HackEM Idea Pad/Brainstorm

[elunna]

I'm using this as a brainstorming briar patch, feel free to jump in a suggest things.

[YesLaching]

You removed all slash and pierce weapons from priest, are arrows and bolts considered pierce weapons? If so, then boomerang and sling would be the only ranged weapons for Priests

[elunna]

Yes the priest is limited in their ranged attacks, I can't take credit for that was inherited from evilhack. But I think it's a great mechanic and makes you think more about your options. Arrows and bolts are piercing.

Slings are definitely better than they were in vanilla so don't totally discount them yet! We also have sling bullets that do more damage than rocks/flint, and can be different materials.

Currently priests can use firearms without any penalty - although they are restricted, not sure if that is very "priestly" so we may or may not let that slide in the future. A shotgun wielding priest does feel very Walking Dead so I kind of dig it.

Other options are: Wands, spells, and monster abilities like breath or gaze attacks. If you can find some you can use bombs (you can upgrade/tinker pineapples into bombs, maybe something to try...). Giant priests can also collect and throw boulders.

[YesLaching]

Very interesting. I don't discount slings, i like the mechanic as well. When you said "shotgun wielding priest" i got Supernatural vibes XD. Maybe you could introduce "salt bullets", which do the least damage of all bullets, but are high damage on ghostly/wraithy monsters.

I'm a very bad NetHack player, the furthest i got was the castle, where i died on the drawbridge... So playing this variant is probably a bit harder, but i don't mind it. It's a lot of fun, so thanks for the hard work!

I have few ideas, i don't have any knowledge about programming so sorry if it's not possible or dumb.

The shrink spell (enchantment): lowers the size of target by 2 stages (everything smaller than large becomes tiny) for an amount of turns. Maybe also lowering stats? But that could be to broken

water puddles (more like the blood stains), which conduct any kind of shock damage. Can be generated instead of "real" water, like after a fountain is destroyd or scroll of water is used. Can also freeze

A new tool, the shovel. Can be used to dig a pit, digging in a pit creates a hole, digging out graves. Can be used to close pits and holes. Does 1d6/1d4 damage (like a pickaxe but reversed). Archeologists and Convicts can become experts, Tourists skilled and rogue basic

Merging the morning star skill into the flail skill would be nice, because both are weapons with a blunt head attached to a chain or smth similar. Now that i look into it, maces and clubs are also almost the same, but i guess we need variation...

There is no stereotypical dwarf role yet, so how about a miner role? It could also be played by humans, orcs, gnomes and so on.
Start with a pet rat, special spell is "dig" (restricted in matter spells, but "dig" counts as "skilled")
Start with a pickaxe but without a bullwhip
wears a light leather armor and a helmet
scrolls of gold detection, food rations, potions of water (booze, if it's a dwarf), a sack, and oil lantern.
The miner can get master in pickaxes
expert in shovel
skilled in escape spells, clubs, axes and maces
basic in divination, healing, bare hands, sling
They can see further in the dark, start with knowledge of all gems, and with automatic searching on level 1. They also get warning on level 12
They cannot multishot, havehigh strength and get an alignment penalty for dropping or throwing gems or items made of gemstone, gold, silver, platinum and mithril, except for weapons and if you sell items. This penalty is annulled if you pick up the item within 10 turns.
Maybe a technique, that reveals all items made of precious metals on the floor with a high cooldown

Druids would be very interesting as shapeshifting spellcasters. Maybe giving them a type of shapeshift, that does not destroy armor, but makes it disappear.

An Artificer role, that is better at crafting and brewing.

A shaman role who can see souls like necromancers, but instead of collecting them, they can speak to them and use techniques spawn souls and to make them help you. Shamans start with Belladonna (poisonous berries). Eating Belladonna extends lifetime for souls and maybe spawns more

[elunna]

[ ] Noisytoot> spellcasting attack: why not allow disabling the spellcasting attack when polymorphing into a spellcasting monster?
22:01:16 < Noisytoot> dnethack allows you to use #monster to cast a randommonster spell when polymorphed into a spellcaster rather than automatically casting a spell when you hit something

[elunna]

Suggestion: Thematic rooms and furniture #266
transcendreamer opened this issue
Earlier discussed in the Gnollhack project and partly implemented:
hyvanmielenpelit/GnollHack#806
I believe this could noticeably enhance game atmosphere.

[YesLaching]

Themed room "oasis" with grass, some trees and a pond.
Themed room "torture cell" with chains, a sink and a chest or box, that can contain a scroll of punishment, a whip and/or knives. This room is covered in blood.
Themed room "beam me up, scotty", with a level teleport trap, that only teleports you 1 dungeon level up.

[elunna]

• Themed room "escape room" with like a safe with a key (and other stuff in it) and other thematic items in the room. Maybe autoclose and lock the doors in the room once you are inside.