Make the player instakill immune on easier difficulties

[edge2054]

I think a lot of stuff got designed under the false assumption that the player was instakill immune but he's not.

So I think we should make the player instakill immune on normal and nightmare difficulty (but not insanity).

This would reduce the effectiveness of the following abilities when used by NPCs.

Quantum Spike (instakill)
Death Blow (instakill)
Haymaker (instakill)

This would break stoning completely though we could move the instakill check to the shatter code in actor
Stone Poison (move the instakill check out of the timed effect and into the shatter code in actor)
Stone Touch (move the instakill check out of the talent code and into the shatter code in actor)

[HousePet]

I second moving the instakill check to the shatter code for stoning.

[SageAcrin]

I've had a character get blown apart by a high damage Quantum Spike in one action, way back. It felt weird then and it still feels weird now.

Definitely support this idea.

[Ragnarok]

I think it's intended since it's a really specific times were theses would kill "instant kill you." But although this may be annoying, this is still equivalent to something like impending doom being casted on the player.

It's technically fair both ways no matter how cheap it feels, darkgod needs to make up his mind on how these type of abilities should interact in general instead of just changing one aspect of it.

[SageAcrin]

It's not without precedent in commercial RPGs, though.

Some Shin Megami Tensei games are notable for making mains-which game over you when they die-specifically heavily resistant to ID effects.

And that's a game where instant death resistance is much more common.

It, too, removes that resistance on higher difficulties.

[edge2054]

I think it's intended since it's a really specific times were theses would kill "instant kill you." But although this may be annoying, this is still equivalent to something like impending doom being casted on the player.

It's technically fair both ways no matter how cheap it feels, darkgod needs to make up his mind on how these type of abilities should interact in general instead of just changing one aspect of it.

It's not actually fair both ways. The monsters with the biggest hit point pools that you'd most want to murder with an instant kill are immune almost always (boss monsters). On top of this players get one life, the monsters get what? 10,000? Damage spikes and instant kills are always more punishing to the player whenever you're dealing with a game that doesn't have infinite lives.

As to it being intended, Darkgod's asked me more than once if the player was instakill immune. I think someplace in his mind the player is already insta-kill immune and always has been and that some things got designed around a false premise. I think we can safely change that premise and by doing so make things less frustrating for the player. After all, it's a game and games are about having fun. Getting one shot isn't fun.

[XLambda]

After all, it's a game and games are about having fun. Getting one shot isn't fun.

Truer words were never spoken.

[supermini]

After all, it's a game and games are about having fun. Getting one shot isn't fun.

Truer words were never spoken.

+1

I'm all for this. Very few things are downright unfair in ToME, and very few things oneshot you*.

*Unless you messed with Athamaton, opened a vault, or chose yeek. In which case you were asking for it.

[omeg]

Just lost a live to stoning. It was not an instakill but functionally it made no difference. An elite summoner in the wyrmic pride used Stone Touch and bam, he and his buddies unloaded on me for several turns -> dead.

It's just not possible to realistically avoid that. You can either not autoexplore (and this is not really a solution, stoning can still occur in tight corners when you have no choice but to go forward) or gimp yourself and stack spell save on every item slot hoping that it will be enough for than one slight chance you're hit with Stone Touch.

Stone Touch, Aether Beam and similar spells are the reason I'm not planning to play on Roguelike anytime soon.

[darkgod]

fixed