Warrior Fun

[brbrbr]

I usually want to jump right back in to the fray and find and take revenge on the monster type that killed me. So this time, it's grave wights. Grave wights! Can't remember the last time one of those got me. I was clearing out a graveyard in my usual style, and somehow (I swear I was hasted) a grave wight got a double move on me, and cast its cause wounds spell two moves in a row for close to max damage each time (thanks, RNG!). Gnome mage still had flea-level HP at that point. Next time around, I cleared out the next graveyard via a hockey-stick and toyed with the grave wights with magic missiles before finally fire bolting their undead asses into oblivion.

The only issue with insta-restarts is that you may play as cl40 while still at cl10. Old memory is still fresh.... And that Ring of Flame does not look as a good artifact anymore
Worst memory I have is dying of starvation in the darkness of dangeoun, because of meeting of pack of bandits (or hounds) who stole (burned) all my scrolls of recall, which I didn't notice. Then last drop of oil in my lantern has gone out....

"The scalded cat fears even cold water", as they say

[Bimbul]

Just thought of this thread as my current priest just got Godly Insights after taking down Adunaphel the Quiet - no looking back apparently - we'll see haha. Nice detections spells certainly.

I bailed the rest of the level though - it had a massive vault with shedloads of stuff and nasties in it (feelings of death haunt this level etc - superb treasures) - but just too much for the chap currently I think. An undead beholder wandering about didn't help.

[Bimbul]

Worst memory I have is dying of starvation in the darkness of dangeoun, because of meeting of pack of bandits (or hounds) who stole (burned) all my scrolls of recall, which I didn't notice. Then last drop of oil in my lantern has gone out....

You should try mages and priests, they have spells for that stuff...

[brbrbr]

You should try mages and priests, they have spells for that stuff...

That was, actually, with mage. Mages cannot read spells in darkness Facepalm.

As for warriors, I am surprised how little food they need. I do not carry, nor buy any food. The little healing I use in fights keep me fed. Plus occasional slime mold from the floor.
I am also surprised how well game supplies warriors with all required magic devices. I had everything I need very early: detection, teleport other, mapping, speed, resistances, telepathy, healing. I can completely rely on external magic sources.
And that glamorous Mana storm, which mages get at the end of the game - I have 400 damage already, in early midgame, I do not need a special book for that. And getting into melee is not that much worse than distance attacks. I do get experience drained more often, but that is little disturbance.

Speaking of distant attacks:
What is the difference between Bows and Crossbows? I know ammunition is different, anything else?
Can a warrior have two shots per round with bow? Are there any good endgame Crossbows? Are there plenty of {splendid} bolts in the dungeon?

[Zikke]

Cubragol is a Light Crossbow that gives +10 speed (and little else). Not a great choice if you're looking for damage but it's a great choice for classes are may not be doing much shooting and need the extra speed to free up ring slots.

[Derakon]

Speaking of distant attacks:
What is the difference between Bows and Crossbows? I know ammunition is different, anything else?
Can a warrior have two shots per round with bow? Are there any good endgame Crossbows? Are there plenty of {splendid} bolts in the dungeon?

Rangers get extra shots with bows (longbows and shortbows), but not slings or crossbows. Arrows are more likely to break than bolts or pebbles/shots, but are lighter (and do very slightly more damage than pebbles/shots). Crossbows are also heavier than the other launcher types.

That's basically it. The most significant factor by far is that rangers don't like non-bow launchers. Everyone else pretty much just uses whatever has the best stats or they have the best ammo for.

[Bogatyr]

Cubragol is a Light Crossbow that gives +10 speed (and little else). Not a great choice if you're looking for damage but it's a great choice for classes are may not be doing much shooting and need the extra speed to free up ring slots.

Curbagol also automatically fire-brands (non-branded?) bolts as it shoots them for a nice extra x3 multiplier.

[Bogatyr]

That was, actually, with mage. Mages cannot read spells in darkness Facepalm.

As for warriors, I am surprised how little food they need. I do not carry, nor buy any food. The little healing I use in fights keep me fed. Plus occasional slime mold from the floor.
I am also surprised how well game supplies warriors with all required magic devices. I had everything I need very early: detection, teleport other, mapping, speed, resistances, telepathy, healing. I can completely rely on external magic sources.
And that glamorous Mana storm, which mages get at the end of the game - I have 400 damage already, in early midgame, I do not need a special book for that. And getting into melee is not that much worse than distance attacks. I do get experience drained more often, but that is little disturbance.

Speaking of distant attacks:
What is the difference between Bows and Crossbows? I know ammunition is different, anything else?
Can a warrior have two shots per round with bow? Are there any good endgame Crossbows? Are there plenty of {splendid} bolts in the dungeon?

There are games where you get what you need, and there games where you don't. Certainly, warriors have the undisputed, unlimited best sustained damage output in the game, given that they've found a half-way decent weapon (well, the best damage output is actually from high-end missile launchers with branded ammo, but missile ammo is not unlimited like a warrior's swings).

Getting into melee is not bad if you mange the encounters. Telepathy and good detection is essential, as is having the required resists vs. the monsters (disenchant being a big one). If you're in the LoS of too many big/nasty monsters with distance attacks though, and you're toast.

There is certainly something carefree about playing a warrior. Once every 20 or so mage games I get tired of sneaking around and play a warrior. I'll get all the fighting out of my system by around clevel 30 and get bored of the lack of utility spells, and go back to mages .

[Bimbul]

Fair enough, my bad, I was being silly anyway.

There is the Heavy Crossbow of Umbar too which is a powerhouse crossbow - can't remember its exact attributes - extra strength certainly - has a downside of agrravate monsters too.

Crossbows are x4 on missile weapons with bows x3 typcially

[Timo Pietilä]

Speaking of distant attacks:
What is the difference between Bows and Crossbows? I know ammunition is different, anything else?
Can a warrior have two shots per round with bow? Are there any good endgame Crossbows? Are there plenty of {splendid} bolts in the dungeon?

Bows and arrows are lighter and generally lower power than xbows and bolts (x2 and x3 vs x3 and x4). Xbow bolts are not vulnerable to fire.

Best Lothlorien bows and top Buckland slings beat all xbows. For egos max you can get for HXBow is +1 shots or +1 might (not both). Haradrim LXBow with +1 to shots and might is x4 weapon with two shots so it equals HXBow +1 shots but is just lighter. Lothlorien bows can have some ability that makes it more desirable than slightly more damaging XBow. Buckland slings can reach x4 three shots, so that beats everything in the game damagewise (except for ranger) including all artifacts, spells, unresisted max fire breaths, everything.

There is artifact xbow with x6 multiplier so technically that beats two-shot x3 bows, but not two shot x4 HXBow. x6 has excellent range though, so it gives you couple of shots more than those others if you are shooting at the very edge of the range. It also aggravates which makes it pretty crappy weapon unless you already have aggravating item in your gear.

[Bogatyr]

Buckland slings can reach x4 three shots, so that beats everything in the game damagewise .

Oh, I love me some Sling o' Buckland . Don't know why I didn't embrace them before. I usually find one or two per game. Probably because of the scarcity of high-end branded pebbles/shots compared to arrows/bolts. But that scarcity counteracts the amazing awesomeness that is the SoB, somewhat.

SoB's are the perfect match for mages; light (except for shots, I always prefer the pebbles when I can), and mages get Tenser's which allow's them to brand all shots/pebbles. I'll in fact go scouring for pebbles on dlev 1 sometimes . A x4, 3-shot SoB with high plusses is an *excellent* final fight weapon, and in fact an excellent unique-slayer.

One game my gnome mage found *both* a x4, 3-shot SoB *and* Deathwreaker, haha! One stack of Holy Might pebbles and Morgoth was down to about 50% of hits pretty fast.

[Rowan]

There are games where you get what you need, and there games where you don't.

My most recent games have all had a key ability that seemed squelched until mid-to-late-game. Sometimes the missing element is Rpois, other times ESP or speed boosts. Once I found telepathy early on, but found nothing with see invisible until around level 40! I almost started to suspect some complex programming behind it, but didn't mind as it was a lot of fun to play with these handicaps early on.

[brbrbr]

My second Dwarf died at DL80.

First of all, Feagwath casted mana storm (~500 damage). He was hockey-sticked against me, so I could not use Teleport him, but he could reach me.
He joined pack of Liches I was beating. Drinking healing wasn't safe option, I thought, if next turn he does mana storm again and one of the other Liches does brain smash.
I was in the straight shooting tunnel, so nowhere to step out of LoS.

So I pulled Teleportation. Landed on undetected area of dungeon.

Telephaty said Greater Barlog is in very far left corner of the screen. Heaps of distance between us, I thought. So I moved, and the next thing was RIP screen. Obviously, he got a very long LoS to me somehow.

I am thinking, what I could do better, but don't have many ideas.
Maybe dl80 is the level I should have started to carry scrolls of *destruction* with me all the time. I had staff of banishment instead, as scrolls are too often get burned in fight - I was saving them for final battle....

If I was a mage I could do Teleport level. Although I would be probably dead from just the first mana storm or wouldn't even think of facing Feagwath (It is the last stone thrown into mages garden, I promise )

I will probably take a break from playing. It is getting tiresome, consumes lot of time.

P.S: I always forget to make dump on RIP screen. I am too broken to think about it. Would it make sense to do it automatically?

[Bogatyr]

Sorry to hear, it's always frustrating to lose a char you've invested time into.

Managing LoS and controlling your encounters is basically the single most important tactic in the entire game. Other factors come into play before you choose to engage (allow yourself into a monster's LoS), like relative speed, the monster's maximum attack, its potential debuffs [confuse/blind/stun], etc.). A warrior can be slightly lazier about LoS management, assuming the monsters involved do not have powerful ranged attacks. Deeper in the dungeon, warriors must be even more vigilant IMO, since they don't get perfect detection, they're partially "blind."

Mapping is very important, and now I've started always carrying staffs of mapping in every class of character, because you absolutely must know when you can get a hockey stick on a monster, and when he's going to get it on you.

FWIW, a fully powered mage (all dungeon spellbooks) could exit that scenario in a number of different ways, fairly simply. *Destruction* spell being the best guarantee. But assuming you do want to engage Feagwath: create doors, then heal, then banish non-uniques, and then set up a hockey stick on Feagwath, rather than remaining in *his* hockey stick pointing at you, is one way to deal with it. Teleport is the worst of the last resorts, the only guarantee is that you'll exit your immediate location. Landing in a big, dark room, create doors is like a reflex, before reveal monsters. Of course, full strength mage will do other things like banish all non-ESP-detecting annoying monsters upon entering any level (g, Q, v), and I usually get rid of all Z because I frickin hate hounds.

Lesson learned here I think is that you: 1) need to take managing LoS more seriously, and 2) always carry a *good*, guaranteed escape with you. If you don't scrolls getting burned up then carry fire immunity, or avoid fire breathers. I avoid cold breathers like the plague because I hate losing my restore mana potions, and generally avoid electricity attackers as well in order to protect the wands. You can still fight them, just don't let them get LoS on you.

[yyt16384]

Sorry to hear, it's always frustrating to lose a char you've invested time into.

Managing LoS and controlling your encounters is basically the single most important tactic in the entire game. Other factors come into play before you choose to engage (allow yourself into a monster's LoS), like relative speed, the monster's maximum attack, its potential debuffs [confuse/blind/stun], etc.). A warrior can be slightly lazier about LoS management, assuming the monsters involved do not have powerful ranged attacks. Deeper in the dungeon, warriors must be even more vigilant IMO, since they don't get perfect detection, they're partially "blind."

Mapping is very important, and now I've started always carrying staffs of mapping in every class of character, because you absolutely must know when you can get a hockey stick on a monster, and when he's going to get it on you.

FWIW, a fully powered mage (all dungeon spellbooks) could exit that scenario in a number of different ways, fairly simply. *Destruction* spell being the best guarantee. But assuming you do want to engage Feagwath: create doors, then heal, then banish non-uniques, and then set up a hockey stick on Feagwath, rather than remaining in *his* hockey stick pointing at you, is one way to deal with it. Teleport is the worst of the last resorts, the only guarantee is that you'll exit your immediate location. Landing in a big, dark room, create doors is like a reflex, before reveal monsters. Of course, full strength mage will do other things like banish all non-ESP-detecting annoying monsters upon entering any level (g, Q, v), and I usually get rid of all Z because I frickin hate hounds.

Lesson learned here I think is that you: 1) need to take managing LoS more seriously, and 2) always carry a *good*, guaranteed escape with you. If you don't scrolls getting burned up then carry fire immunity, or avoid fire breathers. I avoid cold breathers like the plague because I hate losing my restore mana potions, and generally avoid electricity attackers as well in order to protect the wands. You can still fight them, just don't let them get LoS on you.

In my experience you don't need to care about escape scrolls being destroyed. They only get used rarely, so you can always find enough of them.