Early Resists

[Khuzdul]

Usually in the very early game early resist fire/cold (in rings or potions) is pretty abundant and useful in taking out the baby dragons and getting the exp, but usually I never see rconf or rpois until you're consistantly getting artifacts on dlvl 40<.

Any tips for getting the early resists on conf and pois? Playing Dwarves helps heaps with the rblind but its still pretty annoying getting taken out by and Umber Hulk just as you start picking up some speed.

[PowerWyrm]

Usually in the very early game early resist fire/cold (in rings or potions) is pretty abundant and useful in taking out the baby dragons and getting the exp, but usually I never see rconf or rpois until you're consistantly getting artifacts on dlvl 40<.

Any tips for getting the early resists on conf and pois? Playing Dwarves helps heaps with the rblind but its still pretty annoying getting taken out by and Umber Hulk just as you start picking up some speed.

For poison, there are now Potions of Resist Poison. For confusion, use Mushrooms of the Clear Mind.

[Derakon]

Potions of Cure Serious/Critical Wounds will also clear the confusion and poison status effects, though they won't protect you against getting the ailment again.

Umber Hulks are pretty fragile; take them out at range. If you do get stuck in melee range, you can just try to attack and eventually you should hit them (assuming you have halfway decent melee, anyway). You should also try to carry a Staff of Teleportation, which can be used when confused, albeit with an increased failure rate.

[Pete Mack]

For umber hulks (and many other creatures) ?phase door helps, rather than relying on a spell that is likely to fail. Just take it with ammo, or melee it if you have enough damage.

And do carry a staff of teleportation. It solves a lot more problems than umber hulks. Really, they are only a threat if you are messing around at shallow depths for a while. Get FA, and get to stat gain. Try a kobold or high-elf rogue. It's a very different game when you choose your fights.

[krazyhades]

On melee characters I generally fight (isolated) umber hulks in a hallway in melee using ctrl+direction (I use vikeys though), which prevents you from walking even if your confusion makes you target an empty tile.

[Stephen2]

On melee characters I generally fight (isolated) umber hulks in a hallway in melee using ctrl+direction (I use vikeys though), which prevents you from walking even if your confusion makes you target an empty tile.

Does that really work? Sounds like a beneficial bug that should be squished...

[Pete Mack]

You lose a turn still. It doesn't really gain you anything. If you meet the thing on a diagonal in a room, you have a significantly higher chance of moving away and thus not losing a combat turn.

[brbrbr]

Yeah, Umber Hulks are easy to deal with CSW/CCW or ranged weapon.
You can fight blind as well, there is small penatly to hit, though.

Much more dangerous is poison in midgame. Drolems, Basilisks are not easily detected, and their breath is deadly. Midgame poison was my biggest killer, until I made it a point to wear Ring of Resist Poison all the time. I'ts easy to find it in midgame, but there is always temptation to swap it with Ring of Damage or Ring of [STAT you mostly need].