"You found a special room" (new trap type)

[Grotug]

Well, this is cool. I found Barahir on the ground just now (DL53) and I'm still wearing a ring of poison. Barahir takes me up to 6 blows a round; first time it's useful to wear Barahir.

Also found a pick of earthquakes <+8> but it seems to only cause earthquakes while attacking monsters (not digging), which is actually really useful. I used to ditch earthquake picks as soon as I'd find them, but I decided the risk of earthquakes might be worth the <+8> digging so I kept this one. I do sorta recall that they were improved at some point to only cause earthquakes when attacking, because they were too useless otherwise? Or am I mistaken?

[Sky]

you find earthquakes useful?!?

i'd much rather have a ring of digging. early levels, ring of strength do just about as much damage as ring of damage, so i'll often be carryin one or two. coupled with digging, there is no wall which can stop me.

[Grotug]

I had a ring of digging but it got electrocuted by a lightning vortex. I actually haven't found a beneficial situation to create earthquakes with the pick yet, so maybe it's not that great. But I tunnel through granite in 6.7 turns.

In all my HT Warrior games I've never worn a ring of strength. But every game I wear a ring of DEX.

[Will]

This artifact cutlass, on the other hand, can't say I'm too disappointed I've never seen it before, cause its damage output... wow, watch out cutpurses! Wouldn't be terrible in a world without magic, but Angband is not such a world.

It's a great weapon that usually drops early (starting at dlvl 20) and in that case it's really great. It's basically a Defender ego weapon on steroids. It gives you all you need for the early game: see_invis, FA, regen, r_base, some stealth, big boost to dex and especially +50 ac. That usually more than doubles a character's AC, and that really makes a difference between dlvl 20 and 40.

If it looks crummy to you right now it's because you're too deep and it has already outlived its usefulness...

[Grotug]

So I'm descending relatively quickly and am being super cautious. I guess when I'm nervous the thinking part of my brain shuts down? Was in an 8 vault and forgot to switch back to my weapon from the pick and wrecked half the vault. I was totally confused why the vault had dismembered. Also forgot to quaff a potion of enlightenment which are saved for good feeling levels.

It is far too often I forget to use things I have in my pack. So very annoying. No matter how much I play this game I keep making the same dumb mistakes. :-/

[Ingwe Ingweron]

Was in an 8 vault and forgot to switch back to my weapon from the pick and wrecked half the vault. I was totally confused why the vault had dismembered.

I knew I'd suffered this situation before... Here is a potential solution:

http://angband.oook.cz/forum/showpost.php?p=101946&postcount=304

[Grotug]

Thanks Ingwe! I found a ring of digging and already dropped the pick :-/ The weight was robbing me of +1 speed, though, so I think the ring is good now.

Just posting my current character. Moving along pretty quickly already and have very good stealth (for an HT Warrior). http://angband.oook.cz/ladder-show.php?id=19895

Arien the Sun unique keeps showing up and I only have 527HP. Is she going to keep showing all the time or am I just getting unlucky? Ever since I deep descended to DL63, she has shown up pretty much every level. Now I am DL66.

[Carnivean]

I guess when I'm nervous the thinking part of my brain shuts down? No matter how much I play this game I keep making the same dumb mistakes. :-/

Angband is not a real time game. Take the time to analyse a situation before hitting the keys.

Maybe you could switch to a totally paranoid class/race, like a gnome mage that can be killed with a nasty glance and could die badly if you make the wrong move, forcing you to plan your moves?

[Sky]

the problem with Gondricam .. is Forasgil. 9 out of 10 you get both, and Foras just deals more hurt. +1 light is also nice when you have no activations, no rods.

[Grotug]

It was the first time I've seen Gondricam. I've seen Forsagil many times.

~~~

Do water hounds and monsters in general get more powerful the deeper you go and the higher your CL? I don't recall water hounds destroying staves readily when I'd be a puny little character in the DL20s, but now I'm CL47 on DL88 and a water hound breathed one single time and destroyed a staff of speed. Radagast the Brown, now he's a piece of work; casts a bolt of fire "some of your staves of speed were destroyed" Some? really? jeezzzzzz, one isn't enough??. So I stupidly don the gloves of iFire+Aggravate rendering my Superb stealth for naught. I'm not complaining, I'm just exclaiming. This game continues to surprise me. I have the shield of Thorin at home but prefer the extra damage from (Dwarven) shield.

Was a fun battle, though. Thanks to Eol, Mouth of Saruman showed up. Now he's the guy that last killed me when I had a very good character to go on and finally win the game fair and square. This time, my character is as strong as I've ever had thanks to picking up PDSM on DL71. So I danced around MoS very carefully. Between the blink dogs, Radagast's insane summons (Time hounds, Aether hounds, Plasma Hound, Chaos Hound, Hellhounds, Istars), the blink dogs that were already there summoning me forth, the Istars summoning me forth, I had a very interesting time trying to stay out of MoS's LoS.

I tried to figure out what he could see but the * target command would only let me select monsters so I couldn't do a mock up of his LoS, so at times I wasn't able to figure out my next move to ensure I was out of his LoS. Speed +33 kept me ahead of it all, though, making for a very fun fight (instead of one I would have had to abandon). MoS did finally get off a 475 mana storm taking me to 200something. Furthering the fun was I had gotten Radagast to one last purple * of health, Afraid, but he went on a summoning frenzy right before I could finish him off (my PDSM was recharging) and the acid balls wand on the ground didn't do enough damage against his rAcid. But I finally ?phased into a hallway where I could blast the nasty MoS summons with Belthronding's arrows of Flame hahahahaha, so satisfying crushing the Master Lich and other lesser major Undead with burning arrows and TOing the Bile Demon from the safety of the asymmetry LoS at the top of the hallway.



I shoulda taken a screenshot during the height of the battle, darn, oh well. Here's a screen after I secured the area of the major threats. You can see where MoS, though he was halfway down the hallway on the right still managed to target me and cackle about traps multiple times (I then ?phased away). I had 5 staves of speed coming into the battle, now I have 2, (and spent most of the battle wearing iFire!) Very fun battle, though.

Basically MoS was in the junction (upside down T) of the two hallways surrounded by his and Radagast's summons and I was trying to ?phase somewhere decent from the room where he surrounded me in traps. When I phased into the north hallway is when he Manastormed me, but for some reason moved to the left leaving the LoS of the hallway (maybe someone pushed him out of the way?) and I was able to safely retreat to the top of the hallway and take control of the situation.

[Derakon]

Do water hounds and monsters in general get more powerful the deeper you go and the higher your CL?

No. The only difference between a monster at a shallow depth and the same monster at a deeper depth is that it can potentially drop nicer stuff (monsters drop items of MAX(mlvl, (mlvl + dlvl) / 2)).

[bio_hazard]

Does the number of things you have in inventory affect the likelihood of getting something destroyed? i.e. is the stack of staves of speed more vulnerable if you've got fewer other things in inventory that can be destroyed by that element?

[Pete Mack]

It increases the chance that something will be destroyed, but does not make any one thing more vulnerable. More individual 1-3% chances means more likelihood that one will come up positive.

Does the number of things you have in inventory affect the likelihood of getting something destroyed? i.e. is the stack of staves of speed more vulnerable if you've got fewer other things in inventory that can be destroyed by that element?

[Monkey Face]

Do water hounds and monsters in general get more powerful the deeper you go and the higher your CL? I don't recall water hounds destroying staves readily when I'd be a puny little character in the DL20s, but now I'm CL47 on DL88 and a water hound breathed one single time and destroyed a staff of speed.

One big difference is that when you were a puny little character in the DL20s, the items you had weren't as valuable as the items you have now. You're a lot more likely to care when a staff of speed melts from acid than you are when it is a staff of light or cure light wounds or something like that.