What do I do wrong?

[Timo Pietilä]

Now, there is something definitely wrong with spell failure rate.
Identify = 50%, Haste self = 50%.
Identify is successful on 5-6 try, I'd say. I just gave up and use staves instead.
On the other hand, Haste self is successfully on the 1st try almost always.
For the past 20 levels I had only two failures of it.

Something wrong with my RNG?

No, it is just setting you to false sense of security and then fails (too) many times in a row for critical spell.

[Rowan]

After surviving dl 30-40 it suddenly became peace of cake.
(...)
What a leap!
I am at dl 68, and it still feels safe.

I've also experienced that. Seems like levels 1-10 are the unlucky-early-death risk, 10-30 flow pretty well, 30-40 or 45 feels like the trial-by-fire, and suddenly you're plunging down to about 80 with little to no problem. 80-99 are harder, but all feel pretty similar.

Glad you're enjoying it more again

[Bogatyr]

It is so easy to lose a character to drujs. They look insignificant with their small "s". This is likely intended, after all they are flying skulls, not big at all. A good rule is to NEVER move around when there is an "s" or more in LOS although with plenty of healing and speed > 30 and there is just one you could certainly do it. Carefully.

If I find a druj, I will first gtfo by teleport or other certain way. Then if I really feel I have to, I will think of a safe way to dispose of it. Banishment is ideal. Melee or direct missile/spell not so. Using ball spells/wands from a position where you can't be seen and can't get a direct hit may be cheesy but I would consider this against the "s" if I had good reason to. In that case you must set the target by using the * character and then arrow keys to position the target as close to the "s" you can and then "t" for target. Because if you can target the druj directly, it can target you.

I take gratuitous amounts of pleasure in hockey-sticking the drujs after clearing out a graveyard. It's not risk-free, though, since a single mistake in LOS can mean massive damage. But it's still immensely satisfying

One reason I love mages is the perfect detection and 0% fail swiss-army-knife of utility spells. I think that they are the easiest class to win with because of this. Yeah you have to enjoy a play style of skulking around and running away a lot until you max CON [which can take a LONG time], but you get to completely control your encounters and fight monsters at the edge of attack distance where you can always prepare ahead of time a single step out of LOS.

My current recipe (which I'm actually starting to tire of because it's rather formulaic) is: gnome mage with 18/50 starting INT [all the rest to STR], boomerang up level gain from casting new spells to level 11 (identify!), and drink/buy every potion of intellect and wear every ring of INT. All to get to 18/200 INT, at which point the the game is basically won. You just have to suppress the urge to fight things that can single-shot you because of your crappy CON (especially spell, curse, and psionic attacks).

And yes, GTFO levels with gravity hounds. Once I get Kelek's I almost as a reflex begin all new levels by banishing Z's, g's, and v's.

[brbrbr]

YEEEEEESSSS!!!
I WON!!!!
Woooha!

15th attempt, with monsters spoiler.
It took me 10 days from start to finish.

The turn count is 245,832 which is not bad!

http://angband.oook.cz/ladder-show.php?id=18224

I am so proud.
Thank you guys for all the help.

[Raccoon]

Congratulations!

Question: If I play with the monster info cheat on, am I still gathering monster info normally too? Will I still benefit from the monsters I fight when I turn the cheat back off and try to play for a high score?

[Thraalbee]

Well Done! Congratulations to a nice win

[dos350]

gg!~ way 2 go

[Stephen2]

What a great read!! Well done mate, learning, getting better and then winning!

Just to highlight to you that this isn't always the case and you did very well, I've been playing on/off since Umoria - never even come close to winning. That's what happens if you don't ever learn

Well done again.