Difference between revisions of "Wands Balance Patch"

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(fiqhack barbarians can now reach basic in wands, cavemen are restricted)
 
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−
The ''Wands Balance Patch'' is based on essay by [[NetHack4]] developer Alex Smith [http://nethack4.org/blog/wand-balance.html Wand balance in NetHack]. The proposal outlined therein was implemented by [[FIQhack]] author and it was later merged into [[NetHack Fourk]] as well.
+
The '''Wands Balance Patch''' is based on an essay by [[NetHack4]] developer Alex Smith, [http://nethack4.org/blog/wand-balance.html "Wand balance in NetHack"]. The proposal outlined therein was implemented by [[User:FIQ/FIQhack|FIQHack]], and was later merged into [[NetHack Fourk]] as well. Note that the two implementations have slight, generally minor differences.
  
−
The purpose of the patch is to make wands more useful. Most of the wands in NetHack cease to be very useful as the game progresses. Attack wands have fixed damage, that might be effective in the early game, but later on they the damage is so small, that zapping them might be a waste of turns. Utility wands remain little more useful, but even they have fixed, quite boring behaviour, often supplanted by spells.
+
In addition to the changes to wands, the wand rebalance made monsters zap each other with helpful wands (polymorph sometimes, invisibility and speed monster), and made monsters zap enemies with slow monster and undead turning. FIQHack has further changes to monster AI in general.
  
−
To improve wands in NetHack, this patch makes wands scale. The effects are no longer fixed, but they become more powerful with newly introduced '''wands skill'''. Players gain this skill by using wands. Additionally, the effective skill can be affected by wand's [[BUC|beatitude]]: cursed wands lower effective skill by one, blessed wands increase it.
+
The purpose of the patch is to make wands more useful later on and avoid [[GWTWOD]] cases (which is an issue with a lot of wands, not just death). In addition, most of the wands in NetHack cease to be very useful as the game progresses: Attack wands have fixed damage that might be effective in the early game, but later on the damage is so small that zapping them might be a waste of turns. Utility wands remain a bit more useful, but even they have fixed, quite boring behaviour, often supplanted by spells.
 +
 
 +
To improve wands in NetHack, this patch makes wands scale. The effects are no longer fixed, but become more powerful with the newly introduced '''wands skill'''. Players gain this skill by using wands. Additionally, the effective skill can be affected by the wand's [[BUC|beatitude]]:  
 +
 
 +
* Cursed wands lower effective skill by one, blessed wands increase it.
 +
* Zapping a cursed wand while being unskilled will cause the wand to explode - this has similar effects to [[breaking wands]].
 +
 
 +
Monsters are also affected by this change, and for this purpose have a fixed wand skill based on monster type.
 +
 
 +
{{todo|Please give more information about monster wand skills.}}
 +
 
 +
==Skill Caps==
 +
Like most skills in Nethack, different roles can reach varying amounts of proficiency with wands. Starting after June 2023, FIQHack swapped the wand skill abilities of Barbarian and Cavemen (the former now topping at Basic, and cavemen being restricted).
 +
{| class="wikitable"
 +
|-
 +
|'''restricted'''
 +
|Barbarians, due to their distrust of magic, are unable to train in wand skills.
 +
|-
 +
|'''basic'''
 +
|Cavemen are capable of only basic wand proficiency.
 +
|-
 +
|'''skilled'''
 +
|Archeologists, knights, rangers, rogues, samurai, and valkyries may reach the skilled level of proficiency.
 +
|-
 +
|'''expert'''
 +
|Healers, monks, priests, tourists, and wizards may reach expert level wand proficiency.
 +
|-
 +
|'''master'''
 +
|No role can truly master wand usage innately.  However, because having the wand blessed raises the effective skill level by one, an expert user with a blessed wand can get the master-level effect on a particular zap.
 +
|}
  
 
==Wand Power==
 
==Wand Power==
  
−
For purposes of overcoming monster MR, the wands use following power values:
+
For purposes of overcoming monster MR, the wands use the following power values in FIQHack (Fourk still works like vanilla in this regard):
  
 
{| class="wikitable"
 
{| class="wikitable"
 
|-
 
|-
−
|unskilled'''
+
|'''unskilled'''
 
|5
 
|5
 
|-
 
|-
Line 29: Line 58:
 
==Ray Effects==
 
==Ray Effects==
  
−
Rays (including digging rays, except there is never a target) work like this:
+
Rays (excluding digging, which never reflected in the first place) work like this:
  
 
{| class="wikitable"
 
{| class="wikitable"
 
|-
 
|-
 
|'''unskilled'''
 
|'''unskilled'''
−
|No potential item destruction or blinding in case of lightning.
+
|No potential item destruction (nor blinding, in the case of lightning).
 
|-
 
|-
 
|'''basic'''
 
|'''basic'''
−
|Same as current
+
|Same as current.
 
|-
 
|-
 
|'''skilled'''
 
|'''skilled'''
−
|If a target is reflecting (but not walls), abort the ray and create an explosion centered on target.
+
|If a target (but not a wall) is reflecting, abort the ray and create an explosion centered on the target. Explodes at the end of the ray.
 
|-
 
|-
 
|'''expert'''
 
|'''expert'''
−
|Now also explodes if the ray runs out of range.
+
|If a target (but not a wall) is reflecting, abort the ray and create an explosion centered on the target. Explodes at the end of the ray.
 
|-
 
|-
 
|'''master'''
 
|'''master'''
−
|Explodes on first target, reflecting or not, and create 1d5 explosions adjacant to target.
+
|Explodes on the first target, reflecting or not, and creates 1d5 explosions adjacent to the target.
 
|}
 
|}
−
 
  
 
==Wand Effects Scaling==
 
==Wand Effects Scaling==
Line 60: Line 88:
 
|-
 
|-
 
|'''basic'''
 
|'''basic'''
−
|Protected by player MR
+
|Protected by player MR 80% of the time
 
|-
 
|-
 
|'''skilled'''
 
|'''skilled'''
−
|Protected by player MR
+
|Protected by player MR 66% of the time
 
|-
 
|-
 
|'''expert'''
 
|'''expert'''
−
|Protected by player MR 90% of the time
+
|Protected by player MR 50% of the time
 
|-
 
|-
 
|'''master'''
 
|'''master'''
−
|Protected by player MR 50% of the time
+
|Protected by player MR 33% of the time
 
|-
 
|-
 
|rowspan="5"|[[wand of fire]]<br />[[wand of cold]]<br />[[wand of lightning]]<br />[[wand of magic missile]]
 
|rowspan="5"|[[wand of fire]]<br />[[wand of cold]]<br />[[wand of lightning]]<br />[[wand of magic missile]]
Line 87: Line 115:
 
| 6d6 damage, MR only halves magic missile damage
 
| 6d6 damage, MR only halves magic missile damage
 
|-
 
|-
−
|rowspan="5"|[[wand of create monster]]
+
|rowspan="5"|[[wand of create monster]] / [[wand of summoning]]
 +
|'''unskilled'''
 +
|Create 1 monster.
 +
|-
 +
|'''basic'''
 +
|Create 1d2 monsters.
 +
|-
 +
|'''skilled'''
 +
|Create 1d4 monsters.
 +
|-
 +
|'''expert'''
 +
|Create 1d8 monsters.
 +
|-
 +
|'''master'''
 +
|Create 1d16 monsters.
 +
|-
 +
|rowspan="5"|[[wand of death]]
 +
|'''unskilled'''
 +
|Drain one level unless drain or death resistant
 +
|-
 +
|'''basic'''
 +
|Death unless death resistant
 +
|-
 +
|'''skilled'''
 +
|Death unless death resistant; explosions will only deal 50% of current HP + 6d6 in FIQHack
 +
|-
 +
|'''expert'''
 +
|Death unless death resistant, otherwise drain one level unless drain resistant; explosions will only deal 50% of current HP + 6d6 in FIQHack
 +
|-
 +
|'''master'''
 +
|Death unless death resistant, otherwise drain one level unless drain resistant
 +
|-
 +
|rowspan="5"|[[wand of digging]]
 +
|'''unskilled'''
 +
|Digs out d5+4 tiles
 +
|-
 +
|'''basic'''
 +
|Digs out d11+8 tiles
 +
|-
 +
|'''skilled'''
 +
|Digs out d17+12 tiles
 +
|-
 +
|'''expert'''
 +
|Digs out d23+16 tiles
 +
|-
 +
|'''master'''
 +
|Digs out d29+20 tiles, ignore maze restrictions (Fourk removed it altogether, but FIQHack still has it)
 +
|-
 +
|rowspan="5"|[[wand of enlightenment]]
 +
|'''unskilled'''
 +
|''unchanged''
 +
|-
 +
|'''basic'''
 +
|''unchanged''
 +
|-
 +
|'''skilled'''
 +
|''unchanged''
 +
|-
 +
|'''expert'''
 +
|''unchanged''
 +
|-
 +
|'''master'''
 +
|''unchanged''
 +
|-
 +
|rowspan="5"|[[wand of light]]
 +
|'''unskilled'''
 +
|Lights up a lamp radius (3 radius)
 +
|-
 +
|'''basic'''
 +
|''unchanged''
 +
|-
 +
|'''skilled'''
 +
|Similar to a blessed [[scroll of light]] (9 radius)
 +
|-
 +
|'''expert'''
 +
|Lights up in a 15 radius
 +
|-
 +
|'''master'''
 +
|Lights up the entire level
 +
|-
 +
|rowspan="5"|[[wand of locking]]
 
|'''unskilled'''
 
|'''unskilled'''
−
|Create 1 monsters depending on skill, 1/23 of the time create 1d7 additional monsters
+
|Closes doors
 
|-
 
|-
 
|'''basic'''
 
|'''basic'''
−
|Create 2 monsters depending on skill, 1/23 of the time create 1d7 additional monsters
+
|Closes and locks doors
 
|-
 
|-
 
|'''skilled'''
 
|'''skilled'''
−
|Create 3 monsters depending on skill, 1/23 of the time create 1d7 additional monsters
+
|''unchanged''
 
|-
 
|-
 
|'''expert'''
 
|'''expert'''
−
|Create 4 monsters depending on skill, 1/23 of the time create 1d7 additional monsters
+
|''unchanged''
 
|-
 
|-
 
|'''master'''
 
|'''master'''
−
|Create 5+1d7 monsters.
+
|Replaces doorway/door with a secret door
 +
|-
 +
|rowspan="5"|[[wand of make invisible]]
 +
|'''unskilled'''
 +
|Gives d50 turns of invisibility. Unchanged from vanilla in Fourk
 +
|-
 +
|'''basic'''
 +
|''unchanged''
 +
|-
 +
|'''skilled'''
 +
|Toggles invisibility
 +
|-
 +
|'''expert'''
 +
|Toggles invisibility
 +
|-
 +
|'''master'''
 +
|Toggles invisibility
 +
|-
 +
|rowspan="5"|[[wand of nothing]]
 +
|'''unskilled'''
 +
|''unchanged''
 +
|-
 +
|'''basic'''
 +
|''unchanged''
 +
|-
 +
|'''skilled'''
 +
|''unchanged''
 +
|-
 +
|'''expert'''
 +
|''unchanged''
 +
|-
 +
|'''master'''
 +
|''unchanged''
 +
|-
 +
|rowspan="5"|[[wand of opening]]
 +
|'''unskilled'''
 +
|Opens doors
 +
|-
 +
|'''basic'''
 +
|''unchanged''
 +
|-
 +
|'''skilled'''
 +
|''unchanged''
 +
|-
 +
|'''expert'''
 +
|''unchanged''
 +
|-
 +
|'''master'''
 +
|''unchanged''
 +
|-
 +
|rowspan="5"|[[wand of polymorph]]
 +
|'''unskilled'''
 +
|''unchanged''
 +
|-
 +
|'''basic'''
 +
|''unchanged''
 +
|-
 +
|'''skilled'''
 +
|Re-rolls hostiles once for a weaker form
 +
|-
 +
|'''expert'''
 +
|Re-rolls once for weaker form (hostile) or stronger form (pet)
 +
|-
 +
|'''master'''
 +
|Re-rolls twice for weaker form (hostile) or stronger form (pet), never shudders pets
 +
|-
 +
|rowspan="5"|[[wand of probing]]
 +
|'''unskilled'''
 +
|''unchanged''
 +
|-
 +
|'''basic'''
 +
|''unchanged''
 +
|-
 +
|'''skilled'''
 +
|Gives enlightenment on monster zaps
 +
|-
 +
|'''expert'''
 +
|Gives enlightenment on monster zaps
 +
|-
 +
|'''master'''
 +
|Gives enlightenment on monster zaps, reveals their spell repertoire (FIQHack)
 +
|-
 +
|rowspan="5"|[[wand of secret door detection]]
 +
|'''unskilled'''
 +
|Reveals hidden things next to you
 +
|-
 +
|'''basic'''
 +
|Reveals hidden things in a 5 radius
 +
|-
 +
|'''skilled'''
 +
|Reveals hidden things in a 9 radius
 +
|-
 +
|'''expert'''
 +
|Reveals hidden things in a 15 radius
 +
|-
 +
|'''master'''
 +
|Reveals hidden things on the entire level
 +
|-
 +
|rowspan="5"|[[wand of sleep]]
 +
|'''unskilled'''
 +
|''unchanged''
 +
|-
 +
|'''basic'''
 +
|''unchanged''
 +
|-
 +
|'''skilled'''
 +
|''unchanged''
 +
|-
 +
|'''expert'''
 +
|''unchanged''
 +
|-
 +
|'''master'''
 +
|''unchanged''
 +
|-
 +
|rowspan="5"|[[wand of slow monster]]
 +
|'''unskilled'''
 +
|Gives d4+5 turns of slowness
 +
|-
 +
|'''basic'''
 +
|Gives d8+11 turns of slowness
 +
|-
 +
|'''skilled'''
 +
|Gives d12+17 turns of slowness, removes intrinsic speed
 +
|-
 +
|'''expert'''
 +
|Gives d16+23 turns of slowness, removes intrinsic speed
 +
|-
 +
|'''master'''
 +
|Gives d20+29 turns of slowness, removes intrinsic and temporary speed
 +
|-
 +
|rowspan="5"|[[wand of speed monster]]
 +
|'''unskilled'''
 +
|Gives 2d20 turns of speed
 +
|-
 +
|'''basic'''
 +
|Gives 2d20+20 turns of speed
 +
|-
 +
|'''skilled'''
 +
|Gives 2d20+20 turns of speed, gives intrinsic speed
 +
|-
 +
|'''expert'''
 +
|Gives 2d20+50 turns of speed, gives intrinsic speed
 +
|-
 +
|'''master'''
 +
|Gives 5d20+100 turns of speed, gives intrinsic speed
 +
|-
 +
|rowspan="5"|[[wand of striking]]
 +
|'''unskilled'''
 +
|Deals 1d12 damage, never misses
 +
|-
 +
|'''basic'''
 +
|Deals 2d12 damage, never misses
 +
|-
 +
|'''skilled'''
 +
|Deals 3d12 damage, never misses
 +
|-
 +
|'''expert'''
 +
|Deals 4d12 damage, never misses
 +
|-
 +
|'''master'''
 +
|Deals 8d12 damage, never misses
 +
|-
 +
|rowspan="5"|[[wand of teleportation]]
 +
|'''unskilled'''
 +
|Cannot teleport on noteleport levels
 +
|-
 +
|'''basic'''
 +
|Cannot teleport on noteleport levels
 +
|-
 +
|'''skilled'''
 +
|Cannot teleport on noteleport levels
 +
|-
 +
|'''expert'''
 +
|Can teleport on noteleport level unless self-zapped. Doing so allows no controlled teleportation (4k) / Cannot teleport on noteleport levels (FH)
 +
|-
 +
|'''master'''
 +
|Can teleport on noteleport level unless self-zapped. Doing so allows no controlled teleportation (4k) / Cannot teleport on noteleport levels. You are prompted for where to teleport hit monsters (FH)
 +
|-
 +
|rowspan="5"|[[wand of undead turning]]
 +
|'''unskilled'''
 +
|Scares undead that fail to resist
 +
|-
 +
|'''basic'''
 +
|Scares undead that fail to resist
 +
|-
 +
|'''skilled'''
 +
|Destroys undead that fail to resist, scares otherwise
 +
|-
 +
|'''expert'''
 +
|Destroys undead that fail to resist, scares otherwise
 +
|-
 +
|'''master'''
 +
|Destroys undead that fail to resist, scares otherwise
 +
|-
 +
|rowspan="5"|[[wand of wishing]]
 +
|'''unskilled'''
 +
|''unchanged''
 +
|-
 +
|'''basic'''
 +
|''unchanged''
 +
|-
 +
|'''skilled'''
 +
|''unchanged''
 +
|-
 +
|'''expert'''
 +
|''unchanged''
 +
|-
 +
|'''master'''
 +
|''unchanged''
 
|}
 
|}
 +
 +
[[Category:Patches]]
 +
[[Category:Variants]]
 +
[[Category:FIQHack]]

Latest revision as of 11:51, 5 July 2023

The Wands Balance Patch is based on an essay by NetHack4 developer Alex Smith, "Wand balance in NetHack". The proposal outlined therein was implemented by FIQHack, and was later merged into NetHack Fourk as well. Note that the two implementations have slight, generally minor differences.

In addition to the changes to wands, the wand rebalance made monsters zap each other with helpful wands (polymorph sometimes, invisibility and speed monster), and made monsters zap enemies with slow monster and undead turning. FIQHack has further changes to monster AI in general.

The purpose of the patch is to make wands more useful later on and avoid GWTWOD cases (which is an issue with a lot of wands, not just death). In addition, most of the wands in NetHack cease to be very useful as the game progresses: Attack wands have fixed damage that might be effective in the early game, but later on the damage is so small that zapping them might be a waste of turns. Utility wands remain a bit more useful, but even they have fixed, quite boring behaviour, often supplanted by spells.

To improve wands in NetHack, this patch makes wands scale. The effects are no longer fixed, but become more powerful with the newly introduced wands skill. Players gain this skill by using wands. Additionally, the effective skill can be affected by the wand's beatitude:

  • Cursed wands lower effective skill by one, blessed wands increase it.
  • Zapping a cursed wand while being unskilled will cause the wand to explode - this has similar effects to breaking wands.

Monsters are also affected by this change, and for this purpose have a fixed wand skill based on monster type.

A user has suggested improving this page or section as follows:

"Please give more information about monster wand skills."

Skill Caps

Like most skills in Nethack, different roles can reach varying amounts of proficiency with wands. Starting after June 2023, FIQHack swapped the wand skill abilities of Barbarian and Cavemen (the former now topping at Basic, and cavemen being restricted).

restricted Barbarians, due to their distrust of magic, are unable to train in wand skills.
basic Cavemen are capable of only basic wand proficiency.
skilled Archeologists, knights, rangers, rogues, samurai, and valkyries may reach the skilled level of proficiency.
expert Healers, monks, priests, tourists, and wizards may reach expert level wand proficiency.
master No role can truly master wand usage innately. However, because having the wand blessed raises the effective skill level by one, an expert user with a blessed wand can get the master-level effect on a particular zap.

Wand Power

For purposes of overcoming monster MR, the wands use the following power values in FIQHack (Fourk still works like vanilla in this regard):

unskilled 5
basic 10
skilled 20
expert 30
master 50

Ray Effects

Rays (excluding digging, which never reflected in the first place) work like this:

unskilled No potential item destruction (nor blinding, in the case of lightning).
basic Same as current.
skilled If a target (but not a wall) is reflecting, abort the ray and create an explosion centered on the target. Explodes at the end of the ray.
expert If a target (but not a wall) is reflecting, abort the ray and create an explosion centered on the target. Explodes at the end of the ray.
master Explodes on the first target, reflecting or not, and creates 1d5 explosions adjacent to the target.

Wand Effects Scaling

wand of cancellation unskilled Protected by player MR
basic Protected by player MR 80% of the time
skilled Protected by player MR 66% of the time
expert Protected by player MR 50% of the time
master Protected by player MR 33% of the time
wand of fire
wand of cold
wand of lightning
wand of magic missile 		unskilled 3d6 or 40% maxHP damage, whichever is less
basic 6d6 damage
skilled 6d6 damage
expert 6d6 damage, MR only halves magic missile damage
master 6d6 damage, MR only halves magic missile damage
wand of create monster / wand of summoning unskilled Create 1 monster.
basic Create 1d2 monsters.
skilled Create 1d4 monsters.
expert Create 1d8 monsters.
master Create 1d16 monsters.
wand of death unskilled Drain one level unless drain or death resistant
basic Death unless death resistant
skilled Death unless death resistant; explosions will only deal 50% of current HP + 6d6 in FIQHack
expert Death unless death resistant, otherwise drain one level unless drain resistant; explosions will only deal 50% of current HP + 6d6 in FIQHack
master Death unless death resistant, otherwise drain one level unless drain resistant
wand of digging unskilled Digs out d5+4 tiles
basic Digs out d11+8 tiles
skilled Digs out d17+12 tiles
expert Digs out d23+16 tiles
master Digs out d29+20 tiles, ignore maze restrictions (Fourk removed it altogether, but FIQHack still has it)
wand of enlightenment unskilled unchanged
basic unchanged
skilled unchanged
expert unchanged
master unchanged
wand of light unskilled Lights up a lamp radius (3 radius)
basic unchanged
skilled Similar to a blessed scroll of light (9 radius)
expert Lights up in a 15 radius
master Lights up the entire level
wand of locking unskilled Closes doors
basic Closes and locks doors
skilled unchanged
expert unchanged
master Replaces doorway/door with a secret door
wand of make invisible unskilled Gives d50 turns of invisibility. Unchanged from vanilla in Fourk
basic unchanged
skilled Toggles invisibility
expert Toggles invisibility
master Toggles invisibility
wand of nothing unskilled unchanged
basic unchanged
skilled unchanged
expert unchanged
master unchanged
wand of opening unskilled Opens doors
basic unchanged
skilled unchanged
expert unchanged
master unchanged
wand of polymorph unskilled unchanged
basic unchanged
skilled Re-rolls hostiles once for a weaker form
expert Re-rolls once for weaker form (hostile) or stronger form (pet)
master Re-rolls twice for weaker form (hostile) or stronger form (pet), never shudders pets
wand of probing unskilled unchanged
basic unchanged
skilled Gives enlightenment on monster zaps
expert Gives enlightenment on monster zaps
master Gives enlightenment on monster zaps, reveals their spell repertoire (FIQHack)
wand of secret door detection unskilled Reveals hidden things next to you
basic Reveals hidden things in a 5 radius
skilled Reveals hidden things in a 9 radius
expert Reveals hidden things in a 15 radius
master Reveals hidden things on the entire level
wand of sleep unskilled unchanged
basic unchanged
skilled unchanged
expert unchanged
master unchanged
wand of slow monster unskilled Gives d4+5 turns of slowness
basic Gives d8+11 turns of slowness
skilled Gives d12+17 turns of slowness, removes intrinsic speed
expert Gives d16+23 turns of slowness, removes intrinsic speed
master Gives d20+29 turns of slowness, removes intrinsic and temporary speed
wand of speed monster unskilled Gives 2d20 turns of speed
basic Gives 2d20+20 turns of speed
skilled Gives 2d20+20 turns of speed, gives intrinsic speed
expert Gives 2d20+50 turns of speed, gives intrinsic speed
master Gives 5d20+100 turns of speed, gives intrinsic speed
wand of striking unskilled Deals 1d12 damage, never misses
basic Deals 2d12 damage, never misses
skilled Deals 3d12 damage, never misses
expert Deals 4d12 damage, never misses
master Deals 8d12 damage, never misses
wand of teleportation unskilled Cannot teleport on noteleport levels
basic Cannot teleport on noteleport levels
skilled Cannot teleport on noteleport levels
expert Can teleport on noteleport level unless self-zapped. Doing so allows no controlled teleportation (4k) / Cannot teleport on noteleport levels (FH)
master Can teleport on noteleport level unless self-zapped. Doing so allows no controlled teleportation (4k) / Cannot teleport on noteleport levels. You are prompted for where to teleport hit monsters (FH)
wand of undead turning unskilled Scares undead that fail to resist
basic Scares undead that fail to resist
skilled Destroys undead that fail to resist, scares otherwise
expert Destroys undead that fail to resist, scares otherwise
master Destroys undead that fail to resist, scares otherwise
wand of wishing unskilled unchanged
basic unchanged
skilled unchanged
expert unchanged
master unchanged
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