Re: CF: The Archer

[David Andrew Michael Noelle <>]

> Date: Sun, 21 May 2000 19:36:18 +0200 (CEST)
> From: Frank Tore Johansen <>
> Sender: 
> 
> How about this: The unlimited quiver has a magical bonus, and only arrows
> below a certain strength (limit based on this bonus) will fit?
> Just count slaying as a +1 or +2 extra, etc.

How about magical quivers with normally limited capacity but artifact
arrow properties, that apply their own magic to any arrow fired from
them?  Example:

quiver of arrows of fire
quiver of arrows of troll slaying
quiver of bolts of silver
etc...

Fill with whatever appropriate ammunition, and *when fired*, the
resulting missile gains the properties of both the quiver and the bow.

Eg. bow +2, quiver of arrows of troll slaying, with:
25 arrows
5  arrows of troll slaying
10 arrows +3
10 arrows of lightning

actually fires these:
30 arrow of troll slaying +2
10 arrow of troll slaying +5
10 arrow of lightning, troll slaying +2


The "Unlimited" quiver seems just a bit extraneous to me.  The only
time I've ever found myself with too _few_ arrows has been when I've
tried to use them against creatures who heal themselves faster than I
could damage them.  I usually have trouble keeping all the extra
useless (normal or cursed) arrows from filling up my quivers of
holding.  I've had characters collect piles of thousands of extra +1
and +2 arrows, in case they ever felt like playing with alchemy and
turning them into something more magical.

If an "Unlimited" quiver is implemented, it will make bows _much_ more
powerful, effectively negating the ammunition requirement.  I would
imagine such a thing would be a unique artifact at least, since it
would be the equivalent of a wand of magic bullets with infinite
charges, user-defined additional effects, and the remarkable advantage
of granting experience for using it.

The Elf in the original Gauntlet did indeed have such an artifact, but
that was an arcade game.  Should we also create magical throwing axes
for the warrior that somehow replicate themselves so that you only
need to carry one in order to throw an infinite number of them as fast
as you can hit the button?  And wouldn't that mean the end of spell
points so the mage could keep up with infinite fireballs?

Note also that arrows are not /always/ used up by firing them.
Putting an expensive arrow in an unlimited quiver and firing at a wall
creates an unlimited supply of money on demand without so much as a
heavy pouch to carry around.  That alone qualifies it as unbalancing.

Perhaps something less extreme is in order, such as a quiver that
randomly selects an arrow to fire from its contents, and has a random
chance of duplicating that arrow but giving the replica it fires a
0% chance of being recoverable.  The number of recoverable arrows will
be the same as with a normal quiver, but the number of arrows fired
will be multiplied by some adjustable factor.


-- 
            -Dave Noelle,                 
            -the Villa Straylight,  http://www.straylight.org
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