Post your last instadeath

[Timo Pietilä]

Manastorms are the reason why you don't attack reavers, Vecna, Sauron and such until you have the hps to endure one. It's probably the most dangerous attack in the game, because it does massive damage and doesn't depend on the caster's hp.

Sauron doesn't do manastorm. He does darkness storm though, with same calculation. Without darkness resist that's same thing. Those two spells are only ones that reach 600+ damage max.

[Derakon]

For reference, at 18/90 CON, you get a bonus 4.5 HP/level. At 18/150, you get 7.5/level, and at 18/200, you get 12.5/level. So with an extra 11 points in CON, and assuming you were level 40, you'd have had 320 more HP, coming close to doubling your total.

[Timo Pietilä]

Black Reaper Manastormed (Bolt?) me. I had 18/100 stats, (con 18/90 modified) +36 Speed, all resistances + FA,SI,ESP. I had 444 hp at character-level 44 and dungeon-level 95. How Long do other People Play to reach that Level? I had a high-elf and had done a lot of grinding around dungeon Level 40-60. I guess it was the work of around two weeks of playing, i would guess around 70 playing hours.

It takes me about 20 hours of gameplay to win the game, and I'm slow diver. 70 hours sounds a lot, so you have probably paid attention to wrong things.

For deep survival:
1) Don't be greedy, you don't need to fight everything you meet.
2) be aware of your surroundings (ESP, magic mapping etc.)
3) be faster than your opponents (speed +20+ permanent)
4) Have a lot of HP (basically maxed or near-maxed con, at least 18/180)
5) Have method of kill things fast (melee or distance. Distance is better if you can)
6) Have basic four + poison resists, {Free Action or perfect saving throw} and {See_Inv or ESP}.
7) Have protection to non-lethal bad side-effects. Conf, blind, stun. As swap if not possible as standard gear.

That's it. Everything else is luxury you don't need, but is nice to have.

From your list it sounds that "all resists" and +36 speed are the ones you did go wrong. RoCON +6 would probably made a huge difference, and some speed-item replaced with one that gives CON instead. It is a lot easier to survive with 800HP than 400HP.

[PowerWyrm]

Sauron doesn't do manastorm. He does darkness storm though, with same calculation. Without darkness resist that's same thing. Those two spells are only ones that reach 600+ damage max.

He does, at least in 3.5:

N:546:Sauron, the Sorcerer
T:person
C:p
I:130:10500:100:192:0
W:99:1:0:50000
B:HIT:UN_BONUS:10d12
B:HIT:UN_BONUS:10d12
B:HIT:UN_POWER:8d12
B:HIT:UN_POWER:8d12
F:UNIQUE | QUESTOR | MALE | EVIL | SMART | REGENERATE
F:DROP_4 | DROP_GOOD | DROP_GREAT | ONLY_ITEM
F:OPEN_DOOR | MOVE_BODY
F:IM_COLD | IM_ELEC | IM_FIRE | IM_POIS | NO_FEAR | NO_CONF
F:NO_SLEEP
F:FORCE_DEPTH | FORCE_SLEEP
S:1_IN_2
S:BLIND | BRAIN_SMASH | CAUSE_4 | SCARE | TELE_LEVEL | TPORT
S:BA_DARK | BA_FIRE | [COLOR="Red"][B]BA_MANA[/B][/COLOR] | BA_NETH | BA_WATE
S:BO_ICEE | BO_MANA | BO_PLAS
S:S_HI_DEMON | S_HI_DRAGON | S_HI_UNDEAD | S_MONSTERS | S_UNIQUE | S_WRAITH
friends:100:1d1:Khamûl, the Black Easterling
friends:100:1d1:The Witch-King of Angmar
D:He is Morgoth's most powerful servant.  Mighty in spells and enchantments, he
D: created the One Ring.  His eyes glow with power and his gaze seeks to destroy
D: your soul.  He has many servants, and rarely fights without them.

[Timo Pietilä]

He does, at least in 3.5:

I stand corrected. Some high-level monster that did darkness storm didn't. Vecna? No, Vecna doesn't do darkness storm. Must have been Cerberus, which doesn't exist in modern vanilla anymore.

[Derakon]

Must have been Cerberus, which doesn't exist in modern vanilla anymore.

Which is amusing, considering all the other Greek monsters that got imported into the game awhile back.

[Timo Pietilä]

Which is amusing, considering all the other Greek monsters that got imported into the game awhile back.

Cerberus was frightening monster. Very close to Tarrasque in dealiness and harder to kill.

I should add darkness storms to balrogs in my copy. It's only spell besides manastorm that is truly dangerous.

[donalde]

So, I gave dwarf priest to see if they really are so good... It was low going, and OoD was the main weapon to make damage. So, I encountered some normal monsters on level (I think it was like ranger who summoned some hydra, also there may have been some mage or something out of sight), quite near boder of area I had detected evil. I was on some 250+ hp (max 320), decided to heal after next round... I take some hits, hp 200 to 210, next thing I see is something offscreen breaths shards, you die... looking headstone: yes, you guessed correct, Kavlax.

[krazyhades]

I stand corrected. Some high-level monster that did darkness storm didn't. Vecna? No, Vecna doesn't do darkness storm. Must have been Cerberus, which doesn't exist in modern vanilla anymore.

Ungoliant.

[MattB]

The imp commands you to return.
You land in molten lava.
You die.
-------------

I mean, honestly!
At least FAangband had the common decency to decorate my tombstone with the phrase:

'Killed by landing in molten lava', which is kind of cool.

Well...hot.

[HugoVirtuoso]

Here's a particularly bad no-win situation I encountered:

http://angband.oook.cz/screen-show.php?id=2631

In PosChengband, Giants are notorious for throwing large rocks that do big damage.

[Timo Pietilä]

Here's a particularly bad no-win situation I encountered:

http://angband.oook.cz/screen-show.php?id=2631

In PosChengband, Giants are notorious for throwing large rocks that do big damage.

Why is that a no-win situation? It isn't obvious from that screenshot. Can't move?

[debo]

Why is that a no-win situation? It isn't obvious from that screenshot. Can't move?

He teleported _into_ it, and iirc you take longer than normal to recover from teleports in poscheng. Additionally, all scrolls and devices have a failure rate, and giants throw rocks which stun you -- making the odds of you teleporting back out of that pack to be low. I wouldn't call it no-win, but it's definitely a "wow I don't want to do that again" situation

[taptap]

Why is that a no-win situation? It isn't obvious from that screenshot. Can't move?

I guess he can't recover from -118 HP.

[Timo Pietilä]

He teleported _into_ it, and iirc you take longer than normal to recover from teleports in poscheng. Additionally, all scrolls and devices have a failure rate, and giants throw rocks which stun you -- making the odds of you teleporting back out of that pack to be low. I wouldn't call it no-win, but it's definitely a "wow I don't want to do that again" situation

Sounds like poscheng is a harder game than vanilla. No 100% sure spells is harsh.

Sounds like teleporting in that crowd is bit like teleporting into big pack of gravity hounds.