Sleeping?

[cowsmanaut]

Are there others that find waiting for characters to sleep for too long bores them? How about shortening the time it takes to sleep a bit or making a quick sleep option in a prefrences menu?

Just shave a bit of time off of it.. time can pass in the dungeon just as quickly and you can still be woken before you are healed. I'd just rather not wait very long while I heal.

As it stands if the character has enough hitpoints I can get up and grab a drink and come back and still not be done..

[Francis]

Although it made things very difficult, I liked the idea in EOBII that there are some places where the party can't sleep because of nightmares. Significant dreams (at least a text summary) could be made to occur after important items have been found, and clues could be revealed in that way. What about sleep not being as effective for healing when a character is too hungry/thirsty?

(I sense the possible emergence of a debate about food choices; maybe we should leave that issue untouched, except for one other possibility: poisoned food, sort of like cursed items, but of course you wouldn't know that they're poisoned until you eat them.)

[cowsmanaut]

I know what you are talking about in EOB II the lower Drow structures.. The thing is, that sort of thing was kind of done in DM, just a different way. without food sources and no fountains your supply went very low. Thus you stayed alive with potions and there was no sleeping without stamina potions. if you slept with out them your stamina dropped to nothing and you took dammage.

On the other note, Poisoned and rotten food (also in EOB) could be good. However not knowing about them is not such a great idea.. After all why could not someone tell if the knew what to look for? Perhaps a high enough ninja level would reveal poison in food and on items? After all Ninjas as was said before are rather under used.

[beowuuf]

Mentioning EOTB II, two more anti-sleep features were that nasty in a good way were that a party could not rest if monsters were near and also some intelligent creatures could open doors.

I like the nightmares idea more for DM as it less interfers with gameplay, but enough to be interesting (losing the ability to rest in EOTB II was almost crippling in that level what with losing spells prermanently, etc). Also, maybe other areas where sleep is less effective (damp,etc) or more. Just to go into the realms off madness for the engine, how about creatures like ghosts generating nightmares until destroyed, meaning a party HAS to find them and destroy them on the level (especially if chosts can only be destroued by a certain symbol, or an area being found of it's death).

[cowsmanaut]

things that could prevent sleeping brings up all new issues..

lets think about this.. if you are a newbie adventure seeker and you are near a bunch of monsters.. you might be inclined to not want to sleep for fear of them.. however if you were a journeyman fighter you might not be so afraid of them.. perhaps you feel tough enough to whap them on the head if they get too close. what about wizards and priests? a spell to protect while sleeping?

then thother things mentioned above? nightmares.. dampness.. too hot.. this could be a %age chance of failing to sleep or causing you to awaken from sleep as well..

what about hypothermia (sp?) too cold and damp an area if you sleep you may take dammage and have trouble waking.

what about shift sleeping. one char keeps watch and so gains less in the way of health and what not.. they would still be resting but not sleeping so they should get *something* for that.

What about creatures that ONLY attack you when you sleep. you could have fun with these if you sleep on a level that has them they may latch on to you and suck health or even worse your memories (skill levels)

[beowuuf]

Who knows half would be implemented, but that would rule! Strategy to sleeping...I like the idea of the shrinking size of letting monsters close for higher levels, and also the thought of keeping a watch so that monsters don't sneak up if you can get to sleep : )

For the sleep protection, maybe a priest/wizard spell of invisibility that is only effective if the party isn't moving, and monsters haven't seen them..good camouflage for other things too, like surprise attacks or avoiding a large monster, and good for this sleep situation...

[cowsmanaut]

I was thinking more along the idea of a time limited barrier.. something that would keep monsters at bay for a short time span.. enough time to sleep.. or get away. that way it could have more than one use..

[beowuuf]

Hmm, the problem with any spells is that to be effective during sleep they would have to be long lasting, which might make them too powerful otherwise unless only usuable for sleep. That was the reason i suggested a variant of the existing invisibility spell - longer (infinite til broken?) time frame at the cost of less freedom when using it, but it can still be used in game (run away into a room and 'vanish', confusing a creature, just you can't sneak away unless he leaves...).

I think george is more in favour of making it more difficult to sleep too, so it might not be implemented anyway : )

[cowsmanaut]

well, true it would need to be long lasting to stand the time span of your rest period.. but who says it needs to last the whole thing? I mean really if you can cast a spell to allow you to sleep without harm.. well you get the mana back.. how does this keep game balance?

The idea I intended to put across was that it would allow you a moments peace to initiate sleep or to get away to a sleep area.. it need not last long if you can regain a little health and mana to get away that's all you need. Just a few winks is all..

The idea of keeping a person on watch also is in balance since that person does not get full rest but insures that you are woken in a moment of danger. how I imagined it to work is that it would keep you stationary but allow you to turn and ghost out the other weapon and spell icons except for the one awake. this would work like the orriginal sleep mode for the first DM where you could get up and have lunch while your chars slept since it would take forever...

anyway.. that's my ideas...