Lure improvement

[Grey]

Stealing this idea from discussion on IRC :P

Basically Lure is great at low levels, for getting cats off your tail. Mid-game it's good for drawing enemies to traps you've launched at on the same spot. Late game it tends to get one-shot by archers and mages. Now there's a few solutions to how the lure can be made better at late levels:

1. Make it beefier with more HP
2. Make it explode when destroyed at TL4 or 5
3. Make it set off nearby traps at TL4 or 5

The first seems unthematic to me - if a Rogue can get that sort of machinery up he should strap it to himself for protection. The second can be outright dangerous if using the lure as a closeby meat shield, or if there are escorts about. The third works nicely with how people already use the lure, and particularly works well with Explosion and Poison Cloud. It can also be a way to cause traps to trigger on enemies that wouldn't normally get hit by traps.

So, yeah, option number 3 - traps within 2 squares or so are detonated by the lure when it's destroyed. tiger_eye's idea, I believe :)

[marvalis]

When reading this I immediately thought of a lure as an indestructible 'illusion' that lasts for a number of turns. For example: 3 turns.
Those with hit-points that can be killed could have a longer duration (assuming that there are multiple 'lures').

[bricks]

Number-of-hits would also work, assuming that the mechanic gets tweaked a little (certain abilities seem to take out 3-hit bone shields immediately).

[TheRani]

If you want to go the illusory route, that would be great. Make it an invulnerable summon that fades away after X number of turns kind of like a summoner's summons, and have the duration increase with talent level. At least then it wouldn't be getting destroyed in one turn at high levels.

Either way, implementing the idea where at TL 4 or 5 it triggers nearby explosion or poison gas traps when it disappears would also be fantastic.

[Aquillion]

The invulnerable illusion idea sounds good to me (though how would a non-magical class do that?)

I don't necessarily buy the "if they could make the lure invincible, why not make themselves invincible" thing -- it's not the same thing at all. You can do things to make a device hard-to-break that wouldn't necessarily help protect a squishy fleshy body.

[Frumple]

Even if the skull doesn't crack, the brain can still be turned to mush with the appropriate amount of force. Armoring yourself in an invincible material doesn't stop force transferral from breaking all your precious innards

So invinco-lure would be fine. The reason the rogues wouldn't strap a large amount of lures to themselves is because it wouldn't actually stop them from being squished. The lure-shell would make it out, but there wouldn't be much but pinkish-white soup left inside.

The lure itself probably doesn't have complicated mechanics in it, in invinco-lure world. It's just shaped in a universally insulting manner. Apparently even non-sentient ooze finds the finger to be infuriating.

[lukep]

Another solution, that would fit better thematically (IMO) would be to give it a (20, 40, 60, 80, 100)% chance to avoid all damage. That way it's still invincible, but not because of something as exotic as infinite HP.

[Grey]

Well, for a thematic illusionary lure I'd say reword things to make the lure out to be simple ventriloquism that distracts enemies to a location for x turns.

[edge2054]

It's exploding AoE traps now in the SVN.

[tiger_eye]

It's exploding AoE traps now in the SVN.

Hurray!

I just want to point out that archers and slingers are the main enemies that can one-shot lures. If you place the lure next to a melee enemy and it one-hits it next turn, it's your own d**n fault. Place it a few tiles away from melee enemies (if possible) and make it move to it. A single caster shouldn't be able to one-shot it (unless it does physical damage), because at 90% resist all they would need to do 1000 equivalent damage (at player level 50). I've been impressed with the hardiness of lure against certain enemies. Even though it will probably be destroyed in a couple turns, lure can still be very handy.

All that said, i think having lure detonate neary AoE traps that the player set is a great change. What a wonderful idea!