Resist poison after 2000'

[jbu]

I have noticed a few remarks about the intentions about letting us rely less on the town. I think this is a very good idea. Together with the squelch and the drops of actual useful stuff, it makes a much cleaner playing style.

It took me quite a few turns before I went ahead and turned squelching on for not-artifact armor and saw the mithril coat of elvenkind in my inventory go puff. But why lumber around with three chain mails of resist lightning just because you can save up to the unlikely event that the black market has something actual useful in stock? Talking of which, I just spent 100k and bought a scroll of Acquirement, brought it back to 1800' and got a helmet of light(+2).

There is one problem with my new playing style of only going to town to drop artifacts in my home. I have started descending much faster. I know that there is an iron man playing style, but I dont reallly want to do that. So I would like to know if it is still considered instant suicide to go below 2000' without poison resists? Are there other levels where similar considerations apply?

Cheers

[PowerDiver]

It took me quite a few turns before I went ahead and turned squelching on for not-artifact armor and saw the mithril coat of elvenkind in my inventory go puff.

There is a middle choice, squelch non-splendid body armor, and resistance goes away but elvenkind remains. Once you have Isildur and Celeborn and Belegennon you might want to squelch all but artifacts, but until then elvenkind might be your best choice.

[Derakon]

You can also inscribe an item with !k and then squelch; because of the inscription, that particular item will not be destroyed even though other similar items will be. So for example, you can squelch Amulets of Resist Acid even while wearing one, and you'll be fine so long as it's inscribed !k before you take it off.

Honestly, the "Don't go below 2000' without poison resistance" thing is overblown, especially if you have good detection. Drolems and Ancient Multi-Hued Dragons are the two big poison breathers that you need to watch out for; Drolems can hit 800HP if you don't resist poison, and AMHDs can hit 616. But they're native to 2200' and 2150', respectively, so you aren't even safe from them at 1950' -- they can pass out-of-depth checks and blindside you.

The bottom line is, go ahead and dive, but know what your enemies can do before you get into line-of-sight of them. If you see a drolem around the corner, go somewhere else, because it can kill you in one turn in LOS. If you see a pack of Gravity Hounds, go somewhere else, because they can kill you in one turn in LOS. Heck, gravity hounds are more dangerous than drolems, because you can't resist gravity damage -- even though each breath is only 64 damage, it adds up fast when there's an entire pack and the breaths slow and phase you.

The old conventional wisdom was basically "Follow these rules for equipment and resistances, and you can be sloppy in your exploring without getting killed." Except it didn't actually work that way, because sloppy play will get you killed even if you have all the relevant resistances. The new conventional wisdom is "Don't be sloppy in your exploring, and you can go deeper without resistances or equipment." A carefully-played character has decent odds of surviving at 4900' with just good stealth, see invisible and Detection.

Hmm...that gives me an idea for a competition. Roll up a new rogue, toss them to 4900' with nothing but their starting gear and a rod of Detection, and disallow going higher than 4850' in the dungeon.

[Pete Mack]

If you have good detection, you are fine. Drolems are very rare, and AMHD &c shows up on Detect Evil and ESP.
The real issue is: can you go deeper without good detection? The answer is yes, so long as you don't explore and you have good (superb or better) stealth.
(Use _Teleportation to get around the dungeon, and don't explore unless detect objects shows something promising. And don't linger on levels long enough for monsters to wake up or repopulate awake.)

[fizzix]

If you have good detection, you are fine. Drolems are very rare, and AMHD &c shows up on Detect Evil and ESP.
The real issue is: can you go deeper without good detection? The answer is yes, so long as you don't explore and you have good (superb or better) stealth.
(Use _Teleportation to get around the dungeon, and don't explore unless detect objects shows something promising. And don't linger on levels long enough for monsters to wake up or repopulate awake.)

I don't recommend using _teleportation.

I've lost two characters in the middle game to teleporting into a room of gravity hounds. Both were at full HP and I was teleporting away from a dangerous pass-wall monster that had woken up nearby.

_teleport is an escape, if you have _destruction, you can chuck teleportation.

[buzzkill]

It took me quite a few turns before I went ahead and turned squelching on for not-artifact armor and saw the mithril coat of elvenkind in my inventory go puff.

I believe 'poof' is the correct term. More to the point, it didn't actually go 'poof', un-squelch it and you'll find it lying at you're feet (providing you haven't moved on already).

[jbu]

Thank you all.
As a warrior I have to rely on ESP for detection until i get the rods. I am happy to take the chance for a while.I do like to go exploring, never considered just jumping aound. It is a good idea though, but I dont have a lot of teleport charges. I am collecting !RPois, if I chhose to take the chance and take a fight with an AMHD. I do have excellent stealth so mostly I have the initiative.
As for my poofed (ty) Elvenkind, it has been memory collected days ago. Never mind.

Cheers