Early Priest Survival

[Wraitheist]

Hey guys, how do you survive long enough as a priest to get Orb of Draining? Do you buy a bow to kill enough mobs to get to 11? Or are you trying to melee? Melee seems a stretch as it is tough to get more than 1 blow per round early on. But as a dwarf priest, my archery is pretty lousy. If ranged is the way to go, would you settle for a short bow if no regular bows are available?

[Derakon]

Go melee. There's no way to get more than 1 blow/round (maaaaybe a half-troll could get 1.6), so just get the biggest weapon you can. A 2d4 mace deals comparable damage to 2 1d4 dagger strikes, after all. Bless and Heroism can help you actually hit things.

I haven't tried doing early archery; my expectation is that it wouldn't be sufficient on its own because your accuracy would be too low and enemies would end up in your face anyway. But it could be useful for softening up enemies prior to dealing with them in melee.

Also consider wands. Wands of Magic Missile can do good damage early on. Again, they can't provide all of your offense, but if you can chop 75% of a unique's health off with them, then the rest should be doable in melee.

[Patashu]

For the very very early game, don't forget throwing flasks of oils does 3d4 (I think?) damage. It was my fang&grip killer.

[Raajaton]

I typically go stick with melee for most things with priests, however you sometimes have to be careful about the battles you pick. An early game priest is not the sort of class that can thoughtlessly bash through the dungeon. Finding some decent ego ammo with a decent +hit will make uniques much easier to take down. If I don't find any, I tend to skip most uniques until after orb of draining becomes reliable to cast.

[Tregonsee]

I have been using slings as range weapon, especially those who are running away...

[eMeM]

As I already said in another thread I highly advise to choose any kind of distance attack over hand to hand melee. Magic devices, bows (enchanted if possible), flasks of oil. Don't allow monster to touch you and you'll never get in trouble. Phase door is your friend.

[Monkey Face]

When playing no selling, what is the best choice for starting weapon for a priest? I usually find my money is best spent on either a ball and chain (2D4) or a quarterstaff (1d9). Both have the same average damage, but obviously there is a larger spread for the quarterstaff. Any opinions as to which is better to start with?

[Timo Pietilä]

Hey guys, how do you survive long enough as a priest to get Orb of Draining? Do you buy a bow to kill enough mobs to get to 11?

OoD is clvl 9 spell at third spellbook. Hint: stop gaining spells at clvl 7 or 6 (depending do you get 1.5 spells / clvl or 1 /clvl) and get all the spells from that book soon as you hit clvl 9. That way you make sure that OoD is one of the spells you get as soon as you can get it. If OoD happens to be first spell, then you can gain spells from other books if you still lack anything important.

Cast gained spells ASAP, even when you don't need to. That XP you gain from casting spells brings you to next clvl fast (exception: portal. Teleportation is never good idea unless you absolutely need to).

Use bless before fighting. That extra +5 AC and +10 to hit means a lot at early game.

And just like mage, be prepared to run away.

[Tregonsee]

When playing no selling, what is the best choice for starting weapon for a priest? I usually find my money is best spent on either a ball and chain (2D4) or a quarterstaff (1d9). Both have the same average damage, but obviously there is a larger spread for the quarterstaff. Any opinions as to which is better to start with?

Check the difference in weight of the weapon. Heavier weapons count against your weight carrying capacity, but also have chances for a critical hit. I think that is level dependent, so maybe the lighter weapon is better at lower character levels...

[Wraitheist]

Thanks for the replies. I never thought of using a heavy blunt weapon. I've been using a bow that I bought and it has worked surprisingly well.

[Monkey Face]

Check the difference in weight of the weapon. Heavier weapons count against your weight carrying capacity, but also have chances for a critical hit. I think that is level dependent, so maybe the lighter weapon is better at lower character levels...

Ball and Chain and Quarterstaff are both 15lbs.

[Timo Pietilä]

Hey guys, how do you survive long enough as a priest to get Orb of Draining?

This question is actually hard to answer (as you can see from answers) as most of the veterans here get past that point so fast that they don't actually need any specific strategy to do it. At least nothing they do consciously. It would be easier to analyze what you need by examining how you fail to get there.

So what kills you and how? Is there any commonalities between deaths? Reason why you just died? Reason why you were in that situation at the first place? Actually if you can answer those questions you are already more than half-way thru discovering how to avoid that yourself.

[Wraitheist]

I actually posted this in anticipation of making a priest, not from dying repeatedly. I actually have played a few priests that went pretty deep before dying, but that was a while ago and I couldn't for the life of me remember how I killed anything before OoD. This time, I used most of my starting $ to buy a long bow and some arrows and getting to lvl 9 was a piece of cake. Unfortunately, he died somewhere around '2200.

[Raxmei]

I usually rely on melee. The bonuses from Bless aren't bad early on and as long as you're careful (it strikes me that how this is done might not be obvious) you can often just spam CLW to simply outlast the opposition. Cure Light Wounds is a cornerstone of my priest strategy for a lot of the game. I don't really lean on Orb until several levels after I've learned it. The failure rate and my SP rating limit how much I can rely on it so there's some lag time before it becomes more efficient than bash & heal. Don't forget to carry the potions too, and phase door. Offensive magic devices are handy too, often just for finishing off monsters that run away because you can wear them down but don't hit hard enough to finish the job quickly.

[Wraitheist]

I never thought of that strat...I'll give it a shot.