Hi, I'm new :) [char dump included]

[FRaCTaL618]

Just started really getting into Angband. I have been having a ton of fun, even installed variants on my phone and tablet. I have been playing as a point-based half-troll warrior, just bashing my way through everything . I also tried to be a mage, and had a lot of fun with that too.

Here's my current character dump: http://angband.oook.cz/ladder-show.php?id=17579&ok

I found an insanely powerful dagger on level 2, and have been heavily relying on it, but as i dive below level 17 i think its time to start paying attention to resistances, emergency escape methods and more appropriate armor.

Never got past L6 before. Any advice?

[Ingwe Ingweron]

Welcome! Looks like you're doing well this run. Personally, I'd dump the Rings of the Mouse. I use this sometimes for a little while as a mage or a rogue, but your Half-Troll Warrior is a melee character. The negatives to damage are just not worth it. Keep on the look out for Free Action, you don't want to get paralyzed. Other than that, proceed apace. Once you're down to DL 30 you can start hoping for stat gain potions.

[werepacman]

Keep an eye on weapon with extra attacks it may have more damage per round than different tank - type daggers. You can check this in item description - average damage is already calculated.

[werepacman]

Also every character needs instant and minimum fail chance escape mechanism from bad situations.
It could be scrolls/staff of teleport/teleport level, staff of destruction 15 scrolls of phase door for early character.

[Bill Peterson]

I, personally, would buy some identification scrolls or a staff and identify my equipment. You might very well have free action on those sandals and the scale mail could have anything from one low resist to something valuable like resist nether.

I think that dagger should have more damage than your dump shows. Take off those rings and see if you get more damage/round. Weapon stats are very valuable for deciding what to wear or wield.

[AnonymousHero]

I can only second the suggestion to carry lots of escapes. I just want to emphasize the importance of carrying a staff of teleportation until you get 0-fail scroll use (which comes when you have pConf and pBlind). Staves can always be activated (though at higher failure rates) when confused and/or blinded. This is a huge deal when you're a melee character or get surprised by a melee confuser.

[quarague]

Welcome and enjoy this run as long as you can, finding an artifact dagger on dlevel 2 is very unlikely and very lucky. Your other chars will have to survive with much less powerful equipment until much later.

[mushroom patch]

First, don't use rings of the mouse. They are bad, especially for the type of character you are running.

Second, don't listen to people who tell you you have to play slow and get a lot of resistances. This is nonsense. Read deep descent scrolls when you get them or to reliably escape bad situations if you are feeling uncertain about your escape options.

Third, identify all your stuff. Always have enough identification to identify things as you find them or at least identify everything you actually wear. Using pseudo-identification (the feeling you get about items when you carry them for a while) to take the load off scrolls and staves makes sense at the beginning.

Fourth, start familiarizing yourself with monster lists or you're going to be dying a lot for no good reason. In particular, watch out for ghouls, which can paralyze you (this is almost always instant death without free action), nightmares, which have confusion melee which will kill many characters and which spawn awake, carrion crawlers, which have paralysis melee (again, instant death), and monsters with big breath attacks, especially the bigger hydras, drolems (poison resistance and fire+elec+acid+cold are advisable for this reason, other resistances are mostly unnecessary), and wyrms of anything. There are monsters in this game that can kill you in one shot, sometimes before you even see them. Beware.

Fifth, learn/recognize the value of stealth: It's the second most powerful thing you can get on equipment (behind speed) and it's extremely overpowered. With high stealth, you don't even have to worry about the most dangerous monsters because they will sleep the whole time you're on level, unless you deliberately wake them up (an important exception to this is pits). This means you don't need to be able to kill monsters native to the depths you dive at and you can choose your fights (except against certain monsters, like hounds and nightmares, that spawn awake).

Sixth, recognize that all levels are really the same and there's never a time that it's critical to pick up an item or clear a vault (or certainly a level). If your life is in danger, bail. Many completely reliable methods of escaping danger exist, the most powerful being teleport level and deep descent, but against a single threat, teleport other is a great option because it allows you to continue pursuing whatever goal you have on the level (e.g. clearing a vault, getting some item). Once a monster is teleported, there's no reason you ever have to see it again. Teleport other always works on all monsters, even uniques. Don't make clearing levels your goal -- this is a waste of time.

Seventh, find and abuse detection mercilessly. This is somewhat more difficult with warriors because you have no spells, but there are scrolls, rods, and staves that give you the ability to detect monsters. You should use them. You don't want to get surprised by monsters with breath weapons that aren't asleep.

Eighth, even though the classic beginner combination is half-troll warrior, it's not the easiest class to win with. That honor probably belongs to high-elf rogue (or maybe ranger, but ranger is not as straightforward to play). A high-elf rogue is basically a warrior with great stealth, magic device, and the best detection magic in the game. Less hp than a half-troll, but a lot less likely to wake up an 11-headed hydra and get hit for max breath damage at level 27 (which would kill the half-troll anyway).

[Nomad]

Hello, and welcome! Finding Narthanc so early is definitely very lucky. That cloak with +2 to speed is a brilliant find as well - anything that gives you more speed is always worth wearing. Some general tips, as someone who plays warriors a lot:

* First, I notice that your strength seems a bit low for a Half-troll warrior. Are you changing the default stats around at character generation? When you're new to the game, it's best to choose "Point-based" and accept the default statistics - the game will automatically put points into the statistics that are most important to your character class.

* The most important thing for a warrior is the damage/round that you can do with your weapon. Those two Rings of the Mouse are probably doing more harm than good - they're giving you a boost to dexterity, which is useful and can help you get more blows with your weapon, but they also have -8 and -9 to damage, which almost certainly cancels that out. When you find a new ring or piece of other equipment that affects your stats like that, it's worth using the Inspect command ('I') to look at your weapon and see what the average damage/round is with the ring on vs. when you take it off. If an item makes your damage lower, it's not worth wearing.

* Better rings to look for are ones that give you a boost to weapon damage. Rings of Reckless Attacks are good for warriors - they reduce your armour, but give you a boost to your hit chances and your damage, so they're well worth it. Later you might find Rings of Slaying or Rings of Damage which give you a bigger increase to damage/round without the armour penalty, or Rings of Strength or Dexterity to improve your combat stats.

* Resistances aren't really that important to worry about until quite a bit later in the game - equipment with resistances is worth wearing if you find it, but it's safe to keep going down even if you haven't got everything covered. The most important thing to find is Free Action, which prevents you from being paralysed. There are Rings of Free Action, but since there are so many other useful rings, it's better to try and find boots or gloves of Free Action as soon as you can.

* One of the best ways to stay alive is to run away when your hit points are low. It's always worth carrying a big stack of Phase Door scrolls, because they're cheap and they'll let you jump a little bit away from the monsters attacking you so you can drink some potions or fire missiles and wands from a distance. A Staff of Teleportation is also good once you can afford it, because it will take you further away, and unlike scrolls you can still use it even if you're blind and confused.

* It's always worth carrying around some scrolls or a staff of Identify if there are any available to buy in town. They're useful for when you find a piece of equipment that's not easy to identify just by wearing. (For instance, those {excellent} sandals you're wearing might have Free Action, which is a must have, or just Feather Falling, which is pretty useless.) Plus as you get deeper into the dungeon, it's worth using scrolls to identify potions and things instead of just drinking them to see what they are - that way you won't accidentally use up a really good one that was worth saving for later, or drink one that lowers your stats.

Good luck!

[Ingwe Ingweron]

Keep in mind when comparing average damage per round on weapons that a heavy weapon with less damage per round now than a lighter weapon may outperform that lighter weapon once @ is stronger or has more dexterity. Don't make the mistake I did when I was starting out of throwing away an early find of the artifact Aule because it was too heavy. Sigh...

[Derakon]

Don't make the mistake I did when I was starting out of throwing away an early find of the artifact Aule because it was too heavy. Sigh...

Ooooh, ouch. I feel for ya, buddy.