Nion the stealthy warrior

[animal_waves]

Hello dungeon dwellers,

After having two promising characters dying in the same week, both poison-breathed to death, I decided to roll a Kobold in order overlook this particular resistance and discover new fun ways to die! It looks like I have now another good candidate rolling! See: http://angband.oook.cz/ladder-show.php?id=23243

I guess I'm getting better at the game as I can now reach reliably dl20+ on the majority of my runs. I suppose it's because I stopped playing exclusively HT warriors in favor of mages and rogues, and it taught me a thing or two about threat assessment and generous use of consumables. In this particular game, I discovered the power of stealth, aka how to stroll the dungeon and pick your fights... I also discovered the awesomeness of detecting, breaking and looting vaults! The game really takes another dimension once the vaults are generated on the maps.

With this character, I had some difficulty between cl20 and cl25, mainly due to the lack of a good weapon, but once I found Til-i-arc things went way easier.
So, I'm now at cl34/dl42, still comfortable but with a few tense moments when encountering uniques (I chase and wake them for the juicy loot!) and ood monsters. I plan to keep on diving at the same pace until the difficulty ramps up too fast. Now, the main difficulty will be to keep on probing & examining each new monster I encounter instead of bumping into them brainlessly...

My encounter with Gorlim quickly went south, it seems my HP pool is a bit low comparing to his damage output, is this normal/intended or must I hunt for !Con actively?

Regarding equipment, I tend to prioritize & balance stealth and speed while having the maximum damage output, but I was wondering if I must go full speed instead? (eg. by swapping Boots of Radagast with the +3 Boots of Speed). I'm also considering swapping Nimloth for Til-i-arc, mainly for the increased damage, 10 points of AC and the fast digging ability, but that means losing one point of speed and three of stealth... I'm not sure it's worth it.

Also, I have way too many weapons /artifacts stored in my home, and I don't even know if they are good (except for Mormegil, that choice was an easy one). I know the damage of those weapons will increase with the number of blows (when gaining strength and dex), but I don't know if there's a cap to this number of blows or not. Could anyone have a look and tell me what to keep and what to trash?

Bonus question:
- I'm overwhelmed by the sheer number of different monsters in this game, do you know them all by hearth after playing for so long?

Thanks!

[Derakon]

Gorlim is notably dangerous for his depth.

There's a method to cheat to get full monster knowledge, I forget the exact details, but I would not remotely begrudge anyone doing that. There's a lot of details, and while yeah you learn the important ones eventually after playing for awhile, that learning process can involve a lot of dying because "wait I didn't realize that was a possibility", which sucks IMO.

Radagast isn't doing a whole lot for you; the big one is the +3 stealth which makes you approximately half as likely to wake up enemies. The infravision is also nice but you have 100' without it, so I'd wear the speed boots.

Other notes:

* Save the Mushrooms of Vigor at home; you don't want them getting destroyed while you're in the dungeon.

* I'd consolidate the CSW/CCW into a single, but larger, stack, if possible. That is, carry like 15 CCW instead of 10 each of two different types.

* Save some of your TO wands at home to protect them from damage. I don't think I'd bring more than 3 with me in the dungeon.

* Carry Theoden with you in the dungeon. Use it when exploring for its ESP, swap to Nimloth when you need to kill things. ESP is one of the most important traits in the game, especially for warriors who otherwise have extremely limited options for monster detection.

On the whole your character looks pretty reasonable to me though. Good luck!

[animal_waves]

Thanks for the feedback!

Ha! I didn't knew Théoden granted telepathy: I IDed this rune while it was already stored in my home and I haven't checked it since. Sweet, thanks for the tip!

[animal_waves]

Woops, I encountered Gorlim again: we were both almost dead but I kept pushing my luck and phased away (too late probably) in order to shoot him from afar, but he sniped me first, event without being in my LOS (because of a dark corridor).

Oh well, that was a fun ride!

[Pete Mack]

There are a couple early-midgame uniques to avoid at all costs. Gorlim is one; the other is Kavlax, who breathes gravity way more often than seems reasonable by chance. If you aren't prepared for this, it will leave you at 1/4 of his speed, which is pretty much fatal.

Also: don't melee monsters that can disenchant your weapon or especially your dwarven shield or gloves of power. He will leave you with much less damage at the end of the fight. If you want to mess around with gorlim, use branded ammo. (For Kavlax, you want slay dragon ammo; those also work well against Smaug, Itangast, and Scatha .)

Speaking of Scatha, he needs to breathe ice, too.

[animal_waves]

Ah yes disenchantment, I forgot this important detail... I was already avoiding or sniping molds but as it was (I think) the first mobile monster I encountered with this ability I didn't pay enough attention. Next time, I'll skip Gorlim without hesitation.
Kavlax the Many-Headed was already dead by 2050'!

I still have several questions, the two first being related to this death, if you have the time:

- Do all monsters and uniques have night vision? The light/dark is only relevant for the player, right?
- Do the monsters have a max "range" from which they could see and snipe you once awake? If yes, I'll try to adapt my terminal size in order to at least match this range.
- Once a monster is woken up, If I teleport away, and stay out of his LOS for a long time, will it came back to sleep?
- Are the staff/wands/rods of slow/stun/hold/confuse/sleep monsters useful the entire game? I use them in the early game then tend to ignore them completely afterwards once my inventory is full.
- Do the scroll/wands/staff of darkness have any use at all, or is it just for the ID minigame? Or maybe usefull for the necro class (which I have never tried yet)?
- If I squetch, let's say "All good blunt weapons", will I keep seeing the branded/ego ones?

[Pete Mack]

The thing about Kavlax--if you get him before he breathes gravity, you are safe. But if he breathes gravity early in the fight, you are likely done for (though a warrior does have a better chance of survival.)

[Derakon]

- Do all monsters and uniques have night vision? The light/dark is only relevant for the player, right?
- Do the monsters have a max "range" from which they could see and snipe you once awake? If yes, I'll try to adapt my terminal size in order to at least match this range.
- Once a monster is woken up, If I teleport away, and stay out of his LOS for a long time, will it came back to sleep?
- Are the staff/wands/rods of slow/stun/hold/confuse/sleep monsters useful the entire game? I use them in the early game then tend to ignore them completely afterwards once my inventory is full.
- Do the scroll/wands/staff of darkness have any use at all, or is it just for the ID minigame? Or maybe usefull for the necro class (which I have never tried yet)?
- If I squetch, let's say "All good blunt weapons", will I keep seeing the branded/ego ones?

- All monsters have ESP; if they're awake and you're in range they can attack you, regardless of light status.
- Your maximum spell attack range (23 tiles, IIRC) is the same as the monsters'. Note that enemy archers' arrows count as spells, so they have longer range than most player missiles; player missile range scales with the multiplier on the launcher. But in general, if you can attack them, they can attack you.
- Unless this has changed relatively recently, monsters don't go back to sleep.
- If you find those wands useful, then use them. It's up to you if they're worth an inventory slot.
- Necromancers value being in darkness, so yes, those items have utility for necros. For other players they're worthless.
- "Good" means "has pluses but no runes" so yes, you are correct.

[Pete Mack]

This really shouldn't have happened.
1. If you are low on HP, don't use phase door unless you are certain not to come down in LOS. (Either you are in a vault or in a really short corridor.)
2. If you don't have ESP you should carry rods of light as a flashlight for long corridors. And *use them* when near a dangerous monster.
3. It sounds like your ?phase was actually successful. You should have been guzzling !CCW (or other healing) to get ready for Gorlim to come back.

Woops, I encountered Gorlim again: we were both almost dead but I kept pushing my luck and phased away (too late probably) in order to shoot him from afar, but he sniped me first, event without being in my LOS (because of a dark corridor).

Oh well, that was a fun ride!

[animal_waves]

Thanks to both of you for the tips! Didn't know monsters had ESP, that's worse than I thought.

@Pete: Indeed, it really shouldn't have happened as I should've stopped playing once the first sign of tiredness appeared. Hubris, once again...

[Glorfindel]

- Are the staff/wands/rods of slow/stun/hold/confuse/sleep monsters useful the entire game? I use them in the early game then tend to ignore them completely afterwards once my inventory is full.

In my experience, too many midgame and endgame monsters are unaffected by them to make it worthwhile carrying confuse and sleep devices. Around as many monsters resist 'hold monster', but total paralysis is so good that it's worth carrying a little longer, just for the monsters you can still get with it. As the game goes on, however, monsters seem to snap out of it more and more quickly, until it reaches the point where it just isn't doing you any noticeable good, and it should be dropped.

'Slow Monster' and 'Stun Monster' are endgame tools. The vast majority of living monsters can be stunned, and it usually lasts long enough to kill the monster in question. Stunning can make a very big difference to how many blows it takes to bring down a wyrm, and when that is combined with reducing the chances of a 'summon ancient dragons' spell, I wouldn't want to be without it. It's also great for greater demons, who can get you into a horrible runaway summoning chain reaction.

'Slow Monster' isn't as good as 'Stun Monster', I have the impression that both increase your chance of a critical hit, and I want all the help I can get while fighting a black reaver. It works, as far as I can recall, on any monster.

[Pete Mack]

In my experience, too many midgame and endgame monsters are unaffected by them to make it worthwhile carrying confuse and sleep devices. Around as many monsters resist 'hold monster', but total paralysis is so good that it's worth carrying a little longer, just for the monsters you can still get with it. As the game goes on, however, monsters seem to snap out of it more and more quickly, until it reaches the point where it just isn't doing you any noticeable good, and it should be dropped.

'Slow Monster' and 'Stun Monster' are endgame tools. The vast majority of living monsters can be stunned, and it usually lasts long enough to kill the monster in question. Stunning can make a very big difference to how many blows it takes to bring down a wyrm, and when that is combined with reducing the chances of a 'summon ancient dragons' spell, I wouldn't want to be without it. It's also great for greater demons, who can get you into a horrible runaway summoning chain reaction.

'Slow Monster' isn't as good as 'Stun Monster', I have the impression that both increase your chance of a critical hit, and I want all the help I can get while fighting a black reaver. It works, as far as I can recall, on any monster.

Stunning reduces monster melee a lot (danage and hit probability) and means the monster occasionally loses a turn. I don't think it has other effects, but these are very good in themselves. I have beaten a horned reapee in melee with a mage just using occasional Ice storms to keep it stunned. (Weapon was MoD of Gondolin, but still.)