How do you reduce inventory size?

[yyt16384]

I usually run out of inventory space when I finish a vault or something like that. Sometimes I even have to drop my town spell books before recall and buy them after that. I really don't know how to reduce anymore.
My character dump is here, you can see what items I usually bring with me.

[Derakon]

I usually run out of inventory space when I finish a vault or something like that. Sometimes I even have to drop my town spell books before recall and buy them after that. I really don't know how to reduce anymore.
My character dump is here, you can see what items I usually bring with me.

The only glaring excess there is the Potions of Speed, since you can cast Haste Self, and the extra stack of Arrows of Flame. You're dedicating 3 inventory slots to ammo; you may be a ranger but that's still probably more than you need.

Also, since you don't have both pConf and pBlind, you might want to carry a Staff of Speed instead of or in addition to the scrolls. I know this doesn't help your inventory woes any.

[Tibarius]

re: inventory management

Here come my 2 Cents ...

i see 4 inventory Slots which can be freed:
1. Drop spellbook #6 Raal's Tome. You deliver more damage with the bow already than metor swarm will do. And i think a ranger does not require the other attack spells from the book as well. I would Keep around 120 arrows in my inventory tho. A ranger should Focus on his bow if he can, my opinion.
2. Drop the Phase door scrolls. You have int 18/170 - and Close to 300 SP. The support-spells like resitance, hast-self, shield, spear of light, detections usually require less SP, so you should be able to cast Phase door if required from the SP pool.
3. Store the rod of restoration in your home. You are faster than very quick already. So if you Play with some foresight there will nothing be able to drain your stats. And if it happens that you loose XP then you have to visit hom on the next arrow-supply tour. No big deal anyway then.
4. Drop the Rods of Recall. You have book#7, Mordenkainen's Escapes. Word of Recall is no instant save spell anyway ... even if you have it only at around 20-30% failure rate that is enough to reach town, if you are not under constant attack and able to cast it a few times in a row if required.
(5.) Teleport Level is also in book #7. If the success Chance of scrolls and spell are about as good, then you could also drop the scrolls from inventory making even 5 Slots free.

[Bogatyr]

General hint: unless you're playing with the "lose (unidentified) artifacts left on level" birth option, once you've accumulated enough items which you *absolutely* want to cache at home, stop identifying and just recall home. I do like you do: drop all town-buyable books, and re-buy in town.

I don't agree with Tibarius on a few points: you should maintain at least one 0% fail escape option. Teleport level is good, but only gives you one free turn, better is *destruction* and mass banishment (mass banishment assuming no uniques are the source of your troubles) which gives you (most of the time, unless you have an aggressive wall eater/walker on your tail just outside of the blast radius) complete peace to heal at your leisure. Without pBlind/pConf the scrolls are not 0% fail so I'd prioritize pBlind+pConf since without 0% fail escape, you're basically leaving yourself at the whim of the RNG, and play iong enough like that unless you're REALLY careful, you're basically dead.

I always carry large stacks of scrolls of phase door, especially for warriors, and even for rogues, for when you are almost guaranteed dead unless you remove yourself from the current situation in the next turn, and have no other alternatives left. They are especially critical when clearing vaults, as they give you a 100% guaranteed exit from the vault, and are priceless for that.

[AnonymousHero]

Here come my 2 Cents ...
(snip)
2. Drop the Phase door scrolls. You have int 18/170 - and Close to 300 SP. The support-spells like resitance, hast-self, shield, spear of light, detections usually require less SP, so you should be able to cast Phase door if required from the SP pool.
(5.) Teleport Level is also in book #7. If the success Chance of scrolls and spell are about as good, then you could also drop the scrolls from inventory making even 5 Slots free.

(snipped for brevity)

Scrolls have 0% failure, Rangers don't get 0% spell casting, do they? Especially for use of Teleport Level this is critical for safety, and is in fact the main reason to carry/use it at all IMO.

[yyt16384]

And i think a ranger does not require the other attack spells from the book as well.

Sometimes I want some ball attack for monsters standing in a bad position (mostly for big Qs) because I have to move into its LOS before I can attack. With a ball attack I can target the cell just next to it.

[Timo Pietilä]

Sometimes I want some ball attack for monsters standing in a bad position (mostly for big Qs) because I have to move into its LOS before I can attack. With a ball attack I can target the cell just next to it.

Stack of rod of acid ball does quite a lot of damage and you don't need to use mana.

[yyt16384]

Stack of rod of acid ball does quite a lot of damage and you don't need to use mana.

Great idea... I didn't even consider using attacking rods/wands!

[Timo Pietilä]

Without pBlind/pConf the scrolls are not 0% fail so I'd prioritize pBlind+pConf since without 0% fail escape, you're basically leaving yourself at the whim of the RNG, and play iong enough like that unless you're REALLY careful, you're basically dead.

For that reason I keep crown of serenity as swap even when my main headgear would be a much better in general. pStun makes mystics piece of cake, and pConf titans far less dangerous. pBlind you would need to get from somewhere else (I play dwarfs mostly, so that's not a problem for me most of the games I play).

[Estie]

What I would do:

- Drop Raals; use stinking cloud from book 1 for a ball spell if really needed, but mostly just teleport Qs away instead of killing.
- Drop teleport level scrolls: 1 failsafe escape is enough, and *destruction* has more utility.
- Carry a staff of teleportation, OR scrolls of same if both conf and blind covered. Dont mess with hit-to-confuse things.
- Drop phase door scrolls. The spell is good enough at this level. I would buy a full stack for Morgoth though.
- Drop speed potions in town; haste self is good for daily use, keep some potions around for Morgoth.
- Drop rod of recall; again, at this level the spell is good enough.
- Carry potions of enlightenment, for those levels with vaults that take long to clear.

So my ranger would have 5-2= 3 more free slots to work with

[Bogatyr]

Great idea... I didn't even consider using attacking rods/wands!

It's a great revelation (thanks to Derakon I believe?) that attack rods/wands are a FABULOUS DEAL for even full mages: no mana, and they damage WAY higher than the equivalent spell due to the magic device multiplier factor. Once you find Tenser's most of the wands will last a good long time. -Dragon Flame, -Annihilation -Drain Life are extremely powerful for a high level mage and make quick work of monsters who are susceptible to them. I especially enjoy using -Dragon Flame against Vampires, haha! Burn, baby, burn!

With my last gnome mage winner, I began each fight by emptying my stacks of frost bolts, fire bolts, and acid bolts (I prefer those to the ball spells since you can use them with more surgical precision in crowded situations where you don't want everything to wake up) to start with, and a great deal of the time that was completely sufficient to defeat the monster, and in cases of high hit points monsters and uniques, still gave a great start.

[Therem Harth]

What about device draining monsters? Nonissue if you avoid melee, or have high enough AC?

[Jungle_Boy]

What about device draining monsters? Nonissue if you avoid melee, or have high enough AC?

Not an issue if you don't melee but I prefer stacks of rods to wands. Heavier weight but they recharge themselves, and you don't have to worry about draining.

[Estie]

Not an issue if you don't melee but I prefer stacks of rods to wands. Heavier weight but they recharge themselves, and you don't have to worry about draining.

Really ? I thought the magic device bonus didnt apply to rods, only wands. Or was that changed somewhere ?

[Timo Pietilä]

Really ? I thought the magic device bonus didnt apply to rods, only wands. Or was that changed somewhere ?

If I read code correctly that boost from skill applies to all magical ball/bolt items, including dragon armor breath activations and elemental ring activations. It is a adjustment to effect, and doesn't take into account which item made that effect.