A middle-game crisis

[Raajaton]

Air hounds? TBH I'm not sure I've ever been killed by Air hounds. They don't do that much damage even unresisted, unless you happen to walk into the middle of a large room that's filled with a packs of them. If you are using detection properly you should be able to either kill them 1 at a time or get away from them before they can manage to kill you.

[Zireael]

Since no one's mentioned it, I'll give a shout out to the drolem as another gas-breather capable of InstaDeath that starts showing up once you're past 2000 feet. It's invisible to telepathy to boot.

Before I got on the forums and adopted the detection-heavy/diving techniques, I would never go down past 2000 without permanent resist poison in place. Too many games ended with "It breathes gas. You die."

It's not drolems, it's some sort of hounds. Forgot which ones breathe gas.

[Timo Pietilä]

Drolems are level 44 in 3.5, which is what I recall from the old days, though as you say they're rare and have the FORCE_SLEEP flag.

Unless this has been changed FORCE_SLEEP doesn't really have anything to do with sleep. It is/was a flag that prevented monsters to use their spells (including breaths) before player have got at least one turn onto level.

[Lord Tom]

Drolems are level 44 in 3.5, which is what I recall from the old days, though as you say they're rare and have the FORCE_SLEEP flag.

I'm curious though if others have any particular transition depth at which they really like to have rPoison, or if people just use detection/evasion to the extent it's irrelevant? I'd always tried for free action by 1000', rPoison by 2000' but I'm curious if that's considered obsolete.

[Derakon]

Drolems are not and have never been native to 2000'; you could have seen them earlier or later and were never truly safe anywhere anyway.

In any event, they've been moved deeper into the dungeon, I believe, and they're incredibly rare monsters anyway. I don't think my characters ever see more than 2 or 3 of them in a given game. And they're pretty slow to wake, to boot. I think the "It breathes. You die." thing has been really overstated.

[Lord Tom]

Since no one's mentioned it, I'll give a shout out to the drolem as another gas-breather capable of InstaDeath that starts showing up once you're past 2000 feet. It's invisible to telepathy to boot.

Before I got on the forums and adopted the detection-heavy/diving techniques, I would never go down past 2000 without permanent resist poison in place. Too many games ended with "It breathes gas. You die."

[LostTemplar]

Speed affect detection, it matters most at fist turn on a new level, less chance to detect and then die to hound pack next turn, It also indirectly affect stealth. Speed is a top priority.

[Timo Pietilä]

very careful about anything fast enough to get in two attacks before you get a chance to panic.

"get chance to panic"

In other words, speed kills. Detection (incl. ESP) > escapes (incl. FA etc.) > HP > healing > damage you deliver > resistances (except basic4+poison).

All of these obviously until you reach some point where more doesn't help you much.

Speed is a bit difficult to put in that list, because it affects three things in that list: escapes, healing and damage you deliver. Double the speed and you double the damage you do to monsters, get double chances to avoid monsters and double time to heal while in the fight. It's overall survival thing. Double-speed even doubles you stealth (monsters get half the turns to wake up).

Resistances is the last in that list. Mostly you want those to prevent nasty side-effects much more than for avoiding damage. Best way to avoid damage it to not get hit in the first place. Pick your fights, don't let monsters do that.

[Raajaton]

I definitely recommend the no_selling option. I find hauling half an inventory of crap to sell back to town every couple of levels to be incredibly boring, and as previously stated it opens you up to make use out of things you may have deemed "useless" before. Prior to using no selling I don't think I ever used a wand of slow monster, or a staff of sleep monster. Granted these things don't stay useful for very long, but they can actually be very useful assets early game when you are likely to find them when you're not concerned about filling up with useless ego's for gold.

[Derakon]

Regardless of failure rates, you should invest heavily in Teleport Other. The problem with Teleport is that it lands you in an unknown tile, which could easily be, say, within LOS of an awake and angry monster. Teleport Other leaves you right where you are, and is thus often much safer.

But yeah, that 5% failure rate will get you killed eventually. Ranger utility spells are handy, but they're not to be relied on in an emergency.

[AnonymousHero]

I actually did find a rod of probing in the game, but as a greedy bastard I sold it right away . I think I have understood, but have lacked in action to change my playing style from hauling with a lot of empty inventory slots to having useful items in the middle game stage...

I would suggest playing with no_selling on. You'll get larger gold drops and when picking up items the focus shifts from "how much is this worth?" to "(how) can i use this?". This is very helpful for forcing yourself to adapt a more "scrappy" playing style where many more items become (situationally) useful.

As a ranger I have typically have teleport as my main escape plan. I don't like teleport level so much as I play non-preserve and enjoy the pain of trying to figure out how to handle the monsters to get the artifact.

(Snip bit about sensible precautions for teleporting.)

Just be aware the teleporting will eventually get you killed at the deeper levels -- things spawn randomly on the level over time. Either that or you'll have to teleport without having had time to clear large portions of the level... Your precautions do reduce the risk significantly, but (reliably) winning Angband is all about reducing risk to zero at some point.

[Fluster]

Thank you all,

It's nice to get so many answers so fast!

I didn't know that a permanent resistance can be fortified with a temporary one so that was a really nice piece of information. Gives a lot more meaning for the resistances spellbook later in the game also...

I actually did find a rod of probing in the game, but as a greedy bastard I sold it right away . I think I have understood, but have lacked in action to change my playing style from hauling with a lot of empty inventory slots to having useful items in the middle game stage... The reason I want to avoid spoilers is that I think finding new things within the game is one of the most fun parts of playing Angband (unless they kill you). I remember the first times I played the game some 15 to 20 years ago when I simply tried to learn all the scrolls, potions etc by trying them, which led to many interesting - though perhaps not that successful - adventures. In those times you also needed to learn the capabilities of artifacts with *Identify* scrolls, which seem to have been removed since.

As a ranger I have typically have teleport as my main escape plan. I don't like teleport level so much as I play non-preserve and enjoy the pain of trying to figure out how to handle the monsters to get the artifact. I think I also liked it more in the old way, where you got simply for example "special" feeling of a level without knowing if it means an artifact or nasty enemies. My usual plan is to clear the other parts of a level so that I could teleport as safely as possible while dealing with the baddies. Also I don't normally leave the teleport for the last minute, but do that immediately if I get surprised or otherwise think I could get better odds later - the conveniency of having teleport as a spell and not as a consumable item.

However, it seems I just have to take a few more adventures to improve my play. This last time I also had to deal with things I thought I remembered from years back, but really didn't. Like searching a long time for resistance to confusion on 1000 feet before understanding it's not something I usually find there...

[kaypy]

Also, because it somehow hasn't been mentioned yet:

It's all very well and good to be able to survive a single attack from a critter, but make sure to be very careful about anything fast enough to get in two attacks before you get a chance to panic.

[Derakon]

Other people have covered the damage side pretty well, but as for your character improvement: gaining stats makes a massive improvement in your potential. In particular, CON has increasing rates of return until you get up to 18/200, at which point you get 12.5 bonus HP per level. It's worth stacking as many CON bonuses as you can get; more HP means you survive longer. If you're given the choice between having more hitpoints, or having resistance to an element that isn't fire/cold/elec/acid/poison, take the hitpoints.

[Timo Pietilä]

Lacking free action and trying to fight a monster who can paralyze you is another really good way to die quickly. Unknowingly fighting a monster who has manastorm is also a good way to die fast, but that won't happen until much later.

You forgot the monsters that knock you out . Those too are plentiful in the dungeon (in groups). Monsters that confuse you in melee are also pretty nasty unless you can somehow escape the melee while being confused.