ToME: the Tales of Maj'Eyal

Presently, to tunnel, you have to 'u'se a digger. The problem is that the action is bound to an item. If you change digger, the action, and hence the icon, the key binding, etc, will be different.
It would be better if digging was talent. Like shooters. You can change bows, the shooting talent is always the same. And you can safely bind it to a key.

Equiping a digger would grant the 'dig' (or tunnel, or whatever) talent, with a power that would determine the digging duration. And whatever digger you have, striking a 't' would always tunnel.

As a bonus, it would be possible to have better egos/artifacts diggers that could also be 'u'sed for another action....

On an unrelated note, is digging really a necessary feature? There's little need for anti-summoning corridors (and with the exception of dreadfell the area layout of most summoning heavy levels makes these impossible), and with the exception of Sandworm Lair they don't really help the player navigate either. The only times I ever dig are in vaults (which is obnoxious since there's a lot of switching between the tooth and psychoports) and in order to trap Melinda whilst I clear out Dark Crypt 5 (which is a plain exploit).

Perhaps digging could just be a player action, with Diggers providing a bonus if in inventory? At the very least it'd do away with the item juggling.

At this point, digger/tool has evolved into a (low impact) equip slot as much as it has an ability slot, though.

Chucking that isn't impossible, but it's sorta messy.

Maybe diggers could just grant you the Tunneling talent at various levels, by just being in the inventory? 30-(Tunneling Talent Level) dig rate? That way, top end ones would cap out around 10 turns(Tooth of the Mouth could grant L4 early).

That way, they have their equip impact still, when you want it, but can be used from the inventory and with the same command, even across games.

I'm actually kind of surprised we don't yet have a pickaxe that has pulverising auger on use, or grants pulverising auger when equipped. That would give a us a dig/attack, and fit thematically. (Granted, I haven't played stone in ages, but I think auger still digs like the dig spell it replaced)

Or maybe the wyrmic talent burrow? Pulverizing auger is a pretty powerful beam dig spell so maybe that would be better. Plus it would be useable by AM folks.

AM has enough benefits, I have no objection to a magic digging pickaxe. In fact, these used to exist in some classic 'bands, IIRC. Gnomish shovels with stone-to-mud for walls, or something.

Maybe the dig talent could be available to anyone and take ~50 turns to dig. Having a digger equipped could allow for 1-3 turns per dig. That way it gets rid of the pain to switch items, or carry a digger in the first place, and it allows a possible benefit to carrying one. I'm not sure I'd spend 1 turn digging 1 tile away in the middle of combat, but it might maybe be useful in some scenarios - more so than it is right now.

As for the pulverizing auger idea, that could work, probably with a low talent level (~1) and it could be arcane powered to avoid use on AM characters. There could be a similar nature powered enchantment that allows the burrow skill to be used - again, at low talent level.

done