Poschengband game mechanic questions

[chris]

Hm, I see, thanks. I didn't know hybrid classes couldn't get 0% fail. So, basically it's either angel or monk or paladin then...

Also, were angels nerfed? I checked the ladder, and this entry, which was apparently the very first poschengband win http://angband.oook.cz/ladder-show.php?id=13938 has a comment that the snake was killed at CL43 with a light crossbow of Brand... Considering the skill table, their bow skill is even worse than melee so I just dunno how it's possible without shooting several hundred times/ Do they suddenly become stronger late game or they are still meh fighters who make up for that with their utility?

Angels, and priests, can indeed become good fighters in the end. I'm not sure how Victor won at CL43 with shooting, though. Amazing!

[mewmew]

Hm, I see, thanks. I didn't know hybrid classes couldn't get 0% fail. So, basically it's either angel or monk or paladin then...

Also, were angels nerfed? I checked the ladder, and this entry, which was apparently the very first poschengband win http://angband.oook.cz/ladder-show.php?id=13938 has a comment that the snake was killed at CL43 with a light crossbow of Brand... Considering the skill table, their bow skill is even worse than melee so I just dunno how it's possible without shooting several hundred times/ Do they suddenly become stronger late game or they are still meh fighters who make up for that with their utility?

[chris]

I'm thinking of my next character and I have no idea... I want to have a) strong melee and b) healing spell which I could reliably (0% fail chance) cast a few times late game, to decrease the amount of late game potion grinding and c)to be not very bad with devices. May be it's too much to ask?

0% healing means Priest, Mage (Sorcerer, High-Mage) or Angel. Since you want melee as well, the mage types are out. That leaves Priests and Angels. The former has *much* better healing than the latter, but Angels are better at melee and have good detection and offensive spells as well (Plus crazy stat bonuses, a bonus to speed and good intrinsic resists/powers).

For stronger melee, you have to step back to the hybrid classes, which will have 5% fail rates (actually, 3% fails once you "master" the spell). Life is the better realm to choose since you'll get a cheap, reliable 300hp healing spell very early. Choosing Nature means you get a better healing spell (500hp) but it costs a lot more and is very hard to cast. In fact, you need to be CL50 with 18/*** in your spell stat (and probably a neutral alignment) in order to get that 5% fail rate. It's delayed gratification, but Nature has awesome detection so getting there is much more pleasant. Paladin (Life only), Monk, Force-Trainer, Ranger (Nature only), and perhaps Warrior-Mage are all good choices for this route.

[mewmew]

I'm thinking of my next character and I have no idea... I want to have a) strong melee and b) healing spell which I could reliably (0% fail chance) cast a few times late game, to decrease the amount of late game potion grinding and c)to be not very bad with devices. May be it's too much to ask? I thought about playing an angel, but their melee seems truly pathetic so they are kind of hard to keep alive and to kill stuff (I just quickly leveled one to CL20 on hounds in wilderness and couldn't kill Nar the Dwarf! Hardly killed Lagduf... Eventually lost all tele scrolls (I don't remember I wasted so many tele scrolls both leveling and doing DL6 and DL12 quests, it was dozens, leveling wasn't smooth) and was killed). My other ideas are either monk (life, dunno about nature) or paladin (life) or water elemental (heh.. but acid proof armors are common, their healing is lacking though) or at the worst ordinary priest (I suppose their melee suck like angel's but they don't have 275% exp penalty either). Rangers have herbal healing but it seems rather too expensive (is it?). May be I missed some possibility too. What would be the best choice?

[mewmew]

Oh, nice, thanks.

[chris]

Does Zul cure mutation service remove special abilities? i.e. is it risky to use for humans and demigods?

Nope. Your special powers are safe.

[mewmew]

Does Zul cure mutation service remove special abilities? i.e. is it risky to use for humans and demigods?

[mewmew]

Thank you.

[chris]

Oh, Chris, could you answer please how experience penalties for classes and races stack? It sounds as something basic but it seems you are the only one who knows :3, I couldn't find it anywhere.

If I choose, say, high-elf (190% racial penalty) sorcerer (160% class penalty), will it be base 100% + 90% + 60% = 250% total exp penalty or 1.9 * 1.6 = 3.04 i.e. 304% exp penalty or it will be something else? The difference may be noticeable and I always think of exp penalties when I choose a combo to play...

It's multiplicative: 1.9*1.6 in your example.

[mewmew]

Oh, Chris, could you answer please how experience penalties for classes and races stack? It sounds as something basic but it seems you are the only one who knows :3, I couldn't find it anywhere.

If I choose, say, high-elf (190% racial penalty) sorcerer (160% class penalty), will it be base 100% + 90% + 60% = 250% total exp penalty or 1.9 * 1.6 = 3.04 i.e. 304% exp penalty or it will be something else? The difference may be noticeable and I always think of exp penalties when I choose a combo to play...

[chris]

press _ in game it will load a file with some pre-set settings (which you can change) for auto-pick up, auto id, auto-destroy average and good items (since certain level) etc

not really clear, yeah, i dunno why it doesn't load by default

It's leftover from Hengband. Presumably, there is the "Easy Destroyer" for beginners before graduating to the complexity of the pickup preferences. At some point, I plan to remove the Easy Destroyer since having two systems gives some bad interactions when they are both enabled. When I do this, then I'll make the pickup preferences load automatically. But for beginners, they may start wondering why the game is automatically destroying Slime Mold Juice or what not.

[chris]

any macros out there to pick up items and then drop if they are not excellent? as i level perception gets better, but its a hassle to manually pick up and then drop. its kind of slow.

Activate your pickup preferences ('_') and uncomment the 2 preference lines referring to picking up unidentified goodies (comments begin with '#'). So you end up with a section like:

?:[GEQ $LEVEL 35]
!nameless common armors

?:[GEQ $LEVEL 30]
!nameless common weapons

?:[GEQ $LEVEL 20]
!average common weapons
!average common armors
?:1

?:[LEQ $LEVEL 34]
(unidentified armors
(unidentified weapons
?:1

The bottom 2 preference lines will automatically pickup armor and weapons until you hit CL35 (at which point you get instant pseudo-id underfoot so picking up is not desirable). The preference lines above will auto destroy average items at CL20, good weapons at CL30 (but not good blades of chaos, or similar uncommon weapons) and finally good armor at CL35 (but not uncommon good dragon scale mail, for example).

[mewmew]

press _ in game it will load a file with some pre-set settings (which you can change) for auto-pick up, auto id, auto-destroy average and good items (since certain level) etc

not really clear, yeah, i dunno why it doesn't load by default

vamp ninja sounds rather hard, problems with overworld travels, food problems, exp penalty for these 'advantages' and not that straightforward class on top of that, try a human warrior as the game suggests? warriors are too straightforward imo though, i would rather picked a weaponmaster or mauler for melee

ninja should fight with light weapons only, also you can check your weapon stats with Cw (Cb for archery) and weapon skills with ~ [space] and some letter from the menu

[youtoo]

any other good race/class combos besides vampire ninja?

any macros out there to pick up items and then drop if they are not excellent? as i level perception gets better, but its a hassle to manually pick up and then drop. its kind of slow.

how big of a hit do you take when you switch weapons and have to train up proficiency again? lower levels of proficiency go up? I was dual wielding daggers as a vamp/ninja, found a great short sword, but wasnt sure if i should switch to 1 short sword. also not sure how to decide whether its good to switch toa heavy weapon, iwas at 4 blows with each hand with the dagger.

[youtoo]

having issues with auto-destroy. its destorying corpses before i can grab them?

also does anyone know how to get the quests lists to say where you were given the quest?