Complete N00b's Journey Character #4: Barel, the Elf Warrior

[wizard44]

Introduction: This is the fourth character in progress in the series called the "Complete N00b's Journey", where I attempt to see how far I get each time despite my n00bish mistakes. This character, whose name is Barel and is a Elf Warrior, has made it back to the town after his first dive after running out of Scrolls of Phase Door, Potions of Cure Light Wounds, and Potions of cure Serious Wounds due to shenanigans involving Fang, Farmer Maggot’s Dog and a scroll of Deep Descent. Barel was not able to make it to D:8 and has come up short by one dungeon level, so this character is on less solid ground than the previous Warrior, Anwe. I am now starting a thread for this character to track his further progress. As a reminder for this series, the number before the hyphen signifies the attempt that I am playing, and the number after the hyphen signifies the goal that I have finished. With that, I bring you:

Complete N00b's Journey: Part 4-1

So in the first dive, I head to D:1, where I kill a two white icky things and a grey mushroom patch (after accidentally running into one and get confused) before I find the downstairs and head to D:2, where I kill a giant green frog to get to level 2. I run straight into the midst of Fang, Farmer Maggot’s Dog, where I get bitten, and use almost all of my scrolls of Phase Door, my entire supply of Flasks of Oil, and some of my arrows to kill it and get to level 3. I then get to level 4 after using my last scroll of Phase Door, my potion of Cure Light Wounds, and even more of my Arrows to get rid of a kobold archer and get to level 4. Having picked up no gold in this run, I decide to continue the dive and be a lot more careful. After killing a group of kobolds and getting a Wicker Shield [2,+0] I read-id a Scrolls of Detect Invisible, Deep Descent (ugh), and Blessing before getting sucked down to D:7 by the scroll of deep descent. I kill an acolyte and a kobold shaman to get to level 5, and kill a white harpy and another kobold shaman with my arrows to get to level 6. Having collected 256 gold pieces of copper in nearby rooms, and having quaffed my potion of Cure Serious Wounds, I definitely decide to recall the hell out of there in order to refill on needed supplies. Unfortunately my gold was only enough to buy 2 scrolls of Phase Door, a potion of Cure Light Wounds, a potions of Cure Serious Wounds, 11 standard arrows, and a replacement scroll of Word of Recall.

Since I didn’t get enough gold this time thanks to the Scroll of Deep Descent shenanigans, I’m thinking that I repeat the first goal towards getting to D:8 before going to the next goal of D:18, since I definitely cannot use my scroll of Word of Recall to get back to D:7. What do you guys think is a reasonable depth for this guy to get to?

The below link is the current status of Barel, which will be updated as I post future parts of this character's progress:

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

Any tips to improve this character's survival is appreciated.

[Estie]

Here we go again!

For the low levels, my personal procedure is to explore uneventful levels till I get the treasure rating; a 4+ means I fullclear till I find a likely culprit, anything lower means I make a beeline for the staircase - down if I have found it, up for a reset otherwise.

There are 3 essential things to look out for:

- a rod of treasure location, since its more likely to drop here then deeper and having one greatly improves diving efficency for the rest of the game.

- see invisible; this is imo the single most important property for diving and

- free action, a close second.

As soon as I have some gold to spend, I also scour the various vendors for the above items on every town visit. Once I have all 3 of the above, I might dive faster and then mostly ignore the treasure feeling during the midgame.

Another good reason for spending some time on the upper levels is that you get to identify most of the low flavours which is helpful later on - if you skip this part, you might see a new potion on dlvl 90 only to find out it is !blindness. Squelch is your friend as it reduces clutter.

[wizard44]

Not a bad way to do it Estie. Did just that starting on D:4, as I feel that that’s the first level that really drops the most useful stuff, at least for my current weight. Barel has actually made it to D:18, but a huge cavern level, tengus, and homunculi really gave me tense spots and forced me to recall shortly thereafter.

Complete N00b’s Journey: Part 4-2

I head down the stairs to begin a fresh run from D:1, which only contained 19 gold pieces worth of copper before I find the downstairs. Upon landing on D:2, a crow takes half of life before falling to my arrows, forcing me to rest near the stairs to recover. Upon doing so, I run into another arrow and kill it the same way. I find a flask of oil and run into Grip, Farmer Maggot’s Dog, and throw the Flask of Oil at it and finish it off with a few of my arrows. I then kill a white harpy and a cutpurse to get 2 needed scrolls of Phase Door. I also take out a blue yeek there and get a much-needed bonus of 260 pieces worth of gold. I also find a Violet potion that was a potion of Speed upon quaff-id and some additional Rations of Food before finding the downstairs. Upon reaching D:3, I find a Robe [+2, 0] and have 61 of my coins get stolen by a scruffy-looking hobbit. I take out that monster (and get my coins back), another scruffy looking hobbit, and a yellow mushroom patch, and run into a spiked pit, forcing me to use my Cure Light Wounds potion to clear up the poison after getting below my health. I also find and quaff-id a Potion of True Seeing and a Potion of Slime Mold Juice before getting to D:4. On D:4 I get a Main Gauche (1d5) (+4, +2) and another flask of oil and kill a green icky thing to get to level 7. I also find a better Sling (x2) (+3, +5) as a backup option in case I get Iron shots, and find 3 much-needed Potions of Cure Light Wounds. I kill a radiation eye who drains my strength before dying, and take out a shrieker mushroom patch, get 27 standard bolts, and 6 additional Scrolls of Word of Recall. I finally find the downstairs and enter D:5, where I kill 2 apprentices and find 4 Scrolls of Satisfy Hunger, one of which I read-id. I also find and quaff-id a stack of 2 potions of Neutralize poison. It is there that I find the downstairs, but since feelings say the level had an 8 rating for treasures, I decide to fully explore the level. I take out a large kobold with the flask of oil and almost all of my arrows, but only find 45 gold pieces of copper for my trouble. I take out a cutpurse to get some more scrolls of Detect Invisible, and a misty potion that was a Potion of Wisdom upon quaffing. I find an acolyte and kill it after quaffing 2 potions of Cure Light Wounds, but I luckily find 4 more potions of Cure Light Wounds for my trouble. I also find and use-id a staff of Cure Light Wounds, and kill a scruffy looking hobbit and a skeleton kobold. This puts me to level 8 and restores my strength. I also find a lantern with a steelskin curse, 2 more potions of Cure Light Wounds, a Green Potion which was a Potion of Berserk Strength, and kill a Green Glutton Ghost who dropped a Staff of detect invisible at the expense of almost all of my Rations of Food. I then find the Dagger ‘Narthanc’ (2d4) (+9, +12) [+10], which was an excellent find and a huge upgrade to my Main Gauche! I also find a Short Bow of Accuracy (x2) (+15, +9) and a Set of Leather Gloves [1, +4] and proceed to kill two acolytes and a healer with great ease. I kill a yellow jelly and a green naga to get to level 9 before descending to D:6. It is there that I find a Rhodonite Ring, and kill a blue worm mass and a cave lizard. I find a Lantern of Brightness, which improves my line of sight. The level had a treasure feeling of 5, so I proceed to explore the level to see what is there. I take out a group of giant white louse, and find a ring of Searching and 2 Mushrooms of Second Sight, one of which I eat-id. I detect a nearby poltergeist and kill it, who drops 23 Iron shots that were badly needed. I take out a group of snaga to get to level 10, and take out a green ooze to get some more potions of Cure Light Wounds. I then find a Wand of Magic Missile and scrolls of Identify Rune, which I use to identify the Rhodonite Ring as a Ring of Resist Poison. Before I descend to D:7, though, I find a wand of Haste Monster upon use towards a large yellow snake there. I slay a group of wood spiders and cave spiders as well as a group of apprentices nearby on D:7 to get to level 11, a hard leather cap [2, +0] and a scroll that turns out to be light upon read-id. After killing a group of cave orcs and a giant white ant, I descend to D:8, where I take out a silver jelly, a copperhead snake, a silver mouse, a green jelly, and a grey mold before descending to D:9.

D:9 had a room containing white dragon fly, a green mold, and a large white snake, all of which died easily to iron shots. Killing a blue yeek and a kobold shaman in another room gives me a Potion of Speed, but nothing else. After killing a giant black ant, a grey icky thing, and a green mold, I find the stairs and head to D:10. It is there that I kill a brown mold and a giant grey rat to get to level 12, and kill an orc shaman and get a wand of Stinking Cloud, which I use on a group of cave orcs. I also find a staff of Slow Monsters (which I drop), 6 additional Potions of Cure Serious Wounds, a pair of Iron Shod boots [4, +4], and 5 scrolls of Door Destruction that I read-id and drop. I then descend to D:11, where I quaff-id a Potion of Infravision and kill a group of cave orcs and kobolds with the help of my Potions of Berserk Strength and get to level 13 that way. I then proceed to D:12, where I kill a raven, a floating eye, a spotted mushroom patch, and a grey icky thing and find nothing for my troubles. Descending to D:13 puts me face to face with Smeagol, who I nearly kill before he steals 806 coins and disappears. I move on and kill a green naga and get some more potions of Cure Serious Wounds, before I run into Wormtongue, Agent of Saruman, who slows me and forces me to use Phase Door to evade him. After recovering and killing a baby green dragon, I face him again and kill him to get to level 14, and find a ball-and-chain and 3 potions of Cure Critical Wounds, one of which I quaff. I also find a Wand of Stun Monsters and kill a group of acolytes, an orc shaman, and a black harpy, and a raven, a white worm mass, a clear a mage room at the expense of all of my potions of Cure Light Wounds, 2 scrolls of Phase Door, and many potions of Cure Serious Wounds. I find a wand of Slow Monsters, and a Copper Speckled Potion that I quaff-id as heroism and get to level 15 from the ordeal. An ochre jelly, though damages my equipment before I kill it. On my hunt to find Smeagol again, I kill a guardian naga and a group of soldiers and get to level 16. I then find Smeagol again and get back my gold and a sling of Accuracy (x2) (+15, +6). After eat-id’ing a mushroom of Fast Recovery, I go down to D:14, where I kill a giant white ant, a crow, and a tiger and quaff a Potion of Cure Serious Wounds to deal with my low hit points. I then clear a group of cave orcs, and find a Ring of Digging <+4>, another wand of stinking cloud, and 3 more Scrolls of Phase Door before I find the downstairs to D:15. Upon arrival, I find that the level had a treasure rating of 4, prompting a full clear of the level. I run into a group of dark hounds, red worm masses, and a drider and eat-id Mushrooms of Clear Mind and Debility. I then run into Orfax, Son of Boldor and kill him and his yeek retinue. I find a wand of confuse monster (which I drop), a Ring of The Mouse (which I definitely Drop), and a Ring of Open Wounds (triple ugh). I kill a red naga to get to level 17 and get the amulet of slow digestion, and kill a group of hill orcs to get 5 fresh potions of Cure Light Wounds. I then kill a stray energy hound and find Potions of Restore Mana, which are useless for this character, some more Potions of Cure Serious Wounds, a Nickel-Plated Rod that turned out to be a Rod of Curing, a Hard Leather Armour of Resistance (-1) [16, +4], and a better Hard Leather Cap [2, +5]. I kill 2 tengus, a red jelly, a grey mushroom patch and find some more Scrolls of Phase Door and scrolls of Holy Chant that I read-id before descending to D:16. Upon arrival, I deal with a group of black ogres and ogres to get to level 18, although I did have to quaff some potions of Cure Light Wounds to recover. I kill a host of cave orcs and an umber hulk, the latter who required the use of my supply of Cure Light Wounds to deal with. I then deal with a host of snagas and Lagduf, the Snaga, the latter who drops a Chain mail of Resist Cold (-2) [32, +5] upon its death. Deciding that having all four base resistances was more important now, I stick with my current body armor. I also find an amulet of Inertia, which is my last ditch effort for a free action option. I kill a host of harpies, hill orcs, and a black harpy, a baby red dragon, a black naga, and a clay golem to get to level 19. I also take out an Easterling warrior, a priest, a brigand, and an illusionist to get potions of Cure Serious Wounds and some more Scrolls of Phase Door. I then kill two dark elven priests and find a staff of summoning (which I drop and ignore), an unknown wand, and a scroll of Monster Confusion that I read-id. I then proceed to D:17 and run into Brodda, the Easterling, who drops the Phial of Galadriel upon its death. I then take out a host of gnome mages and a guardian naga and get a Rod of Treasure Location. A green naga destroys my wicker shield to the point of unusability before getting killed in melee. I then kill a group of black ogres to get to level 20 and read-id a scroll of Magic Mapping before descending to D:18.

D:18 is where I encounter manes and homunculi, get summoned by tengu, and get paralyzed before I put on my amulet of Inertia and Phase door my way out of that deathtrap. Eventually, I am forced to Phase door my way out of that deathtrap, where I get placed into a cave and crebain decide to ruin the fun and force me to phase door again into an even large cave. I then use even more scrolls of Phase door to avoid getting surrounded, quaff a potion of Speed, and read a Scroll of Word of Recall to get out of this level before it kills me. In my attempts to flee, I encounter the downstairs to D:19, which I take to avoid the horde of creatures my way. D:19 had an omens of death feeling, which caused me to reload the level to a better level feeling to wait until the recall scroll’s effect kicked in, while I pick up another unknown wand in the meantime. Once back at town, I deposit my bolts, give one of my unknown wand to the magic shop, who identifies it as a wand of Door Destruction, zap-id my other wand at a scruffy little dog to identify it as a wand of wonder, deposit my Sling of Accuracy, Rod of Curing, Wand of wonder, and 7 scrolls of Word of Recall. I then buy 13 scrolls of Phase Door, 2 potions of Cure Critical Wounds, 8 potions of Cure Serious Wounds, 3 Potions of Heroism, a long bow of Power (x3) (+10, +17) and drop my Short Bow of Accuracy, 38 standard arrows, a Staff of Teleportation, a Staff of Detect Evil, a staff of Mapping, 3 Scrolls of Magic Mapping, 5 Potions of Speed (from the black market), a small metal shield [5, +0], and an even better Hard Leather Cap [2, +9]. I then buy a potion of Intellect and a mushroom of vigor from the black market for id purposes, as well as a scroll of remove curse, a potion of Restore Life Levels and a Potion of Resist Heat for the same goals. After dropping off the Mushroom of Vigor and Potion of Restore Life levels at home, I conclude the part.

The next goal is to get to D:29, hopefully without any problems.

Is it advisable to wear an amulet of Inertia at all times in this next dive just to have free action at the cost of 1 speed? Or should I only equip it when I run into such monsters?

I don’t have See Invisible yet, only detect invisible items. Which pieces of equipment are the best to get the see invisible attribute?

I have updated the ladder with Barel's current stats, and any tips towards properly re-orienting my character is appreciated.

[Pete Mack]

Rings of see invisible etc are native to DL 20, so anything less is a waste of time without a good feeling. That is your biggest weakness, though without good knowledge of the monsters, permanent FA isnt far behind.
Otherwise, keep rods of illumination at home for later, and use rods of light in hallways for archery. You don't need to use them as flashlights yet--things don't get dangerous enough until after DL 40. But wuthout ESP, they can improve your safety against things like Drolem (big non-evil poison breather.)

Normally the only low-level amulets worth using are Infravision or regeneration, depending on preference. (I prefer the former.) Keep an eye out for either one.

Otherwise, that character is very strong for DL 20, and with SI/FA will be strong at CL 35. That is a really excellent bow.

Edit: one other thing. Those boots are heavy. If you find yourself overladen, consider getting rid of them for something lighter.

[PowerWyrm]

Is it intended to shoot yourself in the foot by putting points into INT and WIS instead of STR at the start?

[wizard44]

Thanks for the tip Pete Mack. Rings of See Invisible would be super nice right now. And Powerwyrm, that'€™s what the roller gave me. It's really not being too nice here with giving decent stats towards the main attributes. But you deal with what life gives you and address it head on. Anyway, Barel has a decent chance of surviving, as he has successfully reached D:29 and found a few more pieces of equipment to cover the guy’s weaknesses.

Complete N00b's Journey: Part 4-3

First thing I do is that I Recall back to D:19 and quaff my potion of Resist Heat and eat my rations to free up inventory room. I then map and detect evil the room, and make my way to D:20, killing a blue dragon bat, 2 scouts, and a healer. I run into Nar, the Dwarf and do some major phase Dooring to get away from Nar and heal up. I kill an umber hulk and a healer during the battle with Nar, who goes down to my arrows and drops a Cloak [1,+4]. I eat-id a mushroom of Terror, and find a Light Crossbow (x3) (+0,+0), which I leave behind due to the weight. I kill a griffon and a blubbering icky thing, find 6 Potions of Cure Serious Wounds, kill 3 acolytes and get a Set of Leather Gloves of Free Action [1, +6], solving the first of my gaping holes. I then kill a group of ogres, black ogres, and forest trolls while killing a cutpurse and 3 apprentices that tried to ambush me from the back, although I had to quaff 2 Potions of Cure Serious Wounds to keep my HP at satisfactory levels. I then kill two acolytes that cast fear on me with the help of a potion of Berserk Strength. Going through the spoils gets me another potion of Cure Critical Wounds. I then kill a clay golem and find myself surrounded by gnome mages and their summons, prompting me to retreat. I find a rod of Light, a Staff of Cure Light wounds, and a wand of Scare Monster (which I drop) in the resulting spoils. Going down to D:20 puts me in the middle of a maze, where I pick up a Leather Shield [8, +5] and kill a killer brown beetle, a metallic green centipede, an orc shaman, and creeping copper coins. I then kill a black mamba and a group of half-orcs and earth hounds, forcing me to use my staff of Cure Light Wounds to keep my HP up. Killing them brings me to level 22, and I proceed to go to D:21 after killing a killer brown beetle. D:21 contained 2 scrolls of Enchant Weapon To-Hit, which I use on my arrows. I get into a scuffle with a group of Blink dogs and energy hounds, and kill them with my arrows. An out-of-depth mage also falls to arrows as does a pukelman after some uses of Phase Door. Killing a group of air hounds get me to level 23. After healing up with the staff of Cure Light Wounds and some Cure Serious Wounds potions, I find the stairs to D:22 and descend. It is there that I kill a yeti, a raven, two healers, a gallant, and two acolytes on my journey to D:23. On D:23, I kill 2 cold vortices, a raven, a giant salamander, a white worm mass, a giant white tick, and 3 silver mice, a paladin, a creeping gold coins, and a group of half-orcs before I find notable items in the form of a scroll of summon undead, prompting me Phase Door the hell out that area to deal with the summons one by one. I kill a blue dragon bat, a brown yeek, 2 giant black louse, a red jelly, and a pack of clear hounds to get to level 24. I pick several mushrooms of Second sight to use as a pseudo see-invisible item on call. I take out a vault of illusionists, wargs, priests, uruks, tengus, and Easterling warriors. A sasquatch forces me to use a scroll of Phase door and 2 potions of cure Serious Wounds to remain in tolerable HP levels. I then clear the rest of the vault (which also included a silver mouse and a guardian naga) without problems and find a Ring of Accuracy (+16, +0), a Ring of Resist Fire and Cold, and a wand of Lightning Bolts among the spoils. I then descend to D:24 and take out a zombified human, 2 blubbering icky things, and a pack of wargs and uruks to get a scroll that turn out to be Enchant Weapon To-Dam upon read-id (I used it on the arrows). I then kill a cold vortex, a dark elven mage and find a Metal Cap of Wisdom [3, +8] <+2> in a nearby vault. I also had to Phase Door away a wyvern and drink another potion of Cure Critical Wounds before I could dispatch it, a giant brown bat, and a hippogriff. I then run into Ibun, son of Mim, where I am forced to read a scroll of Phase Door and escape from his presence. I then take out a warg pack, a green naga, a killer brown beetle, 2 silver mice, and a green mold before I acquire a fluorite ring. It was also at that time that I ran out of mapping charges when I go back and take out Ibun, son of Mim using the Shoot n’ Scoot tactic. He drops the Short Sword "Dagmor" (1d7) (+13, +11) <+2 blows>, which is an improvement from Nimthanc. I kill a mage, an energy vortex and another wolf pack to get to level 25. I take out a wolf chieftain after using even more Phase Door scrolls and several more potions of Cure Critical Wounds. I also kill a black knight and quaff-id a potion of Nimbleness that increases my dexterity at a cost of my constitution. I also find a flail, a heavy Crossbow of Accuracy (x4) +15, +13), and a cloak of Stealth [1, +7] <+1>.

Having finished the level, I then move to D:25, where I detect the presence of Agamite and Sangahando of Umbar and find out that I am in an orc vault nearby. After clearing the vault, which contained a werewolf, I find a spare staff of detect invisible that I leave behind. I then clear a pack of light hounds and brown yeeks, and dispatch Boldor, King of the Yeeks, who drops some (+2,+6) bolts. Not wanting to run into the two uniques, I head down to D:26, where I kill a cold vortex, a fire spirit, and find and quaff-id a potion of Brawn, where I gain strength at the expense of my constitution. I then take out Golfimbul, the Hill orc Chief and Bullroarer the hobbit. Golfimbul drops the Leather Gloves "Cammithrim" (+5, +5) [1, +10] while Bullroarer drops the Rapier Forasgil (1d6) (+12, +19) <+1 light>. I then take out Grishnakh, the Hill Orc and his retinue, all of which was in the same room as Golfimbul and Bullroarer. Grishnakh ended up dropping a useless pick of acid. I then go on to kill a law drake, who dropped a better body armor by the tune of the Studded Leather Armour of Resistance (-1) [12, +12], and a scroll of recharging. I then take out a host of orcs and get to D:27, where I face Mugash the Kobold Lord and his retinue as well as a pair of cave ogres. Mugash’s death only resulted in an inferior fur cloak of Stealth, which was disappointing to say the least. I proceed to kill the rest of the kobolds and some black ogres to get to level 26. I find a staff of Starlight and dropped it due to the overall uselessness. A clearing of the level (since it had a treasure level of 6) yields the Chain Mail of Arvedui (-2) [40, +15], a Potion of Lose Memories that I unfortunately quaff-id, a wand of Teleport Other, a Potion of Healing (through quaff-id), and a staff of sleep monsters (which I dropped) after killing another host of orcs and a group of algroths. Not bad of a haul. Oh, and I read-id a scroll of teleport level after clearing the level. Upon landing on D:28, I take out a group of Mirkwood spiders and a water vortex and find and use-id a Staff of Curing, which was quickly dropped due to inventory issues. I also take out a hill giant and a host of wargs to get to D:29. Upon landing there, I teleport Other a Five Headed Hydra, and kill it after running into it later and quaffing a potion of Berserk Strength. Seeing that the level had a treasure rating of 7, I do a rough explore of the level and find a Potion of Healing, a ring of Ice [+9] (which I later drop), a potion of Toughness (which drains my strength at the expense of my constitution), a pair of Steel Shod Boots [7, +5], a ring of Acid [+10] (which I also drop), after taking out a white wraith, a half-orc pack, a wyvern, a werebear, a room of priests, and a colbran. Another sweep of the area reveals a ring of Damage (+0, +8), another scroll of Recharging, an amulet of Infravision, and a ring of Feather Falling that I drop. Having my pack being filled to the breaking point, I descend to D:30 and initiate a Recall while realizing that none of my artifacts grant see invisible thanks to being ambushed by a ghost. Upon arrival back to the town, I drop off at the home my potion of Healing, Narthanc and Forasgil, and my long bow of power, buy a spare staff of Teleportation and drop it at the home, and buy 3 additional Scrolls of Recharging, 18 additional Scrolls of Phase Door, 5 additional Potions of Cure Critical wounds, and 11 Potions of Cure Serious Wounds. I then stash my potions of Cure Serious Wounds and get enough bolts to have 40 total shots. I then buy a better ring of Damage (+0, +10) and drop off 2 Scrolls of Recharging to keep the load down.

Biggest issue with this character: *Still* no permanent source of See invisible. That's a problem. Because of this, the goal is to get to D:32 and try to find a source of See invisible before continuing further. D:32 has a chance of getting stat potions, which would help with addressing several deficiencies in STR and DEX. I think rings of see invisible are the most common items that grant this, but are there any other items that I should know about that are worth noting?

Anyway, I have again updated Barel's status on the ladder, and any tips would be appreciated.

[Estie]

Congrats on that bow. Personally I dont wear "inertia if it drops my speed below zero, but carry it; but like Pete said, knowledge of monster is essential when trying to avoid the paralyzers. You encountered homunculus and floating eye; mages (red p) can (rarely) cast the hold monster spell, ghouls and carrion crawlers paralyze by touch and the latter dont detect to evil. Later on many of the G and W and gorgimera are not to be engaged without FA. Wearing that amulet would probably be safer, but then you dont get to learn the parlyzers the hard way.

Make sure you always check the shops at this stage, they are probably your best shot at see invis and free action. Cap of seeing would do nicely and if you are really lucky, hat of telepathy might be affordable from the armorer.

[Estie]

So, to the newest update:

At your depth, youll find see invis soon, be it in the dungeon or from shops (the inventory quality of which correlates with your toon´s recall depth).

More worrying is actually that you havent found a rod of treasure location, as the chance for finding one is maller at this depth or below. I think the reason for that is that item generation creates a rod and then picks from types available to the depth and the treasure detection is one of the first types available, so while you might find more rods deeper down, the chance of one actually becoming treasure detection is small.

This is of little concern as long as you can happily run about the level and see items lying on the floor, but if you dive to where leaving the staircase is so dangerous that you need a good reason to do it, you will miss seeing the *s.

But theres nothing you can do about that now - returning to a lower level just to find a rod is out of the question - so yes, keep going deeper.

Another modifier which gains in value as the danger increases is stealth. I havent touched upon it yet because you play warriors, a class that is hard to get stealthy, but dont diss that cloak of yours. Admittedly it is only +1, but a cloak of stealth +3 is an item that can commonly be found on level 1 and retain its usefullness right down to level 98.

The best way to see how stealth affects the gameplay is to play a rogue, as those get stealth intrinsically as they level. Everyone else has to rely on items alone.

[Derakon]

Is it intended to shoot yourself in the foot by putting points into INT and WIS instead of STR at the start?

wizard44 is intentionally taking a completely randomly-allocated character each time as a gameplay conduct. It took me a bit to wrap my head around this too.

[wizard44]

I probably should have mentioned that I got two rods of Treasure location over the last dive, so that's one problem that Barel doesn't have. Anyway, Barel has accomplished the goal of the previous part and has improved his strength by an okay amount.

Complete N00b's Journey: Part 4-4

So, I get back to D:30 through Recall, and immediately run into an Easterling champion and two hill giants. After killing those two creatures, I take out a group of wargs, a doombat, two crebain, and two nighthawks and get more scrolls of Phase Door. After taking out an apprentice and a priest in the same room, I find a ring of strength <+3>, a wand of polymorph, a spare wand of Teleport Other, and a scroll that turned out to be Enchant Armour through read-id. I deal with a basilisk in combat, who forces me to quaff two potions of Cure Critical Wounds to remain alive. I also find and eat-id a Mushroom of Emergency and wait it out. I then take out a homunculus and a stone golem, and run face to face with Sangahyando and Angamaite of Umbar. I teleport away Angamaite of Umbar, and use Phase door to do some evading. I take out an illusionist, a brigand, and a pair of wolves before I run into the Pair of Uniques again. After again teleporting away Angamiaite, I finish off Sangahyando with a barrage of bolts, who drops Bar Chain Mail and a Trident of Venom, both of which are useless. I then take out a vampire, a water vortex, a pseudo-dragon, a white jelly, a metallic green centipede, and a snaga before finding Angamaite, who drops Gurthang upon his death. I run into an out-of-depth shadow, who drains my experience before falling to my bolts. I then take out a ghast, a group of ghouls, and a zombified kobold, and find a potion of Resist Cold (through quaff-id) and 3 scrolls of Darkness one of which I Read-id. I find and drop a rod of Lightning Bolts, and quaff-id a potion of Contemplation after clearing the level. I then head down to D:31, where I take out a young red dragon, a host of orcs, and a vampire, where I find and read-id a Scroll of Dispel Undead and get scrolls of Identify Rune to id the rest of the unknown runes in my artifact equipment. I square off with and kill an orc captain, a 4 headed-hydra, and a ranger, which gets me to level 27 and the Cloak of Thorongil [1, +10] and finally resolves my see invisible problem. I also run into Shagrat, the orc captain and kill him, who drops a useless beaked axe, and Ulwarth, son of Ulfang, who drops nothing. I also find Ulfast, son of Ulfang and kill him with bolts, who also drops nothing. I do find a fresh stock of bolts, before I descend to D:32, where I run into a group of crebain and find a rod of illumination.

Having achieved my goal, I go to D:33 with the hope of getting a strength potion or two before concluding this part. I kill a group of earth hounds to get to level 28, and find a Wicker Shield of Elvenkind. After clearing a vault containing two rangers that summoned 5-headed hydras, I finally find and quaff-id a potion of Strength. I then kill a group of killer iridescent beetles and find out that the level’s rating is 6-4, prompting me to reload the level to see if there is a better combination. The reloaded level wasn’t too much better with a rating of 5-3, forcing me to reload yet again after a brief trek. The third generation of the level produced a scroll of *Enchant Armour*, but nothing else before the level revealed itself as a 4-4, prompting another reload. This particular level was a 5-5 in level ratings, prompting me to clear the level for a full look. I find the Iron Helm of Gorlim (+8, +8) [-3 INT, -3 WIS, -5 searching skill], which is a worthless piece of junk artifact, and get to level 29 by killing stone trolls. I then kill ogres, and teleport away lokkak, the Ogre Chieftain to kill his retinue. After killing the ogre retinue, I then hunt for and kill Lokkak using Shoot-n-Scoot, who drops a useless chain mail.

I then proceed to D:34, where I take out a group of fire giants, fire hounds, earth hounds, and blue dragons of all kinds and read-id a scroll of Protection from Evil before I find out that the level feeling is 5-4, prompting me to go to D:35 in search of better treasures. The level was marked as 6-5, prompting me to take a full explore of the level. Killing groups of snagas and black orcs yields nothing, and I end up teleporting away a 7-headed hydra and get teleported by a nexus qwylthulg twice. Clearing two standard vaults there full of ogres and various animals yields nothing but a rod of probing, which I ditch for inventory room. I then clear yet another vault on this level and teleport away a berserker. I eventually dispatch the 7-headed hydra and kill Ugluk, the Uruk and Lugdush, the Uruk, at the cost of quite a few potions of Cure Critical Wounds, none of which do not drop anything useful upon death. I then kill the nexus qwylthulg and get to level 30. Nothing or use was found unfortunately, prompting me to reload D:35, where I kill Ulfak of Cirith Ungol and find a Steel Helm of Seeing [9, +8] <+1 Searching> and a rod of magic mapping in a vault before I reload the level due to it being 6-3 in level feelings. This new level had a potion of Intelligence that I quaff-id'd, a Potion of Wisdom that I quaff, a Potion of Dexterity that I quaff-id, and a Potion of Brawn that I quaff at the cost of wisdom. I then reload D:35 again through stair-dancing since the level was 5-3 in feelings, and again after getting a 6-3 level and picking up 2 potions of Healing. The next iteration (a 6-2 level) results in finding another potion of Brawn that increases my Strength even further over constitution, while the iteration after that (a 5-2) gave me the dagger 'Dethanc' (2d4) (+9, +12) [+10]. In the next iteration of D:35 that I encounter, I kill Beorn the Shape-changer, and find and quaff a Potion of Dexterity in a room close to a vault. I also kill Gorbag the orc Captain, who drops the Broad Sword 'Aranruth' (3d5) (+20,+12) <+4 Dex>. After that, the level was a 6-4 feeling, prompting another reload of D:35, which gave a 6-7 feeling. I was originally going for a full explore, especially after encountering Draebor the Imp, who nearly died to my Dethanc, but teleported away to a vault that was filled out of depth monsters before I could give the finishing blow. Having run out of bolts and a full pack, I decide to head to D:36 and Recall back to the town instead. I deposit my artifact weapons, ditch the Ring of the Dog and Sling of Accuracy, buy 9 additional scrolls of Phase Door, 14 additional Scrolls of Recharging, a staff of Speed from the black market, 10 (+4, +3) Bolts from the black market, 18 additional Potions of Cure Critical Wounds, and 11 standard bolts to bring the missile count to 40 shots when combined with the bolts from my home. I then deposit my Potions of Speed and Cure Serious Wounds as well as my Rods of Light, Rods of Illumination, 6 scrolls of Recall, and 11 Scrolls of Recharging, and enchant my standard bolts to (+0, +3) using 3 Scrolls of Enchant Weapon To-Dam that I picked up. I then conclude the part.

The next goal: Get to D:38, and find a source of confusion resistance, since that is the only major weak spot that I can see right now.

How many potions of Cure X Wounds or so should I carry? 20? 30?

I’m still using Dagmor, but which artifacts weapons could deal more damage given higher strength and dexterity scores that could be boosted over time? And which artifact weapons should be ditched, period at this point?

Barel'€™s status on the ladder is updated, and I appreciate any tips or answers to above questions.

[Sphara]

Character looks fine to me. Aranruth and Forasgil can go. I doubt you'll use Gurthang either, decent dragonslayer but bad allaround weapon and you don't have enough STR/DEX to make it worthwhile. -thancs do slightly more damage against undead and some demons than Dagmor. But I don't think that makes them worth carrying. If you don't mind switching, then why not. I dunno

I would carry <+3> STR ring, however. For dreads and ninja/dagashi. Unless you think you don't have to conserve those 2 restoring mushrooms.

[Estie]

I’m still using Dagmor, but which artifacts weapons could deal more damage given higher strength and dexterity scores that could be boosted over time? And which artifact weapons should be ditched, period at this point?

As you gain in str/dey, a heavier weapon will always increase more in damage than a light one which means you can safely ditch your daggers and Forasgil.
Only Gurthang might become competitive later with its double brand and *slay* dragon.

See what your damage looks like when you replace the damage ring with str ring; it might be close enough to justify having str sustained.

[wizard44]

Thansk for the input folks. Bought another staff of teleportation as a backup. Forasgil, Narthanc, and Dethanc get the boot. The damage is actually worse if the Ring of Strength replace the Ring of Damage, so the current setup stands for now. Barel now has a source of confusion resistance and has actually gone beyond D:38 quite a bit!

Complete N00b’s Journey: Part 4-5

I begin by getting another Scroll of Recharging and Recalling back to D:36 where I take out a group of tigers and displacer beasts. I then get another potion of Healing and 2 Potions of Restore Life Levels from a nearby room, and kill a death quasit. I then run smack dab into Kim, Son of Mim, who went down to Shoot n’ Scoot and drops a Black Dragon Scale Mail. I then kill a couple white dragons and red dragons of the mature and baby kind to get to level 31. I then go to D:37 and kill several ghouls before I quaff-id a Potion of Enlightenment. I have my scrolls of teleport level destroyed by a smoke elemental, and get weakened by a ninja that popped out of nowhere. D:38 had a chest that had the Short Bow of Armas (x3) (+12, +15) along with 30 (+2,+5) Arrows, as well as a group of impact hounds that do a number on my hit points. I teleport away a Demonic qwythulg and a 9-headed hydra to get a better Heavy Crossbow of Accuracy (x4) (+27, +17). Not wanting to risk dealing with the out-of-depth creatures AND Bill, Bert, and Tom the stone troll that I detected with a staff of Detect Evil, I descend to D:39 with the first staircase that I find and kill a master vampire, who drops a Potion of Constitution (which I happily drink) and another potion of Healing. I have a semi-close call with two xarens that required quaffing of two potions of Cure Critical Wounds. I am also forced to teleport two out of depth vampire lords, that also take me by surprise, forcing me to descend downstairs to avoid them. I end up getting ambushed by dreads and ninjas on D:40, forcing me to use even more charges of Teleport Other and getting strength drained. Luckily, a nearby Potion of Brawn fixes that error at the cost of Dexterity. I take on an undead horde and find a Lantern of True Sight and run into a Knight Templar that forces me to quaff a Potion of Healing after casting cure critical wounds on me before I can kill it. Clearing a nearby vault that contained a sorcerer and another knight Templar reveals a quaff-id’d potion of Healing and another staff of Speed. After killing a black wraith, I head down to D:41 to begin my hunt for confusion resistance. A patriarch summons a ancient green dragon and a master vampire before dying. I teleport away the ancient green dragon and kill the master vampire after getting drained by 6000 experience points. I find the Iron Helm ‘Holhenneth’ [7, +10] <+2>, which solves my confusion problem. After getting teleported by a nexus qwythulg, I come face to face with the ancient green dragon and kill it. I also face a Knight Templar and get the Small Metal Shield of Thorin [5, +25] <+3 STR, +4 CON, -1 Stealth>, which really helped things. I also find a chest containing the Set of Gauntlets ‘Parunen’ (+3, +3) [3, +14] and kill a group of ologs to get to level 32. After clearing the level and finding nothing else, I move to D:42, where I find two potions of Brawn to further boost my strength at the cost of dexterity and wisdom. I then take out a group of mumaks and clear a vault to get a fresh set of enchanted bolts (+5, +6) and descend to D:43. It is there that I take out a couple of baby multi-hued dragons, a mature mutli-hued dragons, 2 vampire lords (that drain my experience quite a bit), a room of undead, hounds of various flavors, and Castimir the Usurper, who drops nothing of use. I then clear another vault and find a staff of banishment, a scroll of teleportation, a Potion of Strength, a Potion of Intelligence, and a Potion of Enlightenment that reveals nothing else of note. With an ancient multi-hued dragon on my tail, I make a mad dash to the downstairs staircase to D:44, where I get into a close call with a death knight and use Potion of Healing to restore enough hp to survive a melee, since a potion of cure Critical Wounds was not enough to keep up with the nether bolts that it cast. I find a rod of Detection and a potion of *Healing*, which fills up my pack and forces me to recall back to the surface to drop off my gear. Once back at the town, I give-id a wand of Disable Traps, deposit my lantern of True Sight, heavy crossbow of accuracy and Potion of *Healing*, ditch my long bow of Power and aranruth, get enough arrows from my home so that I have 80 shots and get my potions of Cure Serious Wounds, recharge my staves of detect evil, speed and banishment, buy 5 potions of resist poison for id purposes, recover my lost experience by buying a potion of Restore life levels and realize that I am now at level 33, and end the part.

So the goal for this next part is: Get to D:50, and hope to find either plenty of Restore Life Levels Potions or a source of Hold Life.

Big lesson learned for the next dive: Avoid vampire lords like the plague for now. They take waay too long to kill and are not worth the exp drain. Is this a correct assumption for my character?

Which digging tool is the best for me to carry (if I should even carry one in the first place). A mattock? A wand of Stone to Mud?

Which monsters/uniques should I look for at this point? And which ones should I avoid?

Barel's status on the ladder has been updated, and any tips/answers to the above questions are welcome.

[Pete Mack]

Re vampire lords: yes. They are very tough for their level, as are any liches except the basic one, and they all drain dexterity and charges. W amd G tend to have less HP, tho they too have attacks with nasty side effects.

Re digging: a ring of digging. It is super cheesy, but it is by far the best digger. Eventually you will have enough strength that you don't even need that.

Inscribe ('{' command) your helmet and rod of detection with !! This will alert you when they recharge and you can detect again. Don't forget the helmet! It has a faster recharge time.

[Estie]

Big lesson learned for the next dive: Avoid vampire lords like the plague for now. They take waay too long to kill and are not worth the exp drain. Is this a correct assumption for my character?

I like to carry !restore life level and if those are available vampire lords can be decent targets. Sliver them in melee, disengage (either let it flee or us ?phase), drink !restore and finish it off with a shot or a well timed first swing. As always, @ needs to be strong enough - if you have to drink !healing, you are not.

The same procedure applies to many undead, importantly Adunaphel who is worth killing even if it requires some consumables because a) she usually carries worthwhile treasure and b) due to her passwall ability and her light sleep she can be a real party pooper later on.

Which digging tool is the best for me to carry (if I should even carry one in the first place). A mattock? A wand of Stone to Mud?

Wand. Digging manually takes time and by the time a corridor is finished, everything in the vicinity is awake. A wand can be used to quickly create a shortcut or in a hockey stick position to the nasty monster on the other side of the rock.

If there is a GV you want to tackle and it requires heavy digging to reach the entrance, Dagmor should serve. If you are too weak yet to affect granite, move on - there are plenty more vaults ahead.

Which monsters/uniques should I look for at this point? And which ones should I avoid?

From here on, everything native to the depth is to be avoided. Here is a list of monsters sorted by their native depth:

http://thangorodrim.net/spoilers/monsters_short.html

I dont have that memorized, I just have a genearl feeling for danger from long experience, so to answer a question like yours precisely, I would have to look it up myself.