i'm out of recall scrolls.

[Sky]

human, actually. i already escaped once with 0 hp and once with 1, and my spell fail rate is 5%.

on the positive side, i now have enough mana to cast detect monsters and magic mapping, and then still have enough to kill some orcs.

[Sky]

that makes it two escapes with 0 and one with 1.

ok, i am now stuck in a similar, albeit different conundrum;

i am CL26 on DL29. i own Elvagil and Hitlomir, plus the Phial. My spell of TO is at 50% fail.

i've been fairing pretty well at speeds between -1 and -2. now i got hit by a ninja, failed a spell, got double-hit again, and my speed is now a miserable 6.

i managed to recall out of there with speed -8, and now i've gone home and dropped everything, which primarily means my light crossbow of power (+15,+20) and my bolts of slay animal (+5,+10), for a cool average damage of 69/round.

i need 3500 xp. i can barely carry my books and hitlomir.

should i venture down without armor and without base resists? or carry on with -3 basespeed?

[Pete Mack]

First, check the black market for =Str. Also, you are in a situation where the exploit of trading EXP for stats makes too much sense. Find a weak 'W' and let it whale on you. Then quaff Restore Life.

[bio_hazard]

that makes it two escapes with 0 and one with 1.

ok, i am now stuck in a similar, albeit different conundrum;

i am CL26 on DL29. i own Elvagil and Hitlomir, plus the Phial. My spell of TO is at 50% fail.

i've been fairing pretty well at speeds between -1 and -2. now i got hit by a ninja, failed a spell, got double-hit again, and my speed is now a miserable 6.

i managed to recall out of there with speed -8, and now i've gone home and dropped everything, which primarily means my light crossbow of power (+15,+20) and my bolts of slay animal (+5,+10), for a cool average damage of 69/round.

i need 3500 xp. i can barely carry my books and hitlomir.

should i venture down without armor and without base resists? or carry on with -3 basespeed?

That's a tough one- I think I'd skip the armor, make sure you are good on escapes, and be very picky about targets until you level up. Of course, that will almost guarantee the first thing you run into is a nest of red dragons or something where the resist would be really helpful. I feel like with a mage the plan is to try never to get hit, so going no-armor is not as big a deal as it sounds.

[Derakon]

i've been fairing pretty well at speeds between -1 and -2. now i got hit by a ninja, failed a spell, got double-hit again, and my speed is now a miserable 6.

Ninjas are kind of awful, but why did you let one get adjacent to you in the first place? Carry at least a few ?Phase for those situations where you can't afford to risk a spell failing on you.

Mage, more than any other class, rewards playstyles where you just don't let bad things even have the potential to happen. That means proactively avoiding potentially bad situations. Just like the usual advice of "run away while you still have health, not when you're one turn from dying", except that mages are usually one turn from dying so they have to be even more careful.

[Pete Mack]

Don't skip the armor. You can keep yourself hasted to +7 most of the time, which isn't too bad. Just carry one copy each of the critical books, and avoid fire/thieves.

[Sky]

@Pete Mack - good call. i'm gonna go with this plan.

@derakon - it was my mistake, i pressed one key too many, in the middle of a thought process.

trying to make it down to DL40 for stat potions. if i can get a couple each i should be rockin'.

[Pete Mack]

You'll also want offensive magical devices. For a low-mana mage, it's critical.

[Sky]

yeah, i found that out. i'm now carrying six different attack wands. i managed to take down 2 of the three stone trolls, a couple orc captains (but not Azog), wormtongue ..

just ran away from .. Logar? the chief of the easterlings, who was sitting in a kobold pit; and Rogar, neither of which i can kill. (hey ... player experience!!)

haste was not really an option, i can't waste 12 mana on a 34% fail chance. mind you, i now have a ring of INT +3.
however, i have now found both Taratol (which activates for haste), and a potion of augmentation.
i unfortunately quaffed-to-identify a potion of +WIS, -STR, but i also found a potion of +STR so that kinda balances out.

[Sky]

he's dead.

humans make garbage mages. high elf ftw.

[Derakon]

he's dead.

humans make garbage mages. high elf ftw.

Worst EXP modifier in the game. Have fun grinding.

[Pete Mack]

@Derakon -- Disagree.
You just have to dive *early and hard* with a High Elf, avoid almost everything, but take some significant calculated risks early. My last mage winner:

http://angband.oook.cz/ladder-show.php?id=19649

Note gained cl 19 at 1550' (where I killed an Erinyes.) You can start knocking of mature dragons for big HP with magic devices and cold/fire/acid bolt. (It helps to take advantage of the diminished distance breath attacks.)
When the EXP penalty really kicks in near cl 40, you can do adequately in melee against reasonably powerful targets, so long as you carry plenty of buffs.

HE Mage is a ton of fun, and the EXP penalty actually contributes to the fun, at least in the early game. I agree the last few levels up to 0-fail mass banishment are a chore. But you can skip that at some increased risk vs. Morgoth. Note that you can exploit the breath attenuation with cheap stone-to-mud to create long hallways and take out high value uniques like Huan, Tarrasque, and Carcharoth with zero(!) risk, using Chaos Strike. (Non-uniques are harder targets, because the spell cost of meteor swarm is so much higher.)

[Egavactip]

Worst EXP modifier in the game. Have fun grinding.

Yes, and I find that the added amount of time basically means added opportunities to make a mistake, hit a wrong key, get unlucky, etc. My high elf mages have one of my worst race/class success ratios, while my human mages have a nice ratio.

[Sky]

couple things ...

why does the mage default with 6 points in DEX ? what the heck does a mage need dex for?

much better 6 CON, 8 INT, 6 STR.

this new HE mage just quaffed a pot of INT and jumped from 58 to 78 mana. i've been running double ring of escaping since DL20 or so, with various shooters helping when the mana runs out; add tons of !phase, basically i'm running a no-melee ranger.

with the HE, i've been able to dive much faster and take on bigger targets. the XP penalty isn't really an issue ... up to CL20 it's short enough that in a pinch you can go for a bunch of small mobs and it just adds up. CL~30 is a bit slower but dragons and groups of trolls are still profitable.
over CL30 .. well, we'll see. with a decent shooter i can take on a single Nazgul, provided i'm in a good location.

(also, the last CL with any High Elf are made through potions of experience, not mobs. it's surprisingly easy to find 2-3 xp pots in a single dungeon run.)

[PowerWyrm]

why does the mage default with 6 points in DEX ? what the heck does a mage need dex for?

much better 6 CON, 8 INT, 6 STR.

I always go with 8 STR 12 INT, CON is pointless at start (even if you start with 8 or 9, that's something like 0.1 hp less per level).