Hi, crawlers! Some fresh changes for the new year:

Items: New unrand: the Warlock’s Mirror, a +3 buckler of reflection. Unlike other shields of reflection, it’s also capable of reflecting piercing beams, enchantments, and other effects. Watch as that neqoxec’s Malmutate bounces off and malmutates its caster! New amulet type: amulets of harm, which increase damage done by and to the player by 25%. New amulet type: amulets of magic regeneration, which increase player MP regeneration considerably after a short warmup period. Weapon types no longer have hidden ‘strength weights’. Instead of dex and str both giving varying bonuses to damage, str now solely gives a bonus to-dam, and dex now solely gives a bonus to accuracy. Potions of cure mutation are now dramatically (~50%) more common. Potions of ambrosia now bypass clarity. The amulet of corrosion resistance is now a ring. Evocable +tele effects are gone. Rings of teleportation now only provide random teleportation. Rings of invisibility have disappeared; they are no more. Ditto, potions of degeneration. They will be missed by someone, somewhere, somehow.

Monsters: Natasha no longer becomes weaker upon revival. Swamp worms are now amphibious and generate submerged, emerging to attack the player and never resubmerging. Deep elf high priests now have an Aura of Brilliance spell that affects all allies in their view, making them cast spells more frequently and with more spell power. Demonspawn warmongers’ Sap Magic has been simplified: it now has three levels, rather than scaling continuously, and the spellcasting chance penalty now expires at the same time as the Sap effect itself. Demonspawn corruptors’ Corrupt Body and wretched stars’ Corrupting Pulse now tend to cause multiple levels of a single bad mutation, rather than single levels of multiple bad mutations. Doom hounds’ howls now summon a variety of nasty things, rather than other doom hounds. Trapdoor spiders have crawled out of the game.

Spells: Alistair’s Intoxication is now level 5 and gives Vertigo status instead of confusing the player or draining Int, and can sometimes affect rPois monsters. The Infusion spell now ramps up to maximum power much more quickly, which should make it more useful past the first floor or two of the dungeon. (If still not too much longer than that.) Spectral Weapon now bases the strength of the summoned weapon on spell power, instead of weapon skill. Summoning tweaks: Shadow Creatures is now level 6, Monstrous Menagerie is now level 7.

Gozag’s Call Merchant shops no longer secretly vary in quality by the floor they’re called to.

Happy crawling!