The one mode that scares me to death in FAAngband is ironman. There are so many occassions in normal play where I have to retreat straight back up the stairs that I don't know whether this mode of play is even close to possible. Your starting town is the only time you can purchase anything (which my first char found to his cost when he arrived at Ossiriand to find all the buildings had gone!) but due to most of the towns only having an apothecary, a temple and a travelling merchant (black market prices) anyway you cannot stock up on much!
I decided that an Ent would give me my best chance of progress - being able to hide in forests should allow me to make the most of those levels and I'd just have to cross the other terrains as quickly as possible. The obvious route for this race is across the Ent Path to Ossiriand, then across the plains of East Beleriand, through the forests of Doriath via Menegroth, across the plains of Dor Dinen, into the mountains and then forests of Dorthonian, through the desert of Angfauglith and finally to the dungeons of Angband. All of my ironman characters so far had died in East Beleriand and I expected any char to get past the plains to meet his death in the mountains.
My next concern was how to avoid starving to death, as food is hardly plentiful and the wilderness takes a long time to traverse. I settled on playing a ranger as foraging (the druidic counterpart to satisfy hunger) is the first spell you can learn. Weak pseudo is a right pain in the wotsit when id is about as scarce as food, but it would have to do. Unfortunately Ents aren't the best at archery, but that's life!
So here begins the tale of Psironic the Ironman Entish Ranger. I don't expect it to be very long...
Psironic started her life (yes she's a gal - they start with more money) in the town of Taur-Im-Duinath. She opted for the athletics speciality (+2 and partial sustains to Dex and Con) to improve her to_hit and to offset an Ent's poor (and decreasing) Dex. She spent her 150 gp on an ?Id, a ?Phase Door and a stack of torches (didn't want to run out of light!). She then made her way east along the Ent Path through the forest picking off the usual jackals, centipedes and icky things. As she can never revisit a depth once she has left it, she has to make the most of each level - particularly in the forests where Ents have such a big advantage. Therefore she made CL5 when only at DL3. By this time she could cast foraging, so ditched the food she was carrying.
DLs 4&5 were her first two plains levels so she crossed from one side to the other as quickly as she could to reach the safety of the forests at DL6 where she progressed to CL7. On entering the deserted town of Ossiriand - deserted in that the buildings had all gone rather than the townsfolk! - she came face to face with the ever-miserable Complainer. Rather than endure his moaning, Psironic quickly eliminated the fellow and he ever-so-kindly dropped boots of stealth - crossing the plains had suddenly become more of a possibility!
On entering DL7, Psironic was challenged by the player ghost, Alexander Ulyano, the Skeleton. After an awful battle (ranger melee is really very poor in the early game - as is archery for any class), he dropped a chest. Failing to disarm it flung the contents "to the four winds". Later, she found a few crappy wands on the level, so I guess that was what was in it. She then lingered on the level, reaching CL10 whilst waiting for night to fall.
So under cover of dark (*all* monsters start asleep), Psironic began the dash across the plains of East Beleriand in her stealth boots. Unfortunately these levels are arranged horizontally so they take a long, nerve-wracking time to cross! The 'crappy' wand of confusion came to her rescue a couple of times, allowing her to get enough of a lead on chasing monsters that had woken up and begun pursuit. She also woke up a plainsman's camp but managed to reach the pathway before they achieved LoS on her. Eventually (and much to my surprise I might add), Psironic arrived at the relative safety of the forest level of Doriath 16! My first Ironman character to survive that far.
She hit her first 'attemptable' wilderness vault here which yielded a chest of unId'd rings which she did not have the space to carry! As the 6 rings were of 3 distinct flavours, she picked the ring that was only represented once. It proved to be a good choice as a later ?Id showed it to be Free Action! Moving north to Doriath 17, detecting objects revealed the lamp of Gwindor (the FA equivalent of the phial) in an Orc encampment guarded by Balcmeg. The battle went on for ever, with Psironic frequently retreating into the trees to hide and recover. Eventually she emerged triumphant at CL15 and her prize meant she could no longer run out of light as well as food now.
Carrying on north, she was fortunate to pick up copies of her next two spellbooks and then had another big battle, this time against Ulwarth. Had it not been for Ent's 'superstealth' in forests he would have easily have had the upper hand, but again Psironic prevailed. There were also several sightings of Ulfast, but as he has a great drop in FA, I decided to leave him for a later level. Then just as I was about to leave the level I spotted a longbow that I'd previously missed (the perils of playing on a handheld where your detection radius is bigger than your screen!). This proved to be the find of the game so far as it had to be a Longbow of Ossiriand (equivalent of Lothlorien) given the increase to Dex when wielding it.
Moving north into the 'town' of Menegroth is where Psironic is found in the dump as of 7th May. I hope this is vaguely interesting as it took ages to type! I will add that Psironic is surprisingly still alive after another session's play, so there will be another update, but how much further she can get in ironman without much means of escape or healing is somewhat debatable!
I decided that an Ent would give me my best chance of progress - being able to hide in forests should allow me to make the most of those levels and I'd just have to cross the other terrains as quickly as possible. The obvious route for this race is across the Ent Path to Ossiriand, then across the plains of East Beleriand, through the forests of Doriath via Menegroth, across the plains of Dor Dinen, into the mountains and then forests of Dorthonian, through the desert of Angfauglith and finally to the dungeons of Angband. All of my ironman characters so far had died in East Beleriand and I expected any char to get past the plains to meet his death in the mountains.
My next concern was how to avoid starving to death, as food is hardly plentiful and the wilderness takes a long time to traverse. I settled on playing a ranger as foraging (the druidic counterpart to satisfy hunger) is the first spell you can learn. Weak pseudo is a right pain in the wotsit when id is about as scarce as food, but it would have to do. Unfortunately Ents aren't the best at archery, but that's life!
So here begins the tale of Psironic the Ironman Entish Ranger. I don't expect it to be very long...
Psironic started her life (yes she's a gal - they start with more money) in the town of Taur-Im-Duinath. She opted for the athletics speciality (+2 and partial sustains to Dex and Con) to improve her to_hit and to offset an Ent's poor (and decreasing) Dex. She spent her 150 gp on an ?Id, a ?Phase Door and a stack of torches (didn't want to run out of light!). She then made her way east along the Ent Path through the forest picking off the usual jackals, centipedes and icky things. As she can never revisit a depth once she has left it, she has to make the most of each level - particularly in the forests where Ents have such a big advantage. Therefore she made CL5 when only at DL3. By this time she could cast foraging, so ditched the food she was carrying.
DLs 4&5 were her first two plains levels so she crossed from one side to the other as quickly as she could to reach the safety of the forests at DL6 where she progressed to CL7. On entering the deserted town of Ossiriand - deserted in that the buildings had all gone rather than the townsfolk! - she came face to face with the ever-miserable Complainer. Rather than endure his moaning, Psironic quickly eliminated the fellow and he ever-so-kindly dropped boots of stealth - crossing the plains had suddenly become more of a possibility!
On entering DL7, Psironic was challenged by the player ghost, Alexander Ulyano, the Skeleton. After an awful battle (ranger melee is really very poor in the early game - as is archery for any class), he dropped a chest. Failing to disarm it flung the contents "to the four winds". Later, she found a few crappy wands on the level, so I guess that was what was in it. She then lingered on the level, reaching CL10 whilst waiting for night to fall.
So under cover of dark (*all* monsters start asleep), Psironic began the dash across the plains of East Beleriand in her stealth boots. Unfortunately these levels are arranged horizontally so they take a long, nerve-wracking time to cross! The 'crappy' wand of confusion came to her rescue a couple of times, allowing her to get enough of a lead on chasing monsters that had woken up and begun pursuit. She also woke up a plainsman's camp but managed to reach the pathway before they achieved LoS on her. Eventually (and much to my surprise I might add), Psironic arrived at the relative safety of the forest level of Doriath 16! My first Ironman character to survive that far.
She hit her first 'attemptable' wilderness vault here which yielded a chest of unId'd rings which she did not have the space to carry! As the 6 rings were of 3 distinct flavours, she picked the ring that was only represented once. It proved to be a good choice as a later ?Id showed it to be Free Action! Moving north to Doriath 17, detecting objects revealed the lamp of Gwindor (the FA equivalent of the phial) in an Orc encampment guarded by Balcmeg. The battle went on for ever, with Psironic frequently retreating into the trees to hide and recover. Eventually she emerged triumphant at CL15 and her prize meant she could no longer run out of light as well as food now.
Carrying on north, she was fortunate to pick up copies of her next two spellbooks and then had another big battle, this time against Ulwarth. Had it not been for Ent's 'superstealth' in forests he would have easily have had the upper hand, but again Psironic prevailed. There were also several sightings of Ulfast, but as he has a great drop in FA, I decided to leave him for a later level. Then just as I was about to leave the level I spotted a longbow that I'd previously missed (the perils of playing on a handheld where your detection radius is bigger than your screen!). This proved to be the find of the game so far as it had to be a Longbow of Ossiriand (equivalent of Lothlorien) given the increase to Dex when wielding it.
Moving north into the 'town' of Menegroth is where Psironic is found in the dump as of 7th May. I hope this is vaguely interesting as it took ages to type! I will add that Psironic is surprisingly still alive after another session's play, so there will be another update, but how much further she can get in ironman without much means of escape or healing is somewhat debatable!
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