Complete N00b's Journey: The Series

[Nick]

Thank you, this has been a lot of fun to follow. Good luck with Elona+ !

[wizard44]

So the Dunadan Ranger actually managed to slay Morgoth and bring peace to Arda, which brings this series to an end, since I no longer feel like a n00b with my first win. Thank you everyone for your input, and I'll remember you all as I proceed to Elona+, my final game in my tour of duty!

[Derakon]

As always, feel free to offer any input for this character. Oh, and I’m curious about the randart option-are the randarts generally less beneficial than the standard artifact set? Thanks!

Randarts are, well, random. The standarts are generally pretty good at doling out new abilities about when they start becoming useful, and allowing you to assemble a kit that covers the important bases and gives a good selection of stat boosts. However, the really powerful standarts are also quite rare. Randarts are more likely to leave you unable to cover some important capability, but they are also much more capable of giving you items that are significantly more powerful than you would otherwise likely find in that slot.

[Nick]

In 4.1.3, the mage book won't work. You want the first ranger (nature) book. Examine them in the store. You will be able to see spells in any book you can read. The illegilble nature books are for the druid class.

NO! 4.1.3 still has the original books; the new classes are only in the development (master) branch.

[Pete Mack]

In 4.1.3, the mage book won't work. You want the first ranger (nature) book. Examine them in the store. You will be able to see spells in any book you can read. The illegilble nature books are for the druid class.

[wizard44]

Thanks for the hint Sphara. So this character has actually accomplished the first goal, and has thus earned the right to have its own thread. Check it out.

[Sphara]

Get lots of ammo and the first mage book. It provides even some help for this miserable start. Your melee damage is worse than most of my mages have at start.

So its gonna be very rough, but we've seen you make a good run from an awful start

[wizard44]

So after getting knocked out by a master mystic and getting killed without a chance to recover on D:55, Barel is no more. After waiting a few days before playing again, I once again pray to the RNG to give me a character with decent stats.

Complete N00b’s Journey: Character #5

I am thus left with Duntir, the Dunadan Ranger and realize that my prayers are not answered, as the ranger is left with a mediocre DEX score and a terrible STR score. Oh well, Duntir will adjust soon enough, or die trying. This guy also has the “start with a kit of useful gear” off to maximize the degrees of freedom for starting the character out. I do NOT find a dagger, rapier, or main gauche in the weapon shop and instead opt for a sling and 20 iron shots, 1 Potion of Cure Light Wounds, 1 Potion of Cure Serious Wounds, 1 Potion of Heroism, 1 Scroll of Word of Recall, 7 Scrolls of Phase Door, 5 Flasks of Oil, and a Whip.

Since we’re playing this guy like a warrior, the plan here is to get to D:8, or get as far as possible before we either run out of curing potions, Scrolls of Phase Door, or Flasks of Oil and Iron Shots. The goal is again to speed dive.

The starting details have been posted to the following Angband ladder link below:

http://angband.oook.cz/ladder-show.php?id=22460

As always, feel free to offer any input for this character. Oh, and I’m curious about the randart option-are the randarts generally less beneficial than the standard artifact set? Thanks!

[wizard44]

So after stupidly neglecting my health after getting lightning breathed upon by a Great Wyrm of Many Colours AND miscalculating my speed in a pillardancing attempt to kill it, Anwe gets killed by a fire breath that took him to -82 HP. After cursing my neglect and waiting a few days, I pray for the RNG to give me a better character for this next one.

Complete N00b's Journey: Character #4

It grants me Barel, the Elf Warrior, which has slightly better starting stats that Anwe did, but clearly has a long way to go on that front. At least this obstacle has been overcome before. As before, I have the 'start with a kit of useful gear' OFF, to maximize the degrees of freedom here.

This time, the stores *do* have a Dagger for sale, so I get it. I then get 1 Potion of Cure Light Wounds, 1 potion of Cure Serious Wounds, 1 scroll of Word of Recall, 5 Scrolls of Phase Door, and 1 Potion of Boldness. I then get a Short Bow, 10 standard Arrows, and 4 Flasks of Oil.

Since we have another warrior, the plan here is again to get to D:8, or get as far as possible before we either run out of potions of Cure Light Wounds, Scrolls of Phase Door, or Flasks of Oil and Arrows. Speed diving is again the strategy.

The starting details have been posted to the following Angband ladder link below:

http://angband.oook.cz/ladder-show.php?id=22433

As always, feel free to offer any input for this character.

EDIT: This character has failed to get to D:8, and has only made it to D:7 before running out of his Potions of Cure Light Wounds, Cure Serious Wounds AND Scrolls of Phase Door and needing to Recall back to town. However, a new thread has been made, since I believe that this character is still capable of surviving.

[Pete Mack]

If you have full lore enabled, the monster knowledge menu makes a pretty good reference.

[wizard44]

Yeah I screwed up badly by not looking Scatha up in the database before figuring out how to deal wit him... absolutely would have cast Resist Fire and Cold had I known. Couldn't find a wand of teleport Other, otherwise I would have used them quite a few times.

[Adam]

From the middle of the game uniques start to have twice the base speed.
Base is 10, you had 11 - Scatha has 20. Even if you had 19 speed there would have been a small chance for him to move twice, but with 11 it was almost certain. Two consecutive breaths are bad luck but in general, try to avoid dangerous monsters having two actions against you.
You can haste yourself or teleport them away (you already had Ethereal Openings, i don't know the failure rate though). Wands/rods of Teleport Other are very useful items, always keep them.
As Grotug says around DL40 monsters (especially uniques) grow in a non-linear fashion. And things will be worse with summoners soon.
One more thing to point out (though it was mentioned before): in Angband base 5 resists work in a way that temporary and permanent resists stack. If you have permanent resist (no matter on how many equipment pieces), it cuts damage to 1/3. If you have temporary resist (potion, activation, spell) that also cuts damage to 1/3. If both are present then you suffer only 1/9 of the damage. Against big breathers you need the double resist. You play the game in hard mode by using the roller and I think you also do not know the monster abilities which also does not make your life easy.
Reaching DL40 with your second try is quite nice

[Grotug]

The DL40s are still the scariest part of the dungeon for me when I play Angband. It's where things really start to ramp up in a non-linear fashion, whereas @ is often still quite feeble. Getting double breathed is a bit unlucky but not out of the norm by any means. (In the annals of Angband lots of @s have met their end this way).

Your @ looks like he is doing fine for his depth so far. I don't really have any advice at this point. It will be interesting to see you struggle with all the compromises you are going to have to make as you start collecting gear, especially if you find a good, heavy armor, given your handicapped strength. Hiccup found a way, so I have faith that you will (heh, that would have been a good name for your little hobbit warrior).

I've never played with standard roller before. With the default point based roller you'd have +5 more STR (the most important stat for a warrior).

[wizard44]

Well, my policy regarding roguelikes is to leave every starting circumstances to chance whenever possible … after all, trying to scum for the highest stats or play the most uber powerful race/class combo is getting far too close to save-scumming in my book. After all, you can’t just reroll the board such that you’re born into a wealthy family, so I say this is supposed to teach you about life and about the necessary need to adapt or die. Of course, the RNG really wants to have it in for me in that regard, but the one true way to deal with it is to kick that disability in the nuts, or die trying.

Fortunately, this character survived the first dive, although his run had to be cut short with a mandatory Recall after running out of Scrolls of Phase Door against Mugash, the Kobold Lord. Check out the new thread I made for details.

[Sphara]

Sorry to hear about the loss. Scatha breathes pretty often and this time he got the worst-case-scenario double breath.

This new one.. Man, you're not making things easy by randomizing the stat roll although I do appreciate doing this the challenge way. Hobbit warrior with only 13 STR is just about the hardest way I can imagine for a warrior to start a game. It doesn't make a big difference whether the shop had daggers or rapiers. You're relying on ranged damage for a long time unless you miraculously find a weapon with attack speed brand or something that does at least for 10 average dmg/turn in melee for christ sake Stack up lotsa arrows and hope for the best.