Re: Enchanted Items

["Michael B. Martin" <>]

> I think the Bow of Auriga is a great candidate for a weapon which
> has weird effects if you use it but are too low-level.  When I made
> the weapon I intended it be useful against higher-level monsters.
> Even if you have awesome missiles, (3x damage, or whatever short
> of assassination) it is VERY hard to actually KILL anything with 
> bows (anything high-level).
> 
> The Bow of Auriga and the Arrows of Assasination (or blessed arrows)
> are really intended to prevent missile weapons from becoming 
> completely irrelevant in high-level dungeons.
> 
> Really I guess there should be more of a spectrum of power in the
> bow-artifact genre.  Ordinary bows become useless at medium levels,
> while even the Bow of Auriga is useless at high levels.

I agree that bows tend to be too "wimpy" against higher level
monsters.  In fact, about the only time I actually use my bow of
Auriga now is when shooting monsters from a distance when I don't want
to get too close to them (e.g. slime and other acid-wielding
beasties).  Even then, a lot of the time I'll opt for a spell instead
(that ring of Elrond sure helps out with the spell points!),
especially if I can take out a whole bunch at once, with a fireball
for example.

What about the possibility of "critical hits" with the right bow
and/or arrows?  Right now you can occasionally find arrows of
assassination, blessedness, etc., but what about a bow that has a
chance of a "critical hit" (either high damage or death) on any
monster?  I tried killing a (red) dragon with some arrows of
"assassinating dragons" and not a single one out of about 14 or so
killed it (but I once killed Gork with an "assassinating trolls"
arrow on the second shot!).  (When I say "critical hits", the demise
of a certain dragon by a single arrow in a certain book by Tolkien
comes to mind. :)  The "assassinating" arrows would enhance the effect
against a particular type of monster, but this effect would work
against any monster, with the right bow (a "Bow of Slaying"?) and with
the damage/chance of death increasing with weapon magic and/or
character level.  Or perhaps instead have the ability to do "critical
hits" with any bow for any character with an archery skill?  Is this
too complicated?  I think it would certainly help range weapons
remain useful at higher levels.

-Michael