Defender or Telepathy?

[Napsterbater]

After a few very false starts with a Kobold Rogue, (I was surprised at just how much weaker they are than HE Rogues) I finally got one with some staying power. He's got a +21 short bow, a Defender broad sword, and amazingly, a *Slay Evil* maul that grants telepathy! Never seen one like that!

My question is how to go about the next twenty or so levels, as I'm on level 12 now. Keep both weapons? The Defender is just perfect for the little guy, as it gives see-invis and RBase, and much better stealth. But telepathy is just so damn useful. I suppose I should keep telepathy on when moving around, and switch to the defender when I actually want to fight something with my shortbow. But then I lose the stealth bonus. Do I even need telepathy at this point in the game when I have DVis?

I think either way, I can just dive dive dive until I hit stat gain. At which point the stealth will probably make more sense so I can steal potions out from under those bad boys' noses.

It's a nice dilemma to have, but I want to solve it so I can get movin!

[Pete Mack]

Keep both. Use the ESP weapon for walking around, and the defender when you feel like you need it's benefits. ESP is insanely valuable: it's almost always worth using as your walking-around weapon, assuming you have no alternate source.

[fizzix]

Yes, use telepathy for walking around. There really aren't any big breathers that you won't sense in advance before they breathe on you. (you resist poison, so drolems are out) Chances are you're not meleeing stuff anyway and just shooting things to death, so switch out for the defender when you want to kill a dragon. Just dvis and dinvis before you do, so nothing sneaks up on you.

[dhegler]

ESP makes the game much more enjoyable and is incredibly worthwhile, just switch your weapons out periodically if you want, like you mentioned. I never found that good stuff by level 12.... Nice job.

[tummychow]

I don't find much use for telepathy, personally, but I am in that funny middle depth - no scary monsters to look out for and deep enough to start finding it. I find telepathy rather annoying because, like high infravision, it makes resting extremely difficult. However, because you have the quick and efficient capacity to switch, just inscribe @w0 on both of them and switch with capital X. Save you time and take advantage of both weapons.

[Pete Mack]

The default options should not disturb you when sleeping with ESP. If you have trouble, check the disturb options. You should have it set to disturb when visible monsters move, but not for all monsters