This (http://forum.chaosforge.org/index.php/topic,1075.msg44595.html#msg44595) is the best use of a shockwave pack I've ever seen. Read this post and the next one.
When I find a blood skull and don't plan on using it in the mortuary, I treat it as a medkit. Fire skulls are dangerous, so I usually don't bother.
Preferably on the same level, because if you pick these up on the chance you'll use it later and then move on to the next level, there's a good chance that they'll be forgotten and never used, and so they'll just rob you of an inventory slot for the rest of the game.
Honestly it'd be pretty nice if the staff's damage could be buffed up or atleast made non fire so it could be used for killing lost souls.
Assuming you find a random one I guess. Using that at the City of skulls has little sense :) Yea I actually am trying to locate and terminate my inventory stealers, that's what this topic did stem from.
If you want a plasma AMS, use the Subtle Knife, that's what makes it good. Sure, you don't get the Subtle Knife very often... but that's a good thing, because being able to reliably sweep being swarmed by LSs in every game is a bit too twinky. The AMS has its good use, and the cost is having to carry it across a lot of levels.
I don't want a plasma AMS, I want the artifact to have some use during the game.
Skulls are harder. Off the top of my head, ditch Fire Skull, make a Rock Skull(or something similar) that absorbs corpses for armor/boots durability(can't be too high, maybe 1-2% per corpse, portable durability restore is a unique effect), and make the healing effect on Blood Skull better.
Too useful against bosses. 2 (or 3) uses would kill everything.
Subtle knife has atl-fire "Invoke". don't know what is it - but it drain 2 of hpmax and may be raise or summon something?The wiki says it does 10 BFG Plasma damage to all enemies in sight.
Another random thought about what the Arena Master's Staff could do:
If you are carrying it in your inventory when you die, it does 4d2 points of damage (not sure what type) to every enemy in sight. You then gain half that much HP and are invulnerable for a few turns (3-5?). The staff is then removed from your inventory.
Imagine:
"You Die! Suddenly, the Arena Master's Staff glows a hideous crimson and hellish necrotic energies bring you back from the dead!"
...somewhat of a cross between an Amulet of Life Saving (ADOM/Nethack) and the Hell Mask from _Splatterhouse_.
Another problem here is that such a change does break the idea of a roguelike, where you usually get no second/third/fourth/whatever chance for a given character.On the contrary, some of the most known roguelikes have Amulets of Life Saving (ADOM, NetHack) or something similar (e.g. Blood of Life in ToME), which basically give you an extra life. Even further, these are normal, non-unique items (although extremely rare), and in theory you can have an infinite number of them. ADOM's wishes are a reliable way to receive those.
On the contrary, some of the most known roguelikes have Amulets of Life Saving (ADOM, NetHack) or something similar (e.g. Blood of Life in ToME), which basically give you an extra life. Even further, these are normal, non-unique items (although extremely rare), and in theory you can have an infinite number of them. ADOM's wishes are a reliable way to receive those.
This idea is interesting. It could also work as a single charge for the staff - after you die, the charge is gone, but you arise and the staff remains only to act as a lockpick for the Vaults with its lousy fire attack.
Yes, this is yet another side of this question. Here we come up to the point of deciding whether we need an Item of Life here in DoomRL or not.
These items, I believe, will not just lay on the ground like ammo clips. :)
Personally I think it might be handy (homing phase devices, to some extent, belong to the category of life-saving items), however, obtaining such an item here must either be very difficult through special levels, or extremely unlikely as a random item spawn, like the homing phases. I don't think that the Arena Master's Staff which is discussed within this topic can potentially fulfill such a role. It will definitely require more balancing, like making the Chained Court tougher, or creating a completely new item used for such purpose in another special level.
Actually, I was thinking that the Staff would not remain after reviving you and hence could not be used as the lockpick for the Vaults (if you weren't there yet). I also wanted to force a decision to be made at the vaults themselves: do I spend the Staff to crack the Vaults, or do I keep it and save the "Get out of Jail Free" card for later?
That's why I tied this effect to the Arena Master's Staff - there's only *one*.