On a run playing a paladin

[Petoften]

OK, practically unencumbered now, dropped the dsm.

Getting feared, wonder if a ring of the dog is worth it.

[Philip]

200 damage is barely more than what you do in melee, and it only works on monsters who don't resist fire anyway. It's not worth keeping around.

Cambeleg is the 2nd most powerful hand slot item in the game. You will not need to swap it out ever unless you max out STR and CON *and* have Fingolfin. The reason is that +8 +8 to_hit and to_dam is extremely powerful, and CON boosts are pretty important too. +8 to_dam is 40-50 extra damage/round. It is currently responsible for about 2/5 of your damage output vs. others, from what I can tell.

The spellbooks are not what is weighing you down. It is the armor and the amount of staffs and potions you have.

[Mondkalb]

It is wise to keep one or two copies of the spell books you really need, because they can burn up very fast if you get in an unfortunate situation.

Never drop Cambeleg, the (+8/+8) bonus to hit and damage is invaluable. And don't melee any disenchanters, you don't want to get them disenchanted!

[Petoften]

You got very lucky with finding Cambeleg early on, great handgear!

Keep an eye on your burden (your overweight or remaining weight is displayed on top of the equipment screen).
Like Philip said, drop a few of the heavy staffs, wear Arvedui and drop the DSM.
You are still at +2 speed due to Wormtongue's boots, but every bit of speed is precious (at least below 10 or even 20).
If you are faster, you can hit a meelee-only monster, move one step and heal or shoot, and wait for the monster to come after you and hit it again.

Thanks, I'll do that - I was keeping an extra spellbook in case one gets destroyed, and the DSM for the 200 damage activation...

It's come in handy against a unique or a bunch of monsters to be able to shoot the 200 down a row and take some out.

[Petoften]

Dropped alchemist gloves with +1 dex and +4 searching to keep gloves with +2 str and con - both prevent paralysis.

[Mondkalb]

You got very lucky with finding Cambeleg early on, great handgear!

Keep an eye on your burden (your overweight or remaining weight is displayed on top of the equipment screen).
Like Philip said, drop a few of the heavy staffs, wear Arvedui and drop the DSM.
You are still at +2 speed due to Wormtongue's boots, but every bit of speed is precious (at least below 10 or even 20).
If you are faster, you can hit a melee-only monster, move one step and heal or shoot, and wait for the monster to come after you and hit it again.

[Philip]

Never be concerned about abandoning the level. The expected value of staying on a level is almost always slightly lower than the expected value of going to a different (deeper) level. The only exception is when you get a very high object feeling in the first 10 levels or so.
One of the main engines driving people to change levels quickly used to be monsters spawning in awake. I understand they don't any more, so you don't need to change levels that often, but if there is one awake monster on a level that you do not want to fight, you should probably leave.

A wand of sleep monster affects one target, the staff affects every monster in line of effect (like LoS if you had infinite light radius).

Boots with phase door are nice, especially if you use archery a lot. They give you one free phase per recharge, which cuts down on the number of scrolls you need to take with you, though don't use them if you can't be in melee for a whole round, since they're less reliable. They can't replace the scroll entirely, though, so they don't save a slot. What's actually great about Wormtongue is the +3 speed, which at this point actually means +30% damage output and also the ability to run away from some things, and +2 DEX and +2 Stealth are great too, though the latter is unimpressive on a Dwarf Paladin.

Get rid of the Red DSM, the activation isn't worth lugging around (it's part of what's making you overweight and lose speed), and Arvedui is pretty great. So long as you don't have pConf and a large number of scrolls of Teleportation (buy these and Teleport Level if they turn up at the Black Market) you do need to keep the staff around, however, 5 is overkill. Drop two or three off at home. Even though it does put it at risk, I recommend carrying the Teleport Level scroll with you, since a panic button does nothing if it's not in your inventory. Not sure carrying !CSW is a good idea at this point, especially on a Paladin. It costs you a slot and you could easily replace them by having a couple more !CCW. Potions of True Seeing are pretty useless on a character with See Invisible. Carry scrolls of phase door. They allow you to disengage from melee for a short while, which means you can recast your buffs if they run out, and heal up to full before they find you again. It also means you can fight competently with archery.

[Petoften]

Posted to the ladder...

What is the difference between wand of sleep monster and staff of sleep monsters?

Wondering how useful these boots that activate to teleport 'up to 10 squares' are for anything. Phase door says it's 10...

[Pete Mack]

Once you have a rod, you can keep teleporting it. And in any case, those monsters are (a)rare and (b)usually a unique.

[Petoften]

TO is sufficiently permanent against most monsters--their detection distance is less than 100 squares. And even for monsters which can find you from far away, it gives you enough time to recover your HP or simply leave the level.

Ya, if recovering your HP will let you kill it, that's fine - if not, it doesn't leave much alternative to abandoning the level.

[Pete Mack]

TO is sufficiently permanent against most monsters--their detection distance is less than 100 squares. And even for monsters which can find you from far away, it gives you enough time to recover your HP or simply leave the level.

[Petoften]

I don't actually know what the rules for saving throws are against devices like polymorph. The trouble with it is that there *is* a saving throw, and the monsters you really need to get rid of can kill you before you succeed. TO is just much better all around: no save, and it works against uniques.

The other side includes that TO isn't a permanent solution - the mob will be back on you as soon as a couple turns - so you might have to just get out.

They both seem to have a use - but the limited inventory makes it hard to keep many options with devices.

[Pete Mack]

I don't actually know what the rules for saving throws are against devices like polymorph. The trouble with it is that there *is* a saving throw, and the monsters you really need to get rid of can kill you before you succeed. TO is just much better all around: no save, and it works against uniques.

[Ingwe Ingweron]

Is a wand of polymorph useful for getting rid of nasty things like the multi-hued, the hydras, an ethereal drake, etc.?

Personally, I squelch ("ignore") polymorph wands and rods right away. They MIGHT help in a situation, but the changed monster may equally be much worse. I don't like that risk and just get rid of them.

[Petoften]

Is a wand of polymorph useful for getting rid of nasty things like the multi-hued, the hydras, an ethereal drake, etc.?