Ironman advice for an experienced player?

[Egavactip]

I am an experienced player with triple-digit wins on the ladder, but I have never done ironman. So, if I try it, what are the things I should know going in?

[Derakon]

It's not a fundamentally different game. You're basically just locking yourself out of stores and the home. The practical upshot of this is that you have fewer consumables, especially Phase Door and CCW, and you have minimal room for items that you don't want to use now but might want to use later, like heavy weapons or potions of *Healing*. You can compensate, at least to some extent, by playing more cautiously, so you use fewer consumables and are less likely to lose (or need) rare equipment.

I'd say just dive in and give it a shot. Good luck!

[Pete Mack]

Yep. I recommend Mage, because so many of the critical consumables are covered by spells. And banish Evil is NOT a replacement for mass banishment, as I learned in a failed priest ironman attempt some years back. Mage really only needs healing, rMana, and some attack wands (along with 8 of 9 magic books.) Of course, if you find a <+2> sling of buckland, you will want ammo and buffs for much of thr game. But not against the bosses.
And if you buy MB2 as well as MB1, you won't be relying on luck to get a basic escape.

[Estie]

Play the way you normally play. Youll know what youre lacking and how to compensate.

As to the basic game, so the diving rule applies to ironman: while youre going to go slower, you can still choose to fullclear every level or to take a risk and skip ahead at times.

Depending on which version you play, you might want to adjust your starting gear. Older versions used to be stingy with spellbooks and it was a good idea to buy a copy of book 3 in town; more recent versions had the issue of very few ?phase drops, but in the latest official release I have noticed that blue p often drop them now. And of course, half trolls must load up on food

[Sphara]

A guy with your record already knows what you need in the end. The hardest part will be the inventory management. You will be making a lot of decisions where you have to leave 'I-just-might-need-this-later' types of artifacts behind.
Also getting a great launcher with big stack of good ammo, is pretty hard to come by. You might just end up leaving a huge damage crossbow and all the bolts behind, if you happen to find, lets say a Lothrlorien bow that has Telepathy.
I do value immunities very high, maybe even too high. For characters that have no healing spells, cold immunity is especially valuable since it conserves your endgame healing potions. For me, the order of importance is cold-fire-acid-lightning.
Diving is usually safe, but I have died three times in endgame fights just because I could not gather enough consumables during the run. In those games I probably used 4-5 Deep Descents.

All in all, ironman is subjectively more fun for me. Once I tried it, I never looked back. Haven't played a non-ironman vanilla game for over two years. For anyone, who has done ironman in any of the Poscheng-variants, I do salute you.

So, learn how not to be a pack-rat, forget the town drunks and stupid upstairs and give it a go!

[Thraalbee]

Ironman is my favourite too. Any class that has phase/tele is easy(ish). Warriors get ?phase from blue p's. Starting STR is more important until you get +speed since you will hoard stuff. Also dont do no-sell (you just may meet Maggot), dont use starting gear. For warrior I buy mostly ?phase and a few clw plus food and light. Dont need a weapon. Finally I think Priest is easiest.

[Egavactip]

Thanks, everybody!