Competition 105

[HallucinationMushroom]

lol, win the comp. That gave me a good chuckle. Real men play O, and I just don't have the stuff. I've gotten close a few times, but certainly not with a fairy mage, jeez!

[dos350]

nn4ferney eeeeeeeeeee i attack him for like a billion minutes , no damage

[Nick]

Back on-topic..

..my Tinker is still alive, but encountering more and more enemies - usually uniques - who resist all elements, and are hence almost impossible to hurt. My guess is that if I find a deeper spell book this may solve the issue, but for now it is taking a lot of cowardice - ah, 'self-control' - to opt for Teleport Other as often as she is needing to .

Get used to it As far as spells go, it's Magic Missile and a couple of Spells in Kelek's and Raal's. Devices can be good - wands of Shrapnel, for example - but basically the price mages pay for their control over everything is small damage until the late game.

[ewan]

Actually, shortly after that I discovered Starburst, and - ironically! - took out Fundin that way. But it's definitely a single-enemy, mana-intensive approach.

[ewan]

In general, I've been very happy to see troll pits - vulnerable to fire - and demon pits, as I have good fire resistance and they're vulnerable to electricity. Not really sure what the dazing from lightning bolt does, but I figure it cannot be bad.

The extra beaming on this character is critical. I can lure enemies out into a long corridor and beam them en masse, which makes mana go a lot further. Even demons with fire attacks are not yet bad; mariliths with their plasma require much more caution, but so far it's mostly vrocks and herzou, the odd nalfashnee. Undead are a little scarier but are also very sensitive to fire. The spirits who sit in walls and hence cannot be spell-targetted are vexing, but generally can be isolated by teleporting away and re-approaching.

Storm trolls are a lot tougher and harder-hitting than others, which is annoying. And some recent enemies - stone wardens! - just are not worth even trying. I had melee up to the point where I was using it for some enemies - orcs come to mind - but it's now again becoming useless. Oh well. Frodo's set bonii are enough that I expect I may stick with them for a while, but CON is high enough now that I could consider losing one of my CON items, maybe. We'll see.

[ewan]

Sorry to spam.

There's one annoying bug I have discovered. Casting Haste Self while already hasted results in haste wearing off very shortly afterward. No idea why, but it's consistent.

[Nick]

There's one annoying bug I have discovered. Casting Haste Self while already hasted results in haste wearing off very shortly afterward. No idea why, but it's consistent.

Not a bug. Casting Haste Self while still hasted only gets you an extra 1d5 turns of speed - you're much better waiting until the haste goes and then casting it again (apart from the danger, of course).

[ewan]

Fair enough - thanks.

[buzzkill]

Awake monsters occasionally seem to stand still, as if they were somehow blocked from approaching, even though they should easily be able to find their way to you. The latest example was a master yeek who pursued me and then just stoopped 30' (straight line) from me and would not approach. He did cast a spells every once in a while. Is there some AI that makes spell-casters prefer to stay in darkness or out of (perceived) line of sight (though in darkness, I could see him with infra vision). Or maybe it's casting spells that do nothing and give no message. It doesn't happen very often, but every once in a while.

[Nick]

Two possibilities here:

1. Monsters with ranged attacks have a desired range
2. Some spellcasters will run away if they run out of mana

I'm guessing number 1.

[ewan]

I've seen similar behaviour - the lead member of a pack of demons, say, will stop pursuit until you go a square or two either closer or away.

Once one monster makes a move, though, the rest always follow.

[Nick]

Competition 105 is now officially over - congratulations to ewan for winning the comp and going close to getting a game winner with a really hard character. Honourable mention also to Matthias for getting third by taking a specialty and then abandoning his character...