On a run playing a paladin

[Petoften]

EDIT: Fighting Adunaphel was possibly not a bad idea. Passwall monsters are tougher to avoid than most, and this gets rid of Adunaphel forever.

Are you fighting monsters by chugging CCW when standing next to them? CCW is soon not going to be able to consistently outheal monster damage, as you can see. You need to think about your positioning more, and you need to phase away to heal more often.

Good to know it was a good idea to get rid of Adunaphel.

Yes, sometimes I am chugging CCW next to them - but am already doing things like trying to position. I tried to move to where only Adunaphel or the dragon could hit - and Adunaphel just came right through the wall keeping both of them on me, and just moving to try to do that can give them free attacks. That's when I ate the mushroom.

And I agree, I both am seeing the limits of the heal potions - they're already barely keeping up with the damage - and how few I have of them.

[Petoften]

Between a bow x3 (+11, +15) and a crossbow x4 (+24, +9)...

The first number is accuracy? What is the x3 x4?

I don't have similar arrows and bolts to compare their damage.

Maybe the crossbow isn't worth keeping as nice as the accuracy is?

[Pete Mack]

Bottom line: with a very few possible exceptions (monsters with DROP_GREAT) you should avoid difficult battles:
1. You will use too many supplies. CCW, !Heal, and !Speed are limited in number. (Mushrooms of emergency are vanishingly rare.)
2. You will die horribly.
And by avoid I mean really avoid, as in: don't go anywhere near the monster; don't even wake it up if you can. Otherwise teleport it away from a knight's move in a corridor.

Finally: once you have enough speed, 400+ dakage per turn, and 5-10% fail on the healing spell, you'll be able to kill just about every monster in the game without much effort. Focus on reaching that point: a high level paladin is essentially a tank.

[Petoften]

(Mushrooms of emergency are vanishingly rare.)

This is the first game I've seen them.

So I guess having four, and seeing another in the shop I didn't buy for 60 gold, that was not a good idea not to buy it, oops.

They have been damn useful. Any opinion on the bow pick?

[Sphara]

Level 43 is the depth these unique elemental lords (Ariel, Vargo, Waldern and Quaker) start to appear. I'm gonna say this in advance since you obviously do not mind hints being spoilery: They are NOT worth fighting. All of them have very high HP for this level and nasty item-destructing attacks and they NEVER DROP ANYTHING. They just pummel you from afar and destroy items on the floor just by walking over them.

Of these, Waldern and Ariel are particularly deadly. Waldern having water bolts and whirlpools and Ariel having confusing melee attacks.

[Philip]

Accuracy on ranged weapons is pretty handy on a Paladin, since they're usually quite terrible with them.

Keep the best crossbow you find around, in case you find good bolts. Until then, use whatever launcher you have the best ammo for.

[Petoften]

Level 43 is the depth these unique elemental lords (Ariel, Vargo, Waldern and Quaker) start to appear. I'm gonna say this in advance since you obviously do not mind hints being spoilery:

Thanks for the warning - actually I largely am not looking for spoilers, but thanks for the help - did not read the rest of the post yet.

[Petoften]

Accuracy on ranged weapons is pretty handy on a Paladin, since they're usually quite terrible with them.

Keep the best crossbow you find around, in case you find good bolts. Until then, use whatever launcher you have the best ammo for.

OK. It's a heavy crossbolt 20 pounds which doesn't help. I do have decent bolts but only 5, so I stuck it in the house for now with the sling.

[Petoften]

Ladder updated, in town and full inv as usual (now that basic spellbook is back in inv - that's 2 each of 4 books now).

[Petoften]

It's hard to see what to get rid of - spellbooks, important combat and escape items and explore items. But something needs to go to get any new items.

[Sphara]

I would drop pebbles, iron shots, rod of polymorph and rod of illumination without a slightest worry I'd be missing them later.

[Pete Mack]

You can leave PB4 at home until you can at least somewhat reliably cast the healing spell. The other spells in there aren't very useful.

Are the rods of slow monster actually helping? They have such a high fail rate, I would think they mostly just don't work. And they only slow the target by at most 20%. And drop the pebble and shots. Your chance of getting a high-end sling is exceedingly low before DL 80 or so.

[Petoften]

Are the rods of slow monster actually helping? They have such a high fail rate, I would think they mostly just don't work. And they only slow the target by at most 20%... Your chance of getting a high-end sling is exceedingly low before DL 80 or so.

They have worked every time. I assumed they were 50% slow though. I have a sling now that's (+10, +15) similar to the bow.

[Pete Mack]

But the bow is x3, while the sling is only x2. It isn't anywhere near as good.

[Petoften]

Hm found a staff of starlight. Probably will drop it.