Priest try

[brbrbr]

Follow-up from Warrior Fun on Priest birth point distribution:

For pure casters (Mages and Priests) maxing your key stat is important since it gets you more mana and lower failure rates. For priest, the difference between say 27 and 28 mana points is an extra OoD which can be the difference between killing Mugash (for example) and just wounding him.

Speaking from my mage experiece:
Maximising INT helps with early level - more monsters to kill, less time to rest, less time to get caught, more reliable spells.
On the other hand it comes at expense of mid-game play, isn't it?
More potions of CON you have to find to get to meaningful HP -> more time spend in statgain -> and that is exactly where I have difficutlies playing

Now, it is my understanding that Priests are sort of melee fighters with strong healing backup. So these guys need STR, DEX as well as WIS and CON. More even point distribution makes more sense for priests, isn't it?
On the other hand, Orb of Draining is very powerful in mid-game (statgain) so non-WIS stats are less important as they will be (I assume) easier to get later.

P.S: I will be playing Dwarf.

[jrodman]

Priests feel to me like grudging meelee fighters. Sure, anyone can do it when they have god-tier kit, but in the early game, they're kinda crap at it.

Still, you can make it work, and you'd better because you get no reasonable offensive spells until book 3.

I've gone STR/WIS/CON for survival+utility, but I could see other mixes.

[Derakon]

Speaking from my mage experiece:
Maximising INT helps with early level - more monsters to kill, less time to rest, less time to get caught, more reliable spells.
On the other hand it comes at expense of mid-game play, isn't it?
More potions of CON you have to find to get to meaningful HP -> more time spend in statgain -> and that is exactly where I have difficutlies playing

As a general rule in Angband, you should work to optimize your immediate power, and worry relatively little about what is going to happen later. After all, if you die before "later" happens, then what was the point in preparing for it? Now obviously, there are some preparations that are worth making, like stockpiling consumables for the final fights, but the early game is rough enough that I wouldn't want to risk being any weaker than absolutely necessary.

Now, it is my understanding that Priests are sort of melee fighters with strong healing backup.

Priests spam Orb of Draining at everything they can. They can also use magical devices reasonably well. Their other offensive options are pretty poor, though. Priest early game can be separated into "before Orb" and "after Orb" -- in the former category, you are an awful fighter that needs every advantage they can get (casting Bless before melee, using wands of Magic Missile, etc.), in the latter, you cast Orb, then if that's not enough you use activations, wands, etc. and a weak melee to polish off the enemy, or run away until you can Orb again. But the more WIS you have, the more times you can cast Orb, and thus the better-off you are. So max WIS and then get as much STR as you can -- you aren't going to have the DEX for multiple blows no matter what (even if you ignore WIS entirely, I think) and CON, again, is best saved for later in the game.

P.S: I will be playing Dwarf.

Good choice; dwarfs are powerful races and well-suited to the priesthood.

[brbrbr]

Priest early game can be separated into "before Orb" and "after Orb" -- in the former category, you are an awful fighter that needs every advantage they can get (casting Bless before melee, using wands of Magic Missile, etc.), in the latter, you cast Orb, then if that's not enough you use activations, wands, etc. and a weak melee to polish off the enemy, or run away until you can Orb again. But the more WIS you have, the more times you can cast Orb, and thus the better-off you are. So max WIS and then get as much STR as you can -- you aren't going to have the DEX for multiple blows no matter what (even if you ignore WIS entirely, I think) and CON, again, is best saved for later in the game.

That makes sense, thank you.

[Carnivean]

More potions of CON you have to find to get to meaningful HP -> more time spend in statgain

Statgain is not a band of levels that you have to stay in to get potions of stat. Statgain is every level after they start showing up. Staying at a shallow level just to look for more potions is not sensible.

[brbrbr]

Statgain is not a band of levels that you have to stay in to get potions of stat. Statgain is every level after they start showing up. Staying at a shallow level just to look for more potions is not sensible.

Sorry, I meant to say - phase of the game where your main goal is hunting for stat potions. Somewhere around dl40-dl70

[Timo Pietilä]

Priest early game can be separated into "before Orb" and "after Orb" -- in the former category, you are an awful fighter that needs every advantage they can get (casting Bless before melee, using wands of Magic Missile, etc.), in the latter, you cast Orb, then if that's not enough you use activations, wands, etc. and a weak melee to polish off the enemy, or run away until you can Orb again.

Third phase comes when you have achieved decent melee and 0% failure heal. Then you can just stand there, hit your opponent to head and heal when damaged until the monster is dead. If you have plenty of mana then this is further enchanted by glyph of warding.

[brbrbr]

Ok, I am on DL30 now.
The early game was a bit tricky, unpredictable and confusing.
Now with OoD and decent pool of mana it is getting very strong. HP is also very good.

I've never used Glyphs of Warding before. How does it work?
Do I have to stand on one of them, or do I need to place them around me?
How do I understand when it's broken?

[Carnivean]

I've never used Glyphs of Warding before. How does it work?
Do I have to stand on one of them, or do I need to place them around me?
How do I understand when it's broken?

They appear under your feet and take damage instead of you, until broken. A line in a corridor is a challenge for most monsters, but doesn't block ranged attacks. It will tell you when it is broken, also you will start taking damage.

[Derakon]

Monsters cannot pass over glyphs, nor attack you when you're standing on them, though they can still hit you with ranged abilities. When a monster tries to move through / attack into a glyph, they instead try to break it, with their chance of success depending, I believe, solely on their level (so e.g. your own stats don't enter into it). Glyph is expensive, but it makes you immune to melee while it lasts, and it can sometimes last a good long while.

[Bimbul]

The only time I've tried one, I was fighting Saruman. It lasted two turns

[Carnivean]

The only time I've tried one, I was fighting Saruman. It lasted two turns

My best attempt was trying to control the battlefield against Morgoth. I TO'd him many times, and set up a line of 5+ glyphs. Then a Reaver ate the walls out from around them, rendering the whole thing a waste of time.

[Derakon]

The only time I've tried one, I was fighting Saruman. It lasted two turns

That happens sometimes. As Carnivean notes, though, you can lay down multiple glyphs prior to starting the fight, and then just move back to the next glyph after each one gets destroyed.

[Thraalbee]

Runes are very good if you have plenty of mana (staff/potion) and can replace them quickly. In my latest mage win I tried spamming glyphs in a vault corridor end to end. Morgoth was in the middle of the vault so I had plenty of time to setup the fighting grounds. Then I lured him to fight me. It was by far the easiest end fight ever. I spammed mana storms and he did what he usually does but summons were a very minor problem and he did not break runes fast enough to get to melee me. I used a couple of big heals and a few restore mana, nothing else

[wobbly]

They can also use magical devices reasonably well.

I sometimes wonder if players miss how easy it is to get early firepower out of a few well picked wands. Even if you're not a red book caster scrolls of recharge are cheap & reliably available. Wands of light are common & turn orc/troll packs in to free xp. Stinking cloud is simple early crowd control. Wonder is little risk early game if you have a reliable escape etc.