Dan's OFFICIAL Angband Question Thread

[Pete Mack]

That seems so obvious now that you guys point it out. I found a rod of recall and was considering disposing of my scrolls to make room, and I suddenly realized that it seemed to be the only rod without a staff/wand counterpart. But now I am thinking harder and realize there a few similar rods like Healing which only has a similar potion. And others

The thing is... There is already a staff of Healing, but it is quite rare. (And quite useful!) By and large, previous Vanilla angband owners have thought about this issue, and solved it fairly well.


The big ones are, in decreasing order of importance:

• Healing
• Speed
• Restore Mana
• broadcast dispel evil/undead/all.

[Derakon]

A +1 attack SHIELD!!! that is awesome!! So you could have a Mace of Destruction of Extra Attacks (+15,+15) <+2> with a Wicker Shield of Extra Attacks(?) <+1> And just destroy everything! Oh throw in a set of Caestus and a couple of Rings of Damage and Morgoth will be a one-hit wonder!

No, no, no, there's no shield ego that gives extra attacks. There can be shield random artifacts that give extra attacks...but they probably won't do much else because just having extra attacks on a shield is pretty danged powerful.

You're clear on the difference between ego items and random artifacts, right? Randarts replace the standard artifact set (the Phial, Sting, Ringil, Rohirrim, etc.) with different gear with randomly-generated abilities but roughly the same overall power level. Ego items can appear in any game and are just standard gear that has some extra powers tacked on. The only ego items that have extra blows are Weapons of Extra Attacks (ever since Weapons of Fury got removed).

Mind, my last winner had a randart shield and a cloak that both had minor combat bonuses -- about +12 to-damage between the two of them. Since I was playing a warrior with 5.5 blows/round, that meant that that gear was boosting my damage by about 66. Not quite an entire extra blow's worth, but close.

[OOD Town drunk]

No, no, no, there's no shield ego that gives extra attacks. There can be shield random artifacts that give extra attacks...but they probably won't do much else because just having extra attacks on a shield is pretty danged powerful.

You're clear on the difference between ego items and random artifacts, right? Randarts replace the standard artifact set (the Phial, Sting, Ringil, Rohirrim, etc.) with different gear with randomly-generated abilities but roughly the same overall power level. Ego items can appear in any game and are just standard gear that has some extra powers tacked on. The only ego items that have extra blows are Weapons of Extra Attacks (ever since Weapons of Fury got removed).

Mind, my last winner had a randart shield and a cloak that both had minor combat bonuses -- about +12 to-damage between the two of them. Since I was playing a warrior with 5.5 blows/round, that meant that that gear was boosting my damage by about 66. Not quite an entire extra blow's worth, but close.

Ah, sorry I misunderstood. I am very familiar with this game, I just am a whole lot more familiar with the first half, you know? Things like ego weapons and artifacts are pretty well understood, as well as most of the math (I figured out at some point that I really play video games for the numbers. I'm quite the nerd on the inside) as tricky as some of it can be to derive from the minimal amount of available variables. I guess I just haven't gotten lucky with the RNG and it's random artifact committee.

EDIT: Now that I re-read your post, I see why you ask. Duh. I was listening to a podcast while angbanding, so I must have totally zoned out for a minute

[OOD Town drunk]

The thing is... There is already a staff of Healing, but it is quite rare. (And quite useful!) By and large, previous Vanilla angband owners have thought about this issue, and solved it fairly well.


The big ones are, in decreasing order of importance:

• Healing
• Speed
• Restore Mana
• broadcast dispel evil/undead/all.

I have never seen a Staff of Healing. That is aweeesoooome! I'm not sure the best way to express my excitement via text. But it's high.

Oh, and I sure enjoy finding a staff of dispel evil. pretty fricken powerful

[Pete Mack]

@Dan --
There are other important staffs, but they are either more common or insufficiently reliable:
_Teleportation (common)
_*Destruction* (rare)

These have to do with escapes, but because they are not 100% reliable as escapes, they are not so valuable as the big 3. (For the dispel type staffs, I usually don't have enough room to carry them, so they are left on they floor.)

[OOD Town drunk]

@Dan --
There are other important staffs, but they are either more common or insufficiently reliable:
_Teleportation (common)
_*Destruction* (rare)

These have to do with escapes, but because they are not 100% reliable as escapes, they are not so valuable as the big 3. (For the dispel type staffs, I usually don't have enough room to carry them, so they are left on they floor.)

I always carry Teleportation Staves. And Scrolls if I can find any. And I find that I tend to find *Destruction* Staves pretty frequently after about 75 or so. I always save them for the last few levels though

[Derakon]

I tend to find that Destruction staves get destroyed before I get around to using all of their charges, so I've tried to convince myself to use them more often to avoid unpleasant situations. For example, when all of the Black Reavers and Nightwalkers break out of a graveyard, luring them away a ways and then Destructing them makes dealing with the rest of the graveyard (and by extension, the rest of the level) a lot more pleasant.

[AnonymousHero]

I always carry Teleportation Staves. And Scrolls if I can find any. And I find that I tend to find *Destruction* Staves pretty frequently after about 75 or so. I always save them for the last few levels though

Teleportation Staves are useful until you get 0-fail escapes, aka. ?oTeleportLevel or ?oDestruction when you have rBlind and rConf. After that you really don't want to rely on anything with non-zero failure rate.

[OOD Town drunk]

Teleportation Staves are useful until you get 0-fail escapes, aka. ?oTeleportLevel or ?oDestruction when you have rBlind and rConf. After that you really don't want to rely on anything with non-zero failure rate.

This is a fact I really need to get with. My most common death late game is something failing. Whether it be a wand/rod of teleport other or a rod of healing. I remember a time when a 5% fail failed 4 times in a damn row to my ultimate demise. Don't even remember who or what. Just that the odds were crazy on that situation. 1/160,000 if my mental math isn't faulty

[Oramin]

This is a fact I really need to get with. My most common death late game is something failing. Whether it be a wand/rod of teleport other or a rod of healing. I remember a time when a 5% fail failed 4 times in a damn row to my ultimate demise. Don't even remember who or what. Just that the odds were crazy on that situation. 1/160,000 if my mental math isn't faulty

And that is precisely why I *never* use Rods/Staffs of Healing in a combat situation. Either drink a potion or teleport the monster away and then use the Rod/Staff. In extremis, teleport yourself away. Odds of getting immediately killed after a teleport are considerably less than the chance of failure for a Rod/Staff during a combat situation (IMHO).

[Derakon]

For what it's worth, I can't remember the last time I had a winner who had both pConf and pBlind at the same time. Even my latest, a dwarf warrior (who thus only needed to worry about confusion) didn't find it. Okay, he found once source towards the end of the game, but it wasn't worth losing 60AC and some stat boosts for.

The game is eminently winnable without 0% escapes; you just need to be ready to bail out before a situation goes badly. And to have a few big healing potions with you at all times. I tend to avoid serial confusers (nightmares, titans, Thuringwethil, the Cat Lord) since they can keep you locked down; everyone else should be able to be dealt with without having those protections.

[Pete Mack]

The game is eminently winnable without 0% escapes; you just need to be ready to bail out before a situation goes badly. And to have a few big healing potions with you at all times. I tend to avoid serial confusers (nightmares, titans, Thuringwethil, the Cat Lord) since they can keep you locked down; everyone else should be able to be dealt with without having those protections.

This. But I do usually get pConf at some point, at least as a swap. It's a lot more useful for 1/2-casters than pBlind.

[OOD Town drunk]

pConf and pBlnd seem to be quite elusive in my experience. They don't seem to show up too often in any randarts. Which is how I like to play.

What does protection from evil do, more specifically than it's description of: Protects from evil for ... turns?


EDIT: What I meant was: pConf and pStun. not pBlnd. I usually do find that one.

[Derakon]

Protection from Evil makes it so that monsters that are lower level than you can't hit you in melee. Or something to that effect. It's not very useful for most characters because of the level restriction; typically monsters you'd want it to work on outlevel you.

[OOD Town drunk]

Ahhh.. I never could tell any effect, that does sound pretty ineffective.

I'm having a seriously tough time deciding between these two pieces of armor:

My current armor:
the Soft Leather Armour of Cellion [8,+18] <+4>
Conjured forth by magic at 1600 feet (level 32).

+4 speed.
Provides resistance to lightning, fire.
Cannot be harmed by acid, electricity, fire, cold.

When aimed, it creates a frost ball with damage 50.
Takes 91 to 100 turns to recharge at your current speed.
Your chance of success is 94.8%

The armor I just found:
Metal Lamellar Armour of Elvenkind (-3) [58,+13] <+2>
Found lying on the floor of a cavern at 2650 feet (level 53).

+2 stealth.
Provides resistance to acid, lightning, fire, cold, nether.
Cannot be harmed by acid, electricity, fire, cold.


Basically: +4 Speed VS. +45 AC/+2 Stealth/pNether

It's tough because I don't have any other source of speed right now... Any advice??