Few Newb Questions

[Odsoc]

Can torches be used as weapons?

[fph]

Can torches be used as weapons?

No. When you `w`ield them, they go to the light slot automatically.

[PowerWyrm]

Can torches be used as weapons?

Nope, but oil can.

[Pete Mack]

Yep. If your starting mage isn't carrying a dozen flasks of oil and a !hero (or ?bless), along with a handful of ?PD, you are starting with one hand behind your back. You just can't rely on a low Mana pool and high fail rate to kill Fang or Bullroarer.

[Derakon]

Yep. If your starting mage isn't carrying a dozen flasks of oil and a !hero (or ?bless), along with a handful of ?PD, you are starting with one hand behind your back. You just can't rely on a low Mana pool and high fail rate to kill Fang or Bullroarer.

I'm more fond of buying a Wand of Magic Missile, if one is available. It's pretty expensive, but a lot more reliable than flasks of oil, which are short-ranged and can miss. It also stays useful a bit longer.

[Pete Mack]

@Derakon
Yeah that works too. The point stands, though: a DL 1 mage is potentially significantly more powerful than 2 or 3 shots with magic missile. As such, he can jump to CL 5 (and beyond) very quickly indeed.
Just stay away from orc groups.. They soak up a lot of damage with very little return.

[Estie]

Im a fan of a scroll of mapping. I can deal with the dogs on my mana alone and detect Bullroarer in time to avoid him, but the descent that will invariably happen has good chances to land me in trouble.

[Pete Mack]

@Estie:
Bullroarer is a *huge* opportunity. He has 1d4 drop good. That is a potentially massive boost at DL 5. The only other unique with a comparable expectee ROI in terms of character power is Wormtoungue.

Just in the past few games Bullroarer has dropped
* Cestus of Free Action
* *Slay Troll*(+2) weapon (+2 STR is a big deal for a mage.)
* Helm of seeing
* 'Thanc of fire

All of of these make a significant difference for an essentially naked low level mage.

[wobbly]

Yep. If your starting mage isn't carrying a dozen flasks of oil and a !hero (or ?bless), along with a handful of ?PD, you are starting with one hand behind your back. You just can't rely on a low Mana pool and high fail rate to kill Fang or Bullroarer.

Just be a little careful here if you are a human mage as without infravision or a lit room your sight range is 1

[Estie]

More often he drops magic heavy armours and heavy weapons, but even so killing him a bit later works fine, too. It´s not like you need FA and SI that early.

[Pete Mack]

But if he drops dethanc or the like, you are suddenly much, much stronger--never mind the sure thing of a significant level boost.
I prefer to look at ?deep descent and low level uniques as opportunities, not obstacles. Losing a low level character is no big deal, and I'd rather lose them to Bullroarer than to a poison pit trap.

[Philip]

Another thing is that if you want the game to be consistently fun, it is good to remain appropriately challenged at all times. Depending on experience, this may mean going around killing uniques to speed up play and to have something to do. It's no fun to build a perfect character with completely safe and unchallenging play until it can wipe the floor with everything.
Of course, this leads to the issue that while challenging play is fun, it is not particularly often safe. If this is a problem (and it often is), the early game offers an amazing opportunity in that you have absolutely no reason to care whether you're being safe, since the risk of losing your character is unimportant.

[Estie]

I dont mind the deep descent either, its usually a great boost, but looking for the stairs and getting swarmed is a bad enough risk that I prefer to avoid, even at the cost of having to kill Bullroarer a few levels later. I know, death at low level isnt wasteful, but I am always a little attached to my characters; if I weren´t, I wouldnt play in the first place.

[Odsoc]

My Intelligence has been damaged and in turn has caused me to forget a few spells. Can stats be 'repaired' and how do I relearn forgotten spells?

[Mondkalb]

Stat drains are automatically repaired when your character reaches a new level. The spells are remembered as well.

Other means are mushrooms of restoration, potions of intellect or intelligence, and potions of life.