Wands Balance Patch
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 [[1]] author and it was later merged into NetHack Fourk as well. Note that the two implementations have slight differences, generally minor. 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. 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.
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 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, having similar effects to that of breaking wands. Monsters are also affected by this change, and has a fixed wand skill based on monster type for this purpose.
Wand Power
For purposes of overcoming monster MR, the wands use 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 or blinding in case of lightning. |
basic | Same as current |
skilled | If a target is reflecting (but not walls), abort the ray and create an explosion centered on target. Explodes at the end of the ray |
expert | If a target is reflecting (but not walls), abort the ray and create an explosion centered on target. Explodes at the end of the ray |
master | Explodes on first target, reflecting or not, and create 1d5 explosions adjacant to target. |
Wand Effects Scaling
wand of cancellation | unskilled | Protected by player MR |
basic | Protected by player MR | |
skilled | Protected by player MR | |
expert | Protected by player MR 90% of the time | |
master | Protected by player MR 50% 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 | unskilled | Create 1 monster, 1/23 of the time create 1d7 additional monsters |
basic | Create 2 monsters, 1/23 of the time create 1d7 additional monsters | |
skilled | Create 3 monsters, 1/23 of the time create 1d7 additional monsters | |
expert | Create 4 monsters, 1/23 of the time create 1d7 additional monsters | |
master | Create d7+5 monsters | |
wand of death | unskilled | Drain one level unless drain or death resistant |
basic | Death unless death resistant | |
skilled | Death unless death resistant | |
expert | Death unless death resistant, otherwise drain one level unless drain resistant | |
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 alltogether, 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 (5 radius) | |
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 | |
wand of secret door detection | unskilled | Reveals hidden things next to you |
basic | unchanged | |
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 | Cannot teleport on noteleport levels | |
master | Can teleport on noteleport level unless selfzapped. Doing so allows no controlled teleportation | |
wand of undead turning | unskilled | Scares undead that fails to resist |
basic | Scares undead that fails to resist | |
skilled | Destroys undead that fails to resist, scares otherwise | |
expert | Destroys undead that fails to resist, scares otherwise | |
master | Destroys undead that fails to resist, scares otherwise | |
wand of wishing | unskilled | unchanged |
basic | unchanged | |
skilled | unchanged | |
expert | unchanged | |
master | unchanged |