what does starlight DO ?

[Sky]

i've been playing this game now for what, 2 years straight, and i still cannot tell you what Starlight does.

I used to think scrolls of Teleport Level and Deep Descent were cursed items and would squelch them right away, and yet i've come to know better - but still i cannot find a use for Starlight. I can make use of Trap Creation (trapdoors), Summon Monsters (easy exp), i've learned to appreciate the finer aspects of the game (of sorts) but .. WHAT DOES STARLIGHT DO.

Is it supposed to be a buffed staff of light? Because it's not, it doesn't light up rooms.
Is it supposed to be a buffed WAND of light? I suppose it could be, but less charges and no real use for the additional beams. I'm thinking it's supposed to hurt light-sensitive monsters, but the awkward activation makes it marginally more useful than a simple DL1 wand of light, that weights more and has less charges.

Unless you have a whoooole bunch of orcs all surrounding you, in which case GG.

[Goaticus]

I'm glad you asked! I don't know the answer but can't wait to see what others say. I've been playing the game (on and off) for ~25 years now and I have never found a use for them so don't feel bad. Or maybe I should feel bad, too...

[Estie]

It is more useful than the amulet of adornment, or is it ?

I think I used one once when I just happened to find it and didnt have a wand of light and wanted to light up a hallway. But yeah, squelched as found for me

[Derakon]

It's a shame they're not more useful, because the name is evocative and there's good support in the literature for light that holds back evil. Maybe they should be buffed somehow? Something like:

* Add a Light Room effect in addition to the rays
* Make the rays "hard light" that hurts even not-normally-susceptible monsters
* Grant a short Protection from Evil effect

I could also imagine something where you plant the staff into the ground and it fires off its regular effect every turn after that until it runs out of charges. Which would be cool but considerably more work to implement. And I'm not sure it's that much more useful.

[Goaticus]

Originally Posted by Derakon

It's a shame they're not more useful, because the name is evocative and there's good support in the literature for light that holds back evil. Maybe they should be buffed somehow? Something like:

* Add a Light Room effect in addition to the rays
* Make the rays "hard light" that hurts even not-normally-susceptible monsters
* Grant a short Protection from Evil effect

I could also imagine something where you plant the staff into the ground and it fires off its regular effect every turn after that until it runs out of charges. Which would be cool but considerably more work to implement. And I'm not sure it's that much more useful.

How about a "sea of runes" type effect centered on player. Using the staff creates temporary "light" runes in a small radius centered on player. Orcs and trolls flee the area or take increased damage or something like that. That might make it useful from dungeon level 5-30ish without being overpowered. Also would be consistent-ish with Tolkien lore.

[Nick]

Originally Posted by Derakon

It's a shame they're not more useful, because the name is evocative and there's good support in the literature for light that holds back evil. Maybe they should be buffed somehow? Something like:

* Add a Light Room effect in addition to the rays
* Make the rays "hard light" that hurts even not-normally-susceptible monsters
* Grant a short Protection from Evil effect

I like this, although maybe some sort of fear effect instead of the PfE.

[HallucinationMushroom]

It makes a pretty design in a dark room, and if your delay factor is set high enough it makes an awesome special effect as it fires off. It's like you're holding an awesome firework that you can make go splodey boom ANYTIME you want. Wow!

[MITZE]

Something I've suggested for the Henglikes on the webserver is to make _Starlight randomly target a random amount (3-7?) of r1 balls of strong light (strong light as a damage type being a monster only thing, as far as I remember from pre-restructure and rework V; it's much more player-accessible in the Henglikes).

[Grotug]

I like Derakon's idea as well. Protection from fear does seem thematically fitting. Holy light is comforting and thus emboldening. Maybe it could provide resistance to dark as well for 1d15+5 turns. rDark would be a nice antidote to dark hounds early on and makes sense the bright light would repel the darkness and protect @ from it momentarily.

How come rods of starlight don't exist?

[Voovus]

Staff of Starlight is an old relic from Moria, where I think it might have been the only light that damaged light sensitive creatures. Also, in those days of old, @ could only shoot/aim in eight directions, and Starlight shoots in all eight simultaneously. Even so, it was already pretty useless back then.

I'd be interested in having an effect like: light room + light corridors, without waking monsters. After all, star light ought to be very soft (Gollum tolerated it), except perhaps towards light-sensitive undead.