Archived from groups: rec.games.roguelike.nethack (More info?)
Knowing the difficulty of identifying things, Casimir the wizard set
up shop in the dungeons of doom to make his fortune from his vast
knowledge of artifacts, objects, scrolls and books of every
description.
Unlike other shops, Casimir does not sell items. Rather, he sells
knowledge. If you come into his shop and chat with him, he will
completely identify one object in your inventory .. for a price, of
course.
The downside, of course, is that Casimir's services do not come
cheap... the consultation is a flat 5000 gold pieces (or whatever price
seems unreasonably high to the dev team) regardless of whether he's
identifying a flint stone or a scroll of genocide. He also will
identify ONE thing and one thing only.
The idea is to make the price so high that adventurers will not
normally patronize his shop. Casimir is expensive, scrolls of identify
are cheap. And it's unnecessary if you can cast identify yourself.
The advantage is there is one place in the dungeon -- if you find it --
where you KNOW you can get an identify done. An expensive identify,
yes, but a guaranteed identify nonetheless. If it seems to balance
things too much in the player's direction, we simply jack up the price
until game balance is restored.
Casimir is a minimum level 14 wizard carrying a selection of magic
items and (of course) a blessed spellbook of identify. There are also
a number of "curious" artifacts in his shop, since he is a collector of
the strange and unusual. Robbing him is definitely worthwhile, IF you
survive, since he is a powerful spellcaster and also carries some
really nasty things (wand of death? wand of polymorph?) and isn't
afraid to use 'em.
Respectfully,
Brian P.
Knowing the difficulty of identifying things, Casimir the wizard set
up shop in the dungeons of doom to make his fortune from his vast
knowledge of artifacts, objects, scrolls and books of every
description.
Unlike other shops, Casimir does not sell items. Rather, he sells
knowledge. If you come into his shop and chat with him, he will
completely identify one object in your inventory .. for a price, of
course.
The downside, of course, is that Casimir's services do not come
cheap... the consultation is a flat 5000 gold pieces (or whatever price
seems unreasonably high to the dev team) regardless of whether he's
identifying a flint stone or a scroll of genocide. He also will
identify ONE thing and one thing only.
The idea is to make the price so high that adventurers will not
normally patronize his shop. Casimir is expensive, scrolls of identify
are cheap. And it's unnecessary if you can cast identify yourself.
The advantage is there is one place in the dungeon -- if you find it --
where you KNOW you can get an identify done. An expensive identify,
yes, but a guaranteed identify nonetheless. If it seems to balance
things too much in the player's direction, we simply jack up the price
until game balance is restored.
Casimir is a minimum level 14 wizard carrying a selection of magic
items and (of course) a blessed spellbook of identify. There are also
a number of "curious" artifacts in his shop, since he is a collector of
the strange and unusual. Robbing him is definitely worthwhile, IF you
survive, since he is a powerful spellcaster and also carries some
really nasty things (wand of death? wand of polymorph?) and isn't
afraid to use 'em.
Respectfully,
Brian P.
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