Complete N00b's Journey Character #5: Duntir, the Dunadan Ranger

[Adam]

Also the monsters who cast paralyze are dangerous for @. Especially since he is a ranger so can shot down monsters from a distance but if he is in LoS he is vulnerable to spells.
So avoid illusionists (as already experienced), druids, mind flayers, demonologists, necromancers (and possibly some other casters).

[Estie]

You are doing fine, not much to add.

For the near future:

With a ranger in general and a weak one in particular, it becomes increasingly tedious to clear levels. So once you have FA, you might want to descend faster and adopt the diving playstyle. If you happen to find any mouse rings, hold onto them; depending on circumstances, good mouse rings can have gamechanging impact.

[Pete Mack]

The paralyzing spell (Ogre Mage, Shaman etc) is not nearly as dangerous as melee, and is usually survivable. Melee paralysis is only rarely survivable, and never if it is by a carrion crawler or ghast (having multiple hits or extra speed)

[wizard44]

Thanks for the short list Pete Mack. And for the others for their input. Duntir actually managed to accomplish the goal and reach D:32, but shortly ran out of arrows thereafter and had to Recall back.

Complete N00b’s Journey: Part 5-4

The part began by recalling back to D:21, where I kill a pack of jackals, a baby green dragon, a tengu, and a water vortex, the latter of which destroys my cloak. I also find and use-id a staves of Starlight and Slow Monster and drop them. I then kill a giant red frog, a spotted mushroom patch, and a spotted jelly to get to level 20. I then kill a dark elven mage and get several more potions of Cure Critical Wounds before going down to D:22. I run face to face with Gorbag, the Orc Captain and shoot him several times before being forced to Phase Door away from him. I then kill two clear mushroom patches and kill a water spirit and a brown bat before I run into Gorbag’s orcish retinue. I take out a magic mushroom patch, Gorbag, and his retinue, and get a battle axe (+6, +5) from Gorbag’s death drop that grants +2 constitution. I then find out that the level has a level feeling of 4, prompting a full explore. I kill a qwythulg, a uruk, and 2 dark hounds and find several scrolls of Satisfy Hunger and an amulet of Resist Lightning, which prompts me to ditch my amulet of infravision for it. I then take out a clay golem, a group of jackals, and find an unknown wand. I then kill an yellow mold, a chimera, a group of cave spiders, a werewolf, a killer fire beetle, a water spirit, and a pack of wolves to get to level 21. I then wear-id a ring of slow digestion and drop it, and proceed to kill a group of cave orcs and ogres and find a shield of resistance [5, +12] and several more potions of Cure Serious Wounds. I kill a paladin, a ranger, a cave bear and run into Ugluk the Uruk and Lugduash the Uruk. Though Shoot n’ Scoot using magic missile and phase door spells, I kill the two, who drop a Tulwar of *Slay Giant* granting me +2 strength, and a steel helm of wisdom. I take the former, and leave the latter. I the descend to D:23, where a pack of air hounds takes me to the low hitpoint warning level before I can kill them and get to level 22. I then learn some spells from the Incantations and Illusions book and kill 3 gallants, a scout, a mummified orc, a dark elven priest, a blue dragon bat, a cutpurse before I run into Ulfast, Son of Ulfang and kill him, who drops a set of leather gloves of Free Action, which wholly solved my free action problem. I then kill a spotted jelly and a giant red frog before I pick up an ivory amulet and descend to D:24 and switch to a power diving mode.

There, I kill a scout, a cutpurse, a red jelly and pick up 2 Scrolls of Phase Door. I then take out a soldier, an energy vortex, a group of ogres, and a group of forest trolls before descending to D:25. It is there that I kill a host of ogres of all kinds before a group of gnome mages and their summons force me to teleport away from them to recover. A water vortex damages my cloak and sandals before I can head back to the room to deal with the gnome mages and their summons, which included a wyvern. On the flip side, I get to level 23 and find out that the amulet that I’ve been carrying was one of resist acid, which gets dropped. After learning the identify run spell, I then drop the Tulwar of Slay Giant in favor of keeping my Mace of Slay Evil and head to D:26 to keep in line with the power diving mode. Once there, I kill a skeleton orc, a blue jelly, a forest wight, and several phase spiders before I descend to D:27. It is there that I acquire a Sorcery and Invocations spellbook and kill a troll priest, a pack of wolves, a pack of earth hounds, and a mage at the cost of my potions of Cure Light Wounds and several potions of Cure Serious Wounds. I then kill several illusionists, a ranger, a qwylthug, a brigand, another pack of earth hounds, a grave wight, before I come face to face with Uldor the Accursed. I then teleport away after he summons his kin and kill a group of ogres, who drop a potion that was Restore Mana when I quaff it. I then eat-id Mushrooms of the Clear Mind and Vigor, and kill a group of ogres and an energy vortex, before a pukelman does major damage to my worn armor and forces me to teleport yet again. I get to level 24 and decide to leave behind Uldor the Accursed and the level by going to D:28 since his summons were doing a huge number on me. It’s a real damn shame, since the level treasure rating was a 9. At D:28, I kill a group of wargs, and find a Wand of Teleport Other. I face a pack of cold hounds and kill them, along with a group of hill orcs and Grishnakh, the Hill Orc, who drops a useless Zweihander of Slay Troll. I then head to D:29 and quickly descend to D:30 due to the presence of two dangerous uniques.

D:30 I run into a pack of air hounds, which severely deplete my potions of Cure Serious Wounds. I am also forced to teleport away Angamaite of Umbar and Sangahyando of Umbar to stay alive. I then rush to D:31 and kill a dark elven mage, who drops the Chain Mail of Arvedui (-2) [40, +15] <+2 Strength>, which was a godsend, and get to D:32. At that point, I run into Ibun, Son of Mim, and run out of arrows, prompting me to do a Recall back to the surface. I then identify my unknown runes, ditch my plain dagger, identified ring of feather falling, and identified ring of the god that I was keeping at the home, store my artifact gauntlets, give my unknown wand and my unknown rod to have them both identified as flavors of Disable Traps, buy 5 scrolls of Phase Door, 9 Potions of Cure Serious Wounds, 80 standard arrows, 3 Scrolls of Enchant Weapon To-Dam and 8 scrolls of Enchant Weapon To-Hit (the latter two from the black market). I then use the enchant scrolls to beef up 40 of my arrows to (+4, +1). I then buy Scrolls of Recharging and a Potion of Restore Life Levels and stash them at the home. I then buy 9 Scrolls of teleportation and 2 more Scrolls of Word of Recall and stash them and end the part.

So the next goal is to get to D:38, gain several points of strength by finding stat potions by stairdancing if necessary. I could also do with getting an artifact weapon, since I usually get my hands on one at this point.

What sort of rings of the Mouse should I look for if I do decide to get one?

Duntir's status has been updated, and any input to improve its survival is appreciated.

[Pete Mack]

The biggest immediate hole is your bow. Nothing better has shown up in the stores (Black Market or Weaponsmith)? Don't forget to check at every recall. And yeah, stealth would be nice. Your melee is so bad that you might as well use a Defender weapon, if one turns up. They come up to +4 stealth, and the regen is nice too. Keep an eye out.

Magic book 5 could turn up at any moment. Other than the first big speed item, this is the number one find for improving power of a mage-book caster. Those resistance spells are extremely powerful.

Otherwise, you are doing fine. Just keep avoiding those instakill monsters. They will start showing up now, only a little out-of-depth from DL 40.

[Estie]

What sort of rings of the Mouse should I look for if I do decide to get one?

Rings of mouse come with a damage penalty and a dex and stealth bonus.

The reason to use them is the stealth bonus. If melee is a consideration, they are usually not worthwhile; if the damage penalty is low and the dex bonus high, the melee damage output might not suffer, especially with a branded weapon, but that is rare.

Since for you melee damage is of almost no concern at this stage, you might as well ruin it completely to get stealth. Defender weapon, the ultimate stat stick, would serve the same purpose.

[wizard44]

The answer is no Pete Mack. I got gypped pretty hard when it came to bows and weapons. Duntir is in okay shape, as he got his two points of strength and quite a few items from stairscumming the heck out of D:40 and so.

Complete N00b’s Journey: Part 5-5

I recalled back to D:32 and kill a pack of white wolves and a shimmering mold to get to level 25. I then learned the Reveal Monsters and the Acid Bolt spell in the toolbox. I then kill a pack of ice trolls at the expense of quite a few arrows and a couple of curing potions of all kinds. I then kill a quasit, a cold vortex, and a pack of giant blue ants and pick up a Potion of Healing. After killing a grave wight while getting experience-drained, I then find the stairs to D:33 and descend, where I find and read-id a scroll of Mass Banishment and get a spare wand of Teleport Other. I then kill a hill giant and get a Rod of Fire Bolts, which I keep for the time being. I then kill a young green dragon and get to D:34, where I dispatch a ring mimic and a young black dragon before doing down to D:35, where I kill Orfax, Son of Boldor, an ogre chieftain, and Orfax’s yeek retinue to pick up a Large Metal Shield of Resistance, the Spear ‘Nimloth’ (1d6) (+11, +13) <+3 Stealth, +3 Speed>, and better Ring of Ice [+12] before I descend due to a horde of mumakil coming my way. I run smack dab into Beorn, the shape changer, prompting me to reload the level by stairdancing. Once there, I read-id a scroll of Teleport Level that sends me back to D:35 and forces me to descend to D:36 again. In that level, I quickly find the stairs to D:37 and descend, where I get a ring of Intelligence and descend again to D:38, as Mim and his sons were very close by.

D:38 was host to a knights Templars and patriarchs, so I reloaded the level and killed a mage and an Easterling Champion to get better Wooden Sandals [1, +6]. I then kill an olog and trip an alarm, prompting me to reload the level again after waking up plenty of dangerous creatures nearby. In the new level, I find and quaff a Potion of Dexterity before I find the downstairs and descend to D:39 to escape a vault full of beholders. D:39 had a banshee that scared me, so I ascend back up to D:38, where I kill a shimmering mold and a young gold dragon to get to level 26. I also use-id a rod of Hold monster and drop it and face down a spectre, who drops a Potion of Wisdom upon death, which I drink. I then descend and kill a bunch of ghouls and a nexus vortex and get a ring of bodykeeping and quickly descend to D:40, where I meet Khim, Son of Mim and retreat back up to D:39, where I kill a shardstorm and teleport away a mystic and quaff-id a potion of enlightenment. I then kill a plasma vortex, an energy vortex, two barrow wights, and a group of giant fire ants. I then face a young black dragon and have my gloves of Free Action damaged and find a potion that was one of Resist Poison when quaffed. I then descend back to D:40, where I kill four phase spiders and find Iron Shod Boots of Free Action [4, +6]. I then kill a black knight and a ranger and find the stairs to D:41, which I take. I teleport away a master vampire and a storm giant on D:41 before finding nothing nearby of note and beginning a tighter cycle of stairdancing. The cycle eventually gets me to level 28, and grants me 2 Potions of Wisdom that I quaff, a Potion of Constitution that I quaff, a Potion of Dexterity that I quaff, a Ring of Strength <+4>, a potion of Nimbleness that grants me dexterity at the cost of wisdom, a better ring of Damage (+0, +11), a Fur Cloack of Stealth [3, +6] <+3 Stealth>, a Potion of Toughness that grants me constitution at the cost of dexterity, a Potion of Brawn that grants me strength at the cost of wisdom, and a Potion of Intelligence, which I quaff, the set of Guantlets ‘Pauraegen’ [3, +14] <+1 light>, a Staff of Speed, and a Potion of Strength, which I quaff while taking out Shagrat the Orc Captain along the way. After running out of arrows, I finally decide to Recall back to Town. Once back, I deposit my gloves of Free Action, my potions of Speed, and my scrolls of Satisfy Hunger and buy 5 Potions of Restore Life Levels and stash them as well. I also buy 3 Scrolls of Word of Recall, 7 scrolls of phase door, 80 standard arrows, 4 Potions of Heroism, a Potion of Cure Serious Wounds, and 4 Potions of Cure Critical Wounds. I then buff up 40 of my arrows with Scrolls of Enchant Weapon To-Dam and buy 20 Potions of Cure Light Wounds. Still no better bow in the stores however. Sigh.

So the next goal is to get to D:43, and try to get two more increases to the strength score, as it’s still pretty pathetic at this point. If I’m looking for potions of Strength or Augmentation, levels at ~D:40 are generally the way to go right?

Duntir’s status has been updated, and I would appreciate any input or tips for this character at this point.

[fph]

!Augmentation has native D:40, so if you can survive at that depth by all means do it. (In general, "go as deep as you can without taking crazy risks and burning through too many consumables" is good advice that applies throughout the game...)

[Estie]

The importance of strength early on comes from providing carrying capacity and melee damage. The reason carrying capacity is so important is that without it, you drop to negative speed which means you always have to account for double moves by the monsters.

Speed is the important stat here, not strength per se and once you have an item that grants a little speed like your spear, this aspect of strength becomes completely irrelevant. A little positve speed doesnt really enable you to calculate your double moves to avoid taking damage, like +10 speed does, but it makes you safe from double move by base speed monsters. So it doesnt matter much if that is +1 or +2 speed; the big step is going from -1 to 0.

At your stage, melee damage is the only positive effect of more strength; of course you still want it, but it is now low on the list - your glaring weakness is your bow.

The "cursed" dagger was actually of slay dragon ? Weird that you couldnt sell it, I dont understand what is going on there.

[wizard44]

Thanks for the input you guys. So Duntir has actually surpassed this goal by a lot and covered his key weaknesses and reached to D:51.

Complete N00b’s Journey: Part 5-6

So I recall to D:42, where I find a rod of Teleport Other before descending to D:43. After some reloading through the stairdance tactic, I quaff a found potion of enlightenment and find and quaff a Potion of Constitution, 2 Potions of Strength, find a Hard Leather Cap of Telepathy, and get to level 29 from some kills. I then stairdance and kill Draebor, the Imp, who drops a pair of Leather Sandals of Speed [1,+7] <+5> and a scroll of Banishment. I run into Adunaphael the Quiet on D:44, who gets teleported away, and proceed to descend to D:45, where I begin a careful descent down while searching for a source of poison resistance and a better bow. D:45 had 2 Potions of Intelligence and a Potion of Strength that I quaffed after killing a small group of baby, young, and mature black dragons. I also find a Mithril shield [16, +15] and a Long Bow of Power (x3) (+8, +15), which covered my key weakness with my bow. I also find mithril gauntlets of free action [6, +7], allowing me to drop my boots of free action in favor of the Sandals of Speed. I then proceed to go to D:46, after getting level drained by a vampire lord and kill Bill, Bert, and Tom the stone troll trio. The only useful drop was a studded Leather Armour of Elvenkind, which allowed me to have source of Poison resistance on demand. I then go to D:47, where I find the pair of Leather boots of Radagast [2, +12] and get level drained from a death mold summoned from a use-id’d staff of summoning. I quickly descend to D:48 and reload the level to avoid running into uniques upon entry. Upon finding a suitable level, I kill Nar the Dwarf, who drops a useless cursed lead-filled mace. I then head to D:49, where I find another staff of speed, a Potion of Intelligence which I quaff, and a better Amulet of Infravision <+3>. I descend to D:50 where I get to level 30 by selectively killing lesser dragons and descend to D:51, where I find nothing of interest and go to D:51, where my pack finally fills up with artifacts and must keep items (with the last one being a rod of magic mapping) and prompts me to do a recall back up to town. Once there, I deposit my potions of Healing, Restore Life levels, and Speed at my home, and buy a Wand of Drain Life and get more potions of Cure Serious Wounds and Cure Critical Wounds. I then get enough standard arrows to bring the total number of missiles to 80 and end the part.

So the next goal is to reach D:58 and find a source of chaos resistance, with the secondary goal being trying to find better sources of Poison resistance and a source of hold life.

Are there any non-artifacts that provide chaos resistance, or do I have to just get lucky with finding those?

Which is better to have for a helmet: The artifact iron helmet or the helmet of Telepathy? And which armor choices do you guys think is the most optimal for me to war at this point? Specifically, which combination of gloves, armor and boots should I wear for a trek down to D:58?

Duntir’s newest status has been updated in the ladder, and any answers and comments to promote Duntir’s survival are welcome!

[fph]

Helmet: tough choice but I'd go with telepathy, and carry the other around as a swap for pConf. Knowing where monsters are at all times is game-changing, for me.
Boots: definitely go for the speed ones and try to juggle your kit around to make room for those. You haven't found an amulet of free action? Once you have SI and the phial, infravision is basically useless; it would be better to try to move FA to the amulet slot for now and wear Paurhach for the regeneration. Or at least an amulet of regeneration.
Armor: another tough choice. 4.1.3 already has the cone breath change, right? In that case the usefulness of rPoison is lower. Do you melee a lot? Try the Elvenkind one, and if you feel too underpowered in melee (both in terms of damage output and defence/AC) then switch back.

[Grotug]

All pieces of Elvenkind equipment have one high resistance, and thus have a chance of having Chaos resistance. Aman cloaks also always have either one high resistance or a protection of some kind. Blades of Chaos also have chaos resistance. I think those are the only three things that can have chaos resistance. Although maybe any high-end ego weapon could have it?

[wobbly]

The obvious 1 missing from Grotug's list is Chaos dragon Scale Mail though you'd probably want to keep your artifact armour unless it was a nice ego.

I'd wear the telepathy helm. I'm struggling to think of anything invisible that doesn't get picked up by telepathy. Qs show to infravision. Perhaps lurkers don't get picked up but you have FA.

[Estie]

That elven armor is pure gold; all relevant raistances covered in one slot and stealth to boot. I would dump Arvedui. Your shield slot is free for anything useful you might find. By the time you want to replace your elvenkind, you are looking for con, not str. With it and the ESP hat, you are ready to go down all the way.

[Pete Mack]

You're in good shape. RPoison is definitely worth a couple points of STR. It is surprising that no dungeon books have sho mwn up. They make a huge difference. Nice that you found a decent bow. You'll find better soon enough