Moments of "whoa"

[scud]

when I'm carrying 3, I'm not running around at -2; more like dropping from 21 to 20.

This makes me sad.



Have just killed Al-P, Baphomet, and Mr Bluecloak on a single level.

My reward was my first randart lightsource of the game. And it's a poxy room lighter rather than a mapper.

Still running at +3 speed.

[Oramin]

I just had it happen recently where a single fire breath weapon which did only a couple of points of damage to me took out 2 of the same book. Unlikely, but it happens so that's why I carry 3.

Of course, when I'm carrying 3, I'm not running around at -2; more like dropping from 21 to 20.

[Raajaton]

The only time I find myself using the destroy trap spell is in large vaults. 1 too many times I have fallen through a trap door while failing to disarm after clearing all the baddies out of a large, potentially lucrative vault. Pretty disheartening when it happens.

[Pete Mack]

You can always get by with 2 books and recall in the unlikely event that you run out of a critical one. If you find yourself running out, you are probably meleeing too many fire-damage monsters.
Certainly disarming chests is not enough of a reason to carry extra gear. Much better off using disarm command and hoping for the best. The only place where this doesn't work is in some greater vaults.

[Oramin]

Neither Telepathy nor Detect Monsters let you detect 'Q' which tend to be nuisances and are worth killing if you can spot them. Also, if I use Telepathy to detect intelligent invisible monsters then I'm within following range for them.

I typically use Destroy Doors/Traps to disarm chests but you're right that Rods/Wands of Disarming could do the same thing.

[scud]

Also, why is a bloody Ranger using a bleeding Crossbow?

It's quite a tasty weapon (although still single shot) which I originally wore for its pFear/pConf/pStun. Now I have multiple sources of the first two I'm on the lookout for a longbow but haven't found a heavy hitter yet.

187 bolts? Yeah, that's excessive. 80 (two slots worth) ought to be plenty

Have trashed half of them. I'm still in 3.3.2 so I've got the 99 slot quivers.

[Derakon]

MBC = Destroy Doors and Traps
MCA = Satisfy Hunger
MCG = Reveal Monsters

Food is almost always something you can just scrounge from the ground; my warriors usually just eat up to full in town, carry some readily-dropped food, and if/when they run out, eat food as it's available in the dungeon. In any case, losing the ability to cast Satisfy Hunger is not a crisis situation, so it's not justification for carrying four books.

I don't think I've ever cast Destroy Doors and Traps except for the initial casting experience. Traps, once detected, simply aren't that dangerous and most classes are too good at disarming to really worry about them. If that's all you carry book 2 for, get a Rod of Disarming, which can't be destroyed, weighs less, and clears out more traps at a time (albeit, with a recharge time between uses).

Reveal Monsters is nice, but Detect Monsters in the first spellbook makes a good fallback especially if you have ESP, and you'll want to be carrying multiple copies of the first spellbook anyway since it's your source of trap detection, Light Area, and non-crisis Phase Door.

scud: 187 bolts? Yeah, that's excessive. 80 (two slots worth) ought to be plenty. Though as Oramin notes, if you used a bow you'd be getting multiple shots/round by now.

[Oramin]

MBC = Destroy Doors and Traps
MCA = Satisfy Hunger
MCG = Reveal Monsters

I also use Fireball on Vampire class monsters but that's as a Mage. As a Ranger, I wouldn't want to give up those 3 spells.

However, I can usually get by with 3 copies of each.

Also, why is a bloody Ranger using a bleeding Crossbow? You should be getting extra shots with Bows (+2, in fact, once you hit 40).

[scud]

If you're at or near the weight limit when you leave town, then you're carrying too much stuff with you.

Nooooo, I always carry 4x books! The thought of having to abort a level because of book loss makes me a little tearful.

My base 'departure' speed is -1, which might have something to do with the 187 bolts I have about my person. Perhaps I could lose a few of these

In mitigation, m'lud, I'd say I would usually be RoSed and BoSed to at least +15 by now, so losing a speed point or two to weight would be insignificant.

Additionally I'd like to not have to use a bleedin' crossbow and associated chunky missiles, and I'd half-expect to have fire immunity.

[debo]

Maybe he's just training his guy to carry the Crown and Grond

[Derakon]

I'm rangering it, with a strength of 18/200. Not sure if I'm overweight when leaving town, but it's certainly close. I've got 48lbs of burnable books for starters.

If you're at or near the weight limit when you leave town, then you're carrying too much stuff with you. That's, what, 4 copies of each book? There's no way you need that many. For starters, book 2 is largely useless and book 3 is only really useful for Identify, if I recall correctly. And book 4 is only useful if you can caste Haste Self reliably (which you may be able to).

Remember, you don't need to be able to cast spells from these books; in the worst case, you can abort a dungeon dive to return to town and restock. I'd say you'd be fine with 3 copies of books 1 and 4 (if you can use Haste Self reliably, less otherwise), 1 of book 2 (who cares if you lose some bad attack spells and a Teleport Self that you can't even cast reliably?), and 2 of book 3 (since losing Identify can be annoying sometimes). That's still 30 pounds, but it's a lot less than 48!

You probably are carrying more ammo than you strictly need to, too. Or something else is taking up a lot of weight...

[scud]

If Scud is playing a Mage...

I'm rangering it, with a strength of 18/200. Not sure if I'm overweight when leaving town, but it's certainly close. I've got 48lbs of burnable books for starters.

Sadly it looks like speed was nerfed off of Holcolleth at some point.

Ah, I was looking at the 3.1.2 spoiler too. Still, it's a very nice 'starter cloak' for DL6!

[Raajaton]

Sadly it looks like speed was nerfed off of Holcolleth at some point. I see in the spoilers that the item claims to have 3 speed, however here it is from my character dump :

h) the Cloak 'Holcolleth' [1,+8] <+3, +2>
     Dropped by a Green glutton ghost at 400 feet (level 8).
     
     +3 stealth.
     +2 intelligence, wisdom.
     Provides resistance to acid.
     Cannot be harmed by acid, electricity, fire, cold.
     
     When activated, it puts to sleep the monsters around you.
     Takes 121 turns to recharge at your current speed.
     Your chance of success is 97.8%

[Oramin]

If Scud is playing a Mage and diving quickly (i.e. not maxing stats before continuing beyond 35) then he might be wearing fairly light gear and still be having weight/speed issues. For a while with my current character (High Elf Mage), I was wearing a Ro STR (+5) before I finished stat gain.

[scud]

Holcolleth's a nice find at that level; as well as the stealth it gives you the ability to carry some sellable items before dropped to a sub zero speed.

I now have BoS+3, so a very muted 'whoa'.

At pretty much the same time I found...

s) the Broad Axe of Tolaquen (5d6) (+9,+24) [+10]
     Dropped by a Lesser Balrog at 2700 feet (level 54).
     
     Slays trolls.
     *Slays* dragons, demons, undead.
     Branded with weak lightning.
     Provides resistance to cold.
     Cannot be harmed by acid, electricity, fire, cold.
     Blessed by the gods.  Prevents paralysis.  Grants the ability to
     see invisible things.  
     
     When aimed, it creates a large frost ball with damage 200.
     Takes 106 to 130 turns to recharge.
     Your chance of success is 91.2%
     
     Combat info:
     5.0 blows/round.
     Average damage/round: 405.5 vs. creatures not resistant to
     electricity, 501.5 vs. trolls, 694 vs. dragons, 694 vs. demons,
     694 vs. undead, and 309 vs. others.

...which is quite handy, although my only source of ESP happens to be a *slay evil* which I've used since at least CL25 and is capable of a mighty 180-220 damage