Give rare items an ego

[Zonk]

It seems rares are VERY hit and miss as for quality - you can get very weak themes, and overall, they tend to be disappointing, unless I'm just very unlucky.
So, I thought, considering they're meant to be much weaker versions of randarts...

What about giving them egoes in addition to the theme?Just one, could even force it to always be lesser. That would still be much weaker than the randarts' 3, but it should make them significantly less likely to be useless.

[SageAcrin]

I'd definitely support some level of chance to have a green ego on them. Guaranteed might be a little boring(Rares always have had this traditional-roguelike-randomness that I sort of like for some reason.), but some chance would be neat.

It would make them more likely to be generally useful, without making them specifically likely to be overpowered, and it would give the new retooled green egos more time to shine.

[Grey]

Yeah, great idea, would really help with the thematic problems.

[skein]

I still think that rares should just be a normal item that also includes a skill or better yet a skill bump while you wear it (so that if you already had the skill it would not be redundant but additive). Tie the skill level to whoever dropped it and just pick one of their skills.

This would make them completely unique, fun to find, but not really all that overpowered.

[HousePet]

I like the wierdness of items that get created.
Even the useless ones, its like they are an enchantment that went wrong.
Arcane disrupting staves are great.

[Azirphaeli]

I once had a rare amulet drop. It did nothing. Literally, it was like I picked up a white amulet. Sold for 9 gold though!

[Avianpilot]

I had the same thing happen with an iron shield. Despite it being rare, it had the exact same stats as the mundane iron shield that I was using at the time. The transmogrification price was the only worthwhile part of it.

[ghostbuster]

I occasionnally use rare wand/torque/totem. Some can even be very good.
And surprisingly, I never got any rare digger (neither randart digger, I think).

[Frumple]

I'm pretty sure I've seen a randart digger before. But, like, once. Maybe twice. In several hundred games. Diggers are pretty rare to begin with, which probably has something to do with it.

[snoop]

I had the same thing happen with an iron shield. Despite it being rare, it had the exact same stats as the mundane iron shield that I was using at the time. The transmogrification price was the only worthwhile part of it.

Today on Antiques Roadshow, we travel to the great city of Lost Hope!

"Well why don't you tell us a little bit about this lovely shield?"

"I cut it off the arm of a brutal Troll marauder deep in the Old Forest. Damn thing nearly killed me before I could sic my golem on 'im. Unfortunately couldn't say the same about the lost seer I was escorting... poor thing."

"Well, this is really an interesting piece. Just wiping the dried ichor away... ah, here we can see the maker's mark on the handle. This shield comes from the forge of Urist Silverorre, a dwarf who plied his trade in the East long before contact was lost with that continent. You just don't see filigree work like this from Western craftsmen. There are no enchantments to speak of on this shield, unfortunately, but except for a bit of acidic corrosion here and here, it's in perfect shape. Just from provenance alone, at the right auction, I think you might get.... oh, 9 gold for it?"

"Oh wow, that's great news! I usually just extract gems from plain items like this... but somehow I knew there was something special about this one."

"Well thanks for bringing it in! It's a lovely piece."

[andar_b]

I've seen a randart digger before. But, like, once. Maybe twice.

0.o How did I get two "Tooth of the Mouth" in one game, and no less than 3 of my characters have obtained one from the starter dungeon?

[bricks]

Tooth of the Mouth isn't a randart, and you shouldn't have gotten it twice (unless we're talking infinite dungeon). It's also a pretty common low-level artifact.

[magelike]

I had the same thing happen with an iron shield. Despite it being rare, it had the exact same stats as the mundane iron shield that I was using at the time. The transmogrification price was the only worthwhile part of it.

Today on Antiques Roadshow, we travel to the great city of Lost Hope!

"Well why don't you tell us a little bit about this lovely shield?"

"I cut it off the arm of a brutal Troll marauder deep in the Old Forest. Damn thing nearly killed me before I could sic my golem on 'im. Unfortunately couldn't say the same about the lost seer I was escorting... poor thing."

"Well, this is really an interesting piece. Just wiping the dried ichor away... ah, here we can see the maker's mark on the handle. This shield comes from the forge of Urist Silverorre, a dwarf who plied his trade in the East long before contact was lost with that continent. You just don't see filigree work like this from Western craftsmen. There are no enchantments to speak of on this shield, unfortunately, but except for a bit of acidic corrosion here and here, it's in perfect shape. Just from provenance alone, at the right auction, I think you might get.... oh, 9 gold for it?"

"Oh wow, that's great news! I usually just extract gems from plain items like this... but somehow I knew there was something special about this one."

"Well thanks for bringing it in! It's a lovely piece."

This was pretty great.

[eliotn]

thanks for the funny story.

[belmarduk]

Tooth of the Mouth isn't a randart, and you shouldn't have gotten it twice (unless we're talking infinite dungeon). It's also a pretty common low-level artifact.

I've found Randarts I mogged before multiple times in one game. I think it is probably a bug but I don't know what would cause it to happen in technical terms.

I agree with the OP, it would be nice if rares could spawn egos. Rares were too powerful when they first came out when their thematic stats could spawn modifiers way out of their tier, but now they're pretty weak in all but the most extreme cases. For every one nice item you get you find about 5 that are mediocre and 20 that are completely useless. Given that you have to often kill difficult enemies (esp. in the late game) to get them, they should spawn something that has the potential to at least be usable most of the time.

Another solution might be to make rares always drop a higher tier item up until voratun starts spawning. By the endgame you are probably not using rares anyway since you have enough fixedarts and randarts to fill all of your slots. This would make killing rares early much more rewarding, as material differences are huge between iron and steel and steel and dwarven-steel especially. I find rares are dropping iron for way too long and I have found some honestly amazing rares that I couldn't use because of their crappy material.