Has there been suggestions for an Armor skill? I was just considering how such a skill might work the other day.

Warheck, I've never had trouble distinguishing mirrored from non-mirrored items. I mean, they are indistinguishable from the originals, but they are in a separate stack (so mirror 5 SoEA, and you have two stacks of 5 SoEA). Reading only the second-listed stack ensures you don't use the originals and can mirror them again later. Mirroring (or cloning!) anything other than scrolls or yourself/monsters, seems like a waste of a wand to me, and scrolls can be safely used immediately anyways.

Don't get me wrong, I'm not trying to shoot down your suggestion (too much), just saying that that particular problem has never bothered me.

I'll try to provide a tl;dr veresion:


It increases damage and to-hit, up to Str.Requirement +10 AStr. I don't know if code-diving ever determined attack speed; that may be Dexterity and/or Weight related. Take that with a grain of salt.


Weight does affect all three attributes of a weapon (+raw power, -attack speed, -accuracy).


Damage. If you're hoping to break a weapon, first they have to block with it. (It may be possible to break an attacker's weapon too.) Otherwise you just have to hit that body part, and if you deal enough damage (vs the item's material) it can break. Note that your weapon doesn't deal full damage to the item. If I'm recalling the code correctly, only rand(50-100)% of the item's armor value actually applies, and any damage above that is dealt to the person underneath and to the item itself. Not sure on the code for the item actually breaking, however.


Accuracy and (mostly) dexterity. High dexterity helps a lot with this; you will notice that a low-dexterity person with a two-handed sword will mostly land body blows (which is where most of the HP is located) while a high dexterity person with a whip, such as Shererax, will consistently remove legs, arms, and heads.


My weapon preferences are mostly flavor-based, in all games. I like big, heavy weapons, so I tend towards the large swords, maces, halberds, etc. The (well founded through trial-and-error) general community trend however is towards dual-wielding smaller weapons, such as short swords and whips. These afford many rapid, accurate attacks, which train dexterity and are likely to dis-assemble enemies from the arms in. Torsos aren't very threatening.

Couldn't you dip bottles in the cans?

I still recall the "Ultimate Golem"...

A tumbleweed animation for the forum main page...

Monsters most definitely continue to spawn on levels after you've explored it. It's pretty slow though; most monsters you kill on a given level were likely there at the beginning.

Acid actually has no effect on plants, so that method is out. Secondly, if you explore the entire level and leave Jenny for last, you'll probably help your chances greatly (you may find better loot, and your weapon skill and possibly some stats will be improved). Lastly, adverse status effects (burdened, stressed, hungry, etc) do, as 4zb4 said, have a huge impact on your combat ability, both hindering your to-hit and dodge chances, and your attack and movement speed. I usually keep a (heavily trapped) pile of loot on the up-stairs on any given UT level.

If you want to keep him, give him something made of ommel bone to eat.