ToME: the Tales of Maj'Eyal

The addition of randart gems, wands, and inscriptions would add to the game. Here's how I propose doing them:

Gems: Add two, lower level gem stats to the base gem. They must be different from each other and different from the base gem. Example: cool randart name Bloodstone: 60% stun resist, +6% resist all, +10 see invisible.

Wands: Use the current wand effects only. They recharge like Gwai's Burninator or the Rod of Spidric Poison. Somewhere around the same capacities for most skills. Example: cool randart name Wand of Detection: uses 30 energy out of 80/80 to detect all nearby monsters.

Inscriptions v1: I am have ideas for two methods, one much easier/simpler than the other. The first idea is to have them scale with two stats instead of one/none. Example: cool randart name Healing Infusion: Heals 200 HP, scaling with Cunning and Strength.

Inscriptions v2:The second is to combine two different effects in the same category (eg, either runes or infusions) Care would need to be taken regarding the order of activation, or some would not act as expected. (eg phase door then Frozen Spear) Example: cool randart name Rune: Creates a protective shield of absorbing at most 183 damage over 5 turns, and teleports randomly in a range of 8.

Discuss! What do you think of the general idea, the specific implementation of each, or anything else?

Very nice idea!

For inscriptions I think there would have to be only certain allowed combinations. For instance:

heal+wild
heal+move
heal+heroism
heal+mind
regen+wild
regen+move
regen+heroism
regen+mind
sun+heroism
heroism+mind
heroism+wild
heroism+move
wild+move
wild+mind
mind+move

phase+invis
phase+shield
phase+speed
ctrl_phase+invis
ctrl_phase+shield
ctrl_phase+speed
invis+shield
invis+speed
invis+vision
teleport+shield
teleport+invis
teleport+speed
speed+vision
shield+vision
acid+shield
acid+invis
acid+speed
frozen+lightning
heat+lightning

They should also always have a stat associated.

For wands they should be more powerful than the current set, scale with a stat or with level, and recharge like you said. We could really do with wand descriptions showing real detail though.

Having a list of combinations is a good idea, I think only restricting very broken/oddly stacking pairs (basically any external effect + movement, or two of the same effect by different names) and allowing a greater variety of less useful ones (eg, Vision/manasurge, Sun/Insidious Poison) is the way to go. The extra control would help make them more balanced, while the less useful ones keep it feeling random.

How should Invisibility/Speed Runes be handled with respect to their charges? I see three options: stop them from being randarts (not as good), remove that restriction from them (possibly overpowered), or leave them in, as a temporary effect (possibly breaking the intended effect of randarts). I don't see a very good solution.

Wands, as they currently are, feel inconsistent with the rest of the game to me as one of the very few consumables (alongside ammo, rune charges, and using gems for psi/alchemist gems.) I haven't used them much, and was thinking that they would mostly give players more utility options. I don't know what power they should be.