Play style quirks - what do you like? (Silly thread)

[Chud]

What silly play-style things do you find yourself doing even though they aren't optimal play, if any, just for fun? :-)

For example, when I outgrow my starting kit, I don't sell the armor or weapon, I leave them stashed at home. Hey, it was "an inheritance from [my] family"! How could I sell that? It's a family heirloom, my kids could use it some day!

Just curious.

[Hariolor]

I find myself inevitably collecting all the dwarven artifacts, not just because they tend to be useful, but I also like having them - it seems fitting somehow.

I also will try my hardest not to throw away any of the items from The Hobbit or LOTR if I find them.


Gameplay-wise? I really enjoy throwing items at enemies in the early game in order to identify them. There's something comical to me about a CL2 mage huriling a lochaber axe (-4, -4) at an icky thing in order to identify it.

[Nick]

I generally don't squelch !Water and !Apple Juice because when my character finds them and drinks them, it makes me feel refreshed...

[Timo Pietilä]

What silly play-style things do you find yourself doing even though they aren't optimal play, if any, just for fun? :-)

For example, when I outgrow my starting kit, I don't sell the armor or weapon, I leave them stashed at home. Hey, it was "an inheritance from [my] family"! How could I sell that? It's a family heirloom, my kids could use it some day!

Just curious.

I hunt down orc mages that escape pits using phase door. I just have to kill them all

I don't care about Troll priests, but there is something in those red "o":s that just screams "kill me!".

I also sometimes "hunt" orcs without killing them just to see how long it takes for them to end up in dead end.

[buzzkill]

I don't know if it's a quirk, but it's certainly sub-optimal. I like to take the stairs down on my first turn. I just can't stand starting my game with a round of shopping.

I often use sub-optimal equipment if it's more in theme with my class and race, though this does have it's limits.

[Djabanete]

I like to die.

[Magnate]

I'm a compulsive IDer. I can't bear to have not-fully-IDd stuff in my inventory, even if I know perfectly well what it is.

[HallucinationMushroom]

Oh man, my whole gamestyle is a quirk.

I usually drink 6 pints of ale before I recall down.
I go out of my way to have an even quantity of a given potion, scroll, etc...
If I walk past a money ore I must dig it out.
Sometimes I drag back skeletons to my home and name them something funny like, "Door Prop", or "Ol' Pappy".
I collect mushrooms of hallucination and then eat them to watch the graphics show.
I go out of my way to kill town drunks if I see any.
I eat real food and avoid scrolls of satisfy hunger since my wife thinks it's cruel for the at-man to go without food.
It is exceedingly rare for me to bother shooting even when I have wonderful shooters.
If I ever throw it is to chuck rations of food at monsters to wake them up.

I probably have a lot more but these come to mind first! I'll have to play a quick game and pay attention to the stuff that I do automatically that is actually quite screwed up.

[camlost]

If I ever throw it is to chuck rations of food at monsters to wake them up.

Clearly the game need chalk.

[Ycombinator]

I am not original:

I also will try my hardest not to throw away any of the items from The Hobbit or LOTR if I find them.

This. Though I'm more attached to the jewelry, and not so to weapons.

I'm a compulsive IDer. I can't bear to have not-fully-IDd stuff in my inventory, even if I know perfectly well what it is.

And this.

A few times, after noticing that I had missed some very low level uniques (like Wormtongue, Smeagol or even Grip or Fang) at their native depth, I started to deliberately avoid them in the deepest levels. Once I managed to keep Grip alive for the final battle, but unfortunately it wasn't summoned. But I've seen Morgoth summoning Smeagol. Poor guy...

I often use sub-optimal equipment if it's more in theme with my class and race, though this does have it's limits.

Could you provide an example? Is it in line with physical characteristics which game doesn't emphasize too much, especially after stat gain, or do you use a more elaborated lore?

[buzzkill]

I often use sub-optimal equipment if it's more in theme with my class and race, though this does have it's limits.

It's nothing elaborate. If I'm playing a warrior I might choose a weaker suit of chain mail over a nicer robe. As a paladin, I'll always be on the lookout for some plate mail and steel boots. As a mage I'll not often carry a bow, and with rogues and assassins I'll favor items of stealth and poison over others.

My exploration tends to focus more intently on these themed items, so those are the ones that I'm more likely to find. I may walk halfway across a level to examine the afore mentioned plate mail for my paladin, while a robe wouldn't get such attention.

All that said, it does have it's limits. If my recently found non-themed weapon does 2x the damage of something more appropriate, it probably going to be wielded.

[MKula]

I go out of my way to herd snaga into a nice long corridor so I can spear of light them.
I, too, *must* ID *everything*. And when something is ID'd and it's useless, it *must* be destroyed. Gotta keep those dungeon levels clean.
Actually, I cant bring myself to throw any artifacts away... only when my home is completely full do I start selling off the ones that will never see the light of day.
Also, for a brand new character.... I always buy a cloak. Always. I don't know why. They need a cloak, for some reason.

[Derakon]

Cloaks used to have the best AC-to-cost ratio in the game (before armor bonus costs were normalized), and they still have a good AC-to-weight ratio.

[Netbrian]

I go out of my way to leave an Orc pit as undisturbed as possible for maximum carnage when I bust out a stave of power.

[nooblet]

Back when the game had junk items, I'd find a shard of pottery and inscribe a statement like "long live [my character]!", or "worship goddess [my fem character]" or something more ironic.

I usually stick with the default weapon for a character even though daggers and light weapons are often better, and wait until I find a magical item to replace my family heirloom.

If I have a character with dispel evil, I'll jump into an orc/giant pit - or any pit with evil and spam it endlessly, if I get the drop on the enemy, so long as I have decent enough HP/AC to weather the blows. This actually isn't bad in the endgame.

I try to make use of wands, often filling my inventory with random wands I find until it's time to loot the dungeon properly. Has the benefit of giving me damage magic that doesn't miss short of failing to aim/zap, unlike my ranged weapons which are prone to missing more than they should be. I used to squelch/ignore wands and rods unless I needed a source of ID/Recall.

With 3.20, I'll usually buy out the general store's flasks of oil in lieu of picking up a missile weapon, and hold onto them for early fights where they are most useful. Even if a sling is available early on, unenhanced iron shots only do 2d4 damage. Any other missile weapon becomes prohibitively expensive, and buying the flasks frees up money for scrolls of phase door, armor, a shovel, or other useful stuff. Flasks seem to do more damage than before, such that I need only two or three to handle Grip or Fang. By that point my character will be strong enough to handle most early monsters in melee, or as a mage can spam magic missile enough so that launchers aren't needed until after my first trip. Besides, it's highly likely to find a launcher somewhere along the way, even better if it's enchanted.