On Tue, 21 Dec 1999, James Schuldes wrote:

> BTW - not just clerics but enchanters can give you a Ruin buff that use gems
> as reagents. My mid 30ish enchanter friend was quite happy when I put 20
> jaspers in his trade screen. And I was quite happy to see "a clops hits YOU
> but your magical skin absorbs the blow" - saves that first bub (absorbs the
> first 250 hps I think) getting fear to stick for the opening of the fight.

Just so folks know where this fits in the scheme of things,
the Rune spells are like a one-shot hp buff, except you don't
know how many hp it's buffed. If you're at full health, it's
like the hp buff from Daring or Skin like Stone; except once
you drop below the buff effect, it goes away. If you're
significantly below full health, it's like a heal that doesn't
show up on your hp bar.

What this means is that if you have to decide on one and only
one buff - a hp buff or heal spell or Rune - the others are
preferable to the Rune line. Of course, if you can have
multiple buffs, then Rune away to your heart's content. It's
a very handy spell (since it can double as a last-ditch heal -
something the Skin spells can't do), but don't let the
psychological factor of "Hey, I'm not taking damage!" fool you
into thinking it's better than the others. You *are* taking
damage, you just can't see it.

--
John H. Kim
kim@...