Choose One!

[sffp]

You can afford to buy one of these at the store

a Steel Helm of of Telepathy! [9,+10] 32742 gold
(your human warrior has no pBlind or ESP and weapon swaps for See Invis)

a Rod of Teleport Other 15000 gold
(Neither do you have any form of TO)

(you're about 10000 gold short of buying both and your max depth is 1500)

total gold 37784


Complete @ if it matters

[jevansau]

I think I'd go for the Telepathy. While both could be lifesaving, I suspect the failure rate with the rod would be dangerously high.

[Egavactip]

If you don't have *any* other forms of Teleport Other, not even a wand, it's a no-brainer that you need the Rod.

I think in most other circumstances I'd take the Rod as well. Unless you are a spellcaster with high mana and a teleport other spell, you're going to need multiple Rods of Teleport other to win, and the more you have the better. You're pretty much guaranteed to find plenty of helms of telepathy before the final two battles (and it is possible to win even without telepathy if you have enough rods of detection), not to mention other forms of telepathy, but you never know if you'll find a ton of rods of teleport other or hardly any.

[Thraalbee]

Rod for me. Definitely

[sffp]

For what it's worth - I think you're both right.

Telepathy is definitely better for my game at that time.
It's a HUGE difference scraping by on Staves Detect Evil or Invisible vs having ESP - practically night and day.
And Teleport Other has a ridiculously high fail rate for a Human Warrior (level 28) = 41% success rate.


On the other hand, The TO rod is endgame material. I've lost games because I got below 4000 feet and I hadn't found one yet. There are too many greater demons etc. that go through/destroy walls and beeline right for you. You can take one, but they summon friends or move in packs.

And ESP will come in the form of another headpiece or if you're lucky in an artifact bow/amulet/light.

[malcontent]

Telepathy for me - I feel like it is the most game changing thing you can acquire at any point of the game.

[Estie]

Nice one.

I'd take telepathy. Rod has high chance of failure, combined with bad stealth it means it wont enable you to take on minor vaults just yet. So its ground loot for a bit longer and ESP helps greatly with navigation.

[Nick]

Wiruin says Telepathy

[Bill Peterson]

Telepathy. I dive so slowly that I'm usually OP for my depth, especially with a warrior.

[mrfy]

Telepathy. Get a Wand of TO later.

[sffp]

FWIW - I did the sensible thing. Buy the ESP and then recall down until I had exactly the amount required for the TO
Recalled back up and got it too.

So the right answer is "both"

[Pete Mack]

Lucky! And yes, I'd pick ESP first. I rank evasion more important than battlefield control. (41% fail rate just doesnt count as an escape.)