When you find that extra special item at a shallow level..

[sffp]

Don't get me wrong, I love scrolls of Mass Banishment.
They are essential endgame material

But it's really not what you're hoping to find on that early 2-7 level.

[Estie]

Very true; however, you can use it as an opportunity to dive aggressively and find the first small treasure vault for the scroll to use. Make sure you can dig granite.

[sffp]

Problem, of course, is that identifying it used it so it's gone.

I love Mass Banishment. Who doesn't love Mass banishment

But read while sitting at the top of down stair case in case it summons nasties, it did exactly nothing for me....

[Estie]

Right - id by use. Been playing old version for a while so it hadnt occurred to me.

[Estie]

Ranger, dlvl 9, 2-5, finds his first artifact - a bow! Joy...

the Short Bow of Tuorin (x2) (-2,-22) {??}
Found lying on the floor at 450 feet (level 9)

You do not know the full extent of this item's powers.

When activated, it heals 60 hitpoints, cut damage, and cures
stunning, poisoning, blindness, and confusion.
Takes 73 to 81 turns to recharge.
Your chance of success is 91.1%

[sffp]

Ranger, dlvl 9, 2-5, finds his first artifact - a bow! Joy...

the Short Bow of Tuorin (x2) (-2,-22) {??}
Found lying on the floor at 450 feet (level 9)

You do not know the full extent of this item's powers.

When activated, it heals 60 hitpoints, cut damage, and cures
stunning, poisoning, blindness, and confusion.
Takes 73 to 81 turns to recharge.
Your chance of success is 91.1%

Oh that's so mean for a ranger - an artifact bow that won't do any damage.

[Ingwe Ingweron]

Problem, of course, is that identifying it used it so it's gone.

I love Mass Banishment. Who doesn't love Mass banishment

But read while sitting at the top of down stair case in case it summons nasties, it did exactly nothing for me....

In a recent game, I did the old read on a staircase and my @ instantly died. A vault was too close and had enough baddies that the early found Mass Banishment Scroll penalties surpassed my @'s hps. That hadn't happened in a long time. Made me laugh rather than cry.

[sffp]

Wow, what a glorious way to die!

[Sky]

the second most humiliating way i died was finding a Kelek really early on and boasting about it here on the forum, and being told i would die from casting MBan, me saying "lol no" AND THEN DYING from casting MBan.

Most humiliating was rearranging my CL50 gear for the Morgoth fight and not checking that i had FA, and dying to a group of ghasts & ghouls.

[sffp]

oooohh...
my Hi-Elf BG just found a Cap of Telepathy on a LF 5-4 at 750'

me likes ESP (treasure level 4, what?)

[Grotug]

My Hobbit Ranger found a light xbow of *power* on DL23 (+11,+26). The fun thing is, though, I used this xbow to take down Ibun son of Mîin a couple levels later and he drops an X3 (+24) ?? light crossbow —I’m like JeeZ, if I’m really lucky it will have +1 extra might. I equip it it has *+2* extra might and Telepathy. Shortly after, on DL30 I approach a small 9-5 permanent vault that has a Sky Dragon in it. (!!) That’s 50 levels out of depth! Anyway, I have a ring of the mouse and sandals of stealth and just ID’d a wand of TO so I send Sky packing. Not much in the vault (though I traded mostly favorably on two toughness potions). But it did have a very small shield of preservation [2, +6] which ID for rPois. Did I mention I recently also equipped a ring of STR <+5>? Oh, and augmented dwarven armor on DL24. Now to find a fat stack of Deep Descent scrolls so I can carelessly die to a pack of chaos hounds—I mean find Nature Craft.

[Estie]

What about resist base; dwarven armor isnt called for just yet.
Have fun diving with that murder weapon

[Grotug]

What about resist base; dwarven armor isnt called for just yet.
Have fun diving with that murder weapon

You're right; I did have to wear a low AC rBase I had at home (just replaced with ribbed elvenkind armor). Well, this game continues to be fortuitous; crazy thing is, I was going to say "dive to find a helm of speed" but it was too random and unlikely thing to expect to find, but not only did I find Nature Craft shortly after diving (on DL40), but a helm of speed with regen <+9> (was wearing a helm of regen--straight upgrade anyone?) on DL41 from Ubun's brother! And I was going to spare him, and then I was like "saving lower uniques for Morgoth is silly, lemme kill him even though it's unlikely he'd also drop a *GREAT* item. Boom, speed <+9> helmet.

Speed items probably need to be toned down a bit, found a ring of speed <+5> on DL35 as well.