Fightless the full-casting mage

[ewert]

down time affects the amount of spawned monsters. With disconnected stairs, the mid-game is a lot of 'securing the stairs' That becomes harder and harder the longer you remain on a level. We will continue to disagree about this point though, so you can just sneer in disgust at my use of speed rings.

No offense intented. Disconnected stairs does change it a bit yes. Then again +8 speed nearly halves the rest times as well.

[Timo Pietilä]

No offense intented. Disconnected stairs does change it a bit yes. Then again +8 speed nearly halves the rest times as well.

Does it? I have a vague memory about speed not affecting regeneration rate. Maybe I remember wrong?

[Twilight]

Does it? I have a vague memory about speed not affecting regeneration rate. Maybe I remember wrong?

As Timo says, most everything happens every 10 gameturns (buff timers decrease, recharge etc). Unless they've changed it recently this is true for regeneration as well. That is - it's independent of the players speed.

Edit: Subjectively, of course, it seems the regeneration rate slows down when you gain speed, but it is (was at least) directly related to your totals (HP & SP).

[ewert]

Ahh then it might have just been the illusion of it, as speed usually comes with levels which comes with more SP of course.

[fizzix]

CL8 DL7
I Land in an E-W corridor. Dvis shows 5 novice mages and a red naga to the northeast, I’ll avoid them and head west instead. I enter a room where I pick up some iron spikes. I think I’ve used them in a game exactly once before, so I carry the amount that won't leave me burdened. What I guess is a poltergeist scares me. I tried to punch it a couple times (apparently stab because I'm still accidentally wielding my dagger) with no success. I guess I’ll allow for accidentally hitting things that I can’t see. Fear doesn't bother me so much, so I ignore the poltergeist and continue. Dvis later on shows 13 manes (rpois, no group AI, definitely avoid), 9 wood spiders (group AI won't let them chase me into a corridor, so kill), a novice paladin and rattlesnake. I head off towards the paladin. The paladin scares me so I quaff !boldness to reduce fail rate, and MM it to death. A zombified kobold is also in the room along with an Obeisantly Objurgating wand. I pick up the wand and the boots that the paladin dropped. 7 SP is enough to take on the zombie kobold. 3 MMs and it’s dead. I continue onward headings towards the room with the spiders. The first one gives me CL9 (18 SP) MM failure is down to 5%. After sniping them from the corridor, and resting when SP is low, the wood spiders are killed and I'm most of the way to CL 10. I had south, keeping an eye out for those manes. I Kill the rattlesnake I detected earlier. Dvis shows a paladin and a priest up ahead, both sleeping for now. I get cursed, while heading towards them in a corridor, so I fire MMs down the corridor listening for squeals of pain. It dies and I get CL10, up to 20 SP. I manage to detect the stairs and heading towards them, I smack into the paladin. Guess I killed the priest before. I MM it to death and pick up the pair of boots he dropped. I chuck the unused spikes because of burden, didn't think I'd use them. DVis shows another novice priest and four rogues before the stairs. I kill the priest, and try out the Sanctimonious Potion while injured (poison). My wand does nothing to a white jelly, and there's no path to the rogues, so I go down the stairs.

CL10 DL8
Dvis shows two cave orcs to the south, a disenchanter mold (avoid) and a giant salamander (avoid) to the north. A lone yeek is over to the west so I head that way. I run into a dead end with an up stairs. Since I have an escape, I'm a little bolder in fighting the orcs, so I choose south and the cave orcs over north and the salamander. They are in a lit room. It takes 6 MMs to drop a cave orc. I decide to use a frost bolt and 2 MMs to kill the second. (slightly more economical) I reach a down stairs and recast dvis. Only the yeek is out to the west so I head that way. It dies to MM and it (a glutton ghost) eats one of my rations. I eat the other. I head back towards the stairs, rest and descend.

CL10 DL9
Dvis shows only a kobold zombie and a rot jelly to the west, so I head that way. In general, I feel zombies and skeletons give more XP than I feel they should in the early game, so I often kill them. I kill the kobold zombie but the rot jelly is in a corridor blocking my path so I head back to where I started and then further east. I reach a down stairs. Dvis shows a bandit close by and a bunch of novice mages and a baby gold dragon to the far north. The bandit is awake and starts chasing after me, I head back out of a room and into a corridor, and close the door to the room and wait. When it opens I know he’ll be in sight in one more turn, so I wait once then start MMing into the darkness. MMs kill it but I get a ‘it touches you, you are terrified.’ I ignore it and read ?dobj and see a wand and a staff to the north. The staff is probably close to the mages and the dragon, but the wand might be getable. Dvis shows a baby bronze close to the wand, dangerous but I might be able to kill it. I get to the room with the dragon and the wand, it’s dark. Dvis shows 2 of the mages have woken to the west, so I need to be careful. I grab the wand and leave without waking the dragon.

I think about trying to take on the room of mages and get the staff, why not. I kill a bloodshot icky thing and test out the first wand I found (confuse) The icky thing gets a mana drain off and I’m down to 10 SP. I forgot they do that. This is not enough to take on the dragon with the mages close by, so I retreat back towards the stairs.

I need to take a second to explain the dungeon layout. I'm in a room in the southwest section of the map with two paths, both leading east. The southern path leads to the downstairs in a long corridor. The norther path terminates in a room that's almost directly above the stairs. This is the room with the bronze dragon, the wand I recovered, and some of the now wakened mages. Further north of the BBD's room is unexplored territory that includes the rest of the mage group, the baby gold dragon, and the unknown staff. As I said, the mages have wakened and track me down. I MM a couple to death but I’m at 5 SP, so I retreat along the southern path closing the door behind me, so I know if there are more on my tail. The poltergeist is still touching me, so it’s hard to rest without being disturbed, but I finally get back to full. There are 5 mages in the room with the dragon now, luckily they couldn’t find the path to me. What's more amazing is that I was able to reconstruct this geography from memory 2 weeks later just using bare-bones notes. Go Go gadget memory!

I head back to confront them. One drops a Lincoln’s rod in the room, but the dragon has now awakened. I killed four but there’s still one mage left. I read ?phase, hoping to be teleported south into the adjacent corridor with the stairs, but this brings me into the room instead, the dragon breathes cutting my HP in half and confusing me. I chug !CSW to heal myself but more importantly to remove conf. I first MM the last mage, I don't want to lose turns to blindness or confusion. The dragon is next to me so I ?phase landing elsewhere in the room. I manage to kill the dragon and another mage that showed up, but I wind up at 3 SP. I retreat back towards the stairs and rest.

Most of the mages are dead, so I can finally get the Weber’s Staff, and in the same room as the staff, I read ?dinvis and kill that poltergeist that’s been annoying me. I gained CL11 at some point and now have 21 SP. I pick up 3 more ?dobj that are close by, test out the rod dtraps (I’ll sell it.) The gold dragon is actually inaccessible, so I don't worry about it. I'm far from the stairs now and I don't want nasties spawning between me and my path down, so exploring time is over. On the stairs I test the staff (light) and descend.

CL11 DL10
I land in a room with a dark elven warrior, a night lizard and a giant grey rat. This room is dangerous! I MM the rat so it doesn’t breed, and then cast dvis showing a panther about to enter the room from the east. This is uber-deathly so I think it’s a good time to cast my first teleport. I fail. (14% chance). Ok, whatever, I try again. Fail. And now the panther is on me and I only have 7 SP left. Ok new plan, panthers are cats, and cats are easily confused, so let's try the wand I have. I –confuse the panther, and it 'confuses' it every time. But every time, it gets unconfused right away. I try 3 or so times but don't get myself anywhere nearer to the western exit. This is exactly why confusing is so useless. This is the exact situation where it should be useful...and it isn't.

The warrior wakes up and I have no choice but to try teleself again. This one works and I’m in a room with an orc shaman. I get to the exit before it awakes, I have 2 SP, I need some more. I see the shaman coming after me and I –confuse it, and I continue to retreat. Unfortunately, the panther from before had a straight line to the room I was in and tracked me successfully. I try my other untried wand, the one that did nothing to the jelly, but it’s haste monsters. I think I’m dead but I try teleself again (only 4 SP) it works (!), but now I’m at 0 SP. However, I’m able to rest to full health! Phew, disaster averted.

I rest to full mana and dvis. Nighthawk to the north, salamander to the south. ?dobj shows just a hat to the north. I detect an up stairs also the north, but I’d rather continue going west, away from the panther. further east, I dvis a lone wolf, a yeek and a dark elf warrior. 2 MMs kill the wolf. ?dobj reveals nothing but silver, which I’ll get. I kill the yeek, and run into a dead end, time to head back north towards the warrior. Closer to the warrior I see creeping gold coins, a giant white tick, a black harpy. I decide to try to take out the gold coins, they are in a lit room. They take 7 MMs and drop 85 gold. I retreat, rest and then continue north. I detect two down stairs, finally. I’m happy to get off this level. I decide to kill the tick and go after the warrior though. When I reach the warrior it’s already awake. Killing it gives CL12 (23 SP) I pick up some copper lying around and head towards the stairs.

CL12 DL11
I land in a lit room, with some gold and an unknown scroll. Dvis shows only a green icky thing to the west. I detect a stairs nearby. I walk a short ways and dvis again, detecting a dark elf, and a kobold. ?dobj shows a metal cap and another unknown scroll. I head towards the scroll. I hear doors burst and it’s another panther to the north of me. I’m in a large lit room with the cap, there could be a secret door to the north that lets the panther in, and I don't mind fighting it in this terrain with nothing around. I wait and see. A couple turns later and the panther has found the roundabout path towards the room I’m in, I head away from the entrance and await its arrival. 5 MMs take it down. I pick up the scroll and the hat and head towards the down stairs. I test my unknown scrolls (holy prayer and holy chant) and descend.

[ChodTheWacko]

I wouldn't be going anywhere near pack monsters if I played a fightless mage.
Not less I had tons of mana to spare (and some rods)

How do you plan on fighting element resistant monsters in the future?
After magic missle, what's the next decent spell that would work against, say, a mature multihued dragon?

- Frank

[fizzix]

packs aren't bad at all if they have group AI. Then they won't leave a room and chase you into a corridor so you can snipe them one by one, or cast ball spells at them. SC can kill a group of wolves easily, provided you don't mind resting. Groups of monsters like novice mages, priests, warriors that don't have group AI are more of a problem. Orcs and trolls will be the problem in the midgame. Unless I'm lucky enough to pick up some wands and rods.

After MM the next best elementless spells for damage are explosion and rift in MB6. But that's a long ways away. Gotta just avoid what you can't kill until then.

[fizzix]

CL12 DL12
Dvis shows a couple tengus but otherwise not much. I see a wand of slow monsters and go to get it (mostly to sell) in a room full of jackals. En route a shrieker patch shrieks. It was way far to the north of me and I’m amazed it had LoS to me. This wakes up the tengus and one chases me into a room, to the south, but I’m able to kill it. I rest in the room and kill the shrieker on the way out. There’s a Proustian Ring to the northwest and down stairs close by. I’m tempted to get the ring because it could be teleportation, about the only useful ring at this depth. I’m blocked off from the room, but I manage to phase in on the second attempt. The tengu sitting inside wakes up and blinks away. I pick up the ring and test-wield it, it’s not teleport, but it’s not cursed either. Dvis shows that the tengu blinked back into the room I came from. There’s not much dangerous nearby so I decide to explore further. Normally I’d just dive at this point, but I still don’t have enough ability to kill much so I need to be careful. ?dobj shows a ?WoR I go to get it. A green jelly blocks my way to the scroll, so I MM it to death and then rest. Further exploration still shows nothing I want, so I go back to the stairs and descend.

CL12 DL13
I land in a lit room. 5 gnome mages to the south. A tiger and some other stuff to the east. The tiger scares me the most, so I head away from it. Dvis later shows the tiger is out of sight, but one of the mages has awoken. There’s also a dark elven mage and two black orcs, a dangerous level (for me). dstairs shows a down stairs close to the black orcs. dobj shows a shovel and leather gloves, both likely useless. I head towards the dark elven mage, a frost bolt and a magic missile kill it, it drops leather sandals which I pick up. I wield the sandals, and uh, ok, this is kind of nuts, but we'll roll with it. They are speed +7. This feels incredibly cheesy, but don't look an RNG in the gift-horse mouth...or something. (It also makes all the hubbub about escaping rings very humorous) I also wield the hat I pick up earlier. Another dvis shows a whole bunch of orcs and lagduf. I want nothing more to do with this level, so I descend.

CL12 DL14
I land in a lit room with a black mamba and 7 novice warriors. I walk towards an exit. I SC the warriors 3 times and then finish the remainders with MMs. The mamba awakes but a couple MMs kills it off also. Loot from the warriors is a Kelvin staff, an Aesopian Ring, a Fuliginously Fulminating wand, and a nonsplendid flail. I wield the ring (cursed, strength -1, who cares). Dvis shows an orc pit to the west, that I certainly can’t handle. None have exited the pit yet so I’m guessing the exit is on the far side. I take the time to rest, since SP are low and head east. I head south to a group of cave orcs (5) and start MMing them. It takes 5 MMs to drop one. I kill 1 and then retreat and rest. 9 MMs kill two more, retreat to rest. One awakens and I kill it. Finally I kill the last one. I read my last ?dobj but I find nothing. A black harpy awakens and it is a good target for my unknown wand. It’s –light and I have 6 charges yet. Light is probably the most useful early game wand and I’m glad to have it. I kill the Harpy and a dark elven warrior for CL13. SP is at 5, so I rest. The dark elven warrior dropped 1 ?dobj. I detect some stairs and head towards them, killing a baby gold along the way. Rest to full SP and down I go.

CL13 DL15
Empty room, dvis shows a priest, a baby blue, and a lone white wolf a distance away on 3 sides of me. Only door is up, so I head in the direction of the baby blue. ?Dobj shows only a set of 3 unid’d scrolls. Baby blue dead after a bunch of MMs. Another dvis shows a cave bear and a griffon. 3 MMs take out the bear but I need more SP before thinking about the griffon so I retreat and rest to full. It will be my most difficult kill yet, but will give me a good chunk of XP. The griffon is around a bend so I use a stinking cloud to wake it up, wait three turns and then start MMing. 3 turns are because I’m at speed plus 7. After 10 MMs it's at three stars and right next to me so I ?phase. 5 more kill it and I rest again. I’m hungry so I read a ?SH. I head off east in the direction of detected stairs. I reach the stairs but there’s nothing in the vicinity that’s dangerous, so I decide to head towards the previously detected scrolls picking up some silver along the way. A red naga meets me, it’s awake, so I have to ?phase. It lands me in a room with an awake tengu and the naga near the entrance. I frost bolt and MM the tengu and it blinks away. Then I start MMing the naga. 6 MMs kill the naga, and it drops some more unknown scrolls. The tengu meets me near the stairs and hits me a couple times before MMs kill it. Wounded on stairs is a good time to try out the Kelvin staff (no effect). I rest until full, and then try the scrolls. The first one is monster summoning, and I run down the stairs.

CL13 DL16
Land in a dark room. A guardian naga is nearby, I don’t want to fight it. I head off to the east, find an exit and a Peripatetic potion. A large kobold meets me and I decide to MM it. It takes 6 MMs to kill. There are 11 manes to the north and a tengu. That’s still better than the naga, so I head that way. The tengu awakens and summons me into the room with the manes. I’m low on mana, so I don’t want to risk running out while fighting them, and teleself immediately. I land in a room of sleeping back orcs. I decide to try and escape but I first read my ?WoR, It’s time to get off this level. None of the orcs awaken, and dvis shows some uruks and another mess of orcs elsewhere. WoR yanks me back to town to my delight.

CL13 Town
I first buy 4 ?phase. and 2 ?WoR (have to get them from general store) I consider selling stuff for _teleport but there is none in the Magic shop. Instead I buy =FF for knowledge and ?RC allowing me to take off the cursed ring. I wield =FF (why not?) I test the staff again (sleep monsters) and test read Summon undead, that’s no good. I don’t see anything, but who knows what invisible things I summoned (in retrospect, it was probably just a single lost soul or poltergeist, my panic was unwarranted). So I phase and head to the stairs. I’ll waste time trying to find the stairs up. It doesn’t take much time at all and I’m back in town soon. The proustian ring I had before has been pseudo’d with [+9], so it’s protection. I wake a veteran to hit me so I can test the Peripatetic potion, it’s Intellect, and it saps Wisdom, woohoo! RNG has been exceedingly kind to me. That brings my SP up to 27. My burden is high so I sell the staff of light and the rod of trap detection. I check out the BM and to my delight I am able to buy =FA (schubertian) from the BM. I sell my =Prot and buy a –MM (Uproariously upholstering). No ?dobj for sale unfortunately. Taking stock, I’m at CL13, I have 54 HP and 27 SP. I have +7 permspeed. I have no resists covered. and I’m at 134k turns.

http://angband.oook.cz/ladder-show.php?id=10402

[fizzix]

CL13 DL16
I land in a dark double wide corridor. Dvis shows some light hounds and some cave orcs in a treasure room to the north. (Treasure rooms are the moated checkerboard rooms.) I can only see the top half of the treasure room, but I want to explore. I kill grip on the way north. Dvis further north show 8 light hounds, 18 cave orcs and a dark elven mage. This seems good for my level. I find it hard to get there, but I kill a griffon on the way for CL14 (29 SP). I go into a room and something breathes fire, but luckily nothing gets burned. I’m down to 10 SP so I rest but it doesn’t chase me into the corridor. Dvis shows it’s a giant salamander. It wasn’t chasing me because it was blocked by something unmoving. I MM the something and then kill the salamander. I pick up a Xerophytic potion, and head towards the treasure room. An orc is blocking the door preventing the hounds from escaping. I MM the orc to wake it, and run out of the moat and kill it and the first light hound that appears. I rest to full. The hounds are in the moat, and I go out and MM them, retreating into the corridor to rest when blinded. I get CL15 (SP 31). –light and MMs help take out the cave orcs. The dark elven mage comes out and a frost bolt and MM kill it. He drops and un id’d scroll. The treasure room has an un id’d ring (saint-saensian), a ?RC, and both up and down stairs. I read the unid’d scroll from the mage over the down stairs (teleportation). I slog my way back to the treasure room and return to the stairs and wield the unid’d ring (no effect) and test the Xerophytic potion (rpois).

Down I go

CL15 DL17
dvis shows bolg, an orc captain and a bunch of half and hill orcs to the north. That’s a definite avoid. Not much dangerous to the south so I head that way. I find an upstairs on the bottom left corner of the map, I don’t take it, but it’s good to know it’s there. I also find a hippogriff and Nar near the downstairs. Not much else is nearby so I take out the hippogriff and rest up for Nar, feeling that I have just enough SP to take him out. The first time Nar heals himself, I realize that I forgot he could do that. I usually wind up killing Nar so late in the game, that I never really knew what he could do. I have no choice but to bail 1/3 of the way through the battle and take the down stairs.

CL15 DL18
A pack of manes and some black orcs to the south. I kind of want to blast the black orcs with the remaining charges of my light wand, but I don’t think I can with the manes in the way. I quickly find some downstairs and use it as a safe spot to rest. Dvis senses nothing so I decide to explore a little. My Saint-saensian ring IDs as slow digestion, and I find another with a ?dobj in a room. I don’t like how far I’ve been going from the stairs, so I return and descend.

CL15 DL19
I land near a giant grey rat and I kill it. Dvis shows 5 white wolves and a pack of gnome mages. Both seem worthwhile to kill. After dispatching the closer white wolves I read dobj. I see a Millikan Staff, a Pneumatic potion and a cloak nearby, and no monsters. I pick up the staff and it drops me to +6 speed. I drop a 3rd copy of MB1 that I picked up somewhere, but still burdened. A tengu approaches and I try the staff (it’s identify). I kill the tengu and try the potion (no effect). I backtrack to get the cloak but I get to a deadend. Phasing lands me in the room with the cloak. I pick it up and it’s the randart Angothith. It gives +3 Int, what a boon! Dvis shows a gelatinous cube nearby, but I can outrun it. I phase back to my corridor and ID the cloak. All it has is +3 Int and sustain dexterity, but hey, that’s pretty big for me at this point. My SP are a whopping 46. I rest to full before going to tackle the gnome mages. I dvis along the way. The gnome mages are to the north of me. Further north is ufthak, bullroarer and escort. South is gorbag and escort. I definitely can’t take gorbag on, but ufthak is a possibility. I pick off the mages with frost bolts (and an MM if that doesn’t finish them) I get CL16 along the way, 49 SP. At some point I go back to rest and a black orc from gorbag’s escorts has found me. I hit it with –light and there’s none but him behind it. I kill it and a gnome mage that awakened and try resting again, but a large kobold has came near, so I kill it also. At this point a second black orc is coming, it’s time to get out of here. There’s a stairs nearby but the mages are blocking it in a room, so I got to continue westward. I come across a second set of down stairs. And with the safety of the stairs accessible, but I try to kill some of the monsters that have been chasing me. Dvis shows most of the mages are still asleep and there’s a lone black orc from gorbag’s group. I light an intersection and kill it when it enters. I’m at SP 15 and in a safe place, so I rest a bit waiting for the gnome mages to awaken. The first one approaches when I’m at 29. One drops a Chagall amulet and another drops a wand of MM. Among the gnome mages is smeagol, oh boy. So many fun things on this level. Smeagol takes forever to steal and run away and I keep on blasting it with –MM charges, eventually killing the gnome mage and a cave orc behind it with beams. However, an umber hulk must’ve spawned nearby, and it burrowed through the wall to get next to me. I’m low on SP, so it’s time to go down the stairs, smeagol will have to wait until later.

CL16 DL20
dvis shows mughash and close to 50 kobolds to the west. Not much else scary though. I rest to full (I was at 3 SP) and head away from Mughash. I see a scarlattiesque ring in a room with a skeleton kobold. The ring is the mouse, not worth wielding, but I would if it gave a stealth bonus. The chagall amulet does not id when wielded. There are a bunch of white wolves lined up in a corridor. 3 lightning bolts kill them giving me Clevel 17 (52 SP) Further south, there are 7 forest trolls blocking my path to the stairs. I don’t know how many of them I can handle. But I rest after the first two (one dropped a !hero) They don’t seem to have good pathfinding as I manage to rest again during the battles. The last one gives me Clevel 18 (55 SP). I reach the stairs, but there are some more things to kill nearby. There’s a gnome mage in the center of a plus room (guarding a treasure I assume) It summons a green naga and both die. My chagall amulet has ID’d as slow digestion, and the naga drops another. But there’s also a Tolstoian ring that was guarded by the gnome mage. I wear the ring to no obvious effect. There’s a tengu, a master yeek and a stone golem in a moated room. Seems like fun, so I take them out (except the tengu who blinked away). In the moated room there’s also Garibaldi’s Rod which I immediately test and it’s –dobj. It get’s inscribed @z3. I detect ?teleport nearby and it's not difficult to get, so I grab it and head back towards the stairs. This was a productive level, and down I go.

CL18, DL21
Looking at my damage spells. Magic missile does 6d4 damage or 15 dam/sp and 15 dam/turn. Frost bolt does 8d6 or 12 dam/SP, 36 dam/turn. SC does 19 damage at center, so 9.5 dam/SP. Lastly lightning bolt does 5d6 damage, 4 dam/sp and 17.5 dam/turn. MM is still the most cost effective damage, frost bolt is to be used when I’m fighting something with dangerous ranged attacks, and SC or LB are for multiple enemies.

Anyway, I land in a darkened room next to a gnome mage. Dvis shows a line of snagas nearby. I FB the mage and pick up the silver it drops and then head toward the snagas. I kill them with MMs and LBs getting an Industrious potion, a dastardly dandifying wand, and MB3 (!!). I learn acid bolt, fire bolt and lesser recharging. I rest to full and dvis. There’s a 3 head hydra that’s awake and to the north of me. I’ll want to avoid that. There’s not much else nearby except for down stairs. Dvis by the down stairs shows a dark elven mage, so I go to kill that. It poisons me and I try out the industrious potion after it dies (Berserk Strength, useless) It drops boots which I don’t care for unless they are an artifact, (they are not). I’m on the far west edge of the map, and there’s nothing else nearby, so I head back to the stairs and recharge my –light (back to 4 charges). I rest and head down.

CL18, DL22
I land in a corridor, dvis shows a sabre tooth tiger to the south. It’s going to get to me, but I can probably kill it with the amount of SP that I have. I wait a bit and it seems to have found a path towards me, I duck into a small room nearby, -light the corridor that it’ll arrive from and wait. 4 FBs and 2 MMs and it’s dead. I try resting and something wails at me and I’m terrified. It’s probably a moaning spirit, and with my gloves with sustain dex, I don’t mind if it touches me. I cast an SC centered around me. It screams in pain, and then presumably runs away. I rest until it wails again. Another SC finishes it off and I rest to full. A bunch of snagas to the south look like worthwhile targets, so I head there. Two charges from –light shrivel 8 of them, and net me a !rpois. I recharge –light, and kill 4 more around the bend. There are 7 more in a room, so I send some SCs in. 4 SCs and 2 MMs kill the remainder. The loot is another _Sleep monsters and pitiful amounts of copper. Going westward, the only monsers are a novice ranger and an icky thing. Dobj shows a lucerne hammer and some copper. Another dvis shows 6 cold hounds, that I can't get to, so I head to a nearby downstairs.

CL18, DL23
I land in a lit room with a multi-hued baby dragon, lugdush and 50 escorts, and an awake potion mimic. Good times. I teleport and land in a room with at least 8 cold hounds. More good times. Teleport again, this time reading the scroll I picked up, because a failure here could be bad since I don't know how many hounds there are. This teleport lands me in a twisty corridor. Dvis shows monsters all around, orc shaman to the north, pseudo dragon to the south. Yeti southwest with bullroarer farther and a 3 headed hydra far north. This level is dangerous. Dstairs show an up stairs to the south past the pseudo dragon. I discover that the dragon is inside a moated room and the yeti is outside it. –dobj shows a Manet amulet to the north, that I won’t go after for fear of the hydra, and a Superfluous potion inside the moated room. 5 MMs take care of the yeti, and I grab the superfluous potion without waking up the dragon. I leave the room and Bullroarer wakes up and finds me, so I ?phase landing me in a nearby corridor. I –light in the direction that I think he’ll come from, and dvis show’s that I’m right. 5 MMs are enough to waste him. He drops two shields and a morning star. I’m feeling that it’s time to head back to town so I ID all three. I try out that wand I’ve been lugging around for a while on a centipede (wonder) and drop a wooden torch to pick up the morning star. Then it’s recall time!

CL18 Town
I Id and sell the excellent morning star for 5000 gold and the _Sleep and –confuse for 2500 more. Useless for any of the monsters I’m now worried about. I’m annoyed that there’s still no _teleport in the magic shop. I let a mercenary hit me to try out the superfluous potion (true seeing). I decide to spend my money on gloves of free action from the BM. I drop off my ?RC and my _ID at home. I have lots of money left so it’s time to buy a bunch of things for flavor knowledge. ?Magic mapping, detect stairs (squelch), monster confusion (squelch), and ID from the alchemist, there’s just restore dex for potions there. I don’t see myself needing that for quite a while so I pass on that. I buy 8 more !CCW from the temple (up to 10). I get “Chr (manet, squelch) and “Resist acid (wield) and =Searching (Hugoesque, squelch) from the magic shop. I’m not deep enough to worry about _Devil or _Dinvis so I let them be. I get !RLL (Disheartening) because it's very hard to ID-by use, and drop it off at home. I pick up three torches from the general store. I get 7 ?WoR from the alchemist and 2 ?dinvis and drop 4 of the ?WoR off at home, carrying 4 with me. I try recharging –light and it blows up, damn. I’m a bit overweight, so I drop some of the !CCW at home, If I run out, I’ll return. If I need to drop more weight, my useless armor will go, It’s not doing much besides blocking acid. Speaking of that I decide instead to sell the leather armor that I’ve been wearing and replace it with a robe. I make a char dump just shy of 180k turns and it’s time to drop back down.

http://angband.oook.cz/ladder-show.php?id=10402

[ewert]

Lucky sandals. How would you rate the +speed has affected your character in a "power" sense (as in killing ability, staying alive ability)? Cause that's what 2x RoE is like. Btw, hug the RNG, or it might turn nasty. =P

I started a gnome mage (melee/archerless of course) myself, dunno why but I really like mages nowadays. Went max str/int. Played a few hours, it's in stat gain now with 130ish hp and 130ish sp (one int ring found yey). Don't remember clvl, but tested a RoE to see the fail%, and I already had frost bolt at min fail too, I think fire bolt would have needed a couple levels more to be min-fail.

Keep on writing, I'm sure lots of people are reading.

[fizzix]

The advantages of speed for this character in order of importance (to me):

1 can TO monsters without them getting a turn (will be important when I can do this)
2 can move faster so that monsters don't get woken up as easily
3 makes it easier to kill monsters with dangerous ranged attacks (less healing required)

2 is somewhat mitigated because I have to rest so much to regen SP (spawned monsters are always awake)


I thought about going gnome instead of hobbit, the only reason I didn't is because of the EXP penalty.

edit: everything's already written. I just paste a section at a time, cut out boring sections, add anything that describes how I approach the game, and then edit it so that it makes sense. I could paste the whole thing now, but that'd be overkill, just a section like this a day, trying to jump between all the chardumps I made along the way.

[fizzix]

CL18 DL23
I land in a dark room with a Quylthulg in sight. I immediately fire bolt it killing it for dlevel 19. Dvis shows grishnakh with a ginormous escort to the west and not much else. I light the room and there’s no westward exit. Without my –light, I can't take on a lot at once, we’ll see if the dungeon allows for taking on only a few at a time. –dobj shows an acerous potion to the north and I head to get that. As I close in, dvis shows a flock of crebain to the north. They’ll get to the potion before me so I decide to rest and see if they enter the room I’m in. A few SP regained later the first shows up and I start hockey-sticking them to death. After a while the flow stops and dvis shows them lined up behind a locked door. Ufthak and escort are in a cross room to the east, so I’d prefer if they don’t shriek. I pick up the potion and decide to head back to the room I started in, and try the other exit, and see if it gets me closer to grishnakh. It does, and I break into grishnakhs room. I fire some lightning bolts into his escorts killing the ones lined up in front of the door. I decide to retreat before attempting to take on any more. At full SP, Grishnakh goes down easy. He drops a cloak which is not splendid so I destroy it. I try to get close enough to wake up a bunch of orcs with a stinking cloud so I can line them up in a corridor and lightning bolt them to death, but they keep coming at me individually. Eventually after several retreats, rests, LBs and MMS, I’ve destroyed the escort. About halfway through a group of forest trolls have spawned near the escorts, oh boy, more dumb monsters to kill. At one point I let a cave orc hit me to try out the acerous potion (!Chr, I feel cute!). A baby black joins the battle coming in behind some trolls and melts some wepons that were lying on the ground and damages my speed shoes. The loot is meager. A potion of true seeing, some gold, and two weapons which I ID as a +5 +5 lance and a slay giant glaive. I decide to return to town to sell these and see if I can find a _teleport. There are no stairs nearby and I’ve been on this level for way too long, and the town inventory has switched over. At some point during the battles I gained CL20 (61 SP)

CL20 town
Alas still no _teleport. The only spell I can learn in MB4 is frost ball, and it’s just not worth it yet. BM has a +4 =Int (score!) It replaces my ring of accuracy which I must’ve ID’d at some point by bumping into a townsman. My SP skyrocket to 101, things are looking up. BM also has a –TO for cheap so I get that as well. I also buy an Amulet of Adornment to learn flavor (Picasso) Some potions for flavors (Rdex, Rstr, Rchr = Tintinnabulary, Nitpicky and Pneumatic) Some scrolls for flavors (Ench to-dam,squelch, Ench to-hit squelch, and recharging.) Happy with this quick shopping spree, I decide to return once again.

CL20 DL23
I drop into a dark room. My goal now is to get to stat gain as quick as possible. dvis shows a couple vortices nearby but nothing else to be afraid of. I pick up a ?teleport in the room and eat some slime molds lying on the ground. I find the stairs and kill a master yeek that wakes up nearby, netting me a seccond –dobj. I rest to full and drop down again.

CL20 DL24
A dark room with a mess of novice rangers. Dvis shows precisely 17 of them and a tengu in the room. I fire a bunch of SCs in the general direction of the rangers before lighting up the room. I kill them and the tengu easily, rest and check the loot. I get two more ?teleport, an unid’d scroll that I can test anywhere (I’ve already gotten rid of the two summons.) Some useless rings and some weapons I don’t care for. –dobj shows nothing nearby so I rest and read the scroll hoping for DD. It’s acquirement. I seem to always discover these with id-by-use. It drops a robe which I immediately wield. It’s the artifact Hyarveril, what a lucky draw. I Id it, it gives rbase and only rbase and provides +6 to hit and to dam. A robe of resistance is pretty good for me at this stage and I’m delighted with the find. I set off looking for stairs. Dvis shows a water vortex nearby, I want to try and kill it before it breathes if possible. A –dobj later shows a gauss staff and a zonliy zombifying wand. I want both if possible. I fight through some light hounds and the vortex, pick up the wand and the staff. I prepare to jump down a trap door but a hill orc approaches. I test out the wand (sleep monster, useless) and the staff _teleportation, glad to have one. In my new location there are no stairs nearby. I group of yeeks to the south means a unique is nearby, because they otherwise only travel solo. I’m not too far from where I teleported from, so I trudge back. At this point with 101 SP, the –MM aren’t too helpful so I chuck them. Similarly the –WoW probably won’t do much for me so I get rid of that also. I get back to the trap door, the hill orc is still asleep and I ignore it and drop down.

CL20 DL25
Dark room, I see a sleeping brown beetle. Dvis show’s no real dangers nearby. I kill the beetle, light the room, and drop down the stairs that are conveniently located in it.

CL20 DL26
Another dark room, zombified human and a giant red scorpion are in sight. The zombie drops a =Str (+2) that replaces my free action ring (superfluous with the gloves) The scorpion gives me CL21 (106 SP). Dstairs show none nearby, -dobj shows only weapons. Some aimless wandering later I detect some stairs and nothing I want to fight or pick up. I phase into the room with the stairs. I rest and then descend once more.

CL21 DL27
I land in a room with blink dogs, not wanting anything to do with them, I teleport. This brings me into another dark room with a displacer beast in sight. Dstairs shows a set nearby to the east. –dobj shows a new ring, 2 new wands and a new potion and a shield. One of the wands is in the room with me so I grab it and FB the displacer beast to death. I then go south to pick up the other wand. I wield the ring and it's escaping (Mahlerian) and the shield. My pack is full so I test out the salaciously sandbagging wand, it gives a white beam but doesn’t destroy the wall. I already know TO, so I test it on a trap, trap-door destruction. No need for it, squelched. Lastly I head east, injure myself with a beetle and try the rhyming potion in the room. It does nothing, so it’s probably one of the 3 restores I haven’t ID’d in town yet. On the stairs I cast ID on the numerically nucleating wand (disarming, squelch) and the wicker shield I picked up. Rcold, wield. At speed +11 with the escaping ring, I descend again.

CL21 DL28
Dark room. dvis shows nothing dangerous. Dstairs shows some to the west. –dobj shows just a flail. I straight shot to the stairs, killing an energy vortex on the way, and descend.

CL21 DL29
Dark room, 10 cave ogres in sight, golfimbul and escort to the north, and a umberhulk nearby as well. I want nothing to do with this section of the map, so I teleport. I land in another dark room that dvis shows me sharing with a scorpion. Sanghayando is to the south and some algroths are further south. Dstairs shows no stairs, not even any doors. Dobj shows a stack of 3 scrolls near the scorpion (probably darkness or something) I kill the scorpion and ID the scrolls, just in case they’re curse armor. They’re aggravate and are squelched.

The only path is taking me south towards Sanghayando, I can probably take him on if the hallway leads to him. However, the path goes past him, and I don’t mind skipping the fight. dstairs still shows nothing, dvis shows the algroth group is larger than I expected, and certainly larger than I can handle. The passageway snakes to the west and finally dstairs shows me a destination stairway. Dvis shows nothing dangerous in the path. –dobj shows another strength ring, and a tried rhyming potion on the way. I pick up the potion, grab the strength ring which conveniently stacks with the one in my pack, and get to the stairs.

CL21 DL30
I drop near a young green and a down stairs on this superb level. I'm at stat gain depth, so now is the time to try and kill anything with a drop. Dvis shows a white wraith also in the room, a young blue to the north and forest trolls to the south. I wallop the wraith with two fire bolts and it drops a manifoldly masticating wand. I drink the !rpois I’ve been lugging around and go to kill the young green with fire bolts, except I find I’m surrounded by clear hounds. I read ?dinvis and there are 16 of them. I SC most of the clear hounds to death in time to fire bolt the young green before rpois wears off (it doesn’t breathe anyway) It drops an adjectival potion which I immediately try hoping for !stat (!rmana). I mop up the remaining clear hounds that flew to the corner getting dlevel 22 in the process.

–dobj shows some heavy armor that I’ll ignore. I kill the young blue to the north after lighting a corridor with spear of light and waking it with stinking clouds, but it drops nothing of interest. I really would like some Con before descending too far, because 94 HP will get me one-shotted fairly soon. We'll see how likely I am to get this (hint: not anytime soon, it will be a long time before my HP are higher than my SP). I decide that the forest trolls to the south would make for good killings so I go seek them out. I spear of light them and wind up waking a mature red in the process. Uh-oh, this is a monster that I may not be able to handle. Its fire breath won’t kill me with my resistance cloak, so after I spear of light a bunch of trolls to death, I let the dragon into LoS and acid bolt it (CL23). It winds up not breathing at all, or doing much of anything besides advancing into my onslaught of acid bolts.

Dvis further down shows a mature green in what looks like a 2x2 room, now that is something to avoid. The mature red dropped two items, one is an iron helm which identifies as the artifact bereth. Wielding it gives me +3 Int (Yes, I’ve been insanely lucky, I know) Bringing my SP to 150. I ID the halbert it drops (flame) and decide to sell it. –dobj shows nothing I want nearby, so I decide to recall.

CL23 town
IDing the manifoldy masticating wand I picked up from the wraith shows me clone monsters, squelched. I pick up another –TO from the BM and a !enlight (for knowledge mostly). I ID the rhyming potion as Rint. and ID the randart helm (rdark, rsound). I decide to buy MB4 now that frost ball is definitely castable, and buy a 2nd MB3 while I’m there. I learn frost ball, TO, and reveal monsters. I’m a little overweight, but I have +10 speed still, so I don’t mind. I make a dump and prepare to recall.

http://angband.oook.cz/ladder-show.php?id=10402

[fizzix]

CL23 DL30
I recall into a superb level in what looks like a dark pillared room. Dvis shows a bunch of cave orcs, some vortices, a white wraith and not much else to worry about. Frost balls, and a couple SCs kill the orcs, giving me nothing but gems. Well, they did drop a crossbow of extra shots, which I’d be delighted to have in any game but this. It's too heavy to carry to sell, so I just leave it. I kill a manticore for dlevel 24. I pick up a Becquerel staff, and use it in LoS of a red jelly but nothing happens. Further along, I detect and pick up an everburning lantern. This is my first game I've ever played where I never used a single flask of oil. After mapping half the level and killing monsters including two vampires and a young white, I take a downstairs after IDing the Bec staff as curing (dropped).

CL24 DL31
I land in a dark room with a guardian naga nearby and nothing else of immediate concern. –dobj shows a Chandrashekhar staff nearby. I kill the naga, but have some trouble navigating to the staff as the path curves around it. Later detection shows 14 air hounds camped out in the middle of the level. These are dangerous if I can’t get them one by one and fruitful kills if I can. I get the staff and ID it as dinvis. Not worth the weight so I use it once and leave it here. I then see what I can do about the air hounds. It looks like rubble is blocking their path to me. North of them are 18 stone trolls, also things I’d like to kill. The stone trolls cross my path first, and I light the room purposefully waking a few of them. There’s a young bronze in the room with the trolls, and It drops a x2 stack of unknown scrolls. Some frost balls and MMs kill the trolls and I get CL25 with their demise. I ID the scrolls as trap creation (squelch). The hounds are not that far from me but apparently can’t find the path to me. The mace that the trolls drop is acid, and I guess I’ll lug it back to town to sell. I want to start building up enough money to buy stat gain potions when they appear. Exploring south lets me know that the air hounds are in the inside section of a moated room, and they just couldn’t find the door. I go back into the room that the stone trolls came from and go far enough west so that they find the door, and then let a couple out, kill them, rinse, repeat. After the air hounds are dead, I Fire bolt a black knight and pick up the main gauche and bastard sword it was guarding. A shambling mound wakes up but I kill it before it can shriek. Neither weapon is splendid so I leave them. Further westward exploration brings me to a pack of earth hounds. With convenient terrain these are more easy XP. After I pick off the hounds, I kill a troll priest, test-wield a lucerne hammer (squelch) and decide to take the down stairs. So far my foray into stat-gain has not been too productive from the stat-gain point of view. Oh well, nothing to do but forge along.

CL25 DL32
Another dark room and another superb feeling. I one shot fire-bolt the dragon fly that I share the room with, and dvis shows nothing else of danger. –dobj shows Washington’s rod in the room with me and a Compton staff not far off to the east. I pick up Washington’s rod and try it, but nothing happens (it’s probably curing) ID shows that yes indeed it is curing, the most useless item in the game. Well, it’s worthwhile to sell at least? I test-wield and squelch a glaive on the way to the staff. I pass through a pillared room with an upstairs and kill a paladin in it. IDing the staff shows that it’s Devil, again not worth carrying around. A helm next to it is infravision and it is left behind. (my +3 INT, rsound hat is pretty damn good, but telep would be better.) There’s an unknown Sibeliussy ring up north, and I’ve got nothing better to aim for so I decide to head for it. I light up a room with a novice priest gathering and frost ball them, keeping an eye out for dropped potions (there are none) They drop another ring of escaping, but I’d rather have the =Int at this point than a second escaping ring. Still, I pick it up in case it’s useful in the future. A saber-tooth tiger comes at me but this time it’s a piece of cake to kill. I kill a mind flayer in the room with the new ring. There’s also a cloak here but I destroy it after confirming that it’s not an artifact, or magi+telep. Some white wolves interrupt my treasure gathering so I take them out. I finally get around to wielding the new ring and it has no obvious effect. I ID it as damage (squelched). -dobj shows MB4 northwards and Louis XIV’s Rod southwards. I get the book first and then get the rod and promptly zap a beetle who doesn’t fall asleep (rod squelched). I finally find some stairs but –dobj near them show yet another unid’d rod (Mao Tse-tung’s) so I head for that keeping an eye out for the pukelman nearby. I have to take a roundabout route to the rod, and I have to TO the pukelman when he wakes up. The rod is –dstairs (squelched.) I’ve decided that I have had enough of this level and recall back instead of taking the stairs, because I need more inventory space.

CL25 town
I sell the mace and the curing rod, buy a wand of stinking cloud for flavor (empirically empoisoning, how apt, I think that’s the second time that stinking cloud got that flavor) At the BM I buy a mushroom of terror for flavor (niveous) =Open Wounds for flavor (Hardyesque) and =Delving for flavor (Joycean). I consider a rod of frost bolts, but it won’t be too helpful to me at this point. Only one ?WoR in the alchemist and the general store (l have some extra at home). I read one and drop off the escaping ring at home and realize that I forgot to use my enlightenment potion last trip. oops.

Before I descend, it is time to reflect and give thanks on the bounty I have received. At this point I have rbase covered, +11 speed, 18/150 Int, and a permanent source of FA. I have 108 HP which is admittedly pretty puny, but 163 SP, which makes me a powerhouse that can kill almost anything. All in all, far beyond what I was expecting. My inventory contains two –TO (17 charges between them), 2 –dobj, _teleport, mb1-4 and an assortment of potions and scrolls. This is far beyond what I was expecting by this point. The only slots that could use obvious improvement are the amulet slot, where “regen would be most appropriate, and the weapon slot, which is currently empty. The best for that would be something light with SInv (or telepathy, dare I dream.) Anyway, off we go.

CL25 DL32
Swigging enlight shows a new ring (Dickensian) and a new amulet (Warhol) and sadly no new potions. Both are far away, I’m in the southwest corner, the amulet is in the north middle and the ring is in the northeast, but getting the new amulet is worth checking out. Since I have enough SP and dreads will show up soon, it’s time to start casting Reveal Monsters instead of DVis, and it shows nothing of danger. A bunch of gnome mages block the path to the amulet, and killing them gives CL26. One of the gnome mages drops a Gauguin amulet, wielding it shows it’s WIS (+2). It replaces my RAcid amulet, at least for a couple turns. Another drops Mandela’s rod which does nothing to the wall. The warhol amulet, doesn’t do anything when worn, I ID it because I don’t want to wait to learn RElec if it’s that, (it is). Oh well, time to backtrack and make my way to the ring, because sadly, getting from the middle north to the northeast requires going back through the center. Nothing really bugs me on the path to the ring, and wearing it does nothing so I ID it (Rfire) and squelch it. There’s also a sling in the room, which get’s pseudo’d as a sling of power. It’s light enought to carry and sell, so I’ll do that. I also find body armor that is not splended and therefore squelched. Lastly, there’s conveniently a downstairs in this room, so I rest to full and descend. Still no stat-gain found yet.

CL26 DL33
RMon shows a couple bats nearby and golfimbul and a large escort to the southeast. I’ll go kill golfimbul after taking care of the bats. –dobj shows !Rstr and !Rchr, so nothing of use. The spoils of golfimbul and escort unfortunately contain no unknown potions. They do leave a Dostoyevskian Ring (ID’d, bodykeeping) Golfimbul drops an Executioner’s sword of Slay Undead, and instead of resting to regain my low SP, I’ll recall to town to sell stuff and back. This will actually be a habit with me. When low on SP, I'll recall to town instead of resting. Or at least it'll be a habit until I pick up a source of regen. I wonder how long that will take?

CL26 town
The town has absolutely nothing for sale, not even stuff to learn flavors, so recall is almost immediate.

No new dump this time around. I'll try to get to the next chardump point on the next update, but it's a ways away. Might have to split it into two updates.

[buzzkill]

edit: everything's already written. I just paste a section at a time....

I'm somehow disappointed at learning this. I don't know why. Still looking forward to the conclusion.

[fizzix]

I'm somehow disappointed at learning this. I don't know why. Still looking forward to the conclusion.

The main reason I waited, is that I didn't want to start writing simultaneously as your kremlen adventure. The only difference from your perspective is that I can't act on any suggestions you may make.

I've already stopped listing all the minor kills, except when they drop either useful or new stuff. But if it's lagging, I can speed it up by cutting out even more. Not sure what's best here.