Surviving w/ Mid-lvl Priests

[Inquisitivephysicsguy]

Yep, this is my first serious Priest *ever*. I've had no problem playing this dwarven priest in the beginning... as he's now lvl 22 exploring dlvl 14 w/ free action, acid and ice resists (I treated him like a mage... paranoid and careful).

Since I just ascended with my mage (how do I post my char's profile?) I've decided to try and use a Priest. Priests are a different animal from a mage... their prayers don't seem to be as good at divination as mage's spells (It's driving me nuts that I can't know exactly what's happening around me at all times like I can as a mage). In terms of dmg, they have mages beat in several circumstances (wherever OOD is good/can actually kill things with their maces/a good crossbow seems fairly lethal).

I have the low-lvl priest figured out I think... I think I can see the potential Gods/Goddesses that can be unlocked from high lvl priests... I just can't see a good way to operate a mid-lvl priest.

Does anyone have any recommendations for how to use a mid lvl priest? What types of weapons, for instance, should a priest use? My current priest is using a war hammer of slay undead (3d3) (+8,+7). What are good utility items to keep on hand in stock? Should I rely mostly on psuedo-ID to identify armor and weapons?

I think that Priests can be just as effective and deadly in their own way as Mages are... if one knows how to use them well.

Any advice would be greatly appreciated.

[will_asher]

Since I just ascended with my mage

<chuckle> I can tell you've played Nethack. You don't ascend in Angband. I guess you could ascend at any time by going up a level or reading WoR in the dungeon, but it is not a term for winning here.

(how do I post my char's profile?)

Make a dump (hopefully you already have made a dump or else still have the game saved from after killing Morgoth), then click the ladder tab at the top of any page on oook, then click "post my dump" (or something to that effect).
You make a dump by pressing "f" on the (C)haracter screen.

I think I can see the potential Gods/Goddesses that can be unlocked from high lvl priests...

What gods and godesses? There are no gods and godesses in Angband, only priests. Come to think of it, that is kindof odd, but hey, it's fantasy.
Well, I guess there are supossedly are gods and godesses for the priests and paladins to pray to, but the game avoids actually mentioning them.

There's obviously more than one god to pray to because the priest has the evil flag, but the knight templar does not. (And the knight templar is a reference to a real order of knights who worshipped the Christian God, but then they were (probably falsely) accused of worshiping Baphomet, who was definetly not a minotaur.. (just so you know my source for that, I read it in wikipedia which of course is not always reliable))

Does anyone have any recommendations for how to use a mid lvl priest? What types of weapons, for instance, should a priest use? My current priest is using a war hammer of slay undead (3d3) (+8,+7). What are good utility items to keep on hand in stock?

It'd probably be better to find an ego whip or a blessed edged weapon which you can get more attacks with, and use one of the blessing prayers when you melee anything which isn't wimpy. Use OOD a lot. good utility items are pretty much the same for every class: ?WoR, !CCW, ?Phase Door.. Rods of light are nice. A rod of detection is something you'd really like to find about now, that would help with your lack of divination spells.

I should probably tell that I've never won the game, and so may not be the best one to take advice from. And since you have won the game, I might be telling you stuff you already know. <shrug>

[PowerDiver]

Does anyone have any recommendations for how to use a mid lvl priest? What types of weapons, for instance, should a priest use? My current priest is using a war hammer of slay undead (3d3) (+8,+7).

Your (a) slot should be used for stats, resistances, etc. I'd rather go weaponless than waste weight on that weapon. Kill with a bow and orbs. Portal away from what you cannot kill comfortably. If you don't like a level, leave it rather than continuing to portal.

Rods and wands can be useful.

Use orb on items, then wield, and when something in pack pseudos inscribe anything worn that does not pseudo as avg.

[Inquisitivephysicsguy]

Yeah, I've played nethack, but I've never even come close to beating that...
if you could provide some advice on that as well then I would appreciate it greatly.

By Gods/Goddesses I meant what your priest can become if you can keep them alive long enough to have a few good books. Priests have the potential to be *exceptionally* powerful. OOD for instance, never really loses it's effectiveness.

Great advice, btw, I've traded in my War Hammer for a spear of *slay* evil. This spear is +1 to Wis. I still haven't been lucky enough to find a rod of detection (now that the RNG is putting non-evil, highly dangerous groups of monsters on the lvl's [Zephyr Hounds] it's becoming crucial that I find a rod of detection, I shudder to think of running into a group of out of depth g****t* hounds )

I'm also considering posting a thread on how to survive as a mage at all dungeon lvls... since many people seem to have difficulty with it (It took me two years of serious play to figure it out.)
But, since no one is specifically asking for this advice, it might be presumptive of me to offer it (and some of the advice would be spoilerish). What do you folks think? Should I post this thread?

[Inquisitivephysicsguy]

I have just found 2 rods of detection! Now my Priest can finally see everything that's happening around him like a mage would!! The only problem I can see now is that I have no reliable sources of temporary +10 speed boost and resistance...
should I just try and stock up on as many staves of speed/speed potions as possible? I don't even know where to begin for temporary lightning and cold resistance.

Any suggestions?

[zaimoni]

I have just found 2 rods of detection! Now my Priest can finally see everything that's happening around him like a mage would!! The only problem I can see now is that I have no reliable sources of temporary +10 speed boost and resistance...
should I just try and stock up on as many staves of speed/speed potions as possible? I don't even know where to begin for temporary lightning and cold resistance.Any suggestions?

The appropriately named potion will cover temporary cold resistance, should the Priest spell not be enough.

I'm not that familiar with playstyles that actually need temporary speed before DL40, but the Black Market stocks stacks of Speed potions every once in a while. I generally find Staves of Speed to be cashflow items before Fire Immunity (very late-game).

[Garrie]

Yeah, I've played nethack, but I've never even come close to beating that...
if you could provide some advice on that as well then I would appreciate it greatly.
I'm also considering posting a thread on how to survive as a mage at all dungeon lvls... since many people seem to have difficulty with it (It took me two years of serious play to figure it out.)
But, since no one is specifically asking for this advice, it might be presumptive of me to offer it (and some of the advice would be spoilerish). What do you folks think? Should I post this thread?

Hey, you've won. Your advice can't be worse than anyone elses around here! Even better say how the game could be changed to help your next mage win even more like a fantasy mage and less like a "Conan who can cast spells". (I mean really, mages in heavy armour... wieleding the glaive of pain or somesuch... )

[Marble Dice]

The only problem I can see now is that I have no reliable sources of temporary +10 speed boost and resistance...

I think the only temporary speed in the game is the potion, the staff, the rod, the mage spell, and the activations on the mace 'Taratol', the hard leather boots of Feanor, and the ring of Tulkas.

As has been pointed out for temporary rfire and rcold, there's the potions and a priest spell in book two that does both. Temporary relec, racid, and rpois are more difficult: other than the mage spell, the only source I know of is the activation on the cloak 'Colluin'.

[will_asher]

I have just found 2 rods of detection! Now my Priest can finally see everything that's happening around him like a mage would!! The only problem I can see now is that I have no reliable sources of temporary +10 speed boost and resistance...
should I just try and stock up on as many staves of speed/speed potions as possible? I don't even know where to begin for temporary lightning and cold resistance.

Any suggestions?

Play DaJAngband! DaJAngband priests get both haste and resistance prayers in the Holy Infusions book, and prayer of detection in a later book. They do not get elemental brand or probing, neither of which is very useful anyway. They also don't get teleport self or teleport level, but portal is usually just as good as teleport self, and they do still get alter reality which has almost the same effect as teleport level.

[Inquisitivephysicsguy]

I suppose that I shall try to find 'colluin' in that case...
Picking up every cloak that I can possibly find...
Oi! What a tall order....

Honestly, I have no qualms about the way any of the character classes are designed in Angband, all barriers are designed to be understood then manipulated until they are no longer barriers anymore. However, if you would like me to try out your DaJAngband then I'll try it (if it's available for the Mac that is.)

Thank you for all the advice, it will be very helpful for my Priests survival. I'll just have to avoid any of the dangerous breathers for the time being.

[bron]

I wouldn't be too paranoid about the resists; at that level you should have enough HP to handle it. Use the resist-heat-and-cold prayer as needed. For the weapon, you should pick whatever you can swing for the most blows, which for a priest is usually a whip until you start increasing your stats. The pseudo-id is a problem until you get the high-level book with the Perception (i.e. identify) prayer. When I'm poor, I'll sometimes clear out a level, and then go back over it, collecting all the stuff into a couple of rooms, and then pick up 6 or 8 (or more) items, and rest a few hundred turns to get id(s), and read identify scrolls on the good stuff. Once you have enough money, you can usually just cary 30 or 40 scrolls and identify everything as you go along. [Note that if you are looking for aritfacts specifically, you can do this quickly by trying to destroy the item: if it is an artifact then game won't let you destroy it.] I think the other inventory stuff should be the standard sort of things: 3 or 4 copies of each spell book, a few speed potions, a few restore life levels, a dozen cure critical wounds, a dozen phase door, a couple teleportation scrolls, a couple teleportation staffs until you have resist confusion and resist blindness (dwaves have innate res-blind of course), a few teleport away wands/rods, a couple stone-to-mud, and some missle ammo. A couple Healing and restore mana if you've got them.

But for a mid-level priest (or paladin) the secret IMHO is the "protection from evil" spell. At level 22, this gives you about a 75% chance that an evil creature whose level is less than or equal to yours will fail to hit when they swing at you in direct combat. It also has a very long duration. This is not perfect, but I find it is enough to e.g. clear out a room full of orcs. Since at the mid-level you are almost always higher level than your opponent, you pretty much only need to worry about non-evil monsters, and monsters with ranged attacks, which for the most part are not too tough at that stage (as long as you don't insist on walking into the center of a room full of hounds or something).

[On the topic of prot-evil: you aren't there yet, but after you get your stats up, you should spend the entire rest of the game under the influence of prot-evil and bless: at the town level (or somewhere safe in the dungeon) cast prot-evil on yourself many dozens of times, resting as needed to recover aura. After that, use about the same total amount of aura casting Bless on yourself (the cheap book 1 version). Bless is a lot cheaper than prot-evil so it will take many more casts to use the same amount of aura. I generally use all of my aura 4 or 5 times on each prayer. (Write some simple macros to make this easy.) This will give you a couple of thousand turns with both prayers in effect.]

I'd also recommend getting a amulet of +wis if you don't already have one. The gain to aura and the reduction in failure rates are good things. Of course, if you've been lucky enough to find something better, then never mind. (Note that +wis amulets top out at +6.)

[Inquisitivephysicsguy]

Aura? Explain please ... as for everything else you mentioned, thanks, I appreciate the advice... I've been making good use of protection from evil. I've quickly been coming to the conclusion, however, that once a monster lvl is too high (i.e. if they are indigenous below dlvl >= clvl) then protection from evil is no longer useful, do I have this incorrect?

I just found 'Colluin' earlier, I'm so excited! I don't think I'm going to take on any dangerous dragons (Ancalagon, there was another Ice-Breather as well, but I don't remember who he/she was) until I have a better weapon than my Mace (Holy Avenger) (2d4) (+12,+12) [+2] (+4).

[PowerDiver]

Aura? Explain please .

From context, it appears he meant mana.

[Inquisitivephysicsguy]

I just found the Great Axe of Eonwe! I cannot believe my fortune! It seemed so strange to see a Great Axe 5d4 just laying around. This is great enough to retire my Mace! This is in addition to finding the shield of Celegorm!

[bron]

> Aura? Explain please
Aura, mana, SP; spell books, prayer books; it's easy to confuse them.

> dlvl >= clvl) then protection from evil is no longer useful
Yes; prot-evil only works when monster level <= clvl. But your question was about mid-level priests, which I took to mean up to about clvl 30. In this range, prot-evil is very powerful since typically clvl >= monster lvl up to about dlvl 30 (unless you dive like a maniac, and admittedly some do). It is still useful to have even for a high level character (repelling Death Quasits and Dreads and Ancient Dragons is certainly convenient), but rarely critical since you can generally kill anything that is affected by it. Past clvl 30, I make considerable use of the Healing prayer in the 4th book, using it whenever I've lost more than about 200 HP. [OOD is your friend, but against monster(s) that summon alot, HTH in an anti-summoning corridor with plenty of Heal prayers is the way to go.] Of course, at even higher levels and with the right prayer book, even more powerful Healing prayer is available. But I generally don't like allowing my HP to get down that far.