Gloves on a mage?

[fmackenz]

I've played various versions of *band for a long time, but I've never played a mage class.

After reading a post on fast diving with a HE mage, I thought I'd give one a try. Two questions:

1. When do you start wearing gloves? I'm a CL 31 and am still not wearing any... Is there a point where it makes sense?

2. Is there any value to having more than one Rod of Recall? Can they be stolen or destroyed?

Thanks.

[awldune]

I've played various versions of *band for a long time, but I've never played a mage class.

After reading a post on fast diving with a HE mage, I thought I'd give one a try. Two questions:

1. When do you start wearing gloves? I'm a CL 31 and am still not wearing any... Is there a point where it makes sense?

2. Is there any value to having more than one Rod of Recall? Can they be stolen or destroyed?

Thanks.

1. Gloves that give + Agility or Free Action don't carry any penalty for mages. I would never wear gloves that do carry a penalty, though.

2. They can be stolen, although this is not a big concern. Usually as a mage you will have Recall spell before too long anyway.

[PowerDiver]

1. Gloves that give + Agility or Free Action don't carry any penalty for mages. I would never wear gloves that do carry a penalty, though.

My last mage used gloves of combat for the con bonus. HP are more important than SP.

[aeneas]

My last mage used gloves of combat for the con bonus. HP are more important than SP.

I think you need to assess this on a case-by-case basis. For a mage as fast as you were playing I imagine that Con would almost always be better. Actually, that's probably true for any mage that is at all fast, if you're lucky enough to find gloves like that. But my mage-casters are often not able to find gloves good enough to wear till very late.

Also, I'm kind of bad on some game statistics so you might want to take this with a grain of salt, but I believe that once your dex is over 18/150 you can't be stolen from. Of course you could get drained and then stolen from... in practice it doesn't seem to be much of a concern. I tend to carry one ?recall down with me for a while after I get the rod, until my dex is reasonably high, unless I need the slots at home. I think that is overly paranoid- I never need it.

[Pete Mack]

With the regular artifacts, you generally find Cambeleg prior to gloves of Combat, so the issue rarely comes up. But with randarts, I agree Combat gloves are a likely source of CON for a Mage with 0-fail.

[PowerDiver]

I believe that once your dex is over 18/150 you can't be stolen from.

You are completely safe at 18/150, and you can reduce that by your level as a multiple of 10. I.e. clvl 37 is safe at 18/120.

However, I really prefer to carry multiple rods. I have lost track of the number of times I have chosen to undo my recall. E.g. while you are waiting for it to kick in, a tasty Wyrm comes to make a donation. Or you forgot you dropped your ?*ID in another room to avoid it getting burnt.

[aeneas]

However, I really prefer to carry multiple rods. I have lost track of the number of times I have chosen to undo my recall. E.g. while you are waiting for it to kick in, a tasty Wyrm comes to make a donation. Or you forgot you dropped your ?*ID in another room to avoid it getting burnt.

Yep, that's a very good point, and I actually almost always carry a few of them for that reason, once I have a few of them.

[Nick]

2. Is there any value to having more than one Rod of Recall? Can they be stolen or destroyed?

If you have a second rod and zap the first one accidentally (I know I'm not the only person this sort of stuff happens to - I've read about it), you can zap the second to cancel the recall. Also, occasionally you can be about to enter a battle which you're unlikely to win, but unlikely to die fast. One plan is to zap one rod, then zap the second if the battle is going better than expected. The prime example here is melee-only uniques who are the same speed as you - if things don't work out, you can just run until the recall kicks in.

[Narvius]

That plan can backfire, though - if you forget to unrecall, kill that thing and don't get the time to pick up that phial...

[fmackenz]

Thanks. I just found the book that has recall in it. Once you have that, do you still carry Rods?

Almost died yesterday. Saruman of Many Colors was in a vault on level 33! Luckly, I survived one round against him before I could port away.

Stupid mistake on my part for not seeing him earlier. Feeling too confident will get you killed.

[aeneas]

Thanks. I just found the book that has recall in it. Once you have that, do you still carry Rods?

Almost died yesterday. Saruman of Many Colors was in a vault on level 33! Luckly, I survived one round against him before I could port away.

Stupid mistake on my part for not seeing him earlier. Feeling too confident will get you killed.

You have to be very careful about greater vaults at shallow levels. If I'm not wrong (and I probably am) they can contain creatures native to as deep as dlvl 73 at dlvl 33. I tend to ignore them unless they are particularly safe/valuable vaults, and I have certain things. I've even dived past a GCV a few times, because I would have to dig with low strength and the first cell was very likely to kill me if it was awake. It's painful to give up a greater vault, but it's often the right decision.

About recall- are you pinched for slots? If not, carry both. When you need the space toss the rods. It never hurts to continue carrying something (light) if you don't need the space. But if you have lots of mana and the spell there is no reason to prioritize the rods over something better.

[fmackenz]

Thanks for the advice.

Another question: Once you get "Detect Enchantment" is there any reason for carrying "Object Detection"?

[Narvius]

I think Detect Enchantment doesn't detect (often very valuable) potions. I'm not sure...

[Pete Mack]

Detect enchantment doesn't detect mushrooms but that's not really enough to use up another slot. If you are wearing Thrain do use it instead.

[fmackenz]

Excellent. Thanks for that.

How about a missile weapon. Do mages end up using a bow?

I just finished maxing my stats and I'm about to start diving again. Should I be looking for good ammo / off hand?