Draft:Staff of sleep
| / | |
| Type | Wand |
|---|---|
| Base value (Au) | 100 |
| Item level | 1 |
| Weight | 80 |
| Unidentified appearance | Random wand appearance |
| Cursed name | Staff of sleep |
A staff of sleep puts creatures to sleep. Its blessed form is much stronger than its ordinary targeted form: it affects every creature on the current level without checking individual sleep immunity.[1]
Generation
This is an item-level-1 random wand, normally generated with 1–20 charges and random blessing. It can occur in random loot or pawn-shop stock, and acquirement can produce it. Ordinary construction starts at +0 enchantment; enchantment does not improve its sleep effect.[2]
Description
Activation consumes one charge before resolving the effect and reveals the type, including on an ineffective use. It has no mana cost. The staff's blessing determines its target and scope.[3]
| State | Target | Effect |
|---|---|---|
| Unblessed | One selected creature | Checks sleep immunity; if susceptible, puts it asleep and sets its wake-up distance to zero |
| Blessed, at any positive strength | Every creature in the current level's monster list | Puts all asleep and sets wake-up distance to zero, without an immunity or individual line-of-sight check |
| Cursed, magnitude C | The user | Attempts sleep of strength C + 2, giving 2–(2C + 5) sleep counts; checks player sleep immunity and does not extend existing sleep |
Monster sleep here has no ordinary duration countdown. Approaching an affected monster does not wake it while its wake-up distance remains zero, but attempting damage wakes it even when it is immune to that damage. Alarms, aggravation and scripted encounter behavior remain relevant. A sleeping creature also continues to occupy its square.[4]
For the unblessed form, cancel before selecting the staff if you do not intend to use it. The targeting routine returns invalid coordinates on Escape, but this effect does not check them before looking up the target; it is not a reliable safe cancellation path. A spent charge is not refunded for an empty or immune target.[5]
Strategy
A positively blessed staff can open an escape route or let you pass a group while preserving mana. Use the respite to move or recover rather than immediately waking every enemy with a blast. Check alarms and court responses before treating a sleeping group as permanently disabled. Additional positive blessing does not expand the already level-wide effect.
The ordinary Sleep spell uses the targeted form; it does not replace the blessed staff's immunity-bypassing sweep. Conversely, an unblessed staff is a poor answer to a known sleep-immune enemy. Keep the staff accessible before the encounter, because fear prevents wand use and being asleep prevents ordinary local commands.[6]
An older player letter by Gunnar Radons recommends carrying a sleep staff into dangerous late-game encounters. Its game version is not established; the current case for blessing and the immunity distinction comes from 0.90.4's code, not from that advice alone.[7]
References
- ↑ iinit.h in Omega 0.90.4, line 358; itemf3.c in Omega 0.90.4, lines 713–720; effect3.c in Omega 0.90.4, lines 177–213.
- ↑ item.c in Omega 0.90.4, lines 7–41; item.c in Omega 0.90.4, lines 254–262; site1.c in Omega 0.90.4, lines 1043–1052; effect1.c in Omega 0.90.4, lines 699–705; itemf3.c in Omega 0.90.4, lines 713–720.
- ↑ command2.c in Omega 0.90.4, lines 459–488; itemf3.c in Omega 0.90.4, lines 713–720.
- ↑ effect3.c in Omega 0.90.4, lines 177–224; mon.c in Omega 0.90.4, lines 12–32; mon.c in Omega 0.90.4, lines 112–131; trap.c in Omega 0.90.4, lines 11–47; mspec.c in Omega 0.90.4, lines 723–738.
- ↑ aux1.c in Omega 0.90.4, lines 532–558; effect3.c in Omega 0.90.4, lines 177–213; command2.c in Omega 0.90.4, lines 480–485.
- ↑ spell.c in Omega 0.90.4, lines 62–65; command2.c in Omega 0.90.4, lines 466–470; time.c in Omega 0.90.4, lines 28–38.
- ↑ Gunnar Radons, hints correspondence, preserved locally as
omega-0.75-hints.txt, lines 98–125; game version unspecified.