[Sangband] I keep dying on level 4

**CJNyfalt** · June 4, 2007, 07:13

Originally posted by K.I.L.E.R

Started an hour or so ago and look what has happened.
Some tips for a foolish newbie?

Have I invested in the skills well enough?
Is my armor where it should be?
How can I make money to buy good stuff at this point in the game?
What can I do to survive longer?

Hmm, lvl 19 in a skill is probably enough for lvl 4. But you should probably have points in other skills too, at least one that gives ranged attacks and the magic resist skill. Your problem is more that your stats are crappy, spend more time rolling up a better character.

Armor, you should fill all slots, except gloves if they affect your spellcasting, otherwise OK at your level.

Money: Sell potions and scrolls to id, don't waste scrolls. Use learn magic, instead of identify on armor, weapons and known devices. When taking things back to town to sell, give devices a priority. Buy a shovel to dig for treasure.

**K.I.L.E.R** · June 4, 2007, 08:13

Thanks.
Is it possible to get through the game purely melee?
I'm trying to go through the game without using magic or ranged attacks.
What stats would be considered decent, and what stats would be considered good? How long do you have to roll to get decent and good stats?

**Fuma** · June 4, 2007, 08:35

If you want to play a warrior then strength and constitution are the ones you want highest.
Pure melee is a rather hard stunt, considering that you are a beginning player.

As said above. Invest in other skills. Perception is good because it lets you get a feeling of how good (or bad) an item is when you wear it. Use the scrolls of learn magic to know how many charges a wand has and if the armour or weapon is any good.
You should also always have some healing potions and scrolls of phase door with you in case you find yourself in trouble.

**CJNyfalt** · June 4, 2007, 09:32

Originally posted by K.I.L.E.R

What stats would be considered decent, and what stats would be considered good?

I don't know how to calculate blows, but Str starts to give bonus to deadliness from 16 upwards. For Con 15 is decent and 18 is good.

**K.I.L.E.R** · June 4, 2007, 10:30

A new character.
I'm now going to start investing skills into piety, however I do need a blessed weapon or a hafted one, I've already put points into polearms, so going hafted is out of the question.

Fastest method of getting a blessed weapon?

Code:

                 [Sangband 1.0.0 Character Dump]

        Alindra          Age    :             40  STR:      16
     the Spearsman       Height :         121 cm  INT:       8
                         Weight :          46 kg  WIS:      16
Gender : Female                                   DEX:       9
Race   : Dwarf                  Slayer of         CON:   18/10
                          Fang, Farmer Maggot's   CHR:      10
                                   dog
Max Hitpoints        34  Power                 5  Max Mana            0
Cur Hitpoints        19  Score                48  Cur Mana            0

       (Melee)           Unspent Exp          19         (Missile)
Blows per round       2  Gold                 43  Shots per round     0
+ to Skill            0                           + to Skill          0
Deadliness (%)        5  Max Depth          30 m  Deadliness (%)      5

                          (Character Abilities)
Melee     : Fair       Saving Throw: Iffy       Magic Device: Very Bad
Shooting  : Poor       Stealth     : Awful      Dodging     : Very Bad
Throwing  : Poor       Perception  : Bad        Fame        : Mentioned
Digging   : Bad        Disarming   : Bad        Infra-Vision: 12 meters

   Speed       : normal
   Armor      : 6
   Kills       : 22
   Time Elapsed: 0 days, 3 hours, 16 minutes   (13680 turns)


  [Character Attributes]

      abcdefghijkl@        Stat Intrnl abcdefghijkl@ Adjust
Stlth:.............        STR:     14 ............2     16
Invis:.............        INT:     10 ............2      8
Aware:.............        WIS:     14 ............2     16
Disar:.............        DEX:     11 ............2      9
Devic:.............        CON:     17 ............2  18/10
Speed:.............        CHR:     12 ............2     10

      abcdefghijkl@                           abcdefghijkl@
Infra:............4                     NFuel:.............
Tunnl:.............                     Steal:.............
Save :.............                     NoMag:.............
Mana :.............                     Telep:.............
Light:.....2.......                     Aggra:.............
                                        Drain:.............

                                        Curse:.............

      abcdefghijkl@       abcdefghijkl@       abcdefghijkl@
Acid :............. Light:............. Food :.............
Elec :............. Dark :............. Feath:.............
Fire :............. Sound:............. Shine:.............
Cold :............. Shard:............. Regen:.............
Pois :............. Nexus:............. ESP  :.............
Fear :............. Nethr:............. SeeIn:.............
Blind:............+ Chaos:............. FrAct:.............
Confu:............. Disen:............. HLife:.............


  [Last Messages]

Fang, Farmer Maggot's dog recovers his courage.
Fang, Farmer Maggot's dog nips you.
You hit Fang, Farmer Maggot's dog.
You hit Fang.
Fang flees in terror!
Fang, Farmer Maggot's dog turns on you!
Fang, Farmer Maggot's dog nips you. <2x>
You miss Fang, Farmer Maggot's dog.
You miss Fang.
Fang, Farmer Maggot's dog nips you. <2x>
You hit Fang, Farmer Maggot's dog.
You have slain Fang, Farmer Maggot's dog!
Saving game...
done.
Replace existing file ~/.sangband/Sangband/Alindra.txt?  y


  [Skills]

Jousting          :  13%



  [Quests]

   You have finished no quests yet.


  [Character Equipment]

A Spear (1d6) (+0,+0)
A Wooden Torch (lit) [2] <Fuel: 2199>
A Hard Leather Cap [2,+0]
A Set of Leather Gloves [1,+0]
A Pair of Hard Leather Boots [3,+0] {25% off}


  [Character Inventory]

5 Rations of Food
an Amber Potion
a Chartreuse Potion
an Oily Yellow Potion
a Light Brown Potion
a Dark Red Potion
a Scroll titled "mursmat duksmat"
a Scroll titled "ast dudulkurn slatg"
a Scroll titled "wergkurn"
a Scroll titled "kularth"
a Palladium Wand
a Corkscrew Wand
2 Wooden Torches [2] <Fuel: 3500>
a Pair of Leather Sandals [1] {unknown}


  [Special Advantages and Disadvantages]

(none)

**camlost** · June 4, 2007, 14:04

I'm confused... you only need a blessed weapon if you're a pious spellcaster.

As for rolling for good stats, make sure the autoroller is turned on in your birth options (press '=' for options, then set birth_autoroll to yes). This has to be when you roll up a character though (when choosing race).

As for survival, I strongly suggest you buy scrolls of phase door and either teleport or cure serious wounds, or other survival gear.

**Fuma** · June 4, 2007, 20:57

Protip: When you don't know what does a skill do, press ? when you have it selected. That'll display basic info about the skill.

**Zarah Neander** · June 5, 2007, 07:56

Originally posted by K.I.L.E.R

Started an hour or so ago and look what has happened.
Some tips for a foolish newbie?

Have I invested in the skills well enough?
Is my armor where it should be?
How can I make money to buy good stuff at this point in the game?
What can I do to survive longer?

How to survive Angband in 3 easy steps..

1) Always have means of healing and escape. In the beginning, this means, buy ?Phase Door, ?Teleporation and !Cure Serious Wounds. Sangband is quite generous with money, if you have trouble making money, pick up every ammo you come across and sell one piece -> free ID. Don't be stingy with your supplies, stinginess is probably player killer Nr. 1.

2) Pick your fights. Never fight multiple monsters in the open, always run to a hallway, in case of casters (i.e. novice mages), to a corner, so that only one monster can see you. Always ask yourself: is the fight winnable? If not, bail out (run to the next stair, phase door, teleport). Ask yourself: is the fight worth winning? That comes with experience, but for starters, 'm','j' and ',' are bleh, 'Z', 'Q', and 'e' are *bleh*. You don't have to kill everything you come across, *band is a game about maximising your reward while minimizing your risk, if you stick to that, you'll probably win.

3) Always have a plan. "Somehow I'm gonna kill him" doesn't qualify as a plan. "I try to lure his escorts away, then I try to kill him" does. Never play on autopilot, it's easy to loose even high level chars that way.

Good luck. May the ring of power be with you....

**Magnate** · June 7, 2007, 10:36

Hang in there - Sangband's early game is very hard, it's very easy to die. One suggestion is to use martial arts - choose Karate or Wrestling (but not both) and raise it as your first skill, instead of swordsmanship. I find my characters are more likely to survive to the middle game if I do this (especially casters). By all means pump swordsmanship later (when you've found a decent sword, maybe).

Skills you should raise early, after getting your first killing skill up to a useful level (21 IMO): Perception, Stealth (depends on race - don't bother with Dwarves or Giants), Dodging (ditto), Spell Resistance. The first three are all raised by raising Burglary, so playing a burglar makes this a lot simpler.

Melee only is a great challenge, but you will need great detection and escape. Will you allow yourself to use wands of teleport away?

EDIT: forgot to say, try taking quests at the low levels - the rewards are good for selling even if they're not useful. Quests do get very hard later on though.

**Fuma** · June 7, 2007, 19:05

One thing that amazes me is the fact that I never had any problem with Sangband... Maybe it's because I always play mages, and killing things from afar is the best strategy at the start. The fact that I play slowly isn't a factor because being at 200' and having swordsmanship at 21 doesn't look like a diver.

**K.I.L.E.R** · June 10, 2007, 04:41

I have definitely taken the advice offered and have played several new characters, I am trying to get comfortable with magic as it is important. I have even tried a Dwarf warrior priest and now I'm playing a Dark Elf Necromancer.

Everyone, thank you for the advice.

[Sangband] I keep dying on level 4

[Sangband] I keep dying on level 4

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