AARiiiiiiight!

[Egavactip]

So a quick update. My character is at level 48 right now, just trying to collect some consumables in the L90s before the big fights. The high elf experience penalty really hits you in these last few levels. I am about halfway to level 49. I'd like get get there before going in to the final battles (I only have 902 hp), but I am not sure I want to wait around to cl 50. I have never battled the bosses at less than cl50 before, so that would be a personal first.

I am still shy of the consumables I'd like, which for some reason have been coming very slowly--not very many pits (and none of ainu) is one reason. I just cleared a couple of big-ass vaults and hardly got any consumables at all. So grind a little more, I guess.

Of my stats, only STR is at 18/***. The next highest, constitution, is at 18/190. Wisdom, useful for a paladin, is only 18/140.

However, ac is 205, which is very nice, and I have all the resistances covered without any need for swaps. This is thanks in part to some Power Dragon armor--the second game in a row I have found Power Dragon armor (and only the fourth of all time for me).

The Power Dragon armor was not just Power Dragon armor, it was--in keeping with the apparent theme of this character--Power Dragon Armor of +5 speed. So my unhasted speed right now is +29, and that is AFTER I swapped a +10 Ring of Speed for a Ring of Damage. I have had so much speed I have been throwing it away.

In terms of remaining uniques, there is the Tarrasque, Carcaroth, Gothmog, maybe the Eye Tyrant, and probably a couple/few more. As long as I have some extra potions of healing and restore mana, there really isn't a unique I can't kill, so I am taking them when opportunities look good, but not making a thing of it. Having been killed by a unique in battle against Morgoth just two games ago, I was reminded of how much I do not like leaving uniques around. However, I am not going to slow up my game to find them.

[Pete Mack]

That last point of CON will give you around 70 HP. a couple more levels won't do nearly so much. A dwarven shield or gloves of combat is what you need, or Crown of Might (which I figure I use as endgame gear in about 50% of my games.)

[Estie]

PDSM of speed +5 is incredibly rare (I ve never found one), but in your case a more common Dwarven one would serve you better to top off that con.

[Egavactip]

As it is, shortly after posting that message, I found an artifact ring that gave me +4 constitution. It is (+3, +8), so I substituted it for my Ring of Damage. That gives me less damage per turn, but still quite respectable, and the added hit points will make me have to heal less often and thus do more damage instead, so hopefully it evens out, more or less.

[Pete Mack]

If you have enough utilities like !*Heal*, and ?Mass Banishment, just go kill Morgoth. With a Paladin at roughly 1000 HP, there's nothing you can't kill.

[Egavactip]

So I cleared a huge vault to get consumables and that gave me so many XP I was most of the way to level 50, so I decided to just finish that up.

Morgoth was mildly annoying, in part because my runes of protection were not working well and in part because he kept managing to summon really annoying creatures. Spent more time than I would have liked doing things other than damaging him. But it all worked out fine.

The character is here, if you are interested. Overall, thanks to all that speed and finding spellbooks easily, it was one of the easier wins I had.

http://angband.oook.cz/ladder-show.php?id=19364

[Pete Mack]

Congrats. The final fight probably took so long because 360 dam/turn is really terrible for a melee character. Even my recent priest win was doing over 400 nominal damage in the final fight. (I almost invariably end up with either an HA or +2 attacks big weapon. (If not Mace of Disruption, then Scythe of Slicing or Blade of Chaos.) With a Paladin, 550 is not an unreasonable expectation. (And no, lightning immunity is not worth the lost damage, except as a swap vs Pazuzu &c.)