Please modify the Grand Ritual Dagger (just a bit)

[JC]

This item is statistically worthless. Of course, it does have a minor inherent ATK bonus, obviously I'm referring to the special effect.
The fact that this can drop midway (or later) through your game is just frustrating.

I realize you would have to write new code for this, so it's probably not going to happen, but if it drops in the 2nd act, it should have 1 upgrade, and in the 3rd round, be fully upgraded.

Or only have it drop in the 1st Act!

Or without writing new code, just increase the special effect right off the bat, and eliminate the inherent ATK bonus.
OR increase the ATK bonus to 15 (or at least 10) but don't allow the inherent bonus to upgrade.

Another idea I had is that each time the item triggers, it increases the resale value. That would encourage us to burn a slot to play the game of trying to increase the item a couple points, and would be something completely different.

Mathematically the value just isn't there.
It's ALREADY random whether you will deal the final damage to any given enemy. [Effectively random to the human player.] And then there's a 30% (etc) chance to trigger ON TOP of that? So this chance is 30% divided by the number of members of your party. (You can weight it according to DPS if you like) Let's say divided by 3 so a 10% chance.
Encounters probably average 2 enemies, so that's a 20% chance.
Times 20 fights = +4 ATK. And that's only if you hit the expected value. If you're two standard deviations below that, you'll get +1 ATK and give up that slot for the whole game.
And is +4 ATK (+9 total) for the final boss [okay, you will have upgraded it before then] really all that amazing?
It's giving you +5, +6, +7 for the rest of your run...meaningless and a wasted slot.

I understand that every game (esp. roguelites) needs to have a mix of good and bad items, effects, events, etc, but it's at least possible to imagine how any given item could benefit SOMEONE. Unless this drops early in your game, the math just isn't there.
And those other weak items ARE useful to your characters early without this level of randomness.

The Regenerating Core and Fiend combo is the only one that is readily exploitable for value. Of course you can KO anyone, assuming your Morale can take the hit and you can still win the fights. So I don't hate that item the way that I loathe the other.
The reason I don't hate it is because it has a ONE HUNDRED PERCENT chance to function even when it is unimproved.

[Dale]

There is a key component to the item you don't seem to understand - the ATK bonus is attached permanently to the hero, not the item. Once you unequip the item, you keep the bonus.

The ideal way to use the item is to equip it on fights you have little risk in losing, and replace it in others. This means a player who wants to be 100% optimal will in fact take it as a reward in Act 3 sometimes and just sell it to the merchant later.