(V) My first winner

[tara_h]

Well, I signed up here ages ago, but I recently picked up Angband again after re-reading LOTR. And lo and behold, Haldir made it today I won't post his character dump because he's Yet Another High-Elf Ranger and thus probably rather boring to most of you, but I'm still happy!

Haldir is my first winner and in fact the first character I got below 1000' with. Angband is also my first roguelike. I basically learned the game with him, playing incredibly slowly and running away from EVERYTHING (How do you find out your turn count? Or can you, in V? Mine's going to be obscene...)

I beat Morgoth by meleeing with Anduril in the end. I'd already wiped out all the uniques so I probably had a very easy time by comparison.



But that's not all!

I went back down to 5000' after banking my loot and grabbing some more arrows. And the first thing that happened was "a superb feeling". The second thing that happened was I used my rod of detection and found a vault right next to me... one of those maze/cell ones... with "a plain gold ring" at the end of it. (Does this always happen after defeating Morgoth or was I just lucky??)

I cleared it (there was nothing dangerous, in fact The One itself was guarded by a small and lonely orc) and came out with The One Ring, The Mithril Plate Mail of Celeborn, The Cloak "Colluin", The Cloak of Thingol, The Great Axe of Eonwe, The Mace of Disruption "Deathwreaker", The Broad Sword "Aeglin", The Adamantite Plate Mail "Soulkeeper" and The Bastard Sword "Calris". Plus a scroll of *Acquirement* which I haven't used yet. I'm hunting *Identify*s now to try and work out what most of these items are!



Anyway I'm not sure what to do at this point. I don't feel like suiciding Haldir yet so I guess I'll go on and hunt for the boots of Feanor, just to say I got them. After that I'll probably try something a bit less munchkiny. What are Dwarven Paladins like?

[Pete Mack]

Congrats! Go ahead and post your first win--class/race doesn't matter so much as actually getting a win.

Turncount shows up on the Hall of Fame in pre-3.0.8 angband. After that, it shows up in the character info.

Finding a Plain Gold Ring is always extremely lucky. (I've never found it.)

Dwarf Paladin is about as different from High-Elf Ranger as you can get, though it's still a very strong class.
Most noticeable differences:
* Noisy as hell--you can't evade by stealth.
* Detection until midgame is much spottier.
* Expected role is to use melee and heal rather than use archery.

It's a good choice, and it was my second winner.

The third possibility is maximum stealth and detection. High-Elf ranger goes a ways in that direction, but it doesn't compare to Kobold Rogue. (The goal with an extreme-stealth class is to dive fast, and take some risks for quick loot and advancing.)

[Atarlost]

Dwarven Paladins are pretty munchy lategame. The start is a bit slow because of poor searching and disarming and IIRC just about the worst ranged combat you can get, but though their spell progression is slower than a priest's they still get everything. They have very efficient spells for dealing with evil and most nasties are evil. Paladins have melee second only to warrior and dwarves are one of the most robust races. They also have one of the better intrinsics (blindness resist)

Probably a pretty good charachter to try for a second win, though you may prefer a dwarven priest for the faster spell progression.

[Mondkalb]

ID and pseudo ID is much easier in the new Angband version. Give it a try! Pseudo kicks in faster and gives you more information and *ID* is removed completely. This makes the early ranger more fun to play because you don't have to wait for ages just to get a pseudo ID und it's also more fun for paladins because they get their ID spell only from a dungeon spell book.

[tara_h]

I'm using 3.0.6. Shows how long I've had Haldir - that's the version that was new when I first tried it XD Yeah, maybe time for an upgrade... Will I be able to use 3.0.6 saves on the latest version?

Found his turncount: thirteen million turns. I said it'd be bad, but maybe not that bad XD Well, as I said I learned the game with him, and I spent a lot of time goofing off (walked down to lv60 and back once killing everything along the way, just because I could)

I was always amused by Haldir's stealth. He can basically walk right next to sleeping wyrms and ignore them. Seems like a dwarf would definitely be a change of pace. I also like the idea of kobold rogue though.

The other thing I promised myself I'd do was try variants if I ever got a winner in V.

[Magnate]

Congrats tara, that's impressive. I reckon I'm up to about 300 chars now without a win.

Pete, what advantages does a kobold rogue have over a high-eld? Apart from faster advancement and absence of cheese, I mean.

CC

[Pete Mack]

It's a point stealthier, and the fast advancing matters when you are diving. And it has RPoison, which is a huge boost in the midgame. He's also a worse fighter in the early game, but it turns out to be good for role-playing--it means fewer fights.

[tara_h]

Well, I've got a dwarven paladin going in 3.1.0. Two died in quick succession (to Grip, and to a floating eye ARGH) but the third managed to get gloves of free action from the shop and then he was off and running! It's taking ages to find a source of resist-poison though and I'm extremely reluctant to go below 1000' without it He did pick up a Holy Avenger mace (floor, 800') with see invisible and resist fear though, which is nice!

two questions about 3.1.0b:

Q1: Has something happened to the monster AI? Hounds used to drive me nuts in 3.0.6, following me all over the map. Now I have "monsters act smarter in groups" ON and I can stand right in an open doorway in LOS and they'll just wander randomly about the room. I've been abusing this and I kind of miss the old annoying hounds, even though they used to destroy my armor and burn up all my scrolls

Q2: "DTrap", either in yellow text or green. Green-dotted lines appear on the floors, and when I step on or off a line the text color changes. I thought it might be something to do with the "detect traps" spell, but the lines don't seem to correspond to the trap locations in any meaningful way. What is this?

[Mondkalb]

The lines indicate the areas of your detect traps spells. When the text changes from green to yellow you are about to leave the alreadiy detected area.

The new hound behaviour drives me crazy sometimes. It was a lot easier to kill hordes of hounds when they followed through long corridors. Lots of different sorts of hounds in a room can be really a pain now.

[Pete Mack]

It will take a long time to find RPoison at 1000'. So long as you carry a Staff of Teleportation, you should be able to escape the poisoners until much deeper. After 2000', however, they can kill you in a single turn.

[tara_h]

Whoops, I did mean 2000'!

I'm 1850 at the moment and running from air hounds all the time. I don't even have the four basic resistances yet though... just lightning, from an armor Wormtongue dropped. And I haven't been able to find a staff either, I'm having rather strange luck so far. No phial, but Helm of Thengel at 800'...

Also thanks mondkalb. I feel stupid now - I actually realized what those lines were about 20 minutes after I'd posted... duh!

[Pete Mack]

Hint for 3.1.x:

Rings of Lightning, Flames, Ice and Acid do more than grant temporary double resists. They give the corresponding brand to your melee weapon, which matters a lot for big-dice weapons. A 3d8 axe (like Balli) can get 3*4.5*2 = 27 extra elemental damage, better than a ring of damage.

[tara_h]

just an update on my dwarven paladin: I've got a good feeling about this guy. He found disenchantment-resisting Chain Mail of Elvenkind in the black market, recalled back to the dungeon and saw Mim in front of him. Har har! Mim went down easily, and dropped Cammithrim and a Cloak of the Magi! So now I have rBase, confusion resistance from Thengel, nexus resistance from boots of stability, FA and telepathy Still no poison resistance though... I'm hanging around 1800-ish for stat potions, and I guess I'll get a ring sooner or later.

I also saw a boots of speed+7 in the black market, but I wasn't willing to townscum for the 800k extra gold he wanted


I just found a Rapier of Morgul, the description of which puzzles me a bit:
Heavily cursed.
Grants the ability to see invisible things.
Aggravates creatures nearby.
Stops experience drain.
Drains experience.

So... does it drain experience, or stop exp drain, or both..? :P

[PaulBlay]

So... does it drain experience, or stop exp drain, or both..? :P

IIRC Hold Life does not prevent 100% experience loss so I think it drains some experience but a lot less than it would if it didn't have Hold Life as well.

Anyway I don't suppose you want to go near it if it has AGGRAVATE.

[Daniel Fishman]

IIRC hold life doesn't affect experience drain from equipment, but I'm not certain. (Experience drain is neglible anyway).