Annoying - a 'thanc and no powers

[Kalon]

My experimental Half-Ogre Swordsman, level 32, picked up Dethanc in a vault on level 22 of the Sandworm Lair.

After enchanting it to (+10,+10), he then went dragon hunting on top of Angband. After ploughing through a slew of them, he noticed that the dagger, now level 21, had not picked up a SINGLE new power, or even ACCESS to a realm! Aaaargh!

How long have you gone without a level on a 'thanc or sentient weapon?
Edit: Spelling

[Maylith]

I presume you mean weapon levels, not character levels. I usually see some sort of realm/power gain every couple of levels or so.

This is not necessarily always a good thing, as the EARTHQUAKE flag seems to dog me....

[Massimiliano Marangio]

I voted 21+ since there was a bug with sentient weapons (fixed 31/12/2002) that randomly set the experience needed for the first level of the weapon, leading to weapons with huge amounts of XP but no level increase.

[feathin]

What is your Dethanc's pluses to hit and dam now Kalon? Must be hitting pretty hard at least.

[Elliott]

Yeah, I mean, sure, I'd love to get life drain or extra attacks, but those aren't common and with a 'thanc, I might well trade all the various powers for just bonuses to-hit and to-damage. Really, most of the powers are things that don't really help that much. By the time you're high enough level to notice that your 'thanc hasn't gained any powers in a while, most of those powers aren't useful.

You should already have rBase and good detects. Light and fire/electricity auras don't really do much, and the brands and slays are almost pointless because of the base 1d4 damage (getting, say, an acid brand on your thanc is worth a whopping +5 average damage per hit). Plus, you run the risk of getting Earthquake, which makes the weapon almost unuseable.

Given the option between a (+38, +20) dagger with a zillion random powers, most of which aren't actually very useful and a (+60, +40) dagger with no random powers, I'd take the secone every time.

[Kalon]

What is your Dethanc's pluses to hit and dam now Kalon? Must be hitting pretty hard at least.

Before the character met his unfortunate demise, it was L23, fire brand and (+28,+20). It was thus WEAKER than the Executioner's Sword of Greater Life (+15,+19) (+20%) I lucked out by finding in the Sandworm Lair as well...

[Atarlost]

My current char has a *thanc that he's not even bothering with because she has

a BRAND_POIS | SHARP | VAMPIRIC weapon with (+23, +17) mods. I have limited experience with sentient weapons. (everyone does, but there are several of you so your combined insights should be helpful) Would it be worth it to take Nimthanc leveling?

[Nerdanel]

Vampiric in particular is a really neat flag. Looks like your current weapon is awesome against living creatures like most dragons. If you have enough hp buffer you can just hack away at great wyrms and in most cases not worry about healing.

I think Nimthanc deserves to be leveled up though. It might get nice flags and it is likely to be worthy of carried as a swap for undeads and such.