v3.3.2 potions of 'stat change'

[scud]

My paladin was roaring away, practically iron-manning thanks to a *very* early Rod of Identify and a trident of *Slay Evil* and ESP, when he got *horribly* nexused at 1500'.

Ended up with STR:13 (could have been worse; had INT:4). Spent some time trying to get renexused but kept getting blown off-level. Could barely lift my trident to defend myself, so dropped back to 1000-1200' in search of Brawns etc.

I have drunk three potions (among perhaps 20) which have had absolutely no effect. The message is simply 'you have no more potion of x'.

I don't recall this ever happening before. Is this something to do with being scrambled?

[Derakon]

From my reading of the code, the potions only work if they are successfully able to drain a stat. So for example, if you're a Dunadain then you have innate Sustain CON, so a potion of Brawn (or Intellect, etc.) has a 20% (1 in 5) chance of failing. There's no retry logic in the stat-swap code (it's in effects.c; search for "BRAWN"), just a random stat selection, and if that stat is successfully drained, then STR is boosted.

Assuming you have 1 stat sustain, then, the odds of failing to get a STR boost 3 times is 1 in 125. With 2 sustains, it's 1 in ~15.

[scud]

Originally Posted by Derakon

Assuming you have 1 stat sustain, then, the odds of failing to get a STR boost 3 times is 1 in 125. With 2 sustains, it's 1 in ~15.

That would be three consecutive fails, of course.

All makes sense now. I'm currently wearing an Iron Crown of Might, which is basically a Ring of Bodykeeping On My Head, and an Elven Cloak of the Magi, so right now I've got a 60% chance of failure: the only non-sustains are WIS and CHR.

So... I need to get naked before drinking.

I guess I *must* have had failures in the past, but it's rare to be so 'sustained' when drinking such potions.

[scud]

Hmmm, scrap that!

Without first adjusting my clothing I quaffed a Nimbleness, and it sapped my STR. It bypassed the sustain like a pint of Old Time Hound.

[Derakon]

Hm, you're right. Shows what I get for assuming that functions do certain things. Sorry. I don't know what's going on then.

[Philip]

I'm pretty sure this thing happened before already.

[scud]

Originally Posted by Philip

I'm pretty sure this thing happened before already.

Oh, most likely. Had a search and found nothing, but I'm not sure if there's a collective name for Brawn, Nimbleness etc.

I'm an enthusiastic drinker of such potions and have no memory of seeing them fail. Although it's unusual to have four sustains so early in the game, it can't be unusual to have at least one. My gut feeling is that's it's related to the nexus scrambling.

[scud]

http://angband.oook.cz/forum/showthread.php?t=4800

Above thread discusses the 'potion of +/– vs sustain' issue (referring to an August 2011 nightly); can find nothing about such potions doing nothing. No failure message, just one less potion in my pack.

[Timo Pietilä]

Originally Posted by scud

My paladin was roaring away, practically iron-manning thanks to a *very* early Rod of Identify and a trident of *Slay Evil* and ESP, when he got *horribly* nexused at 1500'.

Ended up with STR:13 (could have been worse; had INT:4). Spent some time trying to get renexused but kept getting blown off-level. Could barely lift my trident to defend myself, so dropped back to 1000-1200' in search of Brawns etc.

I have drunk three potions (among perhaps 20) which have had absolutely no effect. The message is simply 'you have no more potion of x'.

I don't recall this ever happening before. Is this something to do with being scrambled?

Could be that "INT 4". If that is actually internal 3 then it can't be drained further, and if that brawn tries to reduce that and fails, then it doesn't do anything.

Actually I'm not sure if things can get worse than 3 even with penalties to stat...

[EDIT] tested that, and with H-Troll Paladin with 10 internal INT you have 3 INT, gave it RoINT -3 and it still is 3, not zero, and if you drink gain-one/lose-one potion that tries to reduce stat that is already at internal 3 it does nothing, but will reduce stat that is internally over 3 even if combined (RB, CB & EB) stat is 3 (like that h-troll). Note that if you have already maxed stat, it can still reduce stat without raising that maxed.

[scud]

Originally Posted by Timo Pietilä

Could be that "INT 4". If that is actually internal 3 then it can't be drained further, and if that brawn tries to reduce that and fails, then it doesn't do anything.

I think we have a winner...

A few weeks ago I played a Half-Troll Paladin and at the time thought that I drank either an Intelligence that was seemingly successful but that failed to raise INT above 3. If the cumulative RB/CB of -7 means that any internal INT value of less 10 will always be shown as 3 then that would explain it.