Half Troll Rogue Nightly (3/16/2019)

[Grotug]

How do I keep my character from moving forward while attacking if CTRL now tries to rob enemies?

I see that Rogue has very good throwing abilities and since I love throwing bolts in the early game and don't care for shield bash behavior I've decided to forgo my usual warrior. I also see that classes no longer get an exp penalty, which is another reason to try out the new Rogue. Of course my main form of attack is with a dagger doing 3.7 blows per round thanks to native +3 DEX balancing out the massive Half-Troll DEX penalty.

I've put 8 points to STR, 8 points to DEX and 4 points to CON. As such, my INT is 7. haha.

Yet, 50% fail on non critical spells has been working out very nicely. I can detect objects and visible monsters without any problems. With regen, I don't have to wait long to cast the spell again when it fails.

It's been a smooth run so far. Haven't had any problems and I'm CL20 on DL18. I forgot to turn on forced descent, no starting gear and RandArts. I just realize standarts will be good as I have a good chance getting a 'thanc (haven't found one yet, but if I do 3.7 rounds is going to be devastating!) So far I've picked up Thengel which I see protects me from confusion, very nice, and overall each piece of kit has good AC. I also found a whip of slay troll which is doing 31 dam to everyone.

It's nice to get decent amount of gold on the early levels, but it almost seems too much. I mean, the game has gone from dropping 25 gold pieces to 145 gold pieces. That seems like a rather radical improvement! I'd be happy with drops/finds being something like 45 gold pieces on level 1, 55 on level 2, 65 level 3, 75 level 4, 90 level 5.

[Grotug]

Things continue to go swimmingly. A banshee dropped the Trident of Wrath on DL25 shortly after I picked up Theoden, which grants Telepathy, dropped by one of the confuser brothers.

I recharged a wand of frost bolts from 0 to 11 charges with the spell! The second time I recharged it went from 0 to 7.

I ran into a blood falcon. I'm not entirely satisfied with my description of it. While the difference is subtle, I think the wording here is slightly better:

A blinding whirlwind of talons and terror. It's razor sharp beak fills its foes with fear as it seeks to rend flesh from bone with frenzied ferocity. -- (although maybe it's a bit too much alliteration?)

Compare with the original: A blinding whirlwind of fear and feathers. It's razor sharp beak fills its foes with terror as it seeks to rend flesh from bone with unbridled ferocity.

I also wonder if it should have 15hp as 6hp seems almost absurd for a DL20 critter (15hp would still be a super fragile glass cannon). I guess the idea is you want it to go down with one magic missile and an average long bow arrow. Still, even if either of those don't kill it at 15hp, there should be a good chance of frightening it off? (which would be more exciting than it just dying so easily).

Ooohh, I found a new Rogue book! "Prepres you to teleport after stealing from a monster". I guess it's supposed to say "Prepares"?

Stat potions I've quaffed so far are contemplation (-1 DEX), Constitution and Nimbleness (-1 CON).

I found a metal cap of Intelligence (+1) which drops my fail rate from 50% to 30% on most of my spells. That is an impressive improvement for +1 INT! I use the cap as a swap when spellcasting.

Hmm... I wonder if it's a bug to be able to browse magic books while blind? Probably shouldn't be possible.

I read a deep descent taking me to a 7-7 DL33. Now things are getting interesting. I find a ring of damage (+10) in the midst of Lokkak, colossus and a silent watcher, and others. Since I've just landed on the level, I put on my ring of escaping and bee-line to the ring but some bats block me from picking it up. So I put my reckless attack back on and easily kill them, but not before something poisons and confuses me. I put the ring on from the floor and _Teleport. Shortly after I find another ring of damage +9 midst some fast moving carrion crawlers (I let a shrieker mushroom see me). As soon as I'm done clearing that room Lokkak meets me again from the other side. So I use my first !speed, but I've started this battle on the back foot....

https://youtu.be/zzNQlOxOpnQ