On a run playing a paladin

[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.

[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]

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.

[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]

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.

[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]

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

[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.

[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.

[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]

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]

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]

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]

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...

[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.