why doesn't greenstone amulet drop from swords anymore?

glados

in pre-ee versions you could obtain a greenstone amulet, needed against illithids by killing a magic sword, summoned by lvl7 wizard spell. in ee version this stopped working and i was wondering why. maybe somebody knows?

jmerry

Because it was never meant to be a droppable item. Magical swords, like many other creatures, have an immunity item - an item which grants immunity to a bunch of things that the creature should be immune to. In the swords' case, this item is "IPSION", which grants immunity to all mental effects (fear, confusion, intelligence drain, etc.) and all psionics. This IPSION item happens to have the name and description of the Greenstone Amulet, as a relic of how it was built; the developers made a copy of the Greenstone Amulet, then copied the effects of the activated ability as equip abilities.

Immunity items, in general, can't be dropped. You don't expect to kill a zombie and get a ring or amulet that grants undead immunities. The same is true for the sword's psionic immunity item. It's granting abilities which should be innate properties of the sword, but aren't because the game engine doesn't work that way. And now, things work the way they should.

glados

i suspected it may be a bug, but i loved it. alas

StummvonBordwehr

Thanks @jmerry
Another nugget from the data, that you keep digging up for us. I truly appreciate the effort and time you put into this - it is valued even if we dont mention it enough.

glados

i want to join with the appreciation. this forum has answers for things i was wondering for literally decades. thanks you @jmerry