A Few New Player Questions

[fph]

What killed you isn't lack of rFear, but lack of ways to escape.

Especially at higher levels, Angband is all about being prepared and having the ability to GTFO as fast as possible when things go wrong. Always carry with you a few scrolls of teleportation, teleport level and/or deep descent, as soon as you find them. Potions of CCW and phase door are also handy to remove temporary status effects and get out of melee range from a monster.

Later on, there is another useful addition: staves of teleportation. They have a failure rate, though, so use them only when you can survive one more turn in case of a failure. Word of destruction falls in the same category.

Scrolls of word of destruction, genocide and mass genocide are so good that people usually stock them for the final battles.

Another important addition is a means of detecting which dangerous enemies are around you. As a Warrior, this will be one of the most difficult things to come by. Keep your eyes open for staves and rods of detect monsters / detection.

[Carnivean]

Another question: Another resists I should be keeping an eye out for?

Resists are a complicated area, in that they don't all provide the same level of protection.

Must cover:
Fire, Frost, Acid, Electricity, Poison. These can be breathed for up to 1600hp damage unresisted. Items with resists reduce damage to 1/3. Temporary resists, such as potions or spells, reduce to 1/3. Stacking a item/permanent resist with a temporary resist combine to reduce to 1/9.

Will save pain:
Nexus, Chaos. These have weird side effect that the resist blocks. Damage reduction is all over the place, but they aren't usually outright dangerous.

Nice to have:
Disenchantment. Stops them bastards ruining your items.
Light, Dark. Can blind you.

There are various items that protect you from status ailments(as opposed to resist). Fear you already know of. Stun and Blind are really good to have too.

[Derakon]

There are also a lot of enemies much deeper in the dungeon (past level 60, more or less) that sling around high-powered nether attacks. Nether resistance isn't especially reliable -- it has a wide variance in how much damage it actually mitigates. But on average it'll save you a decent chunk of damage, reducing the amount of times you'll have to run away or heal. I wouldn't prioritize it above nexus/chaos, but above light/dark, sure. Light and dark are both pretty rare anyway; nether is common.

[d_m]

1. Sometimes Phase Door loves me, sometimes it hates me.

This is a great thing to learn! I usually try to carry 20-30 ?phase just so that in desperate situations I can just read and re-read over and over until I get away (or out of LOS, or to a non-connected area, etc).

In other situations, when you're on a really dangerous level and you just need to get out of there, I've read ?recall and just ran around (using ?phase as needed) to try to stall for time until it kicks in.

Every monster has a ratio of danger to reward. You've also learned that hydras are relatively high danger for very low reward, and best avoided.

Good luck!

[marlowe221]

This is a great thing to learn! I usually try to carry 20-30 ?phase just so that in desperate situations I can just read and re-read over and over until I get away (or out of LOS, or to a non-connected area, etc).

In other situations, when you're on a really dangerous level and you just need to get out of there, I've read ?recall and just ran around (using ?phase as needed) to try to stall for time until it kicks in.

Every monster has a ratio of danger to reward. You've also learned that hydras are relatively high danger for very low reward, and best avoided.

Good luck!

Yep, Phase Door has quickly become my most coveted scroll. I buy every one I can afford and apply liberally when in danger.

I think ultimately, from a big picture perspective, what killed me on this run was being a few levels too deep in the dungeon relative to my CH/HP. I really didn't spend much time on DLs 25-29 compared to say, the 15-20 range and so I am sure that my character's power level had fallen behind the curve that I had been on before.

Re: Staffs/staves - my WIS score was so low (6 or 8) that I was never able to activate one successfully. Eventually, I stopped even picking them up. That was probably a mistake. I also had a lot of trouble using rods with any reliability at all.

Meanwhile, I am interested in branching out a little when it comes to characters. Priest, Paladin, and Rogue all sound like interesting classes to me, though I am sure they will be more painful ones.

[bio_hazard]

Rogue is pretty good for getting through the early/mid game. High stealth and detection means you can pick your battles.

[Carnivean]

I think ultimately, from a big picture perspective, what killed me on this run was being a few levels too deep in the dungeon relative to my CH/HP.

You can survive on any level if you know what is around you, and run, run, run away if anything scary is nearby. Grabbing nearby, unguarded items is the way to increase your power. From level 30 you get stat gain potions to increase your hit points (via CON).

Meanwhile, I am interested in branching out a little when it comes to characters. Priest, Paladin, and Rogue all sound like interesting classes to me, though I am sure they will be more painful ones.

In the vein of the above advice, Rogues are fun to dive with. They get a spell at level 10 that tells them what objects are around them, and high enough stealth to walk past sleeping dangers rather than bash their way to the prize.

On the other hand Paladins are like your current warriors, but eventually able to heal their ills. Priests are like crappy warriors, but can tank their way through many fights with their healing spells, and get Orb of Draining to clear the mid levels.

[marlowe221]

Well, my two attempts at priests have gone really poorly!

The first one died on DL 2. I learned that enemies are WAY harder than they were for my Dwarf Warrior.

The second one died on DL 7. I opened a door on a room full of snagas and cave orcs... I ran but they were faster than me.

I have been going with Dunadan for my priests - is that a good choice for that class?

[Mondkalb]

I am not really the priest expert but Dunadan are probably not the best class for priests. They have high stats but they get the experience penalty which makes them slow to level up. (You want to get Orb of Draining as soon as possible.)

Dwarfs make good priests - bonus to WIS and blindness resistance come in very handy.

[Derakon]

Priests have a pretty rough start, as they are very limited in their ability to kill things. They don't have the STR/DEX needed to get multiple attacks per round, so they're generally best off getting the largest-dice weapon they can wield (a Mace, say), casting Bless before each fight, and hoping for the best.

Once you get the spell Orb of Draining in the third spellbook, things will become much easier. You should prioritize getting that spell over basically everything else. Because of the random way you learn new spells, try to have 3 "unlearned" spells saved up by the time you reach the level requirement (level 9? I forget) so that you're guaranteed to get Orb.

[marlowe221]

Priests have a pretty rough start, as they are very limited in their ability to kill things. They don't have the STR/DEX needed to get multiple attacks per round, so they're generally best off getting the largest-dice weapon they can wield (a Mace, say), casting Bless before each fight, and hoping for the best.

Once you get the spell Orb of Draining in the third spellbook, things will become much easier. You should prioritize getting that spell over basically everything else. Because of the random way you learn new spells, try to have 3 "unlearned" spells saved up by the time you reach the level requirement (level 9? I forget) so that you're guaranteed to get Orb.

I will definitely do that next time. It's a little weird to me that a Fighter wants a light/fast weapon and a Priest wants a slow/heavy weapon but it makes sense when you point how it works.

Also, yeah I can see where choosing Dunadan didn't help me much - a Priest needs to level up as fast as possible it seems.

Also, do I get XP just for casting spells/prayers? I thought maybe I was when I was playing last night but I wasn't sure.

Edit: Any reason a Priest shouldn't wear all the armor he can find?

[Derakon]

Also, do I get XP just for casting spells/prayers? I thought maybe I was when I was playing last night but I wasn't sure.

Edit: Any reason a Priest shouldn't wear all the armor he can find?

You get some experience the first time you cast each spell. A good WIS score can get you a decent chunk of your early-game experience just from casting new spells.

As for armor, sure, wear what you like. Weight can be an issue, but there's no spellcasting limitation as far as I can recall.

[Monkey Face]

Edit: Any reason a Priest shouldn't wear all the armor he can find?

At some point if the total weight of your armor becomes too much, you'll start getting a mana point penalty. Up until then, pile it on (and even then, it's not a huge penalty unless you have way too much).

BTW, although priests have it tougher at the start, they eventually become somewhat easier than many other classes since they can get 0% fail rate on healing prayers (as long as they also have confusion, blindness, and stunning resistance). So while it might die quicker than with a warrior, if you do survive the early levels, you may get much deeper.

[Scampada]

Hello folks,
I don't know whether I'm asking this in the right place, but. Can I mod the Angband 4.0 so there would be goddamn normal doors, not these paper screens?

I mean I would like it much more if there were HEAVY doors; STRONG doors; really LOCKED doors. Really JAMMED ones and really UNOPENABLE ones.

Maybe I have to go deeper to find them... I'm at 17th lvl now and there is no sign of them!

Just wanted to play an old-school dungeon crawl, where you can find an unopenable door, which may be picked, or bashed, or something else. I mean, picked after a while (if you have good stats for picking!), and bashed with hard efforts.
Or even unopenable! Yeah, why is it so unlikely in the dungeon?

This frustrates me MUCH, not only because really locked, really strong and whatever doors are much more athmospheric (what are they for then if they are not, anyway?) but also because monsters are unlocking and bashing them as though they were Chuck Norris. A hobbit at 15th lvl of depth go through every door like he's a Terminator! Closing and locking doors doesn't even delay him! And, I beg pardon, how could I, the player pick locks without any delay AND any lockpicks?

This all is so strange. However, Angband 4.0 is one of the most playable *bands. At least it has more user-friendly interface and cute separate windows...

[MattB]

Hello folks,
I don't know whether I'm asking this in the right place, but. Can I mod the Angband 4.0 so there would be goddamn normal doors, not these paper screens?

I mean I would like it much more if there were HEAVY doors; STRONG doors; really LOCKED doors. Really JAMMED ones and really UNOPENABLE ones.

Maybe I have to go deeper to find them... I'm at 17th lvl now and there is no sign of them!

Just wanted to play an old-school dungeon crawl, where you can find an unopenable door, which may be picked, or bashed, or something else. I mean, picked after a while (if you have good stats for picking!), and bashed with hard efforts.
Or even unopenable! Yeah, why is it so unlikely in the dungeon?

This frustrates me MUCH, not only because really locked, really strong and whatever doors are much more athmospheric (what are they for then if they are not, anyway?) but also because monsters are unlocking and bashing them as though they were Chuck Norris. A hobbit at 15th lvl of depth go through every door like he's a Terminator! Closing and locking doors doesn't even delay him! And, I beg pardon, how could I, the player pick locks without any delay AND any lockpicks?

This all is so strange. However, Angband 4.0 is one of the most playable *bands. At least it has more user-friendly interface and cute separate windows...

You should be taking some game turns to pick locked doors, even though the real time delay is infinitesimal. As for lockpicks, I guess the thinking is that if they existed, you would HAVE to carry them. So everybody would. So what would be the point?

Jamming and bashing used to exist, but were removed for reasons of tediousness. If you want to play with them, you can download one of the v3.3 versions from rephial.org and see what you think.

I take your point though, that some monsters get through locked doors too easily. I suppose you would expect a sneaky hobbit (a burgler maybe?) to pick a lock in seconds and a massive Mumak to walk through one without even noticing, but a human acolyte? A firefly?