A use for those potions of cure light wounds (and others)

[ekolis]

Potions of cure light wounds are pretty useless except at the very beginning of the game, seeing as quaffing one during battle with anything more dangerous than a snake winds you up with fewer HP than you started with! Something that might make them more interesting would be to borrow from Nethack (yeah, groan, but bear with me here) and let all the various healing potions increase your max HP slightly if quaffed when at full health. Or, to make things even more interesting, instead of a mechanical +1 to max HP for cure light, +2 for cure medium, +4 for cure serious, +8 for healing or somesuch, it could be a (very small) chance of improving CON by one. Maybe an 0.01% chance for every hitpoint restored which is "wasted" (would put you above max HP), no matter how many HP you start with? (i.e. you start with 60/100 HP and restore 75, then 35 are wasted) Then a cure light wounds quaffed at max HP would give you a minute 0.02% to 0.16% chance, while a potion of healing would give you a 3% chance.
I know this idea sounds rather "un-Angbandish" but I just thought I'd throw it out there since it could after all add a tiny bit to the strategic depth of the game! (Quaff the potion when you need it for lots of HP, or quaff it when you don't for a few max HP or a possible "free potion of constitution"?)

[AR_chie]

I disagree with idea which gives a chance to raise HP by drinking a plain potion of curing/healing. Raising CON is balanced for now. It could give advantage in playing for some heroes (mages/priests).

You must realised that HP for warrior and for mages is different:
- 1HP for mage on 5 plev gives him a much more than for warrior on the same plev
- mages raises theirs level much slower then warriors (more exp needed to up plev)

But I agree that !of curing light/serious/critical wounds gives to small HP's - next is healing that gives enourmous much much more. May be we can raise cured HP a little more for each of them? Or... add a new curing potion.

[Bandobras]

Several variants make CLW useful and/or make its generation below DL10 very unlikely.

[AR_chie]

Several variants make CLW useful and/or make its generation below DL10 very unlikely.

In Z (don't remember from which ver) CLW gives up to 50HP, CMW up to 100 and CCW up to 150. I think this is a balanced (if praise for them will be enough higher)

[takkaria]

Originally Posted by Bandobras

Several variants make CLW useful and/or make its generation below DL10 very unlikely.

My preferred approach to make them useful is have them heal % HPs rather than a fixed number.

[Faust]

Originally Posted by takkaria

My preferred approach to make them useful is have them heal % HPs rather than a fixed number.

This would work well so long as there was a minimum HP heal (if you're a LVL 1 mage with only 12 HP max only curing 10% wouldn't be of any real use, whereas if you're a LVL 50 Warrior 10% could be 100+ HP), say for example CLW cuures 10% but minimum 6 HP, CSW cures 20% but min 20 HP, CCW cures 30% but Min 40 HP (just my musings while bored at work ).