Easiest Win?

[Diogenes]

Hello,

What would you consider the "easiest win"? With that, I mean the combination of character class and race which you think gives the best chances for a (clean) victory.

Is it:
* The High-Elf Ranger (good stats, nice balanced class and large XP penalty)
* The Dwarven Priest (I read about that in a newsgroup once)
* The Half-Troll Warrior

or

* Something else altogether?

Cheers,


Peter.

[Dragonboneman]

I'd recommend High Elf Ranger as the easiest class to win with. They have no real drawbacks apart from slow leveling and archery can be amazingly powerful with the right kit. HT Warriors can have problems due to their lack of stealth and DEX (it's often easier to get multiple blows with a High-Elf or Dunadan Warrior, both of whom have better stealth as well).
Priests, like mages, start out horribly weak so it can be hard surviving to statgain levels.

[Paffa]

Dwarf priest for me. With Clairvoyance you can instantly see if there's any interesting equipment at deeper levels.

Damage-wise I'd consider High-elf Ranger, 3 or more shots per round with branded arrows just kills anything and everything

Oh and in 3.0.6. with Fire immunity, staff of magi and mana storm you're basically invulnerable =)

[camlost]

Ah, that'd be Ghost Naturalist in Steamband.

Also, there is a different between easiest and most probable.

[Mondkalb]

Though I lilke to play a ranger and have done so for many years, my only win was with a Dunadan paladin.
The only drawback might be the experience penalty.

The annoying drawback of a ranger for me is weak pseudo id.

[HallucinationMushroom]

Warrior. Dunadan gets 4 attacks out of the starting gate with the right point distribution and a dagger, Dwarf get blindness resist and Half Trolls put the most smack down. I always keep a three sided coin handy for just this situation...

I've probably confused easiest with most forgiving. Whatever. That's my 2 coppers.

[will_asher]

Since I am really trying to get my first win, maybe I should start playing with one of these stereotypical best combinations instead of that kobold paladin I like.. I think I'd go with dwarf priest, I hate the horrible psuedo id of a ranger.

[Magnate]

I'd say go with a HE Ranger, despite the horrid pseudo. You get the ID spell at level 23, so you only have to put up with it until then (you should reach that level on your third or fourth trip down). With innate SI and rlight, great stats and extra bow shots, no other combo has the survivability. It's just a matter of waiting until you find your endgame bow (which can be very early on if you get a lucky +2 Might bow).

(Dwarf Priest as second choice, and both assume we're talking about Vanilla.)

CC

[Nick]

I'd recommend playing around with the different classes until you decide which you like best. Then pick the best race for that class (probably HE for ranger, mage and rogue, Dwarf for priest, paladin or Warrior). Just in case you haven't got enough advice yet

[Mondkalb]

I'd say go with a HE Ranger, despite the horrid pseudo. You get the ID spell at level 23, so you only have to put up with it until then (you should reach that level on your third or fourth trip down).

You'll get the ID spell but with a horrible failure rate for quite a while.

[Dragonboneman]

Pseudo-ID is only really a factor in the early game, IMO.

[will_asher]

I'd say go with a HE Ranger, despite the horrid pseudo. You get the ID spell at level 23, so you only have to put up with it until then (you should reach that level on your third or fourth trip down). With innate SI and rlight, great stats and extra bow shots, no other combo has the survivability. It's just a matter of waiting until you find your endgame bow (which can be very early on if you get a lucky +2 Might bow).

(Dwarf Priest as second choice, and both assume we're talking about Vanilla.)

CC

L23 on the third or fourth trip down?? I'm definetly no speed diver, I tend to come up kinda often to sell stuff or I won't be able to afford anything beyond the basic essentials. I usually get to around cL9 or 10 on my fourth trip down. It's usually after my first two trips that I can afford word of recall, or do you usually wait till you find it in the dungeon? I never go past depth L3 without word of recall. And then you're talking about a high elf ranger when high elves advance in exp slower than any other race. That's why I'm hesitant to try high elves.

[zaimoni]

Well...it depends on the kind of stuff you sell

V3.0.9:
Assuming a bow or crossbow and a "visit all objects" mentality and use-testing, it should be possible to bounce down to DL3 and back up on the first trip. (Yes, you'll be slow with 99 arrows/bolts. It really doesn't matter that much, as just about everything at these dungeon levels is melee-only.) This goes faster with some Detect Object and Magic Mapping scrolls, but those aren't guaranteed. You do have to know your trick shots to make this work.

If not having problems with either food, light, or inventory slots, oscillate a bit around DL3 as long as the ammunition reserve is comfortable. [Of course, a ranger should switch to a longbow as soon as possible. The only missile weapon that doesn't work well for the first trip is a sling, thanks to the overweight ammunition.]

That gets ?WoR in time for the second trip in V3.0.9, as that's guaranteed-stocked in the General Store.

[Magnate]

Well this is interesting. I don't consider myself much of a diver, but I tend to get to about 500' and cl10 or so on my first trip (any further and it becomes a bit tedious to get back up, though the double stairs in O are very handy). I then buy ?WoR if I haven't already found one, and I tend to reach ~800' and cl~18 on my second trip, and ~1100' and cl~24 on my third. I say I don't consider myself a diver because true divers are well into stat gain by cl24.

The thing is, the fewer monsters you kill, the more xp each of them is worth, so you don't actually fall very far behind in clev. You just get used to floor items as your main source of loot, rather than monster drops.

High Elves are great to dive with, because they have innate SI. In a way SI is more important than FA early on, because you know who all the paralysers are (floating eyes, ghouls, homunculi, ogre magi) and you can avoid them.

In O I use High Elves for rogues and assassins, but they don't make such good rangers because the ranger's primary stat is Wis, so I use Dunedain rangers instead. High Elf rangers rock in V though.

CC

[Dragonboneman]

I tend to start each game by mooching around levels 1-3, finding and selling un-ID'd potions and scrolls until I have equipment in every slot, a scroll of WoR and a few other essentials. As a High-Elf I'd probably be somewhere between Clvl 5 and 10 by this point.
After this cautious, slow start I dive straight down to 1000' unless I already have Free Action, in which case I'll keep going all the way to 2000' in hope of finding better loot. This is when I usually get killed to bits.