angband-doc 3.0.3.5 / var / games / angband / info / ability.spo

ABILITY.SPO, version 1.00, for Angband 2.7.9v6 (all systems)
Release Date     : September 2, 1996
Author           : Stephen S. Lee (lee9@fas.harvard.edu)
with the help of : Leonard Dickens (leonard@alw.nih.gov)
                   Craig Lewis (clewis@psl.nmsu.edu)

This spoiler describes a wide variety of character abilities: statistics,
hit points, speed, carrying capacity, food consumption, status conditions,
digging, stealth, and magical device skill.

Please notify the author of any errors (however minor) that you find.
Also, it is my intention to provide complete information rather than
easy-to-understand information, so this spoiler is necessarily verbose.
Suggestions to improve the format of this spoiler are welcome (especially
if they help make this spoiler easier to read).


STATISTICS
----------

Here is an exhaustive list of the functions of the six basic statistics:

Strength:
  (1) necessary to use heavy weaponry
  (2) affects the number of attacks possible with a melee weapon
  (3) affects the damage done in melee combat
  (4) affects the probability of hitting an opponent in melee combat
  (5) determines carrying capacity
  (6) improves digging speed

Intelligence:
  (1) improves skill at activating magical devices
  (2) improves the chance to disarm a trap
  (3) affects spellcasting (mages, rangers, and rogues only)
      a) determines maximum mana
      b) affects the failure rate of spells
      c) improves the minimum failure rate of spells
      d) affects the number of spells learned per level

Wisdom:
  (1) improves saving throws
  (2) affects praying (priests and paladins only); same general effects
        as for spellcasting under "Intelligence"

Dexterity:
  (1) affects the number of attacks with a melee weapon
  (2) affects armor class
  (3) improves the chance to disarm a trap
  (4) affects the probability of hitting an opponent with a melee,
        thrown, or fired weapon
  (5) determines the probability of thwarting a theft attack
  (6) reduces the chance of being stunned after a bash

Constitution:
  (1) affects maximum hit points
  (2) improves ability to recover from poison, stunning, and cuts

Charisma:
  (1) affects buying and selling prices in shops


Initial Calculation of Statistics
---------------------------------

First of all, Angband rolls up your character's base statistics (i.e.
independent of race and class).  A value of 5+1d3+1d4+1d5 (range of 8 to
17) is assigned to each of the six statistics.  These are summed up and
accepted only if the total is between 73 and 83 inclusive.

Then, adjustments are made for race and class.  For each statistic, add
up the race and class adjustments from the following tables to find the
number of total statistic adjustment points.

Race        Str.  Int.  Wis.  Dex.  Con.  Chr.
----------------------------------------------
Human          0     0     0     0     0     0
Half-Elf      -1    +1     0    +1    -1    +1
Elf           -1    +2    +1    +1    -2    +1
Hobbit        -2    +2    +1    +3    +2    +1
Gnome         -1    +2     0    +2    +1    -2
Dwarf         +2    -3    +2    -2    +2    -3
Half-Orc      +2    -1     0     0    +1    -4
Half-Troll    +4    -4    -2    -4    +2    -6
Dunadan       +1    +2    +2    +2    +3    +2
High-Elf      +1    +3    -1    +3    +1    +5

Class       Str.  Int.  Wis.  Dex.  Con.  Chr.
----------------------------------------------
Warrior       +5    -2    -2    +2    +2    -1
Mage          -5    +3     0    +1    -2    +1
Priest        -1    -3    +3    -1     0    +2
Rogue         +2    +1    -2    +3    +1    -1
Ranger        +2    +2     0    +1    +1    +1
Paladin       +3    -3    +1     0    +2    +2

The adjustments are then applied as follows (in no case may any stat be
adjusted below 3 or above 18/100):

In maximize mode: at 18 or below, statistics are adjusted on a point for
point basis.  Above 18, 10 points are added for each adjustment point.
(Example: a high-elf mage in maximize mode with maximum Intelligence will
get +6 adjustment points added to a base Intelligence of 17, for a
starting Intelligence of 18/50.)

When not in maximize mode: at 18 or below, statistics are adjusted on a
point for point basis.  If adding a bonus to a statistic between 18 and
18/69, add 5+1d15.  If adding a bonus to a statistic between 18/70 and
18/89, add 2+1d6.  If adding a bonus to a statistic between 18/90 and
18/99, add 1.

(Example: A Dunadan priest rolled with maximize off gets the maximum base
17 score for Wisdom.  She gets a +5 adjustment to Wisdom; 1 point of this
adjustment raises Wisdom to 18.  The other 4 adjustment points suffice to
increase Wisdom further to 18/58, 58 being the sum of four 5+1d15 rolls.)


Statistics After the Start of the Game
--------------------------------------

If you are not playing in maximize mode, then the natural maximum for all
statistics, for all race/class combinations, is 18/100.  If in maximize
mode, the maximum for each statistic is 18/(100+10*stat adjustment); i.e. a
half-troll warrior has a maximum natural strength of 18/190.  Statistics
may be raised to 18/220 (shown on the display as 18/***) by equipping
various magical objects; increasing statistics above this has no effect
whatsoever.


HIT POINTS
----------

Your character's base HD consists of the sum of the two appropriate
numbers in the following tables.  (Base HD does not depend on anything
other than race and class.)


            Base              Base                    Bonus
 Race         HD   Race         HD       Class   to Base HD
+----------------+-----------------+     ------------------
|Human        10 | Dwarf        11 |     Warrior         +9
|Half-Elf      9 | Half-Orc     10 |     Mage            +0
|Elf           8 | Half-Troll   12 |     Priest          +2
|Hobbit        7 | Dunadan      10 |     Rogue           +6
|Gnome         8 | High-Elf     10 |     Ranger          +4
+----------------+-----------------+     Paladin         +6

A level 1 character begins with a number of hit points equal to his or
her base HD (adjusted for Constitution; see below).  For each level of
experience gained the character gets 1d(base HD) hit points (again
adjusted for Constitution).  The number of hit points gained for each
level up to the maximum 50th is determined when your character is rolled,
so saving the game just before gaining a level and restoring if the number
of maximum hit points gained is low will not do any good.

A 50th level character will always have a number of hit points (unadjusted
by Constitution) between 50+(150*(base HD-1))/8 and 50+(250*(base HD-1))/8.

Extra hit points may be awarded (or deducted) for high (low) Constitution.
To determine this bonus, multiply your character's experience level by the
appropriate factor from the following table, round down any fraction, and
add this to the maximum number of hitpoints.

               Extra                           Extra
Constitution   HP/level         Constitution   HP/level
-------------+---------        --------------+---------
           3 |     -2.5          18/90-18/99 |      4.5
           4 |     -1.5        18/100-18/109 |      5.0
           5 |     -1.0        18/110-18/119 |      5.5
           6 |     -0.5        18/120-18/129 |      6.0
        7-14 |        0        18/130-18/139 |      6.5
       15-16 |      0.5        18/140-18/149 |      7.0
          17 |      1.0        18/150-18/159 |      7.5
    18-18/09 |      1.5        18/160-18/169 |      8.0
 18/10-18/49 |      2.0        18/170-18/179 |      9.0
 18/50-18/59 |      2.5        18/180-18/189 |     10.0
 18/60-18/69 |      3.0        18/190-18/199 |     11.0
 18/70-18/79 |      3.5              18/200+ |     12.5
 18/80-18/89 |      4.0                      |
-------------+---------        --------------+---------


EXPERIENCE
----------

The experience a human warrior needs to attain a given experience level
is given in the following table.

Exp.  Experience    Exp.  Experience    Exp.  Experience
Lvl.      Needed    Lvl.      Needed    Lvl.      Needed
----------------    ----------------    ----------------
   1           0      18       2,900      35     350,000
   2          10      19       3,600      36     450,000
   3          25      20       4,400      37     550,000
   4          45      21       5,400      38     700,000
   5          70      22       6,800      39     850,000
   6         100      23       8,400      40   1,000,000
   7         140      24      10,200      41   1,250,000
   8         200      25      12,500      42   1,500,000
   9         280      26      17,500      43   1,800,000
  10         380      27      25,000      44   2,100,000
  11         500      28      35,000      45   2,400,000
  12         650      29      50,000      46   2,700,000
  13         850      30      75,000      47   3,000,000
  14       1,100      31     100,000      48   3,500,000
  15       1,400      32     150,000      49   4,000,000
  16       1,800      33     200,000      50   4,500,000
  17       2,300      34     275,000

For other race/class combinations, add (not multiply!) together the
appropriate race and class penalties from the following tables to find
the penalty to your character's advancement rate.  (Example: to attain
experience level 17, a Dunadan paladin requires 2,300*(1+0.80+0.35) =
4,945 experience points.)

            Exp.              Exp.                     Exp.
 Race    Penalty   Race    Penalty       Class      penalty
+----------------+-----------------+     ------------------
|Human       +0% | Dwarf      +20% |     Warrior        +0%
|Half-Elf   +10% | Half-Orc   +10% |     Mage          +30%
|Elf        +20% | Half-Troll +20% |     Priest        +20%
|Hobbit     +10% | Dunadan    +80% |     Rogue         +25%
|Gnome      +25% | High-Elf  +100% |     Ranger        +30%
+----------------+-----------------+     Paladin       +35%

Other notes on experience:

* If your character suffers from a life drain attack and thus has below
his or her maximum experience point total, monsters killed will add 1/10
their experience total to the maximum experience total, in addition to
increasing the current experience point total normally.

* The game internally keeps track of experience points to two decimal
places, although fractions of an experience point are never displayed.


SPEED
-----

A "game turn" is defined as the most basic unit of time that Angband uses
(it is the total number of game turns that is displayed in the high score
file).  It is not subdivided in any way.  During every game turn, both
your character and all monsters regain a number of energy points that is
determined by each individual's speed.

If an individual's speed is between -2 and +25 (+0 is normal, unmodified
speed) add the speed to 10 to find the energy gained per game turn.
Otherwise, consult the following tables to find the energy regained per
game turn:

              Energy/                  Energy/
Speed       game turn    Speed       game turn
---------------------    ---------------------
-41 or below        1    +32 to +33         39
  -40 to -24        2    +34 to +36         40
  -23 to -16        3    +37 to +39         41
  -15 to -11        4    +40 to +42         42
   -10 to -7        5    +43 to +45         43
    -6 to -5        6    +46 to +49         44
    -4 to -3        7    +50 to +54         45
   -2 to +25 (10+spd)    +55 to +59         46
  +26 to +27       36    +60 to +64         47
  +28 to +29       37    +65 to +69         48
  +30 to +31       38    +70 or higher      49

A "turn" is defined as 10 game turns -- no more, no less.  Note that this
does not correspond to the moves your character makes unless your
character's speed is +0.  Note that this is the definition of "turn" that
is used to determine the duration of spells, conditions such as blindness,
recharging times, etc.

A character (or monster) may make an action if and only if he/she/it has
100 energy.  (An action is any of the things you tell your character to do:
move, hit monsters, cast spells, etc.)  If the character and monsters are
both over 100 energy on the same turn, the character moves first.  Most
actions (or "moves") require 100 energy.  Exceptions are: firing from a
distance weapon when you can get multiple shots per round (energy use =
100/# of shots per round, displayed on the character info sheet); and
taking off an equipped object, dropping an object or stack of objects,
refilling a lantern, or combining torches (energy use = 50).

Note that monsters sometimes get a "double move" even if the character
is faster than they are.  As an illustration, consider a character (+30
speed) with 62 energy fighting a monster (+28 speed) with 93 energy.
Neither can move yet; both gain energy, leaving them at 100 and 130.
Both are at/over 100 energy; both move this game turn, but the character
moves first.  Both lose 100 energy; now they are at 0 and 30.  Next game
turn they are at 38 and 67, then 76 and 104.  The monster moves a second
time.

Speed is affected by the following factors:
(1) equipped objects (speed rings, boots of speed/slowness, and the
    artifact weapons Ringil, Cubragol, and Mormegil).
(2) strength and the weight of your character's equipment (see below)
(3) temporary haste effects on your character (+10 to speed)
(4) temporary slow effects on your character (-10 to speed)
(5) a bloated stomach (-10 to speed)
(6) having search mode on (-10 to speed)


Carrying Capacity and Encumbrance
---------------------------------

To find your character's "weight limit" (a somewhat misleading term) in
pounds, consult the following table.

Strength  Weight(lb)        Strength  Weight(lb)
--------------------     -----------------------
       3          50              14         160
       4          60              15         170
       5          70              16         180
       6          80              17         190
       7          90        18-18/09         200
       8         100     18/10-18/19         220
       9         110     18/20-18/29         240
      10         120     18/30-18/39         260
      11         130     18/40-18/49         280
      12         140          18/50+         300
      13         150

If your character exceeds half of the weight limit given above, his or
her speed will be penalized by 1 point for every 10% of the weight limit
in excess (excluding fractions thereof).  For instance, a strength 11
character (weight limit 130) carrying a total of 146.2 pounds gets a
penalty of (146.2-(130/2))/(130/10) = -6 to speed.


FOOD CONSUMPTION
----------------

Normally, every 10 turns (100 game turns), the character will digest some
food.  The amount of food units digested is equal to twice the energy the
character gains per turn (see above under "Speed").  If the character has
magical regeneration, 30 extra food units are added to this figure; 10
food units are subtracted if the character has magical slow digestion.

Here are the various hunger states your character may be in:

Character's
 Food Units     State  Notes
-----------   -------  -----
     15000+   Bloated  -10 to speed; digestion occurs very quickly
10000-14999      Full  "Satisfy hunger" sets food units to 14999
  2000-9999  (normal)
  1000-1999    Hungry
    500-999      Weak  Regeneration rate reduced about 50%
    100-499  Fainting  Regeneration rate reduced about 85% *
       0-99  Starving  No regeneration; damage inflicted each turn *

* The character has a 1 in 10 chance of fainting every turn, inducing
  paralysis for 1d5 turns; there is no way to prevent this sort of
  paralysis (other than by eating).


CHARACTER ABILITIES
-------------------

Your character will have a number of abilities that may be intrinsic to
his or her race, or more likely, may come from various equipping magical
items.  Some of the less obvious ones are described here.

Free Action -- this will prevent many (but not all) forms of slowness and
  paralysis.

Hold Life -- this will greatly reduce the chance that an experience drain
  attack will affect the character, and will reduce the severity of those
  attacks which do get through.

Infravision -- if the character is not blind, this permits the sighting of
  all warm-blooded monsters within range, even if the monster is invisible
  to normal vision.

Regeneration -- this doubles the rate at which mana and hit points
  regenerate, at the cost of an increased food digestion rate.

Telepathy -- this permits the character to visualize all monsters in the
  immediate area that have a brain.  Monsters with low intelligence (fleas
  and the like) can only be detected some of the time, and monsters without
  brains (such as zombies) cannot be detected at all.


STATUS CONDITIONS
-----------------

Status conditions (displayed on the status line at the bottom of the
screen) are various negative afflictions that harm the character.
(Status conditions related to food are dealt with above.)

Here are descriptions and the effects of the various status conditions.

The following table is used in some of the calculations below.

               Recovery                      Recovery
 Constitution     Bonus        Constitution     Bonus
-----------------------       -----------------------
         3-13         0       18/120-18/129         5
        14-17         1       18/130-18/149         6
     18-18/49         2       18/150-18/169         7
  18/50-18/99         3       18/170-18/199         8
18/100-18/119         4             18/200+         9

Afraid
------
* Prevents direct melee attacks against monsters

Blind
-----
* Causes loss of sight (seeing monsters on screen, look command, etc.)
* Decreases search skill by 90%
* Decreases disarm skill by 90%
* Decreases combat skill (both melee and distance) by 50%
* Prevents prayers and spellcasting
* Prevents browsing spellbooks and gaining spells
* Prevents reading scrolls

Confused
--------
* Causes movement to have a 75% chance of being random -- if a monster is
  in the selected direction, it will be attacked
* Prevents running
* Causes the direction used when aiming (throwing/shooting an object, using
  a wand/rod, activating dragon scale mail, etc.) to be completely random
* Decreases search skill by 90%
* Decreases disarm skill by 90%
* Decreases device skill by 50%
* Makes pseudo-identification impossible
* Prevents prayers and spellcasting
* Prevents browsing spellbooks and gaining spells
* Prevents reading scrolls

Cut
---

Cuts prevent hit point regeneration, and also cause loss of hit points
every turn from bleeding.  Here is a table showing the various degrees of
cut severity:

                             Damage
Cut counter   Description  per turn
-----------------------------------
       1-10         Graze         1
      11-25     Light cut         1
      26-50       Bad cut         1
     51-100     Nasty cut         1
    101-200    Severe cut         2
   201-1000     Deep gash         3
      1000+  Mortal wound         3

Magical means must be used to cure a mortal wound.  Otherwise, every turn
the wound heals: 1 plus the bonus recovery rate from Constitution is
subtracted from the cut counter.

Hallucinating
-------------
* Causes random monsters and objects to apparently show up
* Prevents use of the "look" command
* Decreases search skill by 90%
* Decreases disarm skill by 90%

Paralyzed
---------
* The character cannot do anything as long as the paralysis lasts, and is
  vulnerable to attacks and further paralysis.  Note that this can easily
  be lethal.

Poisoned
--------
* The character takes 1 point of damage per turn from poisoning.
* Prevents hit point regeneration

Recovering from poisoning: Every turn, 1 plus the bonus recovery rate from
  Constitution is subtracted from the poison counter.

Stun, Heavy stun, Knocked out
-----------------------------
* Your character is knocked out when the stun counter is greater than 100.
  It is the same as paralysis, but cannot be blocked as easily.
* Your character is heavily stunned when the stun counter is between 51 and
  100 inclusive.  This causes a penalty of -20 both to-hit and to-damage,
  and increases the minimum spell/prayer failure rate by 25%.
* Your character is stunned when the stun counter is between 1 and 50
  inclusive.  This causes a penalty of -5 both to-hit and to-damage, and
  increases the minimum spell/prayer failure rate by 15%.

Recovering from stunning: Every turn, 1 plus the bonus recovery rate from
  Constitution is subtracted from the stun counter.


DIGGING
-------

A character may be able to dig through any kind of rock or rubble,
other than permanent walls.  To calculate whether this is possible,
and if so, how likely it is each turn, first compute the character's
digging skill.  A character's digging skill is determined by his or
her strength and wielded hand weapon, as follows.  Start with the base
digging ability, found on the following table:

Str.  Dig    Strength      Dig   Strength      Dig
---------    -----------------   -----------------
  3-4   0      18/01-18/09  12   18/110-18/119  55
    5   1      18/10-18/19  14   18/120-18/129  60
    6   2      18/20-18/29  16   18/130-18/139  65
    7   3      18/30-18/39  18   18/140-18/149  70
  8-9   4      18/40-18/49  20   18/150-18/159  75
10-11   5      18/50-18/59  25   18/160-18/169  80
12-13   6      18/60-18/69  30   18/170-18/179  85
14-15   7      18/70-18/79  35   18/180-18/189  90
   16   8      18/80-18/89  40   18/190-18/199  95
   17   9      18/90-18/99  45         18/200+ 100
   18  10    18/100-18/109  50

Next, if the wielded weapon is not too heavy for the character (see
ATTACK.SPO), the weight of the weapon (in pounds) is added to the
digging skill.

Finally, if the weapon is a digger (a shovel or pick), then the
digger's digging bonus times twenty is added to the digging skill.

To determine the character's chance per turn to dig through a given
kind of material, consult the following chart.  Each turn the
character digs, a random integer from 0 to material's "hardness"
(minus one) is rolled and added to the "base" strength of the
material; if this sum is less than the character's digging skill, then
the dig succeeds.

    Material  base  hardness
    ------------------------
    Granite     40      1600
    Quartz      20       800
    Magma       10       400
    Rubble       0       200

Successful digging turns rock into air, and may also create an item (a
10% chance if the material is rubble), or free a treasure (if the
material is quartz or magma, and marked "*").  If digging does not
succeed, there is no effect other than one character turn being spent.
Note that the material's base number determines if a character has any
chance at all to dig through the material; if the digging skill is
higher than the base, it is possible.  If so, the chance to succeed
each turn is:

    (skill_dig - base) / hardness

Example: a character with strength 18/70 wielding a dwarven pick is
trying to dig through granite.  Is this possible, and if so, how
likely?  The character's digging skill is 115: 35 for strength, 20 for
the weight of the weapon, and a bonus of 60 for being a +3 digger.
Since 115 is greater than 40, this digging will eventually succeed.
The chance each turn for success is (115 - 40)/1600, or about 4.7%.


STEALTH
-------

Your character's stealth is an integer between 0 and 30 inclusive.  It
is *not* dependent on level, and depends only on race, class, and equipment
that increases stealth (Defender weapons, armor of Elvenkind, etc.)  To
calculate your character's stealth, take the sum of the appropriate figures
from the following tables, and add equipment bonuses as appropriate.

Note that stealth is effectively entirely negated if your character is
equipping an object that aggravates monsters.

            Base              Base                  Stealth
 Race    Stealth   Race    Stealth       Class     Modifier
+----------------+-----------------+     ------------------
|Human         1 | Dwarf         0 |     Warrior         +1
|Half-Elf      2 | Half-Orc      0 |     Mage            +2
|Elf           2 | Half-Troll   -1 |     Priest          +2
|Hobbit        5 | Dunadan       3 |     Rogue           +5
|Gnome         4 | High-Elf      4 |     Ranger          +3
+----------------+-----------------+     Paladin         +1

Each time your character moves, your character makes an amount of "noise"
equal to 2 to the power of (30-stealth); yes, stealth is an exponential
and not a linear function!  This noise is noticed by all sleeping monsters
that have your character in their detection range; once a monster hears
enough noise, it wakes up.


USING A WAND, STAFF, OR ROD
---------------------------

To calculate the base ability of using a wand, staff, or rod, use the
following charts.  Begin with the base class ability, then add the race
modifier.  To take level into account, add in the product of your
character's experience level and the class bonus per level modifier.
To this add the appropriate intelligence modifier.  This gives a numerical
rating of your character's skill at using magic devices.

              Bonus per
Class    Base Level       Int.         Bonus      Int.         Bonus
-------------------       ------------------      ------------------
Warrior    18   0.7       3-7              0      18/130-18/139   11
Mage       36   1.3       8-14             1      18/140-18/149   12
Priest     30   1.0       15-17            2      18/150-18/159   13
Rogue      32   1.0       18-18/19         3      18/160-18/169   14
Ranger     32   1.0       18/20-18/39      4      18/170-18/179   15
Paladin    24   1.0       18/40-18/59      5      18/180-18/189   16
                          18/60-18/79      6      18/190-18/199   17
Race     Modifier         18/80-18/99      7      18/200-18/209   18
-----------------         18/100-18/109    8      18/210-18/219   19
Human           0         18/110-18/119    9      18/220+         20
Half-Elf        3         18/120-18/129   10
Elf             6
Hobbit         18
Gnome          12
Dwarf           9
Half-Orc       -3
Half-Troll     -8
Dunadan         5
High-Elf       20

To calculate the probability of successfully activating a device, first
divide your character's device skill rating by 2 if your character is
currently confused.  Then subtract the level of the wand, staff, or rod
to be activated, with a maximum subtrahend of 50.  Call the resulting
number K (which may be negative).

If K is at least 3, then the chance of successfully activating the wand,
staff, or rod is (K-1) in K.

On the other hand, if K is less than 3, the probability of successfully
activating the device is very low yet nonzero; the probability of success
is 2 in 3*(4-K).