Artifact YANIs

Most experienced players agree that there is not enough to distinguish between different Artifact weapons in the game. A few are very useful, the others are rarely worth bothering to lug around. Many people have posted YANIs to RGRN on how to improve them. Here is a summary of some of the ideas posted.

Some of these ideas have already been implemented in Nephi's enhanced artifacts patch. They are marked below.

Bane weapons

 * All banes warn you of targeted monsters, like Sting does for orcs. (Nephi's patch)
 * All banes give you +d8 to hit and +d20 to damage, rather than +d5 to hit and double damage. This makes them more useful without having to spend skill slots and enchant weapon scrolls. (Nephi's patch)

Demonbane

 * Demonbane prevents demons' gating ability, but not the magical power of summon nasties. (Nephi's patch)

Dragonslayer

 * Dragonbane grants reflection. (Nephi's patch)

Giantslayer

 * On a critical hit, (a "natural 20"), Giantslayer will kill up to seven giants adjacent to you ("Seven at one blow!"). (Nephi's patch)

Trollsbane

 * Trollsbane gives hungerless regeneration. (Nephi's patch)
 * Trolls killed by Trollsbane will not revive. (Nephi's patch)

Grimtooth

 * Grimtooth is now a (permanantly) poisoned weapon. This makes it somewhat useful in the early game (instead of worthless like it is now), but not so much in the late game, where most of the tougher monsters are poison resistant. (Nephi's patch)

Sunsword

 * Sunsword has a 1 in 3 chance of blinding opponents. (Nephi's patch)
 * Sunsword has a light radius of 3 instead of 2. This gives players more of an incentive to wield it when they don't have a lamp. (Nephi's patch)

The Tsurugi of Muramasa

 * The Tsurugi of Muramasa now does double damage instead of +d8. This puts it in the running for the most powerful weapon in the game, which is where it should be. The fact that it is a two-handed weapon balances it somewhat. (Nephi's patch)

Vorpal Blade

 * Vorpal Blade now does +d8 to damage, instead of the ridiculously low +1. (Nephi's patch)