and just like that, it's all over.

[Derakon]

Maces of Disruption are 5d8 weapons with innate Slay Undead, but they're also horribly heavy. They can be quite good...or not. A Mace of Disruption of Slay Evil would make a good endgame candidate weapon.

But you're playing a ranger, right? Shoot everything to death.

[Grotug]

Grrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr -- I spent hours and hours and hours combing dungeons for better equipment. FINALLY after harrowing and endless fights with ever more demons I find what probably were sweet weapons when they both get destroyed, leaving behind all the crappy early dungeon weapons. "The great axe burns up!" Awesome! After I slayed the Witch King of Angmar I had to deal with a bile demon so I shoot some acid from a ring of protection and I read "the Mace of destruction dissolves!" (maybe it wasn't destruction but it was a new weapon to me--don't remember the name). The only two weapons that probably were good got destroyed--the rest of the crap not. Oh well, they'll be more, 15 hours from now....

[MattB]

Well, I am sticking with the gloves of monster aggravation because they also prevent paralysis and I got rid of my cloak of FrAct and boots of radagast FrAct so, only need one of each.

Should I open a chest with an explosion device on it? Or is there some way to open it without getting badly hurt/dead?

'D' for disarm.
You might fail to disarm it, of course, in which case it'll blow up and destroy the contents.

[Grotug]

Well, I am sticking with the gloves of monster aggravation because they also prevent paralysis and I got rid of my cloak of FrAct and boots of radagast FrAct so, only need one of each.

Should I open a chest with an explosion device on it? Or is there some way to open it without getting badly hurt/dead?

[Derakon]

Only two copies? I consider 3 to be the bare minimum for late-game casters.

[Grotug]

Fair enough, but then I need to carry two copies of books with me. One nice thing about fire immunity is only having to carry one copy of each spell book. You're probably right, tho, that, that's the best way to do it.

Edit: I took your advise as reflected in the updated character dump:

http://angband.oook.cz/ladder-show.php?id=15166

[HugoVirtuoso]

On another note, I almost feel the trouble of aggravating monsters outweighs the benefits of fire immunity. :-/ What are your thoughts? MoS hit me with a pretty nasty firebolt that stripped 200+ hp (that was what brought me into the red).

I think the Set of Gauntlets of Eol should be used as a SWAP while roaming the deeper levels of Angband. While you have it off, have ready 1x equipment source of FireResist + temporary fire resistance at all times. Then, if you're facing a nasty LONE fire breather, like a Great Hell Wyrm, swap on those gloves and hit away.

[Grotug]

Well, that was exciting. Ran out of healing potions while fighting Mouth of Sauron and his minions. After coming close to death when my hitpoints were already in red-warning; my last resort, zap wand of healing, of course failed. So my hp went even lower to about 54 I think. I zapped again and it worked. Speed was definitely a saving grace, reducing the amount of damage done to me between turns. Still, really wish I had 894 hp again. I actually found a ring of constitution and held onto it. It's good thing I have two rods of recall as I zapped it after escaping danger, but then realized I had never picked up the stuff Mouth of Sauron dropped! So I canceled recall, got my hp up again through running around and searching (in my panic I forgot to rest!) but got hit by eye or ruj offscreen and found msyelf with 94 hp and then took time to carefully plot how I would retrieve the amulet MoS dropped without dying. Speed plus maddock were great in aiding my plan. I found on the map where I had killed him and tunneled through rock for a strategic point of entry (there were still a bunch of demons MoS had summoned that I hand't dealt with, one of which nearly killed me after I had killed MoS since I underestimated it). yowsers! So I got my HP up to 894 and drilled through the rock and raced to the point of drop, grabbed the pearl of something amulet, saw that it was {splendid} (or special? didn't take too much notice in the high adrenaline race out of there) and was happy I came back for it. I will do another character upload.

On another note, I almost feel the trouble of aggravating monsters outweighs the benefits of fire immunity. :-/ What are your thoughts? MoS hit me with a pretty nasty firebolt that stripped 200+ hp (that was what brought me into the red).

Here is my latest character upload: http://angband.oook.cz/ladder-show.php?id=15166

[Grotug]

No, they are not. What stacks is permanent resistance and temporary resistance. So a kobold (who has innate poison resistance) can drink a Potion of Resist Poison and take only 1/9th damage from poison attacks as long as the potion's effects hold out. But they would get zero benefit from wearing any gear that gives permanent poison resistance, because they already have it innately.

Thanks for clearing that up! Well, I'm still alive. DL63 "this place is very dangerous" --nothing i couldn't handle tho, cleared the whole level, including that room full of Hydras without banishing 'em. That earned me about $250,000. It was a long slog because of all the messages, but because I'm immune to fire, the 11 headed ones did the least damage.

Just picked up a long bow that grants [+10] speed. Now I'm running around at 22 with the option to zap a wand and go to 32. But my HP went from 894 to 754. Switching to the mattock (for a modest increase in power -- strengths against the same enemies --dragons, orcs, trolls, giants) drops constitution by 2 and switching bows drops constitution by another 2. Prolly keep my current rapier.

[Derakon]

I have an amulet of rPoison and gloves of rPoison, so those two pieces of equipment are stacking for extra protection?

No, they are not. What stacks is permanent resistance and temporary resistance. So a kobold (who has innate poison resistance) can drink a Potion of Resist Poison and take only 1/9th damage from poison attacks as long as the potion's effects hold out. But they would get zero benefit from wearing any gear that gives permanent poison resistance, because they already have it innately.

[Grotug]

I have an amulet of rPoison and gloves of rPoison, so those two pieces of equipment are stacking for extra protection?

EDIT: btw, it just took me 3 charges (as in three tries) to teleport a master mystic away. Good thing I have 3 rods of teleport other! Currently doing battle with Saruman of Many Colors, but he's summoned a few nasty friends so this might take some cunning. Just picked up a mattock with more damage than my previous weapon, so I phased outta the hallway when Saruman summoned friends and then tunneled to them again through the rock from another hallway below

[debo]

Yes -- you can stack one source of equipment-based resistance with one source of magical resistance (e.g. a potion or a spell). Stacking 2+ equipment-based resists or 2+ magical resists has no cumulative effect, IIRC. (I know that's true for sure about equipment, I'm not 100% sure on the magical side.)

[Grotug]

I just want to clarify: rings, armor and amulets of resistance when combined will produce no extra benefits? So wearing a ring of rPoison is the same as wearing a ring of rPoison and an amulet of rPoison and a shield of rPoison, correct?

[Grotug]

my current setup: http://angband.oook.cz/ladder-show.php?id=15166

Thanks guys for all the help! I really like my setup right now. I picked up a sweet elven bow of extra shots and rDisenchant and +1 speed but I like my current short bow's +2 strength constitution and regeneration so not using the elven bow. I recently acquired gauntlets that provide immunity to fire. Very cool. (They also aggravate monsters, tho).

[LostTemplar]

Sounds fun, but how are you going to avoid missle attacks? Seems like you'd have to play in a somewhat boring and repetitive fashion.

The point is not to use cheesy stuff, but simply avoid everything with missile attack. Bosses are trouble, they dont fit in the scheme, so either get hit by them, or be cheesy. I thought about this as a more or less pacifist playstyle with rarely monster kills.