Talk:Sunsword

Lone Wolf reference?

Is this a Lone Wolf reference? — Preceding unsigned comment added by 72.90.113.69 (talk • contribs) 3 February 2009

Spellcasters

Why is "spellcasters become a much larger threat in SLASH'EM" in this article? Is it that it's particularly useful for lawfuls to have an artifact that deals double damage to the undead? Dual-wielding Grayswandir and Sunsword does seem like it'd be a nice trick against vampire mages.

Also it doesn't seem accurate to say that non-undead spellcasters will be peaceful to lawfuls; besides the old standbys like orc shamans etc. (of which only nalfehsnees are threats, I guess), there are ogre mages and gnoll shamans. Ogre mages don't seem like big threats but gnoll shamans seem pretty nasty. -- Slandor 12:48, June 10, 2010 (UTC)

I should go back and clarify that section probably, but ogre mages are not randomly generated, and gnoll shamans are trivial to avoid, since they hide unless provoked. As to why spellcasters are more dangerous in SLASH'EM, that's because they have more dangerous things to summon, and the added ones are actually considerably faster (compare a speed of 9 for a lich vs. 14 for a vampire mage, or 12 for a ghoul mage). I have had it happen multiple times where on a large, open level such as Moloch's Sanctum or Juiblex's Swamp, I have about 4-5 complete rings of summoned nasties around me. This is much more likely to happen in SLASH'EM because of 1) the deeper dungeon levels means higher base levels for spellcasters, which in turn lets them summon more spellcasters and 3) the addition of vampire mages, which, not being covetous, are very content to run a little bit away and continue to summon, instead of porting to the up staircase. Also, undead can summon ghoul mages right next to you via the summon undead spell, which while not generally able to summon nasties, can curse your items. All of these spellcasters are undead, with the mentioned exception of the nalfeshnee and nabassu, and I find Sunsword a very handy tool to take them down.

But mainly what makes Sunsword attractive for lawfuls in SLASH'EM is the ease of getting it. If you have already gotten 4-5 artifacts, and still no Grayswandir, you're probably not getting it, whereas Sunsword will probably be generated on some minion. Bullwhips aren't hard to find, either on demons or in the Guild of Disgruntled Adventurers. Grayswandir is preferable for a wish certainly, and as a sacrifice gift is probably better, but Sunsword is almost always going to be available to a lawful, so they might as well use it to cut some of SLASH'EM's spellcasters down to size.

Sorry if that was a bit of a rant... -Ion frigate 23:56, June 10, 2010 (UTC)