Favourite/preferred kind of quest reward?

[furiosity]

What does everyone consider the best kind of reward to get for quests?

It's a general-interest thing as well as a Theme module thing as I'm starting to get into adding quests at various locations, and have several ideas for what to give as rewards.. and it would be helpful to know what actual players consider 'good' rewards.

I personally prefer hit points and skill points in any way that they can be got. Weapons, armour, and magical items can be found or stolen but hit points and skills cannot (once you pass 50, that is).

(I foresee that this is bound to get spoily so I'm posting it in spoilers right away).

[Se?or DogsBreakfast]

I picked all of the above, since it really depends at which point in the game youre at as to what is most useful!

I'm sure everyone knows how much of a difference it makes to find a *great* sword within the first few BD levels. And then HPs and skills, as well as immunities, is often what is most desired later to prepare for the big battles.

[Maylith]

I'm with Furiosity -- hitpoints and skill points, ideally.

Gold -- nah.

I do, though, think finding an excellent item -- be it a weapon, armour, or other object -- is always fun, and in the early game, can have a huge impact on gameplay decisions.

[Massimiliano Marangio]

I picked some of the above. The rewards I like the most are homes (missing in the list above), hit points and skill points, useful for any character.

It also depends on the character class if a magic item is useful or not (e.g. Monks and armour, Sorcerers and weapons, Unbeliever and magic sticks)

[Maur]

Skill points.

Hit points are nice, but I'd take skill points over them any day.

[zasvid]

Hitpoints, hitpoints, hitpoints. Some skill points are good too. But hps are better. As everyone who has read LD's Guide knows. Though devising some new kind of reward, say, innate abilities or intrisics (sp?) would be cool. A quest for sanity regeneration power? Gotta love it!

[Kalirion]

Specific Skill points, and once I have the skills I want with the maximum available modifier, generic skill points will do. Hit points comes last, mainly because I almost never play sorcerers.

[ubertaco]

I chose generic skill points, and I'm really pressed to see why anything (other than maybe hps) would be more valuable. As I see it you are not limited in any way with items, sure you can be unlucky (or lucky), but if you are patient enough you will find what you need. HPs are similiar in that you know (roughly) from birth where you should cap out at, so you normally plan accordingly, besides a proliferation of HPs would seemingly throw off the balance more easilly than skill points. Generic skill points would be superior to specified skill points (with the exception of how new skills are opened in the first place) in every imaginable situation, unless you got more of the specified vs. the generic.

Thats a fairly munchkinish answer though. I do agree that there is a great deal of fun in getting items, especially when luck into something that totally takes your (usually lower lvl) character into a new dimention of death dealing, but again, I can revisit levels and keep on cleaning out vaults/pits and eventually find most of what I need, that's not always very exciting and can lead to the boredom that most rougelikes suffer from. Skill points though are really always useful (more so in 2.3, not sure about theme), and have a pretty hard cap on how many you can get, and even what you can use them on (FF, and your starting class).

[Hunter]

Well, generic skill points and hit points, natch, but that's only what I'd love to have most, not what I'd think would be the best reward unless carefully and miserly dispensed. Skill points in particular are extremely valuable to most -- though not all -- characters, and giving them away shouldn't be undertake lightly. That's why the Potion of Learning is very, very rare. Ditto Greater Ration of Health, re hit points. (The Maeglin Quest is, theoretically, one of the hardest in the game, hence the reward.)

I'd second MM's vote on a new house.

Also, a chance to gain a sudden chunk of piety by performing a specific quest -- not the God quests -- in the service of your deity. For instance, Eru could ask you to raze a dark temple, or Melkor could ask you to raise a dark temple. Or Aule could ask you to recover the stolen key to Moria. And so on.

Then there's the idea of removing a corruption -- or eveb a specific corruption selected by the player -- as the reward for a particularly difficult quest.

Another idea is creating a valuable skill that is utterly unavailable to starting characters and can only be gained, plus modifier, by completing a certain quest.

[Hypnos]

I would rather have the skill points. Someone else on here had a quote, if a monster can kill you with 1000 hp, it can probably kill you with 2000 hp also.

Specific skill points can open up entirely new areas. It is possible to become a tankmage who can kill anything with magic or melee and summon all kinds of Greater Demons/Dragons. 2 of the best skill areas, Thaumaturgy and Mindcraft, can be gained by any character by FF quests. Besides, this way is way more interesting.

The standard Angband warrior is extremely boring, because of the tradeoff between melee power and lack of flexibility. Here you can pick Troll Zombie Warrior and get mindcraft for almost all utility spells and thaum for the best attack spells in the game, and then add necromancy and get vampirism and the ability to not die. I would rather have that than a 5000 hp warrior without any magic powers.

I usually play hybrid characters in most RPGs and ToME lets you pull that off without suffering the massive penalties that are common in other games, but you have to make some major choices such as fighting swarms of powered up enemies in Angband, and going into quest levels where you cannot escape very tough foes.

I would like quests for even more skill points, even if its a challenge like facing 100 level 150 GwOPs on an arena level.

[christopher]

I would rather have the skill points. Someone else on here had a quote, if a monster can kill you with 1000 hp, it can probably kill you with 2000 hp also.

That was me!

I voted for skill points a specific area for a few reasons. First of all most possession rewards (weapons, armour, gold etc.) become obsolete during the mid-to-end game when you can find them yourself without much drama (unless it's a specific artifact reward, which is okay) but skill points never become useless, and in the mid-to-end game they are extremely difficult to come by. Getting skill points to be used for anything seems a bit, well out of Theme , in my opinion, while someone training you in one skill is more realistic. Getting skill points in one skill can also open up new skills, which is impossible if you have not random quests (ignoring beastmaster etc).

[furiosity]

I agree that a Home is an excellent reward for a quest, but inventory management is a huge part of the game and extra homes can take away from the challenge. I think that maybe one more extra home in addition to the 4 already guaranteed could be OK, to make up for the possible loss of the Gondolin home, but beyond that, I'd hesitate to add more homes. But I agree that a home is one of the most useful rewards in the game.

As for generic skill points - not sure about them being out of theme at all - if FF can teach you any of a large number of skills, why shouldn't you be able to improve upon the knowledge of a skill which you already have? In fact, Theme has potions of learning, not just one potion of learning.

[erisdiscordia]

I put "skill points for any area," but that was strictly out of munchkinism. Much more interesting would be skill points in a restricted range of areas (especially for skills that cannot be obtained otherwise), or for unique items that you are unlikely to find a functional near-duplicate of at any time in the game (e.g. the Filthy Rag of the Wight, Toris Mejistos).

The Thunderlord quest reward (the jumpgates) is really nice because it reduces tedium.

Some reward brainstorms:
- a cosmetic surgery center for on-demand gender, weight, and height fixing
- a world feature named after your character ("We hereby rename this village Munchkinville forevermore. Thank you, dear Munchkin!")
- a horn (etc.) to call a special, powerful pet a certain number of times.
- mapping of the world map

ErisD

[ubertaco]

Another interesting reward would be an ability (racial or otherwise). So that you could learn explosive runes or perfect cast (though since I don't play theme I don't know if these are still there, but you get my drift).

I also like the corruption one it fits in with the abilty as well.

Another idea is to have a quest to find/rescue/whatever the lost library of foo, once the library has been saved/found/whatever, it can teach you skills (new or current) at a high cost (like say donating artifacts or something, money obviously isn't a good cost as its too easy to come by). Have it generate quests for unfound artifacts (might be a bit touchy...) and then if you want the new skill you have to donate the artifact(s).

[Hunter]

I agree that a Home is an excellent reward for a quest, but inventory management is a huge part of the game and extra homes can take away from the challenge. I think that maybe one more extra home in addition to the 4 already guaranteed could be OK, to make up for the possible loss of the Gondolin home, but beyond that, I'd hesitate to add more homes. But I agree that a home is one of the most useful rewards in the game.

Yeah, having several new houses would seem excessive. I'd say one new house would be nice, if only to have the convenience of being able to store a little more...though it'd defeat the point if it was only a replacement if you lost Gondolin. For those of us who have long since learned not to lose Gondolin, it doesn't seem quite fair.

As for generic skill points - not sure about them being out of theme at all - if FF can teach you any of a large number of skills, why shouldn't you be able to improve upon the knowledge of a skill which you already have? In fact, Theme has potions of learning, not just one potion of learning.

Well, to echo your phrase above, skill point management is a huge part of the game. I'm not arguing that skill points shouldn't be a reward -- I did say that I'd really love that but it should be very carefully dispensed -- but that they should be a very rare and limited reward, for obvious reasons. As erisdiscordia points out, it can quickly get munchkinish if someone could, with diligent application, improve indefinitely....I could certainly enjoy mercenary with maxxed out combat and sneakiness-related skills, plus whatever FF gave me (imagine a swordmaster with 50.00 Thaum., Magic, Monster-Lore, Symbiosis, Summoning, Divination, Conveyance, Spirituality, Prayer, et cetera. The saving grace of Beastmaster quests is that eventually -- usually sooner rather than later -- you hit one or two that are almost impossible to fulfill. Plus Monster-Lore is a relatively weak skill in the absence of other skills.

OTOH...multiple Potions of Learning? I haven't even found one yet in Theme (though I've found it a couple times in ToME). Sigh...

Other suggestions...more cases of what you did in Erebor, with the map and key. A single Wish would be an interesting possibility in terms of game-play for a very high-level quest...not particularly overpowered given the limitations on Wishing. Another jumpgate like the Thunderlord quest reward could be fun (personally, I want a Khazad-dum jumpgate, but....) Or a one-time +1 -- and only +1, no higher --- pval boost to any item, not just ones covered with by Craftmanship. It would work even on items normally at their limit for pval boosts. (As a cruel twist, you could make it work unfailingly...if it succeeds. If it doesn't, the item is annihilated in magical energies, much like an overcharged wand. Even artifacts would be subject. Or, less severe but almost as bad, it is automatically given an Ancient Foul Curse.)

Unique fixed artifacts only dropped by a quest guardian or given as a quest reward are always nice too.