Just chatting about a game

[Petoften]

The other open question is whether to drop the +1 speed cloak or the protection from shards cloak (or keep both...)

[Petoften]

I want to try drinking these unidentified potions since I don't have room to take them to town and identify all of them, but am worried they're bad stats.

Is the rod of hold monster worth keeping, or drop it to fee a slot for taking a potion back to get identified?

[Petoften]

About !healing potions. If you are running low, you are engaging too much with monsters you shouldn't be messing with. Bottom line: if the monster isn't a unique, it isn't worth a healing potion. If it is a unique, it might be worth a healing potion. Figure on finding about 30 healing potions in the entire game. Plan on using about 15 in the final two fights.
Use your rod of healing. Use phase door and CCW. Use teleport other and rest. Save healing potions for emergencies.

But I don't have a rod of healing. I saw one for sale, but didn't havd the 60000 for it and posted here asking about it and went back and it was gone.

You have me a bit worried about the lack of healing potions since I've already used about six.

They were largely justified in terms of emergencies, getting summoned into packs, etc., but I might have been able to teleport/recall.

Maybe I should plan on replaying more levels to try to get some more healing potions as I only have two left.

[Pete Mack]

About !healing potions. If you are running low, you are engaging too much with monsters you shouldn't be messing with. Bottom line: if the monster isn't a unique, it isn't worth a healing potion. If it is a unique, it might be worth a healing potion. Figure on finding about 30 healing potions in the entire game. Plan on using about 15 in the final two fights.
Use your rod of healing. Use phase door and CCW. Use teleport other and rest. Save healing potions for emergencies.

[Petoften]

Why don't you post your character and we'll tell you what to Keep? All these very short posts are hard to follow. And again: study the ladder to determine what is commonly carried by characters similar to yours. It really does help.

OK, posted it yesterday but just posted a new update.

It'll show I have an unidentified potion I want to take to town, and the rod of hold monster and the +1 speed cloak until I decide whether to keep them.

Down to 2 potions of healing, lucky a couple dropped. They're pretty critical.

Using CCW faster than I can buy them, and a white dragon destroyed some.

[Pete Mack]

Yes and no. Rod of detection has a longish recharge time, so you have to wait around for it to work...and waiting can be dangerous in itself. Until you have enough detection that you don't have to wait, you might want to carry the others.

Why don't you post your character and we'll tell you what to Keep? All these very short posts are hard to follow. And again: study the ladder to determine what is commonly carried by characters similar to yours. It really does help.

OK - so with rod of detection, should I get rid of locate treasure/detect evil?

[Petoften]

Found a rod of hold monster - one more 'is it worth it', I'm guessing not.

[Petoften]

Rods of detection are an all-in-one meet-all-your-detection-needs package; and being rods, they recharge themselves and are harder to destroy than wands or staves. Also, as Pete Mack noted, they detect every kind of monster without limitations.

Gold and objects detected shouldn't disappear the next turn. Monsters detected disappear the next turn for the same reason every form of monster detection is only good for one turn - monsters move and might now be somewhere else. Detection isn't telepathy. (ESP is telepathy.)

You can squelch rings of reckless attacks at this point, you're never going to wear one.

OK - so with rod of detection, should I get rid of locate treasure/detect evil?

[Sideways]

Can you clarify, why it's so useful and the difference between it and the other rods and why everything it showed disappeared the next turn?

Rods of detection are an all-in-one meet-all-your-detection-needs package; and being rods, they recharge themselves and are harder to destroy than wands or staves. Also, as Pete Mack noted, they detect every kind of monster without limitations.

Gold and objects detected shouldn't disappear the next turn. Monsters detected disappear the next turn for the same reason every form of monster detection is only good for one turn - monsters move and might now be somewhere else. Detection isn't telepathy. (ESP is telepathy.)

You can squelch rings of reckless attacks at this point, you're never going to wear one.

[Petoften]

Detection makes it possible to avoid monsters that you don't want to meet. ESP is incomplete: it doesn't detect E, g, and Q, some of which are very bad; it doesn't prevent the most dangerous monsters from waking up when you get near them; and it doesn't keep you from getting too close to undead pits on deep levels where teleport self is too dangerous to use regularly. Basically: it lets you plan, rather than react.

Also: boots of stability don't protect you from getting teleported. They just prevent the worst aspects of nexus attacks as well as cutting nexus breath damage. Boots of speed are strictly better.

What is 'esp'? So it's worth carrying rods for treasure AND detection and the staves of detect evil? Or just dump the staves?

[Petoften]

Detection makes it possible to avoid monsters that you don't want to meet. ESP is incomplete: it doesn't detect E, g, and Q, some of which are very bad; it doesn't prevent the most dangerous monsters from waking up when you get near them; and it doesn't keep you from getting too close to undead pits on deep levels where teleport self is too dangerous to use regularly. Basically: it lets you plan, rather than react.

Also: boots of stability don't protect you from getting teleported. They just prevent the worst aspects of nexus attacks as well as cutting nexus breath damage. Boots of speed are strictly better.

That's strange: I thought I inspected them before and they said they prevented being teleported.

But when I inspect them now, totally different description saying they have protection from Nexus, as you said.

[Petoften]

Hm, a choice. I'm wearing a cloak of protection that protects against 'shards' - I think it's been useful against some ranged attacks.

Just found an elven cloak that adds 1 speed and 1 stealth. So, is 1 speed or protection from shards better...

[Pete Mack]

Detection makes it possible to avoid monsters that you don't want to meet. ESP is incomplete: it doesn't detect E, g, and Q, some of which are very bad; it doesn't prevent the most dangerous monsters from waking up when you get near them; and it doesn't keep you from getting too close to undead pits on deep levels where teleport self is too dangerous to use regularly. Basically: it lets you plan, rather than react.

Also: boots of stability don't protect you from getting teleported. They just prevent the worst aspects of nexus attacks as well as cutting nexus breath damage. Boots of speed are strictly better.

Can you clarify, why it's so useful and the difference between it and the other rods and why everything it showed disappeared the next turn?

[Petoften]

Man, these vampires keep coming. There was a *fourth* lord, but got him.

Somehow one summoned me even though I have boots of stability on.

Found a ring of reckless attacks (4, 4), higher than the usual (3,3), but assume it's still not worth replacing the damage 11 or the resist poison.

More just came...

[Petoften]

It's hard to overstate how useful rods of detection are to a warrior. They're one of the best and most important warrior utility items.

Can you clarify, why it's so useful and the difference between it and the other rods and why everything it showed disappeared the next turn?