potions at endgame

[shawnosullivan]

so i'm pretty well-versed in ToME and zangband, but it's been almost a decade since i've played vanilla. 3.1.1 dragged me back - the new develoments are really great, the gameplay has been improved drastically. after a half a dozen or so mid-game deaths, i have a level 50 dunadan rogue on 4900', preparing to battle sauron. i have great speed and AC, all resists covered, two immunities, and a decent randart blade of chaos - my only real concern is my lack of healing, etc. i have one potion of life at home, a couple potions of healing on me, and one scroll of banishment - but that's all.
whats the best way to go scumming for these things in vanilla? should i just try buying out the black market? or do i just need to be patient, killing enemies and saving up potions? what about rods of healing, i seem to be unable to find any...i'm used to these things not being QUITE so difficult to find...thanks in advance!

[fizzix]

The best way to pick up potions is to clear out pits of weaker monsters. orcs, trolls, dragons that breathe an immunity. You can get potions from the BM but they show up so rarely it's probably not worth it.

However, !CCW is improved and 2 of these can equal a healing. Bringing down a stack of !CCW and ?phase can get you through the last two battles. Just make sure you're meleeing in a destruction zone or somewhere that a phase is extremely unlikely to land you in LOS.

[Hariolor]

I am not sure if this is *actually* faster - but I have noticed that !Healing tend to start showing up pretty early (often on DLs 1-5).

If you are the sort who gets bored scumming for orc pits, try re-entering the dungeon from town at DL1. Teleport around each level casting detect objects, beeline for the good stuff on each level. Rinse. Repeat.

As I said, this may be far less efficient in the long run - I've never done an empirical measurement (never had enough really powerful characters to do so with). But to my mind it probably beats the heck out of scumming between DLs 90-99/100

[fizzix]

I am not sure if this is *actually* faster - but I have noticed that !Healing tend to start showing up pretty early (often on DLs 1-5).

If you are the sort who gets bored scumming for orc pits, try re-entering the dungeon from town at DL1. Teleport around each level casting detect objects, beeline for the good stuff on each level. Rinse. Repeat.

As I said, this may be far less efficient in the long run - I've never done an empirical measurement (never had enough really powerful characters to do so with). But to my mind it probably beats the heck out of scumming between DLs 90-99/100

If you're going to do this, I would suggest going down to 15 for !healing. You probably won't find much between 1 and 5. 1 and 5 are great for !speed though, if you are a warrior and need some potions.

Also, you really want !*healing and !life and you won't find those on the earlier levels.