Uses for "out-of-character" items

[ekolis]

I seem to recall one roguelike or some other sort of RPG giving XP bonuses for destroying "out-of-character" or "oppositely aligned" items - e.g. if you are a paladin you get XP for destroying, say, a tome of necromancy, the reasoning being that extinguishing the dark art would be part of a paladin's job. (I think it may have been sCthangband, but I'm not sure... it does sound like a feature that would be found in Crawl though!)
That makes me think, wouldn't that be a cool feature for Angband? It would definitely give the player a more interesting choice when playing a fighter and finding a high-level spellbook - instead of just "keep & sell, or junk it for something better", it's "keep & sell, or destroy for experience"!
And the idea can be expanded on, too - maybe instead of XP, a fighter could get the effects of a heroism/berserk potion by destroying appropriately powerful books or magic items. Or maybe paladins are supposed to be so pure that certain items are forbidden to them and incur a penalty - what if every time you used that wand of stinking cloud, one of your items was cursed or you lost some XP or something? Decisions, decisions!

[Atarlost]

I once had the idea that powerful magic books could be good things to throw at monsters for damage. All that powerful magic bound inside not to mention the heavy binding could make a useful weapon. Then the choice becomes drag the book home to sell it, but if you ever wind up low on ammo or mana you could also chuck it at a monster for more than 1d1 damage.

[Matthias]

In Hengband, Berserkers get XP for destroying dungeon books.

[andrewdoull]

In Unangband, you can sell dungeon books to the store, and the store will stock additional store services.

E.g. magic book of fire --> service of fireproofing

etc.

I'm tempted to allow non-magic users to read books like scrolls for the 'service effect'.

[andrewdoull]

Originally Posted by Atarlost

I once had the idea that powerful magic books could be good things to throw at monsters for damage. All that powerful magic bound inside not to mention the heavy binding could make a useful weapon. Then the choice becomes drag the book home to sell it, but if you ever wind up low on ammo or mana you could also chuck it at a monster for more than 1d1 damage.

The Necro books in Sangband have this effect.