Close encounter with a Drolem

**Donald Jonker** · May 12, 2009, 23:07

Well your Leather Shield of the Haradrim sitting at home carries rPoison.

I don't see any benefits that you get from Celegorm that would justify keeping it, especially given Haradrim's boost to CON. rDark, I suppose, but rPoison is vastly more important.

Wouldn't worry too much about rNether. For the future, think about developing your detect/evade skills, and just avoid all those things which could give you trouble, so you don't need resistances. But you have a very solid character there.

**will_asher** · May 13, 2009, 02:15

Originally posted by miner

.. all the time keeping notice on an innocuous dark green 'g' off to the side that is asleep. "I'll take care of that golem later". I head back over to it after the Troll bashing session, stealthy sneak up on the dark green 'g' and give it a good 5 whacks, with the requisit "You hit the Drolem" 5 times. Then "The Drolem misses you <4x>" WHAT?!?!?! I quickly
teleport out of there at warp speed, thanking my lucky stars

... This is the furthest I have ever been and the best character I have ever had (so I am being VERY cautious).

Being in the same room with a monster for several turns without looking at what it is is certainly not being very cautious. It's very helpful to keep a term window open with the monster list. You want to always do your best to know what monsters have line of sight on you (or can get line of sight on you in a few moves) at all times. That's why monster detection and telepathy are so important.
..generally anything which involves thanking your lucky stars don't involve much caution..

**miner** · May 13, 2009, 02:42

Originally posted by will_asher

Being in the same room with a monster for several turns without looking at what it is is certainly not being very cautious. It's very helpful to keep a term window open with the monster list. You want to always do your best to know what monsters have line of sight on you (or can get line of sight on you in a few moves) at all times. That's why monster detection and telepathy are so important.
..generally anything which involves thanking your lucky stars don't involve much caution..

Verbal tongue lashing duly noted. While I am cautious, I guess I get TOO complacent that I know certain characters are what they are, rather than seeing a new one and noticing it. In this case, I got too wrapped up in the fact that there were Ice Trolls to bash. I see a 'D', and I know I need to be careful. As I get lower, I guess I need to looking at all of them, regardless. And yes, I do have another Term window open with the monster list and one with the monster descriptions.

BTW - thanks for the suggestions. Definitely helpful.

**Pete Mack** · May 13, 2009, 04:23

You are wasting a ring slot:
d) an Amethyst Ring of Protection [+16]

Almost anything is better. (Elemental rings in particular turn Aglarang into a killing machine.)

Since you are doing pretty good damage with the bow, you can use theoden for +3CON and ESP. Pretty much a pure win, since going from 17 to 12 speed isn't a critical loss.

Definitely trade Fingolfin for Cambeleg. (Half elf needs CON and STR, not DEX.)

**buzzkill** · May 13, 2009, 15:03

Originally posted by miner

While I am cautious, I guess I get TOO complacent that I know certain characters are what they are, rather than seeing a new one and noticing it.

Which is way tiles are soooo good. No need to try and differentiate a slight color variation. Almost everything has a unique tile. Sure, less stuff fits on the screen, but you don't have to use that pesky 'look' command nearly as often. Steam is currently driving me crazy having to constantly look at stuff, and then look at it again because it either shares a letter/color combo with something else, or I just plain forgot what it was. The playing cards are particularly annoying.

**Zikke** · May 13, 2009, 18:25

Eventually you'll get used to double-checking certain monster letters because they can sneakily be uber nasties. I double check all "s", "d", "v", "m", "p", "h", "Q", "P" that I see until I've killed the uniques for those letters.

The "m" is obviously for death molds, "Q" is for the emperor Q beause he changes colors, any high level "p" or "h" unique is usually quite dangerous, "v" can be a color-changing Storm of Unmagic (also bores through walls, which is a clue), "d" is Kavlax-the-I-should-be-a-capital-D-and-also-Many-Headed, a colored "s" is a druj and a black "s" is Cantoras with the 800 damage nether rays of death. Also, Jabberwocks "H" can change colors too, and I've overlooked them before, and a "P" could be any Atlas or Chronos.

Or Morgoth if you forget where you are

edit: oh, and those super deep dungeon "C"s that aren't in a group and just standing there all innocent-like are usually not Worgs....

**Nick** · May 13, 2009, 21:45

Originally posted by Zikke

edit: oh, and those super deep dungeon "C"s that aren't in a group and just standing there all innocent-like are usually not Worgs....

And "R". I will never forget thinking The Tarrasque was a rock lizard.

**miner** · May 14, 2009, 20:10

*sigh* my quest has prematurely ended. At level 55, my ranger perished at the hands of an Ancient Green breathing twice. I had killed a few Ancient Greens before, but this one got me, despite having sufficient HP for one breath, it wasn't enough for 2. What is sad is that I had just found Caspanion, but had not decided whether I was going to wear it or not (duh - I should have just swapped it out before encountering the Green - hindsight). Funny thing is that it breathed, gave me a low HP warning (9 left), I tried to teleport, and failed...and now the quest begins anew.

**PowerDiver** · May 14, 2009, 20:36

Originally posted by miner

At level 55 ... I tried to teleport, and failed.

By level 55 you should be using guaranteed escapes. That usually means scrolls.

**miner** · May 14, 2009, 20:42

Originally posted by PowerDiver

By level 55 you should be using guaranteed escapes. That usually means scrolls.

I hadn't considered bringing scrolls and the like with me. With such limited inventory space, I figured that was one thing I could eliminate to help with the issue of space. I ended up dieing with 6 inventory slots of various ammo, and all but one of the spell books. I guess this is a good learning experience.

**Pete Mack** · May 15, 2009, 04:46

The other thing worth learning is: don't take existential risks unless there's some high expected payoff. An Ancient green dragon is an existential threat if you are fairly low on HP, don't have poison resist, and can't obliterate it in a turn or two at most.

Close encounter with a Drolem

Close encounter with a Drolem

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