How important is rShards?

**Grotug** · November 14, 2016, 15:00

I only glanced at your dump since I saw things in it I hadn't seen before and prefer to learn about items I'm unaware of while discovering them in the dungeon myself

I see your cloak doesn't confer any resistances. Try to find a cloak of Aman or Magi that gives a protection or resistance. For me rChaos is much more important than rShards, though there are some greater demons that breath shards for 500 damage.

one character I had, I would swap an rChaos and rShard cloaks; but I find swapping resistances to be annoying; I often forget to swap. I mained the rChaos, and swapped for rShards, when facing certain baddies.

My advice might be to keep an eye out for {ego} cloaks (cloaks of the Magi or Aman), as many of them allow you to cover another resistance. As I recall, rShard is not too rare in cloaks (cloak of protection, for example). Same goes for Elvenkind shields.

So you want to keep Caspanion solely for the CON? Not sure what your HP is at DL84, but maybe when you max out your CON from potions swap to Thalkettoth?

I also have a hard time throwing away bolts when they are all really good. Personally, I would drop the Destruction items, as I just don't find them very fun to use, but I know that is unpopular advice!

I find the Celegorm shield in almost every game I play, and every game I play it sits on the bench in my home as it were. I don't think I've ever used it. Of course, rDark is good for certain baddies like Ungoliant, but you have wands of TO right? You will pick up rDark eventually in something else I imagine. But I'd probably shed some bolts to create another slot for the !*healing*.

What are the spells in Magic for Beginnners that you depend on?

**Pete Mack** · November 14, 2016, 18:21

rShards isn't that important. The only big breathers I can think of are Gelugon, Huan, and GWo Law. I'd wear the +3CON armor. Your HP are terrible--why worry about the big shards breathers when there are so many other monsters that can instakill you?

**SilasDies** · November 14, 2016, 23:02

Originally posted by Pete Mack

why worry about the big shards breathers when there are so many other monsters that can instakill you?

Terrasque breathes disenchantment... I tOther'ed him but in a moment of lapsed concentration, I did not notice him come back into view.

I ended up having the same thought and dropped the Thal, and ended up getting 495 hp, 5 short of surviving the breath.

**Thraalbee** · November 15, 2016, 07:15

Tough. Tarrasque is one of those few you have to be wary of. gtfo or destruct it unless you know you can safely engage

**Grotug** · November 15, 2016, 08:10

I have to say Terrasque makes this game more fun. Drolem... less so.

**Pete Mack** · November 15, 2016, 09:01

"The Tarrasque (offscreen) breathes Fire--more--The Tarrasque breathes Disenchantment (offscreen)--more--you die" is certainly a classic way to go.

**Adam** · November 21, 2016, 18:09

Hello, somewhat similar inventory question, character is gnome mage in iron man mode at dlev 54:

http://angband.oook.cz/ladder-show.php?id=19851

The rng was finally nice and gave raal + mordenkainen in the same vault on this level but this means I have to drop something.
What's on the floor next to me: a wand of TO (8 charges), 2 wands of drain life (9 charges), a scroll of mass banishment.
I could use any of these later. I know, 1 scroll is not much but maybe it would worth to dedicate a slot for collecting these scrolls against M. The TO wand is not critical as I have the spell (with 0% failure rate) and I also have a rod of TO. But in greater vaults it may be useful not to spend mana on TO. Drain life is also not critical as now I have new attack spells - but 250 damage/round is not bad and I may need the wands to kill high HP uniques. I also do not have any ammo currently which is maybe not good.

I carry probably too much of something, I just don't know what to drop. Teleport level scrolls can go now that I have the spell, right? Maybe the TO rod could also be dropped or changed to the TO wand. Maybe one of the armors could be dropped but they are my only source of rNether, rDark and rChaos currently so I think they are better than having TO wand/rod. I need rNether anyway later which also suggests to keep the armors so I can make a better choice later.

Thanks for any suggestions!

**Derakon** · November 21, 2016, 18:41

Ditch both "mechanical" sources of TO; you want the 0% failure rate from your spell. Just make sure to reserve mana for it.

Other non-critical items in your inventory: ,Emergency, !RestoreLifeLevels, _Earthquakes. Your bow is also doing you no favors right now since you're not carrying ammo, and even if you did bring ammo I suspect you wouldn't use it.

**Pete Mack** · November 21, 2016, 19:01

Also, use "Regeneration instead of "Weaponmastery. Makes a big difference for a mage.

**Will** · November 21, 2016, 19:39

Originally posted by Derakon

Other non-critical items in your inventory: !RestoreLifeLevels

Are you sure? I'm playing ironman right now (paladin) and I sure save those. XP can be scarce in ironman especially when you luck out and get 3-4 boring levels in a row. Given that the xp leech seems to be a %, it can be hell to make all that xp back, and you never know when the next potion is...

**Derakon** · November 21, 2016, 21:15

Originally posted by Will

Are you sure? I'm playing ironman right now (paladin) and I sure save those. XP can be scarce in ironman especially when you luck out and get 3-4 boring levels in a row. Given that the xp leech seems to be a %, it can be hell to make all that xp back, and you never know when the next potion is...

I'm sure. Experience is everywhere, even in ironman. Enemies give exponentially more experience as you get deeper into the game. More importantly, level is not a major indicator of your power level; anyone from level 40 on up can win if they have the right gear.

**Pete Mack** · November 21, 2016, 22:02

The one exception is high elf mage. There you really do need experience, and it's not so easy to come by. For Paladin, experience is trivial since you can kill essentially everything, and barely stop to rest.

**Will** · November 21, 2016, 23:32

Originally posted by Derakon

I'm sure. Experience is everywhere, even in ironman. Enemies give exponentially more experience as you get deeper into the game. More importantly, level is not a major indicator of your power level; anyone from level 40 on up can win if they have the right gear.

Well... level affects my hp, sp, to-hit, spell failure, spell list. That sounds like a rather major indicator of my power level, especially since monsters don't scale with player level like in some other games. The higher the clvl, the stronger the char is, there's just no downside.

**Derakon** · November 21, 2016, 23:36

Originally posted by Will

Well... level affects my hp, sp, to-hit, spell failure, spell list. That sounds like a rather major indicator of my power level, especially since monsters don't scale with player level like in some other games. The higher the clvl, the stronger the char is, there's just no downside.

I don't contest this; more levels are always better. However, the difference in power between a level-50 character and a level-48 character are not very significant. You're more likely to benefit from using the inventory slot for something other than Restore Life Levels.

In any case, I would be very surprised if any non-High-Elf character were unable to make it to level 50 by the end of an ironman game, even if they repeatedly get experience drained. Granted I would also advise being careful around undead and not getting into gratuitous slap-fights with wights.

How important is rShards?

How important is rShards?

Comment

Comment

Comment

Comment

Comment

Comment

Comment

Comment

Comment

Comment

Comment

Comment

Comment

Comment