Stat Potion Idea

[Greebley]

An idea I had. I did try to search to see if it already was discussed. Apologies if it has.

The fact that stat potions go from being very valuable to nearly useless is a tad jarring. Also Augmentation are usually obsolete before I find one. I find I like the way enchant scrolls work since they are always worth reading.

One way to make stat potions more interesting would be to make them more like the enchant scrolls. One possible way would be that after 18/90 a potion only had a chance of raising by a point, and the maximum was 18/110 (or 18/120) (assuming this didn't unbalance the game).

For example, a stat potion has a 2 in (current stat - 18/88) chance of going up for current stat of 18/91 or better (so 18/91 is 2/3, 18/100 is 2/12, 18/109 is 2/21) - Or it could have an independent table like enchants.

This way it would take a lot of stat potions to reach max. Players would likely start descending at around 18/90 for their stats which would slowly increase to (and above) 18/100 but may never reach the maximum. It makes augmentation potions a nice find.

Dependent on whether getting 18/110 or 18/120 unbalances the game which I cannot judge myself - but since that is a lot of potions just to get the same effect of a +1 or +2 to a stat, it doesn't sound too bad.

[Narvius]

Maybe another, simplier approach:
!of [Stat] - raises the give stat as usual, but up to... say, 18/60.
!of *[Stat]* - the normal stat potion.

!of *[Stat]*s would start appearing shortly before !Augmentation.

[Bandobras]

The original idea of making stat increases very small is interesting, too. However, notice that people stop reading enchant scrolls after +10, +11 and they are right because the turn spent reading the scroll then means more risk than offers reward.

There are other ideas about making stat potions interesting, e.g. let them give a big temporary boost to stats, on top of a permanent boost. Probably not worth carrying them, but well worth quaffing a potion you walk over.

[Psi]

If augmentation is obsolete before you find one, that may just be an indication of your speed of descent. I find them a godsend.

[Nick]

Originally Posted by Narvius

Maybe another, simplier approach:
!of [Stat] - raises the give stat as usual, but up to... say, 18/60.
!of *[Stat]* - the normal stat potion.

!of *[Stat]*s would start appearing shortly before !Augmentation.

This is the FAangband system (with the [Stat] not raising above 18, but occurring 10 levels earlier).