On a run playing a paladin

[Petoften]

Found chain mail of Arvedui - I'd been using red dragon mail, which had the 200 damage attack come in useful. But I guess Arvedui is better?

[Petoften]

Ancient green dragon is a monster to avoid unless you have res poison (or you are doing really massive damage per turn.) But it isn't really dangerous--you can escape it easily enough with teleportation. There are *much* worse monsters at DL 40 to watch out for, that you really cannot afford to face even for a single turn. I posted a partial list on your previous thread.

Ya, I remember that - especially the ancient multi-hued.

This guy was almost too hard though doing 2/3 HP damage in a round.

[Pete Mack]

Ancient green dragon is a monster to avoid unless you have res poison (or you are doing really massive damage per turn.) But it isn't really dangerous--you can escape it easily enough with teleportation. There are *much* worse monsters at DL 40 to watch out for, that you really cannot afford to face even for a single turn. I posted a partial list on your previous thread.

[Petoften]

Well, I did that - speed - and somehow it went well, killed the dragon, but he dropped a basic weapon - but Smeagol dropped Leather Boots of Wormtongue.

[Petoften]

I'd done phase door twice to try to get a but of healing and shoot arrows when he comes again, but now Smeagol joined him and other stuff, and he quickly comes and I get one arrow - which doesn't take a single * off - before he's next to me again.

I could use a speed to help a little but not sure it'd allow a win.

[Petoften]

Man, not sure why these battles are so hard. Found an ancient green dragon and in one round he took about 2/3 of my HP and poisoned.

I took him down only two *.

Even after a CCW, he hit again and I'm back down to 106/275.

Hard to see how I don't port out of this - anything else and I get one shot.

[Pete Mack]

Don't waste too much mana on prot evil if the monsters aren't all at or below your character level. With Gareth Asdraig, you may be killing those monsters easily without the spell. It is more useful for priests, but it can still be useful for you.

[Petoften]

Amulet of Regen. Wisdom +3 will lower some failrates and give you more max SP, but Regen makes you regain SP faster, which is more important for you. And the extra HP regen is great. The only thing to watch out for is that it doesn't stack, so keep Wisdom +3 at home.

Also, use bless in or before every fight, it's cheap. Especially use it before using archery, since it makes it so much more manageable. Protection from Evil is more situational, but extremely useful against large groups of evil monsters, though it can be handy for a tough single target too.

OK, sounds good. There are some big groups of evil stuff...

[Petoften]

Careth Asdriag is awesome! It is one of the best early-midgame weapons in the game.

what is a "named"? Why not write "monster" instead? or "enemy"? You should be getting all 4 base resists on armor or shield pretty soon, now, so the ring of rCold/rFire is not a loss (plus they are common). Rings of dexterity/strength and damage are much better. And =reckless attacks if you can't find the better rings.

As Pete said, 'named' refers to 'unique'.

I also tossed reckless attacks worried about the increased miss rate.

[Pete Mack]

I suspect he is using "named" instead of "unique".

[Grotug]

Careth Asdriag is awesome! It is one of the best early-midgame weapons in the game.

what is a "named"? Why not write "monster" instead? or "enemy"? You should be getting all 4 base resists on armor or shield pretty soon, now, so the ring of rCold/rFire is not a loss (plus they are common). Rings of dexterity/strength and damage are much better. And =reckless attacks if you can't find the better rings.

[Philip]

Amulet of Regen. Wisdom +3 will lower some failrates and give you more max SP, but Regen makes you regain SP faster, which is more important for you. And the extra HP regen is great. The only thing to watch out for is that it doesn't stack, so keep Wisdom +3 at home.

Also, use bless in or before every fight, it's cheap. Especially use it before using archery, since it makes it so much more manageable. Protection from Evil is more situational, but extremely useful against large groups of evil monsters, though it can be handy for a tough single target too.

[Petoften]

Hard pick, Amulet of Wisdom +3 or amulet of regeneration.

[Petoften]

You should have some good spells by now. Res fire+cold is hugely valuable, letting you take on much bigger fire and cold breathers than you otherwise could. the various heal spells should let you cut down on potion use, especially if you carry enough phase door. And don't forget about archery. Paladin is pretty bad at it, but the bless spell makes up for some of it. And finally: protection from evil lets you take on huge mobs at or less than your character level. Sure it fades in usefulness once your damage output goes up. But it should be helping you very soon.

You have me wondering if it was a mistake to drop the ring of resist cold and fire - since that would combine with the spell.

Problem with the heal spells is that they fail, especially mortal wounds, and are pretty limited by mana. But they're still helpful.

I am using archery quite a bit, even dropping damage wands. I haven't been using bless and prot from evil, perhaps I should.

[Petoften]

And another nice weapon. I had a Forasgil rapier, now I found an even better 'Careth Asdriag' rapier with several stat bonuses and more.