A Newbie says hello! (Questions inside)

[Alice]

Salutations! Before continuing, I would like to extend a very warm thank-you to the maintainers (and original creators) for such a fantastic game.

Now--I am not 'new' to Angband, in the sense that I've only just started playing. Rather, I've not succeeded to get much further than clvl 15 in most of my playthroughs over the years, and I attribute that to my overly-conservative playstyle and resistance to diving out of my safe-zone. My Angband career has essentially been a vicious cycle of early-grinding.

To help facilitate my change in style, I've decided I was going to use disconnected stairs (to discourage cheap escapes) and force myself to carry consumables and escapes as I find/afford them, and make it a priority to dive as quickly as my sanity will allow to 1000' (picking up things on the way, of course).

At the moment I am playing a clvl 11 Elf Ranger at 550' who has already had several close calls (the most recent being an open room full of wolves which I eventually killed) and I am about to head back into town to replenish !C*W and ?PD before going any deeper.

Is there anything specific that I might have to look out for between 500'-1000' that might be dangerous to face without prior knowledge? (I'll post a dump when my inventory makes sense and doesn't look like such a mess)

Also, what does the (xN) multiplier on the bows represent? Is it a critical multiplier for the launcher, and damage itself is determined by arrows fired?
I have a Longbow (+5, +3) and a Shortbow (+5, +5), and I was wondering which between these I should use.

Lastly, is it smart to conserve identify scrolls for jewelry and test-by-use everything else, now that sticky curses are out in 3.4?

Edit: Here is my character in the ladder, which I will keep up-to-date.

[Oramin]

Why aren't you wearing any armor?

[Alice]

Why aren't you wearing any armor?

I never started with any, and had hoped I would find something in my first trip.

It's actually the first thing I remedied after posting that, lol. I updated the character dump with the armors.

[Oramin]

Ok, let me tell you now, as somebody who has a conservative play style and has multiple winners (look for the thread I started) - it isn't your conservative play style that is causing the problem. It is your gear.

By the time you've managed to hit 550' (L11), I would expect you to have - at a minimum - a (+5, +5) Long Bow.

Also, "don't enter the dungeon naked - the monsters will laugh at you". You still don't seem to be wearing a helmet.

The first 15 to 20 levels of the dungeon, upgrade your armor.

[Alice]

Thanks for being patient with me--I guess my priorities are a bit skewed.
In those cases where I haven't found that Longbow (+5, +5) by 500' (etc.), would you recommend that I slow down and allow my gear to catch up, or dive still deeper and take my lack of finds in stride?

[Oramin]

Really, it depends on what you find/buy. For example, if you find Sting and some Dragon Scale Mail, you really don't need the ranged weapon (as long as you have Free action from something).

As I said, I play conservatively, if I have a close call on a level, I grind that level, taking expensive stuff upstairs to sell (assuming you aren't using the "No Sell" option). The Black Market frequently has good stuff.

The first 10 levels or so, I'm usually wearing 2 Rings of Protection for the extra AC without the extra weight.

So, I'd play conservatively, I think Timo was the one who said he dives like a lunatic. Until you get more experience, I'd recommend the conservative style.

[Alice]

I went ahead and bought the one =Protect<+8> the store carried. Thank you for the advice.

I'll descend again and see how things turn out.

[Alice]

Wormtongue, Brodda and Mhugash were all on one level (550'), and I defeated the former two as well as most everything else besides Mhugash and his cronies. I decided to wait until I replenished my stock of arrows and potions to fight him, and have since recalled back into town.

Are there spoiler tags in these forums? Dumps take up a lot of room and I don't want to spam them, but it would be nice to record and share my progress for criticism.

Edit: I've overwritten the old dump in the first post with my current one. I'll probably just do that to keep this thread easy to read. (I've replaced the damaged armors with new ones after posting this.)

[Oramin]

There were a couple of questions I didn't answer, I'll post them here to make it easier for people to address:

Also, what does the (xN) multiplier on the bows represent? Is it a critical multiplier for the launcher, and damage itself is determined by arrows fired?
I have a Longbow (+5, +3) and a Shortbow (+5, +5), and I was wondering which between these I should use.

Lastly, is it smart to conserve identify scrolls for jewelry and test-by-use everything else, now that sticky curses are out in 3.4?




The (xN) multiplier is the amount that the missile is multiplied by. Short version, higher multiplier, more damage. Longer answer is that it depends and that you should 'I'nspect your weapon (or, in this case, the ammo) to see how much damage you will do. Note that you need to have the right launcher equipped to determine the damage done by a given ammo.

You look like you're using a heavy weapon. Lighter weapons might give you more attacks. Again 'I'nspect the weapons to determine damage potentials.

[Alice]

Okay, good to know about the bow damages. The longbow does do higher damage, so I went ahead and sold the shortbow.

As of right now, I can only hit once with any weapon so I might as well make it count. I considered using a maul with plusses I found that hit a little harder than the flail, but I decided against it and sold it. My current indecision is on three nice rods in my possession (Curing, Illumination, Treasure Location). Each of them has good utility as long as I have space for them (and each sell for ~600gp each), but I am wondering if it is worth it instead to sell one or two to go broke on a _teleport I have my eyes on in the magic shop.

Edit: Updated the character dump again. Also, I've gone ahead and sold the -illumination and now have the _teleportation (8 charges). Life insurance, awww yes.

[Oramin]

Hmm, are you sure that you can't get multiple attacks with weapons like daggers and whips?

[Alice]

Hmm, are you sure that you can't get multiple attacks with weapons like daggers and whips?

At the time I checked, main gauches gave me 1.3 hits per round. (There were no daggers in stock to examine, but I'm fairly certain that the difference in weight is not enough to bring me over 2.0.) I'll check again once I am back in town and my strength is not drained to 15.

The good news is I have the Phial of Galadriel! The bad news is that I miss its old 3-radius
brightness.

Edit: Daggers give 1.3 hits per round, I am back in town, and dump update. I'm a bit nervous now that I'm close to beating my previous record of clvl 23, lol.
At the moment I am hovering around 800-900' and looking for anything that grants me paralysis resistance. If nothing else I have an "inertia at my house, but I don't want to use it.

Edit2: I had a run-in with my first Quylthulg, and I decided to just teleport out. Are they a nuisance? Umber Hulks are another thing to worry about for as long as I don't have rConf, and I am making it a point to avoid them, as well as any non-light hound I come across. I need resistances, or they will be in my epitaph...

I ran across my first pit, also. I did have some acid resistance, but the silver ants had their way with my armor (but that was expendable and well worth the huge boost in experience I got from killing them). I'm in town at the moment and I bought a replacement set, so I'm not naked like I was at the beginning, lol. I also happened to find a better =Protect, so just with the rings I get +26 AC for a current total of 53 AC!

Really though, I would like to find cooler, more useful rings to use instead of these. Being that I am VERY hesitant to go any deeper for fear of hounds or other baddies, I am considering making myself at home at 850' and hoping I find something to make my crossing easier.
Is there a specific store that stocks weapon/armor enchant scrolls? I have yet to run across them in bulk. That would be really helpful--and any sort of criticism about anything else would be greatly appreciated. :3

[Timo Pietilä]

Is there anything specific that I might have to look out for between 500'-1000' that might be dangerous to face without prior knowledge?

Large groups of paladins or priests (any type) can be instant death for low-HP, low saving chars (curses are LoS spells). You probably have already seen a large group of those without actually being in LoS of them all at once. I learned the hard way that that is suicide, as a group they are far more dangerous than as individuals.

After 1000' or so melee-paralyzers start to appear in groups and even before that homunculus (invisible fast minor demon) can hit to paralyze.

However, unlike old versions melee-paralyzation is no longer guaranteed death, it starts the counter, but doesn't increase it with additional hits, so sooner or later you get out of that. High AC helps to avoid death by making them miss more. As long as you have high AC and don't get surrounded you don't need to wait for FA (until you start to run to trappers, those are nasty, but that is much much later into game). Avoid paralyzers without FA, but don't be afraid to dive without it.

Q:s are usually relatively harmless, most of them just summon things (only one exception to that rule) and teleport/blink away from you. Greater ones summon multiple monsters and can teleport you to them (LoS spell) so those you might not want to deal until you learn how to deal with lots and lots of summons.

Umber Hulk you can melee even when confused. They are wimps, couple of good hits and they run, and even confused your movements are not completely random. Umber hulk is at its worst when you encounter it while fighting something that is dangerous.

Fractional blows also makes Hummerhorns manageable (but you need to have multiple blows). Avoid Titans without rConf.

I suggest when you finish this char take a few near-suicidal dives deeper just to learn what to expect. Avoiding unknowns is a key to survival, knowledge what to avoid is even better. Read (unknown) monster descriptions, they can give you hints to what it is and what it might be capable of doing.

There is also partial color coding for elemental monsters: blue for electricity, black for acid, white for cold, red for fire, green for poison. Doesn't apply to all monsters and there are too many exceptions to count, but if you suspect it has elemental breath attack color of the monster does mean something. There are more "color codings" than that but you will learn them soon enough yourself.

[Nick]

Are there spoiler tags in these forums? Dumps take up a lot of room and I don't want to spam them, but it would be nice to record and share my progress for criticism.

Edit: I've overwritten the old dump in the first post with my current one. I'll probably just do that to keep this thread easy to read. (I've replaced the damaged armors with new ones after posting this.)

Alternatively, post the dump to the ladder (see the tab at the top of the page) and then link to it in your posts or just rely on people to find it.

[Alice]

Alternatively, post the dump to the ladder (see the tab at the top of the page) and then link to it in your posts or just rely on people to find it.

I never thought about that. Do new dumps overwrite the old ones for the same character? If they do, then I could just post onto the ladder and update it there instead. ^^

@Timo: I did not know about that melee-paralyzing change. It makes me feel a little better about that, lol. I've changed my mind about Quylthulgs too after I found them to be easy to kill (seeing invisible helps), but Umber Hulks are annoying enough for me to stay away from them.

Overall, I am still a bit curious as to how I am supposed to accumulate enchant scrolls for my stuff. I've seen a few in the dungeon and one in the black market, but not enough to really make too much of a difference.

I am clvl 24 and my equipment is crap XD

Edit: I posted on the ladder here.