ToME WikiRavenRed: Just a quick idea...
The monster "Shriek" spell is feared and hated by all semi-stealthy characters, but I was thinking there might be a way to make the effect slightly less fearful and a bit more nuanced.
At its lower levels (<26), the spell could create a ball of sound (with negligible damage) centred on the casting monster. Similar to the way that Maia are implemented in Theme, this could basically "hit" all the monsters within its radius (perhaps Radius = Spell Level?). Only when the spell goes past level 25 does the type of damage shift to AGGRAVATE, with the increased deadliness. This allows for shrieker mushrooms to be nasty if other monsters are relatively close, but not as bad as (say) a howling demon or a mumak...
2c worth and counting...
SaricRitzden That makes sense.
Sirrocco: It's even reasonably plausible. It's true, the mushrooms will probably be *heard* by most of the dungeons, but if you live on a dungeon level with shrieker mushrooms in it, eventually you learn to sleep through that stuff, unless it's *really* close.
DarkGod: Sounds fine to me too