This is a list of major differences between Ironband and other *bands
(especially NPPAngband and Vanilla).

It is written for players who are used to *banding and want to know
how Ironband is different from other variants. I do suggest you read
it as there are some important changes!

Antoine (antoine.from.rgrd@gmail.com)

=================================================================

The big picture
===============

1. The dungeon is just 50 levels deep. The final boss is The Witch
King of Angmar. He hangs out on DL 50 and to reach him you first have
to kill another level boss on DL 49.

2. As the name implies, this is an ironman game. You can never go up
stairs, only down. You start in the dungeon and can never get back to
town to go shopping. You will have to pick up all your supplies in the
dungeon. You may find light, food, ammo, restore stat potions and
healing potions to be in short supply from time to time. Some spells
can help here.

3. You cannot spend gold when there are no shops, but now you get XP
when you pick money up instead.

4. The maximum character level is CL 36 (rather than 50 as in other
*bands).

5. There are no classes in Ironband - all characters can fight, shoot,
sneak and cast spells. You can specialise by raising the appropriate
stats (e.g. Intelligence and Wisdom for casters).

6. You will notice you have quite a few SP and spells are cheap.
However the downside is that SP do not regenerate naturally. Resting
does not help. You only get your SP back when you go down stairs. This
causes some interesting tactical play.

7. Some escape spells (including Teleport, Portal) now have a delay of
several turns, instead of taking effect immediately. Phase Door is
still instant. There is no Teleport Level - nor, for that matter, is
it easy to get access to Destruction or Alter Reality.

8. To balance this, some big monster attacks do less damage than in
other *bands. Breath weapons are less dangerous at long range (like in
NPP). Poison attacks do less damage when they first hit you, but can
do quite a lot of damage in the following rounds (and are not healed by
CCW).

9. Identifying items is easier than before. Rings, amulets and light
sources are identified when you put them on. Wands and talismans are
identified when you first see them. If you wield a pseudo-identified
weapon or armor, you get to see its plusses (though not any special
powers it may have). Melee weapons with slays and brands give you
different hit messages so can be easily recognised.

10. On the other hand, cursed items now pseudo-ID as 'good' and
terrible items as 'excellent' or 'special'. So watch out as pseudo-ID
will now not protect you from curses! 


Stats
=====

1. Charisma has been replaced by four new stats - Agility, Stealth,
Perception, Luck.

2. The stats work as follows:
- Strength - melee damage, using the heavier weapons without penalty,
encumbrance, tunneling.
- Intelligence - spell failure rates, confusion resistance, reading
scrolls, disarming.
- Wisdom - spell points, saving throw.
- Dexterity - number of melee attacks, number of shots, melee to-hit,
disarming.
- Constitution - hit points, Slow Digestion at high levels.
- Agility - speed, AC, avoiding theft, recovery from paralysis.
- Stealth - sneaking, backstab bonuses, RDark at high levels.
- Perception - missile to-hit and damage, light radius, infravision,
searching, pseudo-ID, avoiding traps, recovery from blindness, even 
limited ESP.
- Luck - finding good magic items, finding less cursed items, avoiding
some insta-deaths.

3. Your original stats must be randomly determined (no autoroller or
points-based). You'll find your stats mediocre at first, but they will
go up quickly.

4. There are no stat potions in Ironband. However, you will get stat
increases from other sources. 
- Whenever you go up a level you can choose one of your stats to 
increase. 
- When you reach each of DLs 2, 4, and 6, one of your stats will go up
a lot, one a little and one actually go down. This reflects your 
character discovering their true potential (and is designed to make you 
play a character different from what you might have expected). 
- When you reach each even-numbered DL thereafter, one of your stats 
will go up 1 point. The stat is chosen at random, but is influenced by 
your race to some extent.

5. You can try min-maxing your stats if you want, but you may find
this quite handicapping! A balanced character may or may not be more
effective. No character will have perfect stats by the end game so you
have to make some sacrifices.

6. Nexus attacks can no longer swap your stats.


Magic
=====

1. SP do not regenerate naturally. Resting does not help. You only get
your SP back when you go down stairs. So use SP wisely and retreat to
the stairs down when you need to!

2. The selection of dungeon books and spells is different as you'll
discover. Spells do not need to be learnt and cannot be forgotten; you
just need the correct spellbook.

3. Wands now work differently - each type of wand allows you to cast
the matching spell. You still need to make the spell failure check and
pay the SP - but the spell cost is reduced by 1 and the failure chance
is reduced.

4. There are no staffs or rods. However there are Talismans. A
talisman allows you to cast a family of spells more cheaply when it is
in your inventory. For example a Talisman of Time allows you to cast
Haste Self, Slow and Restoration for reduced cost. This is a big help
in conserving SP.

5. Some pieces of equipment can act like a Talisman when worn. For
instance an Amulet of Regeneration, when you put it on, allows you to
cast healing spells for reduced cost.

6. Talismans and similar items do not make wands cost less SP.

7. Spellbooks are now fairly resistant to damage, but can sometimes be
burnt by really big fire attacks. Similarly, wands and talismans can 
sometimes be destroyed by really big lighting attacks.

8. Sleep, confusion and slow spells are more effective than before.


Combat
======

1. Your melee damage bonus is now a multiplier to your base damage
dice, rather than an adder. The raw +-to-dam gets converted into a
percentage (press 'C' to see this percentage). So you will get a lot
more damage by using a heavier weapon. A light weapon like a whip or
dagger will be quite ineffective.

2. Missile damage is just as per NPP.

3. There are now fractional blows and shots. A high Dexterity
increases the numbers of blows and shots you get. But if your melee
weapon is too heavy for your Strength, you will get much fewer blows
and a to-hit penalty. Increase your strength or use a lighter weapon.

4. Brands and slays are quite important. Note that your best brand and
your best slay can both affect damage against a single monster, so a
good weapon can do really quite a lot of damage (if it has good base
dice).

5. High Perception gives you better missile hit/dam, and high Stealth
gives you hit and damage bonuses when you hit or shoot a sleeping monster.
High Agility increases your speed and AC.

6. Heavy body armors now reduce your Stealth. Some boots can also reduce
your Stealth, and some helms reduce your Perception.

7. Tough armors with big base AC can now be enchanted a lot higher. On 
the other hand, light armors with low base AC cannot take a lot of 
enchantment, and are usually found with low plusses.

8. If you have low Dexterity and try to shoot a monster, you may sometimes
fire off your missile in the wrong direction.

9. Two-handed weapons give more critical hits than one-handed ones. 
However, two-handed weapons cannot be wielded with a shield, and can 
never be wielded by dwarves, gnomes, or halflings (who are too short to
use them properly).


So - why are these changes good?
================================

IMO these are the good things about Ironband:

1. No more 'game of shopping' - you never need to pick stuff up just
to sell it.

2. 'Too much junk' is pretty much fixed (with changes to item
probabilities, all characters able to use all items, some crap items
removed, changes to identification, etc - and with no shops you need
to keep a lot more of the stuff you find!)

3. Many of the problems which make normal Ironman games very
challenging are fixed in Ironband (for example, stat drain is a
problem but not a huge one, and spellbooks are more resistant to
fire).

4. No more warriors wielding whips - go for a heavy weapon to do more
damage (if your Strength is high enough).

5. No more boring stat gain period - your stats increase throughout
the entire game without needing to collect potions.

6. Having nine stats is cool especially when you can decide which ones
to raise. No more 'all endgame characters look the same'.

7. Lots of interesting resource allocation issues because your SPs
only regenerate when you go downstairs. Will you use your precious SPs
for a big fight, or to create some food for later, or to identify the
items you found, or...?

8. With many types of escape restricted, you actually have to kill the
monsters :) (or sneak around them).


=================================================================
With thanks to the developers and maintainers of
NPPAngband, Angband and Moria.

Antoine (antoine.from.rgrd@gmail.com)
=================================================================