Any tips for a newbie?

[Bogatyr]

Narthang is already old news! Gorbag dropped Haradekket! 3.6 hits a round +2 DEX and slays undead! I also got a sling of extra shots! Getting some great drops!

I love Haradekket! It's still my primary melee weapon with my own kobold rogue at clev 41. It slays a wide variety of monsters, and with the extra attacks it still beats most other artifact weapons on average damage except the really big ones (Deathwreaker, Trident of Wrath), especially if you pile up on +to-dam items (gauntlets, rings, amulets, etc.).

[Pete Mack]

With Harradekett, you can safely ignore ego weapons except the big three.
+2 attack and Holy Avenger are classic endgame weapons for these. You can go deeper than dl 30 so long as you use detect monsters properly. Gravity hounds, Kavlax, drolems, Castamir are the first genuinely dangerous monsters. Death Drake, Ethereal dragon and Great Crystal Drake are bad news too. By dl 50, there will be multiple dangerous monsters on essentially every level

[robbiodobbio]

You should be wary about poison resistance sometime. There are potions, so as long as you know your enemies, that's enough, but if you don't know all of them, there are some nasty poison breathers deeper down.

As a kobold am I already poison resistant?

I seem to remember monsters that breathe gas or shards killing off some of my characters back in the day, is there a resistance to that?

[robbiodobbio]

Cheers for all the help so far guys, it's been invaluable.

I'm having trouble deciding which rings to wear, I've got these 4:
Ring of Cont +2
Ring of Acid [+8] fires acid ball when activated
Ring of accuracy (+14)
Ring of resist fire and cold

Also, I'm having trouble managing all the stuff I need to carry, since I got my sling of extra shots I have to carry iron shots, which are heavier than arrows, is there any pay-off for them in terms of durability? Are they less likely to break? When I was using a bow I was diving with 80-120 arrows in my quiver but that's just not feasible with sling ammo.

What are the absolute essentials I should be carrying?

[dos350]

hi , be safe my friend

when u hav guaranteed escapes ur quite safe, just make sure u detect and remain safe at all times!

good luck bro and dont feel bad if u use stairs, use it again if u have to!!!!

[MattB]

As a kobold am I already poison resistant?

I seem to remember monsters that breathe gas or shards killing off some of my characters back in the day, is there a resistance to that?

gas=poison (at least in Vanilla).
And yes there is a shard resistance. But there aren't many massive shard breathers (Great Crystal Drake, Gelugon, Great Wyrms of Law and Balance are the only ones that spring to mind - no doubt there are some others).

[Pete Mack]

If you are lacking fire or cold resistance from a different source, wear the ring. With such a good melee weapon, I'd say wear accuracy, and replace with Damage ASAP. You can use Acid as a swap to soften tough enemies. RoCON(+2) is junk.
Kobold is safe vs poison, mostly

[robbiodobbio]

If you are lacking fire or cold resistance from a different source, wear the ring. With such a good melee weapon, I'd say wear accuracy, and replace with Damage ASAP. You can use Acid as a swap to soften tough enemies. RoCON(+2) is junk.
Kobold is safe vs poison, mostly

Cheers for the advice, duly noted.

I keep getting stat drained, very annoying, especially when the drain strength so then I keep getting (slow -2) from carry weight.

[Mondkalb]

As a kobold am I already poison resistant?

I seem to remember monsters that breathe gas or shards killing off some of my characters back in the day, is there a resistance to that?

Oh, well, didn't remember you were playing a kobold.

Shard resistance is nice to have, considering crystal drakes and such.

[Pete Mack]

Shard protection is nice to have, but it is not nearly as useful as some others. There just aren't that many big shards breathers, and the only relatively early one is the Great Crystal Drake. That's not nearly as dangerous as Ethereal Dragon or Death Drake...which can pass through walls.

[Derakon]

I keep getting stat drained, very annoying, especially when the drain strength so then I keep getting (slow -2) from carry weight.

There aren't that many different enemies that can drain stats, and they can only do it in melee range, with the notable exception of Time Hounds and Time Vortices. And almost all stat drainers have very poor health. Have a halfway-decent ranged combat option. A decently-enchanted Heavy Crossbow will do the trick even if it's not an ego-item. For single targets, you could also use wands or rods.

STR sustain is probably the most important one to get, mostly because of Dreads, which are ghosts that appear in groups, move quickly, and hit to drain STR. It's hard to avoid melee with the entire group. Though, being a rogue will help in that respect since you'll be more able to avoid waking up the entire group at once.

[Bogatyr]

As a kobold am I already poison resistant?

I seem to remember monsters that breathe gas or shards killing off some of my characters back in the day, is there a resistance to that?

Yes but innate resistance only limits damage to 1/3 of original. You need temporary poison resist (from potion or spell) to reduce damage to 1/9 of original. A single drolem breath can easily kill any kobold without additional temporary poison resist before he gets enough HP (my last kobold rogue died exactly that way).

[Pete Mack]

There aren't that many different enemies that can drain stats, and they can only do it in melee range, with the notable exception of Time Hounds and Time Vortices. And almost all stat drainers have very poor health. Have a halfway-decent ranged combat option. A decently-enchanted Heavy Crossbow will do the trick even if it's not an ego-item. For single targets, you could also use wands or rods.

STR sustain is probably the most important one to get, mostly because of Dreads, which are ghosts that appear in groups, move quickly, and hit to drain STR. It's hard to avoid melee with the entire group. Though, being a rogue will help in that respect since you'll be more able to avoid waking up the entire group at once.

And if you don't have ESP at dread depth, make sure to carry some way to detect them and other (evil) invisible monsters. Detect evil is enough, or detect invisible, until you can reliably cast reveal monsters. If you are regularly getting stat drained, it's a sign you are not detecting enough. The only really unavoidable stat drainers are death quasits and to a dreads.

[Derakon]

Yes but innate resistance only limits damage to 1/3 of original. You need temporary poison resist (from potion or spell) to reduce damage to 1/9 of original. A single drolem breath can easily kill any kobold without additional temporary poison resist before he gets enough HP (my last kobold rogue died exactly that way).

Damage cap for basic 4 elements (fire/cold/acid/elec) is 1600, or 533 if single-resisted, 177 if double-resisted (which requires a permanent and a temporary source of the resist). Damage cap for poison is 800/266/88. Why are you anywhere near drolems when you have fewer than 300 HP?

[robbiodobbio]

I got stat drained by a unique, think it was one of Mim's boys. Now stuck on 14 health until I level up next.