Haha, yeah, same. Had a momentary inspiration for a new character class :D

Drunken master! And as a werewolf too. We need some vampiric strike in the mix...

Bloodlust mechanics are interesting, and surprising... I like it.

Virtually unchanged from Nick's design. Very quirky and fun! I would like to expand on it a bit, even, and maybe make those bonus blows apply to the blows spells.

That would be really nice. Thanks!

Anyone else seeing their hitpoints fall while digging? Still wondering if this is a bug or on purpose.

Bug, fix (by backwardsEric) should be out in the next few days.

This code in process_command can be dangerous at high levels if the time counter is very high. I couldn't use the inventory to quaff healing potions or teleport away. I was kind of locked. I *think* is this code. I cant confirm the value of the time counter. I'll try to simulate that same situation.

[TMD_BLOODLUST] shouldn't be able to exceed 50

Thanks! Perhaps bloodlust was 50, so I got a 1/4 chance to attack the unique instead of using an item. Too much bloodlust can kill you! :p

Any thoughts about overall strength or weakness versus other classes? At times I'm bashing monsters in the head and thinking "this is too easy!" Then I face something that I can't melee and it's just awful. Obviously the stealth penalty demands increased slaying ability as well.

That was pretty much the plan, right?

Well it's no accident! :) But I'm wondering where the class ranks in total strength.

I think that the power curve of the class was nicely designed. The only thing I would change is the "return" statement in the code I posted a couple of days ago related to bloodlust. At first I didnt knew what the game was doing. As the BG is so strong the monsters get killed before noticing this "lock", but when fighting a strong unique, as Ungoliant, its kind of a dangerous situation.

Other than that, the BG feels strong enough. Great job!

It should give you the message "You angrily lash out at a nearby foe!"

Yes, but you lose the ability to use the inventory. I would soft that a bit. Perhaps it shouldn't do that twice in a row.

EDIT: the extra hit is nice, but it should allow command execution.

Just few cents from my wallet of feedback:

Detect life: Without Detect Evil or ESP, blackguard is vulnerable against undead and demons. It's good enough but not super reliable for survival. Levels after >30 really started to bug me, because I had not HoldLife atm.

Leap into battle: Very good spell, didn't feel overpowered.

Berserk: It brings what it is supposed to deliver. I also liked that the healing it gave was really modest and didn't affect HP if recast (as far as I remember).

Maim: Very good even though Wand of Stun Monster does the same. Well, the wand doesn't damage monster ofc, but ability stun from range is strong as f.

Whirlwind: Was ok. Fast popcorn remover. Should've probably used it more but I still avoid open space fights.

ImpHP: I don't remember if I got Regen early but I could live with this surprisingly well.

Stealth penalty: Makes things harder, as it should. Sneaking is possible but requires loads of +stealth items.

Werewolf: Great ability. Was my go-to melee damage buff towards the end.

Bloodlust: Extremely strong but hazardous. Hard to state an clarified opinion, because I don't know exactly what are all the risks Bloodlust carries.

EDIT: short stun monster vs maim clarification

If you or anyone else wants to send me PMs I'd be grateful for the info.

Had this as "smell fear" for a while and it was intended to pick up all fearable monsters, alive or dead. Any better or worse in your opinion?
Recasting does heal. It heals at most 10% of damage at 10 max SP or less.

You won with at least one Blackguard, right?

Thanks for the feedback!!

Noticing that my hardest fights now are with undead who can drain life. I now have the Unholy Reprieve spell so that can restore Exp but it's expensive and fails often. Trying to figure out what I'll need to fight deeper undead, including the Ringwraiths. Right now I'm using rods of Light to soften up the lower level 'L's and 'W's before moving in for the kill.

@DM
I got one in the late game, who died to a Wiruin-surprise, and won the second one with massive luck during the mid game.

Well, it's good to know I can chain heal a little with berserk spell. I dunno why I thought it doesn't heal if I extend the spell by casting it again.

Some more thoughts for about spells (based on 2 games):

Taunt: I definitely should have used this more! I did have monsters summoning and doing their things other than running towards me, while having this on. But reducing the chance of other action than running by a spell, is a good idea imo.

Grim Purpose: My go-to spell to gain rConfusion. So it's good but I never needed it for other purposes.

Unholy Reprieve: Well, it's a restoration spell so it breaks open one part of the game (stat and exp drains). This means, invaluable in the late game for some characters.

Demons are detected.

Sorry for the long delay on my thoughts there! I liked that this had a longer explanation - but I'm a fan of in-game help and man pages and things like that...
I don't really think much change is needed - something along the lines of:

You draw power from the thrill of combat. This power is represented by
Spell Points (SP). You gain SP in combat when damaged by a monster or
when you attack in melee. When not in combat your SP fades - you *lose* SP at half the rate others gain it, and you gain hitpoints (HP) at only half the normal rate. When you spend SP by casting a spell you regain some HP, and
fading SP replenish your health even more efficiently. The more damaged
the character is, the bigger these HP gains will be.

It was really just the phrase 'unspent SP replenish...' that I found confusing - though now that I get it, I have a hard time seeing why I was confused.

Yeah, that fading word is better than what I had. There may be something even better in that direction. I'll think on that.

After advancing to level 42, I'm noticing that I'm not using any of the spells in the first book. In the 2nd book, I'm mostly using Werewolf Form and occasionally Relentless Taunting to attract spell carriers towards me. In the 3rd book, I'm using Unholy Reprieve a lot to restore life levels. Werewolf form has replaced Bloodlust in utility. Curious if others see this too.

Werewolf includes berserk, so its natural. I use shatter a lot. At higher levels I tend to fight one to one, so whirlwind isnt so used.

A little weird that while a werewolf, you can disarm a chest of traps, unlock and open it. You can pick up things but can't drop them.

Yes, perhaps. Should shapechanged players be able to open doors? Tunnel? What do people think is reasonable?

Not being able to use items is a fair penalty for shapechange. Not being able to open/close doors, tunnel, disarm traps, pick up items, drop items, change equipment or eat from inventory is mainly an inconvenience.

if zephyr hounds can open doors, a shapechanged player can open doors.

I've often wondered about that stuff when in Bat form. Werewolf form might not be as limiting, which is why I suggested that maybe shapechange is the wrong mechanic for this.

EDIT: Werewolf shapechange was originally my idea, and it's fun and seems popular. Just saying maybe it shouldn't come with the same challenges and benefits (like at-will duration) that shapeshift does.

Tunnel: Yes. Most of the shapechanged forms would be able to tunnel. The only ones which don't make sense are bat and, possibly, Eagle. Write the rule for the 80%.

Opening Doors: Some forms (Werewolf, Pukelman) have opposable thumbs whilst most others would probably have to break through. I'd say the 80% rule here would be that doors are broken if you pass them while shapechanged. (I got zero rational for bat form on this).

Eating: Makes sense from the floor but not from inventory.

Use Items: I consider that all my stuff has been incorporated into my changed form. Makes sense that I can't drop my "claws" to change weapons while changed but I think that being unable to pick things up would be too obnoxious.

Good summary, Hounded. I imagine that picking up items they merge into your form just like your backpack does. It might be reasonable to only allow bashing doors while changed, and then STR penalties on bats and foxes etc could hinder that...?

It is strangely satisfying to change into werewolf form and see the message: "The ancient multi-hued dragon flees in terror!"

Wouldn't this make bat form really bad at the thing it's supposed to be good at (exploring)? Bashing slows you down, and may or may not wake up nearby monsters depending on how sadistic Nick's feeling at the time.

I feel like this kind of limitation would encourage:

1. Explore to door.
2. Shapechange.
3. open Door.
4. Shapechange.

Which is right up there with Ye Olde Tunneling mechanics for tedium.

I feel like if we want to inhibit the abilities of changed shapes to open doors, then it should work like tunneling does now. The character auto shifts out long enough to open the door and then shifts back. So, opening doors will cost an extra couple of turns, but doesn't otherwise impact exploration.

*Or* we just say "Meh, the character is shapechanging one of their claws into a human hand long enough to open the door. They can do that. No they can't do that to wield a weapon because *mumble mumble* stop questioning mechanics that make your life easier!"

Yep, I agree with that, too. Happily, I'm not in charge of shapeshift mechanics :D

Come to think of it, I have a colony of little brown bats 'round here and they manage to get into the craziest places. Perhaps they're like mice with that ability to somehow squeeze through a keyhole or underneath a door without opening it. Immunity to doors & traps?

BGs Now Detect Fear
 

Nick is implementing an idea I had a while ago where BGs detect fear/rage/emotion. I put in Detect Life ("Seek Battle") instead because it was close and it didn't require me to program it :D

I think this will be pretty neutral to overall BG effectiveness, but will make the class even more distinct.

Here's the list that are living but not fearable (BG will lose the ability to detect these)

And here's the list of non-living but fearable monsters that the BG will newly be able to detect after this change

While there are more monsters being missed now, the monsters now being detected seem more dangerous. Plus this change will help non-spoiled players know who they can Howl at.

At first I was wary of this change (even though it was my idea!) because I thought it would make the BG miss some crucial enemies. But now I'm pretty excited for it! What say you all?

Above depth 15 this is a net win for the BG. Being able to detect 4 invisible annoyances is great and puts BG High Elves at a more thematically-aligned disadvantage. Ochre Jelly will be more annoying than it already is, as I've found most mobiles with acid melee to be. Same for Gelatinous Cube later.

The homunculus at depth 15 will be more troublesome. I gave "Grim Purpose" at CL13 so BGs could avoid death at the hands of these and Umber Hulks. As long as you encounter the homunculus with enough SP to cast GP you'll be fine. If not, they're pretty rare, normal speed and low HP so they're not deadly if you know to keep away.

In the middle there we're trading a lot of Qs for liches and the like. That's probably good...? Interesting swap. Deeper you probably have better detection than this spell, but Nazgul are always good to detect. I notice Werewolves of Sauron drop out. I've been one-shotted by one of those out of depth before.

Not being able to detect the bosses shouldn't matter too much. You know they're there, so obviously you'll bring or wear something to detect them.

Anyway, still looks like a very interesting change that will present unique challenges to this class!

I spy with my little eye a SQL query there. Is there a way to generate an SQL-queryable database of monsters automatically? If there is one, that would seem useful information to me!

I wrote a script for this that was supposed to be flexible across multiple versions/variants to populate wiki.angband.live. But that stalled at the point of automated creation of wiki pages. I should post this script tho. It works for sure on vanilla 4.2.0 and 2.9.3 and with not too much effort it could work on many others. Mainly you need to paste the header on monster.txt and fudge it just a bit to get a new version to work.

addendum:
Stalled largely because I got busy with BG and Gwarl got a job and then I got a job. So resources got scarce!

If you're interested in that sort of thing, there's Thraalbee's monster plotter. Also there is a fairly sophisticated setup using sql to get stats on the game.

I'm playing a Blackguard in the 320 nightly, haven't been any lower than 300' and I've found 8-10 lanterns. Also finding, IMO, too many weapons, especially heavy ones. The weapons I can understand as part of the WIP Blackguard changes, but lanterns?

I don't think BG drops are any different from any other class's.

Correct, it's just the RNG messing with you.

Into DL and CL 20+ with new detect spell. As expected, spotting invisible spirits very helpful, not knowing where Qs are very troublesome (but not unfun). I kept getting the message "you hear monsters appear nearby" or something like that and had to hunt down the Q summoning them.

4.2.1 Sprint
 

OK, going to take one more quick pass at the Blackguard before 4.2.1. Below is what's on the docket. These are all quick fixes, but I'm not sure if I'll get to them all, or what else I'll tweak along the way. I'll monitor this thread closely for any suggestions in the next 14 hours.

- Make Venom cost less, fail less
- Small increase in Taunt duration
- Any flavor text I can improve
- - Better wording for Seek Battle / Detect Fear (emotion, feeling, rage, anger)
- - Reword "S" text
- - Anything else I see along the way
- Remove minimum mana decrease (will make SP last longer at lower levels especially)
- Remove any extraneous comments I've left in the code (I think Nick did this for me when he merged)
- Leap into battle takes direction for adjacent monster (arrow)
- Whirlwind needs no target
- Leap into battle should go through open/broken doors

Leap into battle should go through closed doors :p

But not walls?

Only if your character is a half-troll... Nah, I was joking before!

Anyone like this for "Seek Battle"?
if (monsters)
msg("These monsters could provide good sport.");
else if (context->aware)
msg("You smell no fear in the air.");

The previous versions were
if (monsters)
msg("You sense the presence of fearful creatures!");
else if (context->aware)
msg("You sense no fearful creatures.");


Losing a bit of specificity in favor of atmosphere, but the help text on "Seek Battle" is pretty clear:
Detects all monsters susceptible to fear in the immediate area, for one turn only.

Once upon a time this spell was called "Smell Fear" and was in the Fear and Torment book, but we moved it up and renamed it. There's a lot I like about both ways.

New description for "Combat Regeneration"
You draw power from the thrill of combat, represented by
Spell Points (SP). You gain SP when damaged by an enemy or
when you attack in melee. As your blood cools your power fades;
you lose SP at half the rate other classes gain them.
When you spend SP by casting a spell you regain some health, and
fading SP replenish your health even more efficiently. The more damaged
you are, the bigger these health gains will be.

I included the term "fading" as helpfully suggested by Eric in this thread.

Here's the old version for comparison:
You draw power from the thrill of combat. This power is represented by
Spell Points (SP). You gain SP in combat when damaged by a monster or
when you attack in melee. When not in combat you *lose* SP at half the
rate others gain it, and you gain hitpoints (HP) at only half the normal
rate. When you spend SP by casting a spell you regain some HP, and
unspent SP replenish your health even more efficiently. The more damaged
the character is, the bigger these HP gains will be.

Smashing through a door and tearing into a monster before they even know you're there would be EPIC. It would also open some more tactical options, like allowing you to get into melee range with fortuitously positioned Q's before they have a chance to summon, or closing a door and waiting for your enemy to get right behind it. A Blackguard's very own version of the hockey stick (that only lasts until you smash through the door, but meh).

I'm a sucker for new tricks of abusing LOS, and leveraging the dungeon to your advantage, and I feel like this has a chance of letting you do exactly that.

Or maybe it wouldn't really matter most of the time because you can just leap into battle, and you probably won't have the SP to ambush monsters anyway.

But still, if it wasn't too hard to code, I feel like this could be a fun little nook in the Blackguard's mechanics.

The "leap" code has very simple pathfinding, and isn't meant to allow a lot of directional changes. Each step has to be the most direct path (diagonals preferred) or 45 deg either way. Also, you have to be aware of the monster somehow.

I don't remember doing this myself, but you should be able to do it around a U bend (player could be one space further back, but Q could not)
Another possibility:

Like this:
You get the very unsatisfying result of the player using a turn and 4 SP, moving one space to the left, then being told "the way is blocked." It's definitely an area for improvement, but not today.

Hmm. Leaping through doors and passable rubble seems to already work. I guess Nick fixed that...?

Too much work for a feature that would be used just a few times.

The BG is a very joke-friendly class for me... Love it.

I've accomplished everything on the list except Leap accepting a direction key for targeting. Done some testing, too, and seems good. Will do some more testing in the next several hours.

I committed what I have here:
https://github.com/angband/angband/c...medley:patch-1

OK, got all these and a few more tweaks in, pending approval. Thanks everyone!

Big fan of the new flavor texts :)

Looking forward to my next blackguard with more reliable Venom!

It's already up on Github and Angband.live!

and in the latest nightly build, in fact.

Is that here?
https://rephial.org/nightlies

It's been "under construction" for a while, I thought intentionally.

I still have a few concerns with the spells. The ones that give a certain number of blows are confusing. Leap into Battle says it gives 4 blows, Whirlwind Attack 3 blows, Maim Foe 3 blows, Forceful Blow 1 blow. Current weapon gives 5 blows per round for a ton of damage. So why would I use these spells?

Relentless taunting doesn't seem to be doing much. Hard to tell, but they seem to be casting, summoning friends, etc the same whether I cast the spell or not.

As a level 50 Blackguard, I'm finding the only useful spells to be Unholy Reprieve and Forceful Blow to send them away from you. My melee weapon is so good that it feels it is better than activating werewolf form.

The under construction sign is always there, but there should also be a list of recent builds - I'm not sure why that isn't currently showing. You can see that list here.

Hey, thanks for the feedback.

The blows spells are still somewhat useful with light weapons. Leap is still very useful for closing gaps, Whirl can still deliver extra blows against multiple adjacent foes, the stun from Maim has many benefits, and Forceful Blow does 200 pts force damage and throws the enemy back.

To your point, though, when you find a light weapon that is much better than your other options the blows spells are a bit disappointing. One of the goals was to give BGs incentive to use big heavy weapons and I'm not entirely pleased with the way I did it.

Relentless Taunting almost certainly does cut in half the chances of a monster using an ability: https://github.com/angband/angband/s...scoped_q=taunt If you've run experiments and it's not working, I'd be very interested to hear that. It also affects their movement, but there are several factors that I don't fully understand yet. Taunt is completely irresistible and I've bumped the duration to 12+d12. It seems to be popular from the feedback I've received.

In werewolf form you're still using your melee weapon. You can see it via the I key. You get 1 extra blow per round and +1 footspeed, which usually doubles your movement speed. It's completely at-will; you can get out of it for no SP or time. Very handy, especially if the other spells aren't your cup of tea.

Berserk Strength should be beneficial at all levels if you're meleeing. Maim is definitely worth giving up 2 blows for vs stunable enemies that you can't kill in 2 rounds or less. Quake can break LoS and will keep enemies from summoning even better than Taunt.

I hope some of that helps!

To quote myself:

I've given up carrying the first book since I wasn't using the spells much, if at all, in favor of another inventory spot. I did use Whirl a lot for a while, but groups of monsters now are either too easy, or dangerous enough that I want to fight them singularly.

My current weapon is 28 lbs, with a lot of extras so it's been my primary for quite a while.

I've been trying to activate it consistently before getting into battles. Perhaps it is less effective against Great Wyrms and Archliches and Ainu(s) and high-level uniques. Or it's just observer bias, I notice when the monsters cast/summon because I'm watching for it.

I'll look at it again, but while you can switch out of the mode, it does take another turn to turn back into werewolf. I don't expect it to take no time, but it is a consideration. For example, lengthy battle, you have opponent slowed, you're sped up, turn into werewolf, attack, monster speeds back up, exit from werewolf, hit him again with slow monster, then have to take the extra turn to change back to werewolf.

Ok, next Into the Shadows book I find I'll try out some of the spells again.

FWIW, I never use Quake, even against Morgoth.

Thanks for the response. :)

I appreciate the report and I'm definitely listening. I'll have more opportunities to watch people when 4.2.1 is published, too.

The code for reducing enemy casting via Taunt is incredibly simple. None of the things you've mentioned could have an effect.

Are you meleeing enemies? How do you get close to them? Leap, Taunt and Werewolf are all meant to reduce the pain of closing the gap (and Quake, kinda). They can each reduce enemy ranged attacks by 2-4 times! And Taunt can stack with the other two.

The list is blocked from loading because it is mixed content, i.e. an HTTP content inside an HTTPS content. Here is the error message from the Chrome developer console.

Firefox and Edge also block the list. You need to change the link to builds.html with https protocol.

If you take the s off it works for me
http://rephial.org/nightlies

So rephial.org can be accessed with both HTTP and HTTPS
and the list is blocked when it is accessed with HTTPS.

In that case, the protocol-relative URL probably can fix the problem.
remove the protocol from the link in the IFRAME tag; change it as follows:
src="//buildbot.rephial.org/builds/master/builds.html"

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Protocol-relative_URLs

To DL37 and CL29 with my first "detects fearable" Blackguard. It's a lot of fun having a different detectable monster list than any other class! Thanks for making that happen, Nick!

I'm not relying only on Seek Battle for detection, but trees keep sneaking up on me, which is kinda fun and weird.

I usually just walk up to them, speed up if I need to, activate taunt, hit them with slow monster (which wakes them) and attack. If it's someone I have to be careful that they don't get a hit on me, I'll try to time my attacks so I move back when it's their turn to move. I'm used to shoot-and-scoot attacks from primarily playing rangers and mages.

What if the monster is awake?

I lurk for them in a corridor with a corner. Speed up right before they turn the corner, turn on taunting, hit them with slow monster, etc.

Loving this new Blackguard. The mechanics instantly transformed my usual deliberate, cautious "explore every corner" habits into a fast diving sociopath that resents every round not spent fighting something.

Mission acconplished.

Absolutely agree. The spells with their own blow counts means I'm utterly pasting baddies using weapon that would otherwise be too heavy (found 'Totila' early, and I was all "YES!").

Plus, the fact that you heal a little every time you use a spell (and I use Leap Into Battle pretty much every round if I don't have something better to cast) definitely gives that "Tough as Oak" feel that I like in my barbarian-style characters. My blackguard definitely feels much tougher than a similar Warrior. And there is nothing more satisfying than an enemy turning around and fleeing in terror, only for me to LEAP after and murder them with extreme prejudice.

One interesting thing I've noted is that Rings of Damage are no longer the godsend that they are with Warriors, at least in the early to mid game (I'm at like DL40 or something). When you're swinging for 1 or 2 blows, rather than 3 or 4, an extra +5 damage becomes much less important.

Also I really like how much I'm using my spells, even from the beginning. This is definitely a nice change of pace from the paladin, who I find generally plays more like a weak fighter with renewable Cure Light Wounds potions than a Holy Warrior until late into the midgame.

Thanks, guys!!! Me and Nick and everyone else who contributed are, I'm sure, happy that you and others are enjoying it.

So one thing I noticed with Leap into Battle. If you target a monster behind another monster, then it seems that your character will attack *both* monsters, not just the one they hit first, or the one targeted. Is that intentional?

Dammit. Must have introduced that when we fixed the problem of not going through doors.

Or maybe we broke it at another time. I'm certain at one time if you had a wall of foes in the way it would say "The way is barred." Ugh!

I mean, you could always keep it. It seems to only work consistently if you don't have an alternate path except through an enemy. Makes for some fun enemy selection to get the most out of that leap.

Personally, I was imagining my blackguard basically leaping on top of one enemy, stabbing it, and then leaping away to attack their original target.

Archolewa, you ruined my life you sonovabitch! :D

If it used movement and blows consistently I'd be OK with it. But you can get extra blows using this exploit.

Oh well. A great reason to look forward to 4.2.2, I guess.

both Sauron and Morgoth can be stunned :p

Changes to Bloodlust
 

Finally getting to try out the 4.2.1 blackboard, having a lot of fun - finally had a heavier weapon without finding Forasgil at lvl 20, easier Venom is nice.

I tried out Bloodlust against a pack of troll scavengers without having rPois (not my best move) and ended up going into negative HP after trying to 'q' some healing - but to my surprise while acrolling through messages, "Your thirst for blood keeps you alive!" And a quote about Mormegil. That made my day - not sure when that was added, but man, is it cool! I like how Grim purpose and venom can play nicely with bloodlust as well.

Wait until you get werewolf. One of my favorite things to do against uniques as a blackguard is throw down bloodlust, go werewolf, and tear them apart while all the Warriors go green with envy. I tore through Shelob in like no time at all using that method.

Though, I generally avoid using bloodlust against mobs. I don't like it taking control away from my character. A death mold dropped me down to negative health because of Bloodlust, though Bloodlust did at least keep me alive, much like what happened with you.

Also, don't cast Unholy Respite on 0 SP when you're near Al-Pharazon the Golden. Just, don't.

That being said, I do like how well the Blackguard manages to balance removing options and control in exchange for damage. Bloodlust is more likley to take away control the more charged it gets, werewolf form means you can't cast spells or use consumables, but you can cancel it at any time. Much better than DCSS' berserk stripping you of your ability to use any consumables at all while it's active, or Frogcomposband's Berserker not allowed to use anything but potions.

That was my favorite flavor text for sure. It's pretty rare; you're the first person I've heard of to encounter it. I've never even seen it in my normal non-debug playthroughs!

Thanks for the positive feedback guys! Makes me absurdly happy.

Bloodlust is only slightly changed from Nick's original design. It's so quirky and interesting!

Yes. David's responsible for almost everything else about the new blackguards though, except for the original concept, which was Gwarl's.

Made it to dungeon level 94 with my Blackguard before doing something stupid (failed to zap rod of Healing instead of quaffing a potion). It was a good run, and I was using werewolf mode a lot more. I think I only had Sauron and Morgoth left to fight out of all the uniques.

Onto a different character, going to try priest again.

A case in point for not fighting all of the uniques.

It wasn't a unique I was fighting, it was a bunch of super undead from a graveyard pit. Could have left them alone.

So, your @ died in an avalanche. On Climbing Methods: Please read http://angband.oook.cz/forum/showthr...826#post107826 Then go to guns on the Big Bosses. Good luck!

My winning conditions include killing all the uniques. I'll continue taking my chances and evaluating risk vs rewards. I've played long enough to realize when my @ isn't ready to take on uniques and monsters. I enjoy playing my long games and sometimes I do make mistakes.

I'm really finding double keypresses happening now while I'm typing this message. I suspect it is a MacOSX issue, and saw it with my numeric keypad while exploring the dungeon. Quite dangerous.

I hope you had fun!

Having played three or four Blackguards at this point (though I haven't won yet, or even gotten to the endgame), I do have some feedback for the early game. I don't know if this is criticism or analysis (i.e. I don't know if this is a bad thing or not):

Blackguard's early game suuuuuuucks. I's not just that the class is weak at early levels, it's that they're weak in a way that makes the early game incredibly tedious:

Their stealth is as bad as warriors or paladins, so they're going to be stumbling into battles all the time. However, their low blows means their damage output is far below what warriors and paladins can do, simply because it's so variable. So they fight a lot like priests, but they lack the early healing that gives priests their staying power.

Their detection is better than warriors and paladins, but the fact that you need to start a fight before you can use it makes it only *slightly* better in the early game. This plus their low stealth means they can't really pick their battles like a mage or rogue can.

All this means is that I find myself having to spend far more time on the early levels scrounging for gear, experience and consumables than I do for any other class I've played. I just don't have the damage that warriors and paladins do, the healing that priests do, nor the stealth and detection that mages do to support early diving.

In fact, I find myself having to play against type, which is rather lame. My top priority is to get a launcher, and spend the early game pretty much kiting like a ranger or rogue.

Their early game spells also don't do a whole lot to help. I touched on detect fear in the previous paragraph. Berserk is nice for making your damage more reliable, but it also imposes a -10 AC penalty at the only point in the game where 10 AC actually matters, so I often find it does more harm than good. They're not tough enough yet, nor hitting hard enough for Leap into Battle and Whirlwind to be useful.

Now things do get much better at level 20, once Leap into Battle gives you two blows. At that point, I find I can start playing a Blackguard like a Blackguard. Still pretty rough though, especially if the RNG doesn't give me a decent weapon.

Now, I don't have a problem with Blackguards having a weak early game. It's actually a nice change of pace from Paladin and Warrior. I just would like there to be some way to make it less of a slog.

I think the solution (assuming that the David and Nick agree it's a problem) is to tweak the Blackguard's early spells a bit to make up for their early weaknesses. For example, if their Berserk spell granted them a bonus to hit and damage, that could go a long way to giving them divable damage output. Less than 2 blows is a lot less painful if you can reliably one shot monsters.

Similarly if Leap into Battle and Whirlwind were either delayed until the Blackguard is tougher, or *starts* with two blows, they would be much more useful. Honestly though I'm not really a big fan of Leap into Blows and Whirlwind starting with two blows, because the level 20 spike in power is a lot of fun. I get really excited when I hit level 20, and I don't want to lose that. Especially since most classes in Angband don't really have power tiers tied to explicit levels.

Another option would be to include a low level spell that granted some flat damage reduction. Flat damage reduction is less important in the mid to late game when you start hitting breathers, and you have enough HP to absorb small hits, but in the early game it would make a BIG difference.

Read this and will mull it. I agree that Berserk Strength doesn't do much for damage output, but it does help a lot with hit percentage. This is a bit weird for something called "Berserk Strength" but I was reluctant to change it too much. Also, a plus to damage helps someone with many blows, so I don't think that's the right thing. +2 STR might work a lot better.

How much INT are you starting with? Less than 13 is a handicap for casting. I know a lot of players like to ignore the magic stat for half-casters at birth, but I don't think they should expect great spell casting ability in that case.

I usee the default point buy, and have mostly played Dunadan and High Elf. The spells themselves are pretty reliable, I just find they often don't do much at low levels to improve damage output.

+2 strength would be an effective early game buff to Berserk Strength. Another option is to give some amount if temporary HP. Would help make you a lot tougher in thr early game, but falls off mid and late game.

Another possibility would be to give Blackguards a spell that guarantees they hit, but eeduces the damage done based on hit chance. So if you have a 75% chance to hit, you only do 75% of your damage. Would allow you to smooth out the damage spikes a little. Would also be useful with spells like Maiming Strike. Dont know how easy this would be to code.

I doubt we'll move away from spikey damage.