages/gifts depending on the date. Could we have special one-
or two-level dungeons that are only accessible if you are playing on certain dates of the year? I'm thinking things like "Atavus' Workshop" if you play on Chrismas Eve, or "Mortifer's Mansion" on Haloween. In my imagination such levels would probably unlock on the date (plus-or-minus a week, perhaps), but if you were there, saved, quit, and came back on some other day, your character would still be in the dungeon... but if you left, it would no longer be accessible (i.e. not on the world map). They probably shouldn't be tied to the Attnamese continent either, but their locations could be divined by talking to certain NPCs in Attnam, NA, GC, or TX.

Other seasonal "holidays" (and dieties) to consider: Midsummer (Silva), the equinoxes (Sophos and Infuscor)...

Valid points. I withdraw the suggestion... for now.

Trouble is, there hasn't really been any strong, convincing ideas on *how* to overhaul shields (and "heavy" builds in general). There have been a few ideas tossed around, sure, some better than others. But I don't know that we have had a strong, straightforward, generally-accepted one yet.