Are staffs good enough on wizards?

[shockeroo]

Any thoughts on a Shield spell, PV & DV equal to your staff skill level, when you have a staff equipped?

[Soirana]

Any thoughts on a Shield spell, PV & DV equal to your staff skill level, when you have a staff equipped?

Well, we have mental shield of mindcrafters [it is Willpower+char level divided by 5 [by 8 for PV]]. the only problem with that one, iirc, was rather high cost in PP per turn. Changing it too let say 50 turns per one time activation and allowing to use if staff is equipped, could be interesting.

Honestly i believe for something to have a chance to succeed it has to be drastic. Like not allowing cast offensive spells with shield equipped. In my opinion, core of the problem is that since wizzies do most damage with spells anyway, they can just gran a shield and some sweet bonus granting weapon, cause they are not using weapon for damage in serious situations. So fixing that certain weapon is needed for damage output would sort of make sense.

[yhal003]

Personally, i would just use knife of endurance and high level [tower crystal, large/tower eternium] shield anyway. it is not like wizards need damage out of weapon, you can bash goblins with log or wooden stick.

At something like lv3 in knives and shields, that is still 19 dv, 4 pv and hp regen [or whatever you getting out of main hand weapon]. Staves at lv10 [i probably would not reach more with wizard anyway] is just 20DV.

that is not a big secret anyway - essentially shields are bonkers.

And again it comes down to lack of interesting staves. If you can have 20 DV and HP regen there would at least be a choice. There is knife of endurance, why cannot there be staff of endurance, or staff of resistance [0,+5] with -para and -death.

[Soirana]

And again it comes down to lack of interesting staves. If you can have 20 DV and HP regen there would at least be a choice. There is knife of endurance, why cannot there be staff of endurance, or staff of resistance [0,+5] with -para and -death.

Depends on rarity of mentioned staff. Shields, you know always happen in the game and if a char has rotten luck with ego/fancy weapons you can always grab nonnak [+Wi, death resist]. If I found an "interesting" staff in Casino, i won't change my specialization in the current situation.
To be an option staves have to offer something reliable in preToEF parts of the game, with Ice domains vault, Casino and lower CoC weapon choice will be likely an artifact in the late game.

I mean for regular game, the thinking process would be like --- which is more likely to happen finding a good staff or any fancy singlehanded weapon... As long as staves are pitched against all types of one-handers, it will be an unwinnable battle anyway.

[anon123]

A chance of spell failure if you don't have an open hand or a staff equipped?

Smth along the lines of "casting without a spare hand costs 1.5x time more energy and power", or "casting utility spells without a free hand is impossible (still can throw around bolts with your sword)"?

Spellcasting energy penalty (1500?) without staff equipped or free hand.

What if wizards need 10 times more marks to advance shields and any weapon skill but the staves?

Honestly i believe for something to have a chance to succeed it has to be drastic. Like not allowing cast offensive spells with shield equipped.

If you make the alternatives so horrible they're not worth using anymore, yes, staves will be better

[Soirana]

If you make the alternatives so horrible they're not worth using anymore, yes, staves will be better

I think cowaxe is a good example of what happens when a weapon is boosted to become an option on par with shields.

My honest not-so-horrible suggestion:
Add few talents to the current system [numbers might need some/severe changes]:

Spell shield -- whenever char casts combat spell with staff equipped he gets DV bonus of [char level+willpower]/6 for 10 turns, but not higher than DV bonus gained through the staff skill.
Advanced spell shield -- same just [CL+Wi]/4 for 15 turns
Expert --- same just [CL+WI]/2 for 20 turns.

[maybe PV bonus of half DV too, although that might be just to good in mid game]

Well, that would make staff an option for roleplaying or other reason, while leaving game as it is for people not interested in staves. Also at start wizards would not get a boost [they start with no weapon skills] and it would not be too much of bonus [IMHO] before getting through early mid game [Pyramid and dwarven graveyard]

[shockeroo]

I quite like the spell shield talents.

What if Staff of the Magi and Staff of Power were as common as quarterstaves, with lower damage (1d8?) and variable stat bonuses (2-4 and 2-6 instead of 4 and 6), and also appeared in higher metals?

[Soirana]

I would just make both of these staves made from mithril and readjust DL and rarity so they could drop at PC6 vault.

Something like skull staff could use boost [it was disappointing for me when I started playing]. I would suggest either straight Pe boost or torch like effect [+vision radius, negates stealth, does not act as light source -- flavor wise one can imagine that skull on staff keeps talking about stuff nearby, but all the chatter atracts monsters].

having good ego mithril stuff somewhere in game [maybe as reward for killing old crone] would be nice. Something like hateful mithril-shod staff of slaughtering [that might a bit too good]

[Blank4u47]

Because wizards are too easy, I decided to play a troll wizard who only wields staffs, and it actually is going very well! Of course I cleared the pc before identifying what I got from smc and what did I have? Staff of the magi! Works very well for me because of the defensive boosts and my max mana is 16.