My first Angband character

[EpicMan]

Hmmn... I just noticed that a War Hammer of Lightning that I've been stockpiling forever suddenly seems like it will do immense damage compared to before (92.2 per round compared to the 74 my whip had before it was disenchanted). Maybe it's time to switch!

The damage enchantment to your weapons applies to every blow, so if you got three blows with a whip, going from (+0, +3) to (+0, +1) would reduce your damage by 6, not 1 (+3 * 3=9, +1 * 3 = 3). Disenchantment is bad news.

Of course, if you boosted your stats then you might be getting another blow with your war hammer which would also bring its damage up.

[debo]

I learned another new thing! Getting hit by lightning can blow up rings!



My ring of See Invis was in my pack and it done got blown up by some kind of lightning-man thing. I was so mad at it that I melee'd it to death even though I shouldn't have.

I did pick up a suit of Blue Dragon Scale Mail from a unique, though. Now I can hit with my lightning hammer and BREATHE lightning when I feel like it!

Also, I ditched my ring of strength for a ring of damage I found on the floor somewhere. Woot!

Can lightning blow up rings that you're wearing, as well? Or just stuff that you keep in your pack?

[Nomad]

Can lightning blow up rings that you're wearing, as well? Or just stuff that you keep in your pack?

Just items in your pack. Lightning can destroy jewellery, wands and some rods (you can use the I key to inspect them and see if they're immune; most of the really good rods are), and cold can shatter potions. You've probably already noticed that fire and acid attacks can destroy most paper and wooden things. The only thing that can be damaged while you're wearing it is armour, which can lose points of AC when it's hit by acid.

If you've got the right resistances, that reduces the odds of things in your pack being damaged by that element, and if you find an artefact that gives you total immunity to one of the elements, it will keep the things in your pack completely safe. (Which is one of the reasons immunities are so rare and valuable.)

When stuff is on the floor, it will be automatically destroyed by any element that can damage it, so watch you don't use your armour's lightning breath when there are useful rings or wands on the ground in front of you.

[relic]

I learned another new thing! Getting hit by lightning can blow up rings!



My ring of See Invis was in my pack and it done got blown up by some kind of lightning-man thing. I was so mad at it that I melee'd it to death even though I shouldn't have.

I did pick up a suit of Blue Dragon Scale Mail from a unique, though. Now I can hit with my lightning hammer and BREATHE lightning when I feel like it!

Also, I ditched my ring of strength for a ring of damage I found on the floor somewhere. Woot!

Can lightning blow up rings that you're wearing, as well? Or just stuff that you keep in your pack?

Sorry about your ring. It was probably a Colbran that you encountered. They cast lightning bolts quite frequently. Your rings that you are wearing should be safe against lightning attacks (unless something's changed in recent versions, which I don't believe). What dungeon level are you on now?

[Derakon]

Incidentally, I want to caution you that your character is likely doomed, just by the nature of the game. I don't want you to get too discouraged by his almost-certainly-inevitable death. Angband can turn on you fast, even when you know what you're doing.

Still, do your best!

[relic]

I don't know if you already know this, but if you want another source of See Invisible, many Ego weapons have SI. I don't want give away too much information (unless you ask for it), but look for Weapon of Slay Undead, for example.

[debo]

Just items in your pack. Lightning can destroy jewellery, wands and some rods (you can use the I key to inspect them and see if they're immune; most of the really good rods are), and cold can shatter potions. You've probably already noticed that fire and acid attacks can destroy most paper and wooden things. The only thing that can be damaged while you're wearing it is armour, which can lose points of AC when it's hit by acid.

If you've got the right resistances, that reduces the odds of things in your pack being damaged by that element, and if you find an artefact that gives you total immunity to one of the elements, it will keep the things in your pack completely safe. (Which is one of the reasons immunities are so rare and valuable.)

When stuff is on the floor, it will be automatically destroyed by any element that can damage it, so watch you don't use your armour's lightning breath when there are useful rings or wands on the ground in front of you.

Thanks -- those are hugely useful tips!

[debo]

Sorry about your ring. It was probably a Colbran that you encountered. They cast lightning bolts quite frequently. Your rings that you are wearing should be safe against lightning attacks (unless something's changed in recent versions, which I don't believe). What dungeon level are you on now?

That's the thing I was fighting, yes. dlvl 28 is the deepest I've gone, I believe.

[debo]

Incidentally, I want to caution you that your character is likely doomed, just by the nature of the game. I don't want you to get too discouraged by his almost-certainly-inevitable death. Angband can turn on you fast, even when you know what you're doing.

Still, do your best!

As I said before, I used to play Nethack quite a bit. I'm used to killing several characters per hour I'm quite ready for my alter-ego's funeral. I've even picked out what I'm going to wear.

[debo]

I don't know if you already know this, but if you want another source of See Invisible, many Ego weapons have SI. I don't want give away too much information (unless you ask for it), but look for Weapon of Slay Undead, for example.

Really? I've found 3 or so of those kinds of weapons already, and I sold them :/ Do I need a stronger form of Identify to reveal all the properties of an ego weapon? I thought that was only true of Artifacts.

I actually don't really understand the difference between all these weapon types, to be honest haha

[Nomad]

I don't know if you already know this, but if you want another source of See Invisible, many Ego weapons have SI. I don't want give away too much information (unless you ask for it), but look for Weapon of Slay Undead, for example.

Really? I've found 3 or so of those kinds of weapons already, and I sold them :/ Do I need a stronger form of Identify to reveal all the properties of an ego weapon? I thought that was only true of Artifacts.

I actually don't really understand the difference between all these weapon types, to be honest haha

You're right, normal ID scrolls work fine on everything in the current game; it's actually weapons of *Slay Undead* that have SI on them. There are the normal Slay weapons, which just have the "slay monster type" bonus, and then there are the starred *Slay* weapons, which have extra bonuses in addition to that. There are two other main types of ego weapon you can find, weapons with elemental brands like your War Hammer of Lightning and the high-end egos which have many powerful properties.

When you're carrying an ego weapon in your pack, you'll get the pseudo-ID feeling {ego} about it; if you wield-test it and get the feeling {excellent} that means it's a basic Slay ego, while {splendid} means it's one of the better ego types.

All egos of a given type will have the same fixed properties (e.g. all weapons of *Slay Undead* will give you See Invisible), but two of the possible 'fixed' properties are "random ability" and "random higher resistance", so the ego types that have those are worth ID-ing every time to see if they have an ability or resistance that's useful to you. If you look at "Display ego item knowledge" on the knowledge menu, it will tell you the special properties for the ego types that you've ID'd so far.

Artefact weapons are (usually) better than all but the very best egos, and they're unique, so if you find one and then sell it or leave it behind in the dungeon, you won't find it again. You'll be able to tell you've found an artefact as soon as you pick it up because they have special names.

As I said before, I used to play Nethack quite a bit. I'm used to killing several characters per hour I'm quite ready for my alter-ego's funeral. I've even picked out what I'm going to wear.

Heh. I was going to mention Nethack when you asked if lightning could destroy rings you were wearing. I lost at least one character to a troll with a wand of lightning when I was using a ring of levitation to cross a water level.

And hey, if you're used to Nethack, the methods of dying in Angband should seem positively reasonable. (My personal favourite Nethack death ever: 1. Get knocked down to very low HP. 2. Drink water from sink. 3. Find a ring in the sink. 4. Wield-test ring to see what it is. 5. Ring is levitation. 6. Sinks cause you to drop out of the sky when you're levitating. 7. Insta-death by impact with sink. Good times.)

[debo]

And hey, if you're used to Nethack, the methods of dying in Angband should seem positively reasonable. (My personal favourite Nethack death ever: 1. Get knocked down to very low HP. 2. Drink water from sink. 3. Find a ring in the sink. 4. Wield-test ring to see what it is. 5. Ring is levitation. 6. Sinks cause you to drop out of the sky when you're levitating. 7. Insta-death by impact with sink. Good times.)

OMG! Hahaha!

Yes, I'd have to say that I find Angband to be much more enjoyable. Nethack was more stimulating, in the sense that there seemed to be infinity different actions you could take, but I found it was really hard to leave a game of Nethack idle for a few days... I'd always be confused as to what I had to do next when I returned to it.

With Angband, the answer so far is pretty clear -- just dive back down and find stuff!

Also, I don't know if the Sokoban dungeon is still an integral part of Nethack, but I used to feel physically ill every time I ran that thing looking for a Bag of Holding... i still don't understand the absurdity of that design decision.

But I digress...

As an update, I found some boots of free action, so I was able to put my new ring of see invis on, and now I have a ring of poison resist to swap to as well. I'm on floor ~32 trying to find stat potions My poor dopey War still has an int of 3.

Actually, this reminds me of a question I had -- does Int affect how probable it is for a enchant armor or enchant weapon scroll to succeed? I understand that the chance of it failing increases with the magnitude of the existing bonus, but I wasn't sure if there were other factors involved. I pretty much can't ever get a +to-dam to work if my damage bonus is already +6 or higher.

[Derakon]

The only effects on your chance to enchant are the current level of enchantment and whether or not the item is an artifact (artifacts have an initial 50% chance to resist enchantment and disenchantment, in addition to the normal odds). INT, for your warrior, should only affect your device skill; I don't think it does anything else for non-arcane casters. WIS affects your saving throw.

[debo]

Things are definitely getting nastier

I'm hovering around dlvl 35 right now at clvl 31. I've learned that the name or experience reward for a monster doesn't really tell you much about how dangerous it is

For example -- a 9 headed hydra was worth 4k exp and it was a total pushover. A dark-elven druid, worth a few hundred XP, summoned a bunch of Araneas that have Cause Critical. (Oh, another surprise "incants horribly" is MUCH DIFFERENT than "incants terribly". Note to self )

Then there are monsters who have scary sounding names. Like, "Ancient Red Dragon". Or, "Death Knight". So, I didn't even approach those.

But then something innocuous-sounding like a "Patriarch" approaches. That name isn't scary! Sounds like my dad!

Moments later, my favorite combination of events. "You are blinded - you hear many things appear around you" (or something like this).

Luckily, I've stockpiled several Teleport Level scrolls. I managed to down a CCW potion, TL out, and then sit there and nurse myself back up from 4HP :/

Question -- how long does it usually take to grind out a reasonable number of stat potions from floors 30-40? I've found a few now, but it seems like I've spent hours down there already. Is it "traditional" to max out stats before going lower than dlvl 40?

[LostTemplar]

It is normal to win before maxing stats.