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

**fph** · April 16, 2019, 14:26

Detect monsters should be your top priority. Cast it as often as possible as you explore new areas, if you have the mana for it. CLW is a bit expensive at the beginning, so you won't be using it very often. Detect Stairs is incredibly handy for diving.
All the other spells are useful, but they are not big priorities since they can be replaced by gear: for phase door you'll carry scrolls anyway (mostly because they have 0% fail rate...), and magic missile typically doesn't hit as hard as your other options. Light area... well, it depends on how you play; personally I don't consider it extremely useful (especially at the beginning when it is costly).

**fph** · April 16, 2019, 14:31

Also: I don't know if you got it mistakenly from one of our messages, but D:18 has nothing special to it. IMHO the only level thresholds that matter are D:30 (where stat potions start to appear), and of course D:99 and D:100. (and D:75 for speed rings, maybe).

**Pete Mack** · April 16, 2019, 15:53

Bottom line: starting as a Rogue is much easier. The ranger didn't become significantly more powerful until DL 40, even before extra shots was nerfed.

Rogue just has huge benefit in detect objects, and the much better melee and extra HP don't hurt either.

**Derakon** · April 16, 2019, 16:52

Extra shots I believe haven't been nerfed in 4.1; that's a 4.2-only thing. Ranger vs. rogue basically breaks down as:

* Rogue has slightly worse spellcasting, but gets Detect Objects. Ranger gets better spells in the lategame (including IIRC Word of Destruction)
* Rogue has better stealth, though not hugely so
* Rogue has better melee
* Ranger has vastly better archery starting at level 20 and then again at level 40, due to getting extra shots. Those extra shots are only granted with bows, however.

Basically, up until level 20 you're a crappy rogue. Starting at level 20 your damage output with bows (not crossbows or slings) is effectively doubled, and then it's increased by 50% again at level 40. So you'll be carried in no small part by your archery output.

**Estie** · April 16, 2019, 19:28

Low str again, so youll have to rely on your archery and devices for damage for a long time to come.

Once you have some money, the red store sometimes sells wands of magic missile; it might be worthwhile to buy them.

Your melee weapon is not going to put out much damage which is generally a very bad thing, but given that you wont be able to change that in the near future, there is a positive side to it: you can use your wepon as a stat stick.

Look out for ego weapons in the shops with {??} unknown runes. There is a pattern to those ego weapons which you might already be able to recognize; for example, if it gives an int bonus its either *slay* animal or demon.

Some of the egos, for example *slay* evil, can give free action, see invisibility or rarely even telepathy. Holy avenger always has a wis bonus and see invisibility; westernesse, recogizable by multiple stat numbers which apply to str, dex and con, always gives both FA and see invis.

**wobbly** · April 16, 2019, 19:31

You also very much want to change to a bow as soon as possible. Sling ammo is much more heavy then arrows & when you can't melee you'll want to carry a lot of ammo.

**wizard44** · April 17, 2019, 02:20

Much thanks for the input folks. I chose D:18 due to information that I watched in walkthroughs, as D:18 seems to be the level where warrior characters can get to on their second dive before they have to Recall. Unfortunately, Duntir didn’t make it to D:18 and was forced to recall to D:11 after running out of scrolls of Phase Door.

Complete N00b’s Journey: Part 5-2

Learned the Detect Monsters and Detect Stairs spells, bought 3 more potions of Cure Light Wounds, and dived back down to D:1, where I killed a small kobold and a giant white mouse before finding the stairs, since the Detect Stairs Spell failed. When I descended to D:2, I successfully casted Detect Stairs, and made my way to them while killing a salamander and two cave spiders to get to level 6, where I took the time to learn the Cure Light Wounds spell. I kill another cave spider and quaff-id a Potion of Neutarlize Poison, and then kill a white jelly using Magic Missile and iron shots before I get to the stairs. After descending to D:3, I successfully cast the Detect Stairs spell, quaff-id a Potion of Speed, and kill a grey icky thing and get a Potion of Boldness and quaff-id a potion of Sleep. I then kill a cutpurse and an apprentice using the Magic Missile spell, and get a Scroll of Phase Door and 4 Scrolls of Light. I then proceed to kill a shrieker mushroom patch and take the stairs down to D:4. After successfully casting Detect Stairs, I kill a giant green frog and find 20 Bolts (+9, +7) and some more Rations of Food, making me wish that I had a crossbow. I quaff-id a 4 Potions of Slime Mold Juice before being alerted to the fact that the level had a treasure rating of 5, prompting a full explore of the level. I again run into Grip, Farmer Maggot’s Dog and proceed to waste it with magic missiles. I then kill a soldier and quaff-id a Potion of True Seeing. After that, I kill a cave lizard, two acolytes and a scruffy-looking hobbit and pick up a Potion of Speed and 2 scrolls of Phase Door. I then kill a soldier, a raven, a giant white ant and get a Staff of Detect Invisible before getting shot by arrows by a healer, forcing me to quaff 2 potions of Cure Light Wounds and retreat before I could kill it with magic missiles. I then kill a gallant to get to level 7 and learn the Light Area spell. Once I did that, I then kill another healer, a white harpy, a giant white rat, a yellow mushroom patch and pick up a Ring of See Invisible. I kill a blue yeek, a giant white centipede and get a Wooden Torch of Brightness. After killing a giant white rat, a healer, a clear icky thing, a yellow mushroom patch, a metallic green centipede I find a Nickel Wand, clear the level, and proceed to D:5. Once there I run into a green naga and find that the wand was a Wand of Heal Monster when I use it on it. I then zap the wand of confuse monster on the green naga and kill it in melee, but not before its acid spit damages my robe. After failing to cast Detect Stairs 3 times, I kill a skeleton kobold and a small kobold and find a Conjurings and Tricks spellbook and 2 Potions of Cure Light Wounds. I also quaff-id a potion of Berserk Strength and kill an apprentice to get a spare Magic for Beginners book. After killing 4 giant white lice and a large grey snake, I find a Magnesium Wand and the stairs to D:6. Once there, I successfully cast Detect Stairs and find 5 Scrolls of Satisfy Hunger, one of which I read-id, on my way to D:7. D:7 was a murderous level that contained a room full of out-of depth monsters upon casting of Detect Monsters. Avoiding the room, I run into a creeping gold coins, and find that my Magnesium Wand is a wand of Hold Monster. I kill the creeping gold coins to get to level 8 and end up using my potion of Cure Light Wounds to hold of against a group of manes. I kill a silver mouse and kill 4 manes before I can get back to safety, while also getting a dagger with unknown properties. I then kill another manes and a green naga to get 3 Potions of Cure Serious Wounds and reach level 8 before I find the stairs to D:8. I end up using up my wand of Hold Monster to survive the battles. Once at D:8, I cast Detect stairs and make a break for the downstairs while killing a kobold archer and a giant white ant and get robbed of 126 coins by a bandit. After finding the downstairs, I head to D:9, where I find a Rod of Treasure Location and 3 scrolls that turned out to be Scrolls of Summon Monster when read-id’d and force me to reload the level by stairdancing to avoid getting killed by the summons. The reloaded level had the omens of death feeling, prompting me to quickly find the downstairs and escape. I do just that after killing a giant red frog.

D:10 puts me right in the middle of a panther, who forces me to Phase Door away and quaff a Potion of Cure Serious Wounds before I can kill it and get to level 9, where I learn the lightning bolt spell. I kill a brown mold with iron shots, and kill a massive cloud of yellow worm masses at the expense of five dexterity points (ouch). I then kill a baby white dragon and find the down stairs to D:11. At D:11, I find and kill a giant brown bat, a kobold archer, a kobold shaman, a giant white rat, and a hairy mold before discovering that the level had a treasure rating of 5, prompting another full explore of the level. I pick up a wand of Stone to Mud and several more Scrolls of Satisfy Hunger along the way before killing a large white snake and a giant grey rat before finding a scroll that was one of Magic mapping upon reading. I kill a black dragon fly to get to level 10 and restore my dexterity. I then have 204 coins stolen by a bandit and eat-id a Mushroom of Emergency. After waiting out the hallucination, I then get clawed by a red dragon and have 177 more coins stolen by another bandit before I phase door away to recover and quaff a potion of Cure Serious Wounds. I then kill the red dragon and get a bone amulet, a scroll that I read-id as Remove Curse, and 2 scrolls of teleportation, one of which I read-id. I kill a grey mushroom patch and run into the two bandits again, who steal 350 more of my coins. I then go kill a giant spider and kill one of the bandits to get back some of my gold and an extra scroll of Phase Door. After killing a green mold, a rock lizard, a poltergeist, a red worm mass, and an orc shaman, I find another stack of standard arrows, which drives home my need to get a bow. I run into a dark elven warrior, and am forced to Phase Door and quaff 2 potions of Cure Serious Wounds to deal with it. I also run into Orfax, son of Boldor and am forced to read my other scroll of teleportation to evade from Orfax, which puts me in a pack of wolves and forces me to read my last scroll of Phase door. Left with no options, I read my Scroll of Word of Recall and make my escape. I then drop my staff of Detect Invisible and stack of arrows, ditch my Iron Shots and sling, and then buy a Light Crossbow (as there STILL wasn’t a bow of any kind for sale), 3 Scrolls of Word of Recall, 20 scrolls of Phase Door, 1 Potion of Cure Critical Wounds, 2 Potions of Cure Serious Wounds, 22 standard bolts, and 3 potions of Cure Light Wounds. I then give my Bone Amulet to the magic shop to have it identified as an Amulet of Resist Lightning, and find out that my dagger is not givable, suggesting that it could be cursed rather than have beneficial properties. Dropping off the dagger, I then end the part.

The next goal is to get to D:29, but I don’t think Duntir can get there.

Which stat should be the highest priority to increase, should I find potions that increase stats at the expense of another?

Which spells are worth learning as I level up for a ranger?

Duntir’s status has been updated, and any input to help this character is welcome.

**Derakon** · April 17, 2019, 04:41

STR, no question. You need more carrying capacity. You're pretty much not going to get extra melee blows until you've started stat gain in earnest, not unless you find some items with nice stat boosts on them. So I'd pretty much ignore everything except STR. You can stockpile the INT/DEX stat-swap potions for later, since they're your next two priorities, but at the moment I don't think it's worth the risk of taking a STR drain to get them up.

**Estie** · April 17, 2019, 05:15

The only stat swap potion I would want to drink with that character at this time is brawn.

As for spells, dont expect to be able to cast anything outside book 1 with any reliability. Dont bother carrying anything but book1 until you get access to identify rune in book 3 which is worth casting even at 50% fail rate. In that book there is also satisfy hunger which saves you from forgetting to eat in town and stone to mud which doesnt lose much usefulness from having to rest for mana a lot.

Book 2 I dont normally carry before the lategame if at all; while the spells would be extremely useful, the fact that they cant be cast reliably and are too mana intensive means I rather use devices for the purpose of curing poison, teleporting self or lighting up hallways.

You can wield that dagger and use it in town for a while, to identify some of the curses. Read a ?phase too hoping to id the nasty no-teleportation curse.

**Estie** · April 17, 2019, 07:19

One more thing: while indeed bow is the best launcher type for various reasons, especially early on just use whatever does the most damage. You have good bolts, so by all means use the xbow (and you can sell 1 bolt to identify the rune).

You seem to be trying to stay downstairs for long periods; this is not ideal when archery is your main source of damage. Theres nothing wrong with recalling frequently to restock on ammo.

**fph** · April 17, 2019, 08:53

Originally posted by Estie

You seem to be trying to stay downstairs for long periods; this is not ideal when archery is your main source of damage. Theres nothing wrong with recalling frequently to restock on ammo.

OP's problem, at this point, is gold. He has 3 gold pieces in the last dump. ?recall are expensive, as is the rest of the kit (potions, ?pd, etc.). It's a problem that will solve itself briefly, as the drops increase after about DL10, but for the moment that's an issue that prevents recalling too often.

**wizard44** · April 18, 2019, 08:50

Thanks for the input folks. So Duntir's journey was cut short and forced to recall at D:21 because of hunger of all things, since I foolishly dropped my scrolls of satisfy hunger along the way to make room for inventory space.

Complete N00b's Journey: Part 5-3

So I dropped book 2 at Estie's recommendation, as well as 5 scrolls of Satisfy Hunger. I then start off this dive by Recalling back to D:11, where I find out that my unknown bolts are bolts of Venom when shootin down a Hill orc. After casting detect monster, I find I am next to Grisknath, the Hill Orc and his retinue, and retreat to another area to rest up, where I kill a metallic blue centipede and find a wand that did not identify when zapped, and a scroll that was Aggravate Monsters. I find the stairs and descend to D:12, where I detect an out-of-depth earth spirit with Detect Monsters, and kill a brigand to get to level 11 and acquire 3 more Scrolls of Phase Door. Another brigand, however, steals my scroll of Magic Mapping and disappears. An Easterling warrior brings my hp down to the red zone, forcing me to quaff 2 potions of Cure Light Wounds to recover before I can kill it with bolts. I find a wand of Light and kill another Easterling warrior and two kobold shamans, and get a Rod of Curing and a scroll that was one of Monster Confusion upon read-id. After killing a giant green frog, I run into a tiger and Phase door away from it and make my way to a vault, where I get a lantern, allowing me to ditch my torches for good. I find an Incantations and Illusions book that is useful for later, and take out a group of cave orcs and a moaning spirit, the latter of which drains a point of dexterity from me. I then proceed to kill a giant brown bat and a creeping silver coins to get to level 12 and my dexterity restored. I then descend to D:13, where I kill a two jackals before I was forced to Phase Door away from the crowd. I then kill a disenchanter mold and a giant spider, the latter who forces me to quaff my last potion of Cure Light Wounds to survive the poison. I then kill a giant gold dragon fly and kill the rest of the jackals and a brown yeek to get a metal cap [3, +0], a Ring of the Dog, and even more standard bolts. I then run into an ochre jelly, who damages my robe and some of my Bolts of Venom, and Phase Door away to the downstairs, which I take. Upon arriving to D:14, I find that the level has a treasure rating of 5, prompting a full-explore. I then proceed to kill a priest, a grey icky thing, an Easterling warrior, a green mold and enter a room that contains an Everburning Lantern and a wand of Stinking Cloud, both of which I take. I kill a white dragon fly, a blue worm mass, 2 kobold archers, a white jelly, a brown yeek, and a dark elven priest at the expense of quite a few scrolls of Phase Door. I then kill a large kobold and quaff-id a potion of infravision, and a kill a brown yeek and get a Staff of Confuse Monsters, a scroll that was a scroll of Treasure Detection, when read-id'd, and a Staff of Cure Light Wounds, the latter two which I take. I then kill an orc shaman and find the Gauntlets 'Paurhach' [3, +14], and kill a tengu and get a wand, which was that of a Haste monster when applied to a dark elven warrior. After killing the dark elven warrior from a Paurhach activation, I wipe out a group of snagas and black orcs with my wand of light and get to level 13 and a Rod of Light. I then kill an illusionist, priest, and brigand with a wand of stinking cloud and 2 potions of Cure Serious Wounds. I find some more needed scrolls of Phase Door, Soft Leather Armour [8, +6], and 3 Mushrooms of Second Sight, one of which I eat-id. I then take out a giant grey rat, Mugash the kobold lord, and his retinue to get to level 14 and acquire an additional scroll of Word of Recall and a Morning Star (+3, +5) and kill a pack of wolves before running into Lugduf, the Snaga, who went down to Bolts of Venom and drops metal scale mail, which was far too heavy for my character to wear, unfortunately. I also take out 2 groups of snagas and cave orcs and a red naga and a lost soul and a harpy to clear the level. I then descend to D:15, where I kill a crow and get a ring of protection. I then run into an illusionist, who gives me a scare by paralyzing me but teleports before the illusionist can do damage to me. I then kill the illusionist, a brigand, and a dark elven priest to get to level 15 and acquire 2 needed Scrolls of Phase Door (I used quite a bit on the Mugash fight), a staff of teleportation, and a mushroom of stoneskin that I eat-id. I then find out that the treasure rating for the level is 4, which prompts me to fully explore the level. A spotted jelly and a brigand dies, the latter who drops 2 more Scrolls of Phase Door. I then kill another brigand, an illusionist, and a stegocentipede and get another Scroll of Phase Door and open a chest containing an Iron Cap of Wisdom [7, +1] and kill a griffon and a pack of clear hounds at the expense of my staff of cure light wounds. I then kill a pack of white wolves and a grey icky thing and a priest, while using a few Scrolls of Phase door and my last Potion of Cure Serious Wounds. I kill a baby green dragon, an air spirit, and an Easterling warrior and find and use-id a Staff of Curing and a scroll of Trap Creation. I then kill a red jelly, a giant black dragon fly, a green naga, a zombified orc, a giant clear centipede, and a metallic blue centipede to get to level 16. After killing a cave bear, I clear the level and go to D:16, where I clear another pack of wolves and find a garnet ring before descending to D:17. In that level, I find another potion of Speed and Scroll of Teleportation after dispatching a Moaning Spirit. I also find a staff of Magic Mapping and a Wand of Wonder through use-id, the former of which I keep, and the other of which I drop after killing a floating eye with it. I then kill a zombified kobold, a cave lizard, a clear hound, and a druid before I learn that the level has a rating of 5, prompting me to do a full search of the level. I kill a bandit to get a ring of Digging, and get ambushed by 3 tigers that force me to use scrolls of Phase door to evade them. I then take out Brodda, the Easterling with Paurhach activations and Bolts of Venom, and kill a pack of light hounds, white wolves, and wolves in melee. I then take out a healer, 2 gallants, and a scout and use-id a wand of slow monster, which I drop. I then kill a black harpy, a hippogriff, and 2 cave bears and find another unknown ring and the Phial of Galadriel. I then dispatch a group of Uruks and a large grey snake to get to level 17. I then kill some more clear hounds and read-id a scroll of Enchant Weapon To-Hit, which I apply to my crossbow. I then kill a baby black dragon and a group of wargs to get to level 18. I then get 4 Potions of Cure Light Wounds and kill an earth spirit, a brigand, an Easterling warrior, and Smeagol, the latter who drops a Mace of Slay Evil (+6, +9). I find and read-id a scroll of Holy Chant and Enchant Weapon To-Dam, the latter of which I apply to my light Crossbow. I also find 3 Potions of Cure Critical Wounds and kill a quasit and a dark Hound to get studded Leather Armor [12, +6] and descend after killing 3 manes. Upon descending to D:18, I take out a stegocentipede, a raven, a crebain, a tiger, and Wormtongue, Agent of Saruman. I find a pair of leather sandals [1, +5] and finally get a Short Bow (x2) (+5, +6) while killing crebains and nighthawks. I then kill a brigand, an illusionist, a killer brown beetle, 2 apprentices, and 2 healers, and a pack of wolves to find 20 Bolts of Slay Animal (+1, +3), which acted as regular bolts since I ran out of them quite a while ago.

I then descend to D:19, where I find 20 regular bolts and kill 4 soldiers to use-id a Staff of Sleep Monsters that I drop and kill a night lizard. I then kill a potion mimic, a griffon, a dark elven priest, a giant clear centipede, and a baby multi-hued dragon and read-id a scroll of Door Destruction. I then kill a group of forest trolls to get to level 19 and use-id a wand of lightning bolts. After that, I descend to D:20, where I kill a baby gold dragon and several black orcs before I am forced to Phase Door away from the crowd and recover. I then kill several more black orcs and 3 ogres and find a ring of Ice [+9], which replaced my Ring of Protection, and use-id a wand of scare monster. I also find a small metal shield [5, +0] and kill a red jelly and a griffon. I also read-id a scroll of Enchant Armor, which I direct towards the Helm of Wisdom. I then find out that this level has a treasure rating of 5, prompting me to do a full explore of the level. I then kill 13 lemures, a disenchanter mold, a druid, an imp and find a Wand of Magic Missile that I use on a nighthawk before dropping it. I quaff-id a potion of Intellect, which drains my constitution to improve my intelligence. I use-id a staff of light, which I drop, and use-id a rod of illumination, which I drop as well. I then go on to kill a hippogriff, a water spirit, a bloodshot eye, a pack of energy hounds, a giant brown bat, a hairy mold and find 2 Potions of Cure Critical Wounds. I then kill a metallic red centipede and find the Iron Helm 'Holhenneth' [7, +10] <+2 INT, +2 WIS, +2 searching skill>, which was an excellent find. I then drop my ring of see invisible and find that one of my rings that Iâ€™ve been carrying was a ring of open wounds, which I drop as well. After killing a rot jelly, I find that another one of my unknown rings had a teleportation curse, which I also drop as well. After killing a baby white dragon and a brown yeek, I find myself getting hungry, and quickly descend to D:21 after clearing the level. I find a ring of damage (0, +8) and get weak from hunger, so I recall and quaff my curing potions to stave off my hunger until I make it back to town. Once back at town, I read one of my scrolls of satisfy hunger, give my unknown wand in exchange for identifying it as a wand of door destruction, deposit my other two unknown rings, crossbow and special bolts in my home while ditching the one regular bolt that I have, get my standard arrows that I've been stashing, buy 15 additional Scrolls of Phase Door, an additional Scroll of Word of Recall, a Potion of Healing, 2 Potions of Speed, and 2 Potions of Cure Serious Wounds, the latter three from the Black Market (as the temple only had potions of Cure Light Wounds in stock). I then deposit my potion of Healing and 4 Potions of Speed to keep the weight low. I then buy a Potion of Restore Life Levels and 2 Scrolls of Recharging from the magic shop and store them for a later run. I then make a second run to the stores and buy an amulet of infravision from the black market, a spare staff of teleportation since it had more charges than my current one, and 10 potions of Cure Light Wounds. I then ditch my rod of curing, buy and consume a ration of Food and a Pint of Fine wind for kicks, and end the part.

I think the next goal is to try to get to D:32, though I am not hopeful that this character will make it that far before another Recall is mandatory.

Once again, I do not have a source of free action. Does that mean a dive to D:32 is out of the question? If so, which levels are the most likely to grant me free action items?

Duntirâ€™s status has been updated, and any help for this character is welcome.

**Pete Mack** · April 18, 2019, 10:08

Without FA you will die before DL 30 unless you have the (short) list of early paralyzers memorized.

c carrion crawler
e spectator (will confuse you too)
H gorgimaera
u Homunculus
R basilisk
z ghast ghoul

DL 35-40:
g silent watcher
K iridescent beetle
n Medusa
. trapper. This one is hopeless to avoid if you happen to stumble into it.

**wobbly** · April 18, 2019, 10:14

Originally posted by Pete Mack

Without FA you will die before DL 30 unless you have the (short) list of early paralyzers memorized.

c carrion crawler
e spectator (will confuse you too)
H gorgimaera
u Homunculus
R basilisk
z ghast ghoul

DL 35-40:
g silent watcher
K iridescent beetle
n Medusa
. trapper. This one is hopeless to avoid if you happen to stumble into it.

+ ogre mages? (They do in other variants)

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

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

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