Equipment Questions

[Timo Pietilä]

Or you learn what can drain your experience and don't get into melee with it. Wraiths, vampires, and ghosts are the main threats in that respect.

Experience drain is annoying but not worth losing anything actually important for. I never really worry about it.

Also you do gain XP while drained. It just is smaller amount IIRC 10% of usual amount. IE if you were near to gain next level when you got drained you get that level before you have killed enough monsters to restore normal operation.

Mainly any capital letter undead might (and usually do) drain XP, and some monsters use nether bolts or chaos attacks which also drains XP unless you have resist.

[celem]

New monsters...new questions.

Im having a hard time with Gravity Hounds. Which resist covers their breath attack? It really hurts
Well mainly I guess its them slowing then stunning me. But they are really starting to bug me

Less artifact luck this time through. Plenty dropping but so far everything is a cloak or a hat.

[fph]

None. Gravity and time hounds are among the most dangerous monsters in the game; landing in the middle of a pack of them can easily insta-kill you. Never, ever be in the middle of a full pack of those. Only killing them one at a time in a corridor might be considered safe (but the safer thing is always avoiding them completely).
This is one of the reasons why ?teleport (or the equivalent spell) is not considered a sound means of escape anymore after a certain depth.

[celem]

Yeah they fairly brutalised me, I just sat tight chugging potions while they 'ported me about until I came down in a corridor and could spare a swing or two.

On the plus side I got myself a rod of Detection so I can now look before I leap

Edit: Hah, vengeance is mine. Killed Lokkak with my Westernesse Lead-filled mace at '2050.

[fph]

Yeah they fairly brutalised me, I just sat tight chugging potions while they 'ported me about until I came down in a corridor and could spare a swing or two.

?teleport level or ?deep descent is your #1 way out in cases like this. Try to save a space for them in your inventory.

[Timo Pietilä]

?teleport level or ?deep descent is your #1 way out in cases like this. Try to save a space for them in your inventory.

Obviously the #1 is to not get to that situation in the first place. Key to survival in Angband is knowledge of your surroundings, especially monsters. ESP helps a lot.

[celem]

Hmm dont think i've come across ESP yet. Is it different from telepathy? I did get Thranduil but ive been wearing Thengel. Might swap em out since im not getting hit with confuse much.

Also now that my dex is starting to cap out I might swap cloak of thingol for Colannon. The extra speed would be nice.

Its all a bit luxurious just now since '2200 coughed up an awesome collection of drops. Ji Indur Dawndeath dropped axe of Hurin and Isildur's plate was lying on the floor as was leather scale mail Thalkettoth.

Seems I gotta make some choices, might be time to try the speed gear.

[buzzkill]

ESP (aka telepathy) > resist confusion.

[celem]

No sooner did I decide so myself but I wandered blind into something horrific before recalling to get Thranduil from my home. I ran into a Greater draconic Qulythulg at 2250 and he seems to have summoned a nice little party of dragons to me. I got a Great Storm Wyrm, Smaug the Golden, Itankast and a collection of undead-looking dragon things. Gonna take a breather while I decide if this is a 'bail out' moment.

[Pete Mack]

@celem--
No need to consider. It is a bail-out moment.

[Timo Pietilä]

No sooner did I decide so myself but I wandered blind into something horrific before recalling to get Thranduil from my home. I ran into a Greater draconic Qulythulg at 2250 and he seems to have summoned a nice little party of dragons to me. I got a Great Storm Wyrm, Smaug the Golden, Itankast and a collection of undead-looking dragon things. Gonna take a breather while I decide if this is a 'bail out' moment.

Undead looking dragon = Get out of there! Several = Get out of level!

You absolutely need that telepathy.

[celem]

Yeah. Closer inspection revealed Scatha the Worm was tucked in the corner. The undead ones were Dracolich's. Rather than risk such a group of OoD breathers I read my tele level
It was actually a regular ancient multi-coloured that had me most concerned. I dont have any poison resist so they can 1-shot me if they choose to go green.

EDIT: Ahh finally found a weapon with poison resist. Now I just gotta drag it around incase i see some poison breather.
What does an exclaimation mark next to a stat denote? Most are Str: # etc. My con appears to be Con! #. Appears both in the game and on ladder dump, must mean something, I have noticed quafing potions of con has stopped increasing that stat, is it done?
Also, http://angband.oook.cz/ladder-show.php?id=11073 (the ladder is a very cool feature )

[Psi]

What does an exclaimation mark next to a stat denote? Most are Str: # etc. My con appears to be Con! #. Appears both in the game and on ladder dump, must mean something, I have noticed quafing potions of con has stopped increasing that stat, is it done?

Yep. '!' means the stat is maxed internally.

[Timo Pietilä]

What does an exclaimation mark next to a stat denote? Most are Str: # etc. My con appears to be Con! #. Appears both in the game and on ladder dump, must mean something, I have noticed quafing potions of con has stopped increasing that stat, is it done?

If you look at your character screen you see that your "self" has reached 18/100. That is maximum internal stat before bonuses from class, race and equipment. It can't raise any further.

You will also find out that after 18/219 you get 18/*** which means you have maxed the effective stat (after bonuses from class, race and equipment). 18/220 is max effective stat value. Further stat increase works only as buffer for draining.

[buzzkill]

In noob terms, the ! indicates that it can't be raised any higher via stat potions. You can still use stat boosts on equipment to get it even higher (until you reach 18/***).