and just like that, it's all over.

[Derakon]

Cool. Maybe I'll try it the next time I die in Angband. I'm back up to the early dl40s and nearly died twice (and force closed the program before the baddies' turns could finish). Someone breathed shards and I went from 430 to 14. with [more] messages on the way so I force quit I don't even remember the other NDE that I quit on, but similar sudden massive loss of HP.

Could have been a crystal drake or whatever the ancient dragon shards monster is; they have a lot of HP and can probably hit the shards damage cap. Angband loves throwing single huge attacks at you to keep you on your toes; learning which monsters you have to avoid and/or be very careful in dealing with is crucial to survival.

Note that breath damage is based on the monster's current HP, not its max, so once you hurt an enemy a bit its breath weapons will be less potent.

I am wearing a ring of bodykeeping yet some devilish thing drained some of my constitution just now.

Yeah, time attacks bypass sustains. They suck. Fortunately there's only two enemies in the game that use them with any regularity, and they both have "time" in their name.

[Grotug]

cool, thanks for the tips! Yes, it was a time thingmajig that got me. Just 2000xp till my next level, tho. I just had a run in with a lesser balrog. That was... uhh... unhealthy. Again, health in the 20s. And then creatures I had relatively little problems dealing with (inertia hounds) suddenly bring me again into the 20s from upper 300s in one turn, that was unexpected (they had me slow at -10 tho) and this was right after near death with the lesser balrog. I do have a rod of healing which I am going to start bringing with me now as I will run out of healing potions soon at this rate! Unfortunately it takes 1000 turns to recharge. Also will bring my rod of teleport other along now, too.

I'm suffering major hp hits and my equipment is offering resistances for the following:
acid
fire
cold
lightning
nexus
sound
shards (I didn't when the crystal drake or whoever it was got me)

No resistance to poison except with a ring that I wear as the default now. Just put my ring of damage into holding, since it's too risky not to have a ring of resistance on.

I'm not wearing my speed boots since the Radagast ones I am wearing provide protection from paralysis.

[MattB]

cool, thanks for the tips! Yes, it was a time thingmajig that got me. Just 2000xp till my next level, tho. I just had a run in with a lesser balrog. That was... uhh... unhealthy. Again, health in the 20s. And then creatures I had relatively little problems dealing with (inertia hounds) suddenly bring me again into the 20s from upper 300s in one turn, that was unexpected (they had me slow at -10 tho) and this was right after near death with the lesser balrog. I do have a rod of healing which I am going to start bringing with me now as I will run out of healing potions soon at this rate! Unfortunately it takes 1000 turns to recharge. Also will bring my rod of teleport other along now, too.

Well, rods of healing and TO are better than no sources of healing and TO. But what are your fail rates on them? I find they're useless as escapes, but do have a use by not using up potions/charges on better items when you're in non-critical situations. FWIW.

I'm suffering major hp hits and my equipment is offering resistances for the following:
acid
fire
cold
lightning
nexus
sound
shards (I didn't when the crystal drake or whoever it was got me)

No resistance to poison except with a ring that I wear as the default now. Just put my ring of damage into holding, since it's too risky not to have a ring of resistance on.

I'm not wearing my speed boots since the Radagast ones I am wearing provide protection from paralysis.

FrAct is THE most important resisitance, granted, but after that speed is king. Is there no way to get both? Even a ring of FrAct to go with your RoPoison?

(That's what I'd do but, then again, I'm not a very good player compared to many )

[Grotug]

I could wear the FrAct ring and boots, but then I'd have to do away with the ResPois ring or BodyKeeping. Body keeping seems pretty essential at this point. At one point my strength was drained to 5. Now its 18/186 Things to mull over for sure. I do have a rod of speed that I use regularly and still carry potions of speed and even a staff of speed when I pick it up in the dungeon. Basically, the temptation to take off the ring of FrAct and put something else on is too great and too many times I have nearly died or died because of paralysis.

edit: Also, speed makes me very careless. But that just shows how powerful it is!

[LostTemplar]

Nice to see that drolems still do thier job right.

[Derakon]

Lose the Bodykeeping; learn which monsters drain stats and avoid meleeing them instead. Either use the monster spoilers, or carry a Rod of Probing, to learn what monster melee attacks do.

Probably the most dangerous drainer in your depth is Dreads (whose melee drains STR). Best to detect and avoid them, or to have enough speed and offense that you can kill them one at a time as they approach, rather than getting swarmed.

[Grotug]

Found full plate armor with nice bonus (86 armor total) that prevents paralysis, but means switching out my lovely Arvedui special that prevents shards and nexus. Hmmmmmmmmm decisions decisions. The plate armor would boost my constitution by +1 as well. I suppose I could carry both armors and swap when needed. Might be a hassle tho. Any thoughts?

edit: I'm wondering if at this point I should lose my rods of firebolts and frost bolts given my arrows do similar amount of damage. That would free up two slots for more needed items in my backpack.

I dunno if I can play that meticulously. I often run into things that I think I've seen before and are weak, when they use a very similar color (or even same color--I'm playing with ascii graphics) and end up being very nefarious. Maybe I should move to a graphical tile set

[AnonymousHero]

FA is much more important that rShards and rNexus. (Of course it doesn't stack so if you have it from other equipment, then use Arvedui.)

Of course you should keep Arvedui (in the home or inventory) since you'll probably find gloves or other equipment with FA.

[Derakon]

Shards and nexus simply don't show up that often; they are absolutely not vital resists. Hell, nothing is a vital elemental resist except for fire/cold/electricity/acid/poison. If you have some gear that will significantly help your ability to deal with "average monsters", but it means losing one or more high resists, then you should make that sacrifice.

The only resist I'd consider carrying as a swap is rDisenchant, but only if I'm playing a melee character, or if I'm seriously considering trying to kill the Tarrasque. But that latter never happens these days. Some monsters just aren't worth fighting. And I freely admit that carrying that swap is an irrational decision -- in practice, the losses due to disenchantment are not going to be very significant.

[Grotug]

I just want to clarify:

I have FA boots (of Radagast) and speed [+10] boots.
I have rNexus rShards armor (of Arvedui) and FA armor with [+1] Constitution

I have been wearing the FA boots and Arvedui armor. My thinking is that I will now wear the speed boots and the FA armor and shelve the Arvedui rNexus rShards armor and the FA boots. The Radagast FA boots are nice because they have +5 Infravision, +3 stealth and +1 wisdom and feather falling. I can't recall off hand, but I don't think the speed boots have any bonuses. The boots were courtesy of Beorn. Anyway, thanks for da feedback.

EDIT: gauntlets of free action just came into the black market! Now I really have a lot of options. Would mean swapping out my Castus of +6 to-dam. hmmm. A ring of flames also in the black market--not sure if it'd be better than my current ring of resist heat tho.

edit: so I guess my choice now is do I want to trade +6 damage for nexus and shards resistance? I guess I do :-/

edit: do most people play ascii graphics or tiles?

@Derakon: keeping away from Dreads would be a serious pain in the butt. I really think I need to keep bodykeeping, since they go through walls and will just follow me wherever I go, taking a direct line to me as well. On DL46 now and have picked up 3 potions of *healing* O_O Those will go into storage for latah. I just slew about 15 Dreads and my character feels anxious about this place.

edit: boots of speed +rod of speed +heavy xbow of power [+19 to-dam] + bolts of slay evil = dragon slayer extraordinaire Ancient dragons wilt before my very presence

[LostTemplar]

I would wear +speed regardless of anything all time and carry something with FA at least as a swap. Resists are not important. Well, poison resist is fun, and basic ones are mandatory later but in general they are available anyway (or carry defender weapon as swap, it also works for FA).

[Grotug]

Just ran into the drolem again. And again didn't realize who it was until several turns. I teleported him away as soon as I realized. But with my ring of res poison and 566 hp, could he have killed me in one turn? I dunno how much the ring reduces his max poison hit, but if I recall right 800 is his max if I have no resistance. Little green g just doesn't get my attention.

In other news, there is a potion of life in the store for $15k. 5000hp and all stats and exp restored. Hard to believe I'll ever have 5000hp.

[Derakon]

I would wear +speed regardless of anything all time and carry something with FA at least as a swap. Resists are not important. Well, poison resist is fun, and basic ones are mandatory later but in general they are available anyway (or carry defender weapon as swap, it also works for FA).

Walking around without FA is asking to be surprise-paralyzed and killed. FA is not a swapppable ability.

Grotug: poison resistance cuts the damage you take to 1/3rd, so you should have been safe from the drolem. And no, you will never have 5000 HP. The most durable characters top out around 1300 HP, if I recall correctly.

[LostTemplar]

Walking around without FA is asking to be surprise-paralyzed and killed. FA is not a swapppable ability.

Strongly depends on play style. I consider any surprise deadly and thus all abilities equally swappable, except speed and ESP since they actually lower probability of surprise. If you roam at dlvl 98 with 170 hp paralyze is not worst that can happen.

[Grotug]

weeeeee! I dropped my two rods of recall instead of the two rods of light. Only noticed after I left the level. Fun times on dl50 with no way out!

Found arrows of seeking but left them behind since I'm wielding a crossbow of extra shots. Then found a short bow of superness (something about Faenor's sons: +2 constitution and strength!) and regeneration, and 4x power instead of 2x with a +2 of power to boot. No worries about being stuck in the dungeon, have had the light of Erendil for awhile and 15 scrolls of satisfy hunger.

Well, this bow, despite its 4x rating and 15 to-dam isn't as powerful as my crossbow, but the extra strength and constitution sure are nice! In fact, my strength is so high now that it reads as 18/***