The Angband Ladder: Mighty HolyMutant, Archon Priest by <Elliott946@aol.com>

  [Hengband 1.6.2 Character Dump]

                          Name  : Mighty HolyMutant

 Sex      : Male             Age                18    Str :  18/*** 18/***
 Race     : Archon           Height             80    INT :  18/128
 Class    : Priest           Weight            184    WIS :  18/***
 Magic    : Life, Craft      Social Class       12    DEX :  18/***
                             Align          Lawful    CON :  18/210
                                                      CHR :  18/199

 Two hands      (+114,+86)   Hit point    328/ 775    Fighting    : Amber [17]
                             SP (Mana)    333/ 363    Bows/Throw  : Amber [22]
 Blows/Round           6+0                            Saving Throw: Chaos Rank
 AverageDmg/Rnd      591+0   Level              39    Stealth     : Excellent
                             Experience    2333481
 Shooting        (+85,+20)   Max Exp       2333481    Perception  : Good
 Multiplier          x4.80   Exp to Adv    2550000    Searching   : Good
 Shots/Round          0.83   Gold         10222131    Disarming   : Excellent
                                                      Magic Device: Chaos Rank
 AC              [28,+181]   Time     Day 21 19:02
 Speed            (+21+10)   Play time    20:15:45    Infra-Vision: 100 feet


                         (Character Background)
          A pious man all your life, you were recently exposed to raw
          chaos and unwittingly became the favorite of a Lord of
          Chaos.  The only way to resolve this terrible conflict is
          to destroy the ultimate source of chaos, the Serpent itself

          ...You retired from the adventure after the winning.


                                                               Modification
 Sex   : Male          Stat    BaseRacClaPerMod ActualCurrent  abcdefghijkl@
 Race  : Archon        Str :  18/64  2 -1  2 15 18/*** 18/***  ..4..4.4.3...
 Class : Priest        INT :  18/78  0 -3 -2 10 18/128         .....43.3....
 Level : 39            WIS :  18/76  4  3 -1 13 18/***         .....43.33...
 Hits  : 328/775       DEX :  18/70  1 -1  0 20 18/***         1.4..4..3.44.
 Mana  : 333/363       CON :  18/70  2  0  1 11 18/210         ..4..4...3...
                       CHR :  18/69  3  2  0  8 18/199         .....4.4.....
         \ }=="*[(]]]             \ }=="*[(]]]                 \ }=="*[(]]]
         abcdefghijkl@            abcdefghijkl@                abcdefghijkl@
 Acid  : .......+*.+..    Sound : .............    Speed     : ..+.+.+..+.+#
 Elec  : ..+....+.+...    Nether: +.......+....    FreeAction: ..........++.
 Fire  : .......+.+...    Nexus : ...........+.    SeeInvisi.: ......+..++.+
 Cold  : .......+.+...    Chaos : ......+..+...    Hold Life : ......+......
 Poison: .....+...+..#    Disnch: .......+.....    Warning   : .............
 Light : ........++...    Fear  : ............#    SlowDigest: .........+...
 Dark  : .......+.....    Reflct: .............    Regene.   : ........++...
 Shard : ..+..........    AuFire: .............    Levitation: ...........++
 Blind : .....+...+...    AuElec: ............+    Perm Lite : .........+...
 Conf  : ......+..+...    AuCold: .............    Cursed    : .............

             \                  \ }=="*[(]]]                   \ }=="*[(]]]
             ab@                abcdefghijkl@                  abcdefghijkl@
 Slay Evil : ...    Telepathy : ............#    Add Blows   : +............
 Slay Und. : +..    ESP Evil  : .............    Add Tunnel  : ..+..........
 Slay Demon: ...    ESP Noliv.: .............    Add Infra   : .....+..+....
 Slay Drag.: ...    ESP Good  : .............    Add Device  : .............
 Slay Human: ...    ESP Undead: .............    Add Stealth : ........+....
 Slay Anim.: ...    ESP Demon : .............    Add Search  : ........+....
 Slay Orc  : ...    ESP Dragon: .............
 Slay Troll: ...    ESP Human : .............    Riding      : .............
 Slay Giant: ...    ESP Animal: .......+.....    Throw       : .............
 Acid Brand: ...    ESP Orc   : .............    Blessed     : .............
 Elec Brand: ...    ESP Troll : .............    No Teleport : .............
 Fire Brand: ...    ESP Giant : .............    Anti Magic  : .............
 Cold Brand: ...                                 Econom. Mana: .............
 Poison Brd: ...    Sust Str  : .............
 Sharpness : ...    Sust Int  : .....+.......    Drain Exp   : .............
 Quake     : ...    Sust Wis  : .....+.......    Rnd.Teleport: .............
 Vampiric  : ...    Sust Dex  : .....+..+..+.    Aggravate   : .............
 Chaotic   : ...    Sust Con  : .....+.......    TY Curse    : .............
 Force Wep.: ...    Sust Chr  : .....+.......

                                                          

  [Quest Information]

< Completed Quest >
  Thieves Hideout                          (Danger  level:   5) - level  4
  Warg problem                             (Danger  level:   5) - level 12
  Lagduf, the Snaga                        (Dungeon level:   6) - level 12
  Orc Camp                                 (Danger  level:  15) - level 16
  Doom Quest 1                             (Danger  level:  15) - level 18
  The Sewer                                (Danger  level:  15) - level 19
  Logrus Master                            (Danger  level:  25) - level 19
  The Ghost 'Q'                            (Dungeon level:  12) - level 20
  Vapor Quest                              (Danger  level:  25) - level 22
  Old Man Willow Quest                     (Danger  level:  22) - level 29
  Dark Elven Lords Quest                   (Danger  level:  25) - level 29
  The Mimic's Treasure                     (Danger  level:  25) - level 29
  Tengu and Death Swords                   (Danger  level:  25) - level 29
  The Cloning Pits                         (Danger  level:  45) - level 32
  The Old Castle                           (Danger  level:  50) - level 33
  The Tower                                (Danger  level:  30) - level 35
  The Vault                                (Danger  level:  30) - level 35
  Dwar, Dog Lord of Waw                    (Dungeon level:  38) - level 35
  Nidhogg the Hel-Drake                    (Dungeon level:  44) - level 35
  Killing Fields                           (Danger  level:  50) - level 35
  Daoloth, the Render of the Veils         (Dungeon level:  50) - level 36
  Lems the Cyborg                          (Dungeon level:  56) - level 36
  The Rise and Fall of Micro$oft           (Danger  level:  50) - level 37
  Glaaki                                   (Dungeon level:  62) - level 37
  Combat-Echizen "Because it's time"       (Dungeon level:  76) - level 37
  Oberon                                   (Danger  level:  99) - level 38
  Serpent of Chaos                         (Danger  level: 100) - level 39

< Failed Quest >
  Grendel                                  (Dungeon level:  24) - level 26
  The Unicorn of Order                     (Dungeon level:  88) - level 37


  [Miscellaneous Information]

 Recall Depth:
    Angband         : level 100
    Yeek cave       : level   5
    Dragon's lair   : level  60
    Mine            : level  77

 Preserve Mode:      ON
 Autoscum:           ALWAYS
 Small Levels:       ENABLED
 Arena Levels:       ENABLED
 Num. Random Quests: 10

 Arena: 37 Victories


 You have defeated 2417 enemies.


 You were born as Beastman.
 You were a High-Elf before.
 You were a Klackon before.
 You were a Draconian before.
 You were a Golem before.
 You were a Sprite before.
 You were a Ent before.

  [Virtues]

Your alighnment : Lawful

You are the living embodiment of Faith.
You are the living embodiment of Temperance.
You are very virtuous in Chance.
You are very virtuous in Vitality.
You are somewhat virtuous in Mysticism.
You are a bitter enemy of Sacrifice.
You are an enemy of Valour.
You are the living embodiment of Diligence.


  [Mutations]

 You can smell nearby precious metal.
 You can polymorph yourself at will.
 You can harden yourself to the ravages of the elements.
 You can emit confusing, blinding radiation.
 You can send evil creatures directly to Hell.
 You are subject to cowardice.
 Your blood sometimes rushes to your head.
 Electricity is running through your veins.


  [Character Equipment]

a) The Lead-Filled Mace 'Evil Soldlier' (5d4) (+10,+19) (+1 attack) {AtDx;Nt/L}
b) (wielding with two-hands)
c) The Light Crossbow of Amrod (x4) (+18,+20) (+4 to speed)
{SpStDxCnDg;ElSh;Xm}
d) a Ring of Damage (+22)
e) a Ring of Speed (+7)
f) The Amulet of Brilliance of the Fairy [+6] (+4)
{StInWiDxCnChIf;PoBl(InWiDxCnCh}
g) The Jewel of Judgement (+3 to speed)
h) The Metal Scale Mail of Julian (-2) [15,+40] (+4) (charging)
{StCh;AcElFiCoDkDi~Z}
i) The Elven Cloak (*Stealth*) [4,+18] (+3 to stealth)
{InWiDxSlSrIf;*Ac;LiNt;Rg(Dx}
j) The Golden Crown of Amber [0,+15] (+3) {SpStWiCn;ElFiCoPoLiBlCfCa;SiSdRgLu}
k) The Set of Cesti of Fingolfin (+10,+10) [5,+20] (+4) {Dx;Ac;FaSi}
l) The Pair of Soft Leather Boots of Shiva's Avatar (+5,+5) [4,+16] (+4 to
speed)


  [Character Inventory]

a) 3 Books of Life Magic [Book of Common Prayer]
b) 3 Books of Life Magic [High Mass]
c) 2 Books of Life Magic [Book of the Unicorn]
d) 3 Books of Craft Magic [Handbook for Pupils]
e) 2 Books of Craft Magic [Grade Holder's Book]
f) 2 Books of Craft Magic [Note of Acting Master]
g) 2 Potions of Speed
h) 16 Potions of Heroism
i) 6 Potions of Cure Critical Wounds
j) 3 Potions of Healing
k) a Potion of *Healing*
l) 2 Potions of Resistance
m) a Scroll of Teleportation
n) 11 Scrolls of Word of Recall
o) 32 Scrolls of Holy Chant
p) 3 Rods of Teleport Other
q) a Pair of Soft Leather Boots [2,+3]
r) 26 Steel Bolts of Holy Might (3d5) (+14,+17) (220/183)


  [Home Inventory]

 ( page 1 )
a) 4 Books of Life Magic [Book of the Unicorn]
b) 2 Song Books [Harps of Rivendell]
c) a Book of Crusade Magic [Exorcism and Dispelling]
d) a Book of Daemon Magic [Demonthoughts]
e) a Book of Craft Magic [Grade Holder's Book]
f) 5 Books of Craft Magic [Note of Acting Master]
g) 2 Books of Trump Magic [Trumps of Doom]
h) a Book of Trump Magic [Five Aces]
i) 2 Books of Death Magic [Black Channels]
j) 3 Books of Chaos Magic [Chaos Channels]
k) 2 Books of Nature Magic [Nature's Gifts]
l) 5 Books of Sorcery [Pattern Sorcery]

 ( page 2 )
a) a Book of Sorcery [Grimoire of Power]
b) a Mushroom of Restoring
c) 2 Potions of Enlightenment
d) 2 Potions of Self Knowledge
e) 5 Potions of Curing
f) a Scroll of Protection from Evil
g) 3 Scrolls of Genocide
h) a Rod of Perception
i) a Rod of Detection
j) a Rod of Light
k) a Rod of Drain Life
l) a Rod of Acid Balls

 ( page 3 )
a) 2 Rods of Cold Balls
b) a Rod of Stone to Mud
c) a Wand of Stone to Mud (12 charges)
d) a Wand of Acid Balls (6 charges)
e) a Wand of Striking (4 charges)
f) a Staff of Teleportation (7 charges)
g) a Staff of Starlight (12 charges)
h) a Staff of the Magi (3 charges)
i) a Staff of Speed (1 charge)
j) a Staff of Power (3 charges)
k) a Staff of Holiness (3 charges)
l) a Ring of Levitation

 ( page 4 )
a) 2 Rings of Poison Resistance
b) 2 Rings of Free Action
c) a Ring of See Invisible
d) a Ring of Damage (+12)
e) a Ring of Damage (+11)
f) a Ring of Slaying and Regeneration (+8,+9)
g) a Ring of Nexus Resistance
h) 2 Rings of Confusion Resistance
i) a Ring of Shard Resistance
j) a Ring of Disenchantment Resistance
k) a Ring of Chaos Resistance
l) a Ring of Reinforce Muscle (+3)

 ( page 5 )
a) an Amulet of Anti-Magic
b) an Amulet of Anti-Teleportation
c) an Amulet of Resistance {AcElFiCoPo}
d) an Amulet of Resistance {AcElFiCoSh}
e) 2 Amulets of Resistance {AcElFiCo}
f) The Amulet of The Pitch Dark Night [+5] (+4)
g) The Amulet of Sacred Knights [+10] (+2)
h) The Collar Harness of the Hell (+15,+15) [-5] (-2)
i) The Incandescent Light of Yeduson (+3 to infravision)
j) The Phial of Galadriel (+1 to searching)
k) The Stone of Lore
l) The Palantir of Westernesse (+3) {WiCh~Tele}

 ( page 6 )
a) Metal Scale Mail of Resistance (-2) [13,+18] {AcElFiCoNx}
b) The Augmented Chain Mail of Corona (-2) [16,+19] (+2 to speed)
{SpStInSlIf;AcFiCoDkShCf;Lu[F~o}
c) Splint Mail of Resistance (-2) [19,+19] {AcElFiCoPoLi}
d) O-yoroi (Dwarven) (-2) [29,+15] (+3) {StCn}
e) Ribbed Plate Armour of Resistance (-3) [28,+16] {AcElFiCoSo}
f) Soft Leather Armour of Resistance [4,+8] {AcElFiCoPoCa}
g) Hard Studded Leather of Elvenkind (-1) [7,+14] (+3 to stealth)
{Sl;AcElFiCoSh}
h) The Cord Armour 'Sumo wrestler's loincloth' [4,+8] (+4) {StCn;Fe;Fa(StCn}
i) The Leather Scale Mail 'Thalkettoth' (-1) [11,+25] (+3) {Dx;AcShCa}
j) Leather Scale Mail of Elvenkind (-1) [11,+15] (+1 to stealth)
{Sl;AcElFiCoNx}
k) a Leather Jacket of Resistance (-1) [12,+7] {AcElFiCoPoDi}
l) an Elven Cloak [4,+11] (+4 to stealth)

 ( page 7 )
a) an Elven Cloak [4,+9] (+4 to stealth)
b) an Ethereal Cloak of Freezing [0,+21]
c) an Ethereal Cloak [0,+17]
d) a Shadow Cloak of the Bat (-12,-13) [6,+8] (+2) {SpSlIf;LiDk;SiLv}
e) The Small Metal Shield of Perseus [5,+15] (+2)
f) a Dragon Shield [8,+17] {Li}
g) a Knight's Shield of Reflection [10,+11]
h) an Iron Crown of Might [0,+7] (+3) {StDxCn;Cf;Fa(StDxCn}
i) The Jewel Encrusted Crown 'Antarctic II' [0,+11] (+3 to searching)
{StWiSr;AcCo;Sd}
j) The Metal Cap of Thengel [3,+12] (+3)
k) The Steel Helm of Hammerhand [6,+20] (+3)
l) a Set of Dragon Gloves [4,+14] {PoFe}

 ( page 8 )
a) a Set of Cesti of Slaying (+6,+5) [5,+12]
b) a Set of Cesti of Magic Mastery [5,+11] (+4)
c) a Pair of Hard Leather Boots of Stealth [3,+0] (+2 to stealth)
d) a Pair of Dragon Boots of Levitation [5,+19] {AcBlSoNxFe;Lv}
e) The Pair of Metal Shod Boots 'Tetsu-geta of Flame' (-5,+10) [6,+20] (-1 to
speed) {SpInWiChSl;FiFe;Rg[F(StCn}
f) The Pair of Metal Shod Boots 'Babel' [6,+17] (+4 to stealth)
{SlSrIf;BlNx;Fa}
g) The Dagger 'Dethanc' (1d4) (+4,+6) {ElSh;Th|E}
h) The Dagger 'Nimthanc' (1d4) (+4,+6) {CoBl;Th|Co}
i) The Small Sword 'Sting' (1d6) (+7,+8) (+2 attacks)
{AtStDxCn;LiCa;FaSiLu/*oL~oTP}
j) The Short Sword of Merlin (1d7) (+3,+7) (+2 attacks)
k) The Broad Sword 'Nothung' (2d5) (+12,+16) (+4 to searching)
{Sr;ElFiPoFe;SdLu|E/XD/o}
l) a Broad Sword (Holy Avenger) (2d5) (+11,+10) [+2] (+1 attack)
{AtWi;Fe;SiBs/*UL(Ch}

 ( page 9 )
a) The Broad Sword 'Glamdring' (2d5) (+10,+15) (+1 to searching)
b) The Long Sword 'Worpal Blade' (5d5) (+32,+32) (+2) {If;AgTy[MT}
c) a Scimitar of Sharpness (3d5) (+11,+11) (+3) {Dg|S}
d) The Bastard Sword of Eowyn (4d4) (+12,+16) (+4 to speed)
{SpStChSl;CoDkNtFe/XL/*PZ}
e) an Espadon of Slaying (4d9) (+11,+15) {|S}
f) The Two-Handed Sword 'Twilight' (4d6) (-40,-60) [-50] (+10 to speed)
{cursed}
g) The Executioner's Sword 'Crisdurian' (4d5) (+18,+19)
h) an Executioner's Sword (Defender) (4d5) (+14,+15) [+1] (+3 to stealth)
i) The Blade of Chaos 'Soulcrusher' (6d5) (+20,+15) (+4) {cursed,
StCn;AcFiCoCaDi;FaSiLuAg|FCa/pUL~Tele(St}
j) a Falcon Sword (Pattern Weapon) (1d6) (+11,+6) (+2 attacks)
{AtStCn;Sh;FaSi/*UL}
k) The Spear of Hagen (1d6) (+11,+13) (+3 to speed)
l) The Broad Spear 'Runespear' (3d9) (+15,+25) [+5] (+4)
{InWi;ElFiLi;FaSdLuBs|EF/oTP}

 ( page 10 )
a) The Pike 'Til-i-arc' (2d5) (+10,+12) [+10] (+2) {In;FiCo;SdLu|FCo/TPU(In}
b) The Broad Axe 'Barukkheled' (2d6) (+13,+19) (+3)
c) The Lance of Venoms (2d8) (+12,+15) (+4 to searching) {DxSr;FiPoCa|P/T}
d) a Heavy Lance of Extra Attacks (4d8) (+12,+12) (+2 attacks) {99% off}
e) a Ball-and-Chain of Slaying (4d4) (+11,+13)
f) a Morning Star of Prism (2d6) (+10,+11)
g) The Flail 'Winblows' (8d6) (+0,+30) (-4 to speed) {cursed}
h) a Wizardstaff of Slay Orc (1d2) (+15,+10)
i) a Wizardstaff (1d2) (+5,+3)
j) The Mattock of Nain (3d8) (+12,+18) (+6 to searching)
k) The Long Bow 'Belthronding' (x3) (+20,+22) (+3)
l) The Heavy Crossbow of Depleted Uranium (x4) (+19,+11) (+3) {Cn;PoCa}

 ( page 11 )
a) The Gun 'Crimson' (x0) (+20,+20) (+4 to speed) {SpSl;BlNt;Sd}
b) 29 Steel Bolts (3d5) (+6,+6) (168/140)
c) 18 Steel Bolts (3d5) (+4,+7) (172/143)
d) 32 Bolts (1d5) (+7,+2) (120/100)
e) 18 Steel Bolts (3d5) (+1,+3) (153/127)
f) 21 Arrows of Holy Might (1d4) (+14,+11)
g) a Capture Ball (empty)
h) a Capture Ball (empty)
i) a Capture Ball (empty)


  [Museum]

 ( page 1 )
a) The Corpse of Oberon, King of Amber


  [Check Sum: "b4eb8b67d62a4e05ec"]


Posted on 11.9.2005 08:14
Last updated on 18.9.2005 05:24

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Comments

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On 11.9.2005 08:14 Elliott946@aol.com wrote:
Grouchy over the death of my mindcrafter, I started thinking about what combo could win at the lowest level, and I've decided the answer is a Beastman Life/Craft Priest who scummed his starting mutation for a chaos patron. So that's what I'm playing now. I figure that if I'm going to be recklessly aggressive, I may at least do it intentionally.

Anyway, this is far too early to post, but he's just finished the Warg quest and Balo has apparently been in a really good mood. Everything he has that's of any value was a level-up gift from Balo. Making clevel 10 was a particularly impressive moment in that I choose DEX for him to gain and it went up 2 points, then he got a mutation and it turned out to be telepathy(!) and then Balo decided to give him Augmentation. A nice reward for a few stupid wargs.

On 11.9.2005 08:26 dzhang@its.caltech.edu wrote:
Wow... Resistance armor with Poison AND Chaos that early. Congrats! Looks like you're off to a good start. :)

On 12.9.2005 04:43 Elliott946@aol.com wrote:
(clevel:26, dlevel:28) Dave, this dump's for you. See that terrific crossbow he's wielding? The only reason he has it is because of your advice re: gambling on the monster arena.

HolyMutant still has yet to see a single source of FA, so he spent 3 or 4 days scumming the BMs looking for one. Didn't find one, but that crossbow turned up, for a mere 320k au. He'd been hoarding cash to buy a source of FA and had been pretty lucky with gold, so he was up to 100k au. Balo had been extremely generous with chaos and ego weapons and elven and resistance armor, plus a copy of Nature's Wrath was the prize in a vault. All of it was sold for maybe 180k au. Still 40k au short, right? Thanks to the miracle of gambling, HolyMutant made up the difference and was able to buy the best launcher any of my characters have ever seen.

Spent a little time building his gold back up,and then HolyMutant was back to scumming for FA again, which is what he's still up to.

On 12.9.2005 04:56 leafsrock2k@hotmail.evilisspam.com wrote:
Well, those rings of Damage and Slaying are usually way better than anything I usually find that early in the game...a ring of Free Action is the quest reward for "Tengu and Death Swords"...but I can understand you not wanting to give up those rings...

On 12.9.2005 05:04 dzhang@its.caltech.edu wrote:
Wow! That really is a nice item! And I see you've joined me, in the Dark Side of the Gambling Halls. :) Here's to you becoming a true winner!

On 12.9.2005 15:08 Elliott946@aol.com wrote:
Leafsrock, fortunately not one but two rings of free action turned up after a few more days of scumming, and while the rings are handy, I happily ditched one (the RoS, I think) for FA. The problem was that Door Mimics paralyze, and since HolyMutant's strength is in melee, I was uncomfortable trying the Mimic quest without FA. Since you gotta get past the Mimics to do Tengu and Death Swords, I was stuck. After getting the ring, HolyMutant made quick work of the Mimics.

While playing with that crossbow, I realized that it was easily powerful enough to 1-shot the mimics, and accurate enough to make up for his feeble skill. So, didn't really need the ring after all, but better safe than sorry.

Thanks, Dave. Before running into the FA roadblock, I had visions of this guy going into the Cloning Pits at level 26 or so, but he's now clevel 28 and hasn't even done Old Man Willow yet (definitely couldn't do that one without FA, especially with his crappy AC). Plus, an encounter with a Nexus hound scrambled his stats costing him over 100 hp. As a result, I'm less inclined to rush him until his CON gets back up. Overall, I'd like to take a shot at Oberon by clevel 44 or 45, and try for the Serpent shortly after that. It'll depend on his equipment finds.

On 12.9.2005 15:49 dzhang@its.caltech.edu wrote:
Well, if you were willing to forfeit the Mimic Quest, it's not bad. The guaranteed reward for that is only a =oSeeInvis. Just for future reference, I guess. I abandoned the Thieves quest with my High Mage when I found out the reward for that is only a RoWarning (apparently it's not always a good+ Long Sword).

How annoying has "attract demons" been so far? Probably not annoying enough yet to try to remove it, but I imagine you probably want it gone before you do Oberon (and in fact, I'd say you probably want to ditch your Chaos Patron around level 35ish or so too, as soon as most of your stats are pretty good).

The main stumbling block I see in the end-game in trying to win early would be the fairly low WIS of the build, so that fail rate on True Healing and Ultimate Resistance might be pretty high, unless you find lots of +WIS items.

On 14.9.2005 04:05 Elliott946@aol.com wrote:
(clevel:31, dlevel: in the Cloning Pits) The RNG has a way of smacking you around when you get over confident.

I totally thought HolyMutant was going to waltz into the Cloning Pits, smack everything around, and then walk out with the boots. The RNG had other ideas and communicated them firmly by including Itangast AND Ulik as random monsters, and there are still 2 randoms I haven't seen yet.

As a follow up, despite Excellent stealth and HolyMutant mostly using teleport for transportation to save time, all 3 Ant Queens, all 3 Its, and 2 of the 3 Gachapins woke up before HolyMutant could get to them. He's cleared out some space and killed the Grendels and Fasolts to make room to retreat, but a hydra vs ant battle royale is underway on the lower part of the map.

Sigh. This is going to take a long time.

On 14.9.2005 04:12 Elliott946@aol.com wrote:
Dave, give up the Chaos Patron when his stats get good? Check 'em out now. They're absolutely nuts for a clevel 31 character already.

Generally speaking, failing the Mimic quest would have a been a good move, except that for some reason that quest has always been the one that's generated the best loot for me, and this time was no exception. The randart lead-filled mace he's using was in there (hmm, forgot to %all it. Its +1 attack and DEX, rNether, and slay giants. If it had been force branded or slay evil, it could have been his weapon through the end of the game.) along with 2 or 3 stat potions.

On 14.9.2005 04:14 Elliott946@aol.com wrote:
Oh, the point being that he's probably going to dump his Chaos Patron sooner rather than later, probably as soon as he can lose the limber mutation and still stay at 5 attacks with his mace. Additionally, I don't plan on HolyMutant being a Beastman for the final battle. Since the universe was good enough to give him polymorph self, I figure he should probably use it, and probably fairly soon. I'm thinking Vampire or Half-Titan.

On 14.9.2005 04:17 Elliott946@aol.com wrote:
Ah, the last two randoms are nothing special: fire giant and a mature blue dragon. Itangast is already dead, and Ulik should soon follow (go, go, Gadget crossbow!). Ulik's mlevel 51. I didn't realize you could run into opponents that high in the Cloning Pits.

On 14.9.2005 05:39 Elliott946@aol.com wrote:
(clevel:32, dlevel: just finished Cloning Pits) Whew. Done. That did take a long time. Final Fire Ant count was 286, which is pretty high, and while I've had worse, the careful dancing required to knock out Ulik (who started over on the right side) without getting completely mobbed by fire ants and hydras, or letting the walls get totally destroyed, allowing the summoners great LoS, took a lot of time.

As an added bonus, HolyMutant is now available in new, convenient Golem-size thanks to Balo. Its even worse for WIS than Beastman, but the hp and melee offense appear superior.

The loot was pretty substantial as usual, and it will take a while to figure out the best way to incorporate it all into his kit.

On 14.9.2005 13:27 Elliott946@aol.com wrote:
Going after the Old Castle. The reward is the Palantir, which would make it even easier to purge the mutations. It'll pretty much be time to pick a race at that point as well, since his stats are now all high enough that swapping them around won't change things very much.

While it seems suicidal to hit the Castle at clevel 32, objectively HolyMutant seems ready. Speed, hp, damage output, and resists cover everything I think he'll need, and being a Golem means he can bump his AC into the 180s when needed. I think he's ready.

On 14.9.2005 15:56 Elliott946@aol.com wrote:
(Clevel:33, dlevel: just finished Old Castle)

Before heading into the Castle, I wanted to see how HolyMutant stacked up against a Greater Titan, so he went into the Arena and battled until he got to it. It was a tough fight, but HolyMutant won (that Golem stoneskin activation was a huge lifesaver). With that win for confidence, I decided he was definitely ready for the Old Castle. But first, to average my mage's defeat, HolyMutant went after the Greater Balrog, squashing it, and then the Nightwalker. The battle against the Nightwalker was kinda stupid, because though HolyMutant won, he didn't have rDisenchant, and his armor got dinged up in the process.

After that it was on to the Old Castle, and Wow. It was actually easy thanks mostly to HolyMutant's stealth being as effective this time as it was ineffective in the Cloning Pits. Oh, and I was wrong about his mace. It doesn't slay giants, it slays undead. About even as to which would have been more useful in this quest.

He walked into the quest, powered up, and then teleported landing in what I think of as the dungeons of the Castle in the bottom right corner. One of the random monsters down there proved to be a Nycadaemon, which sucked, but it didn't wake up. Snuck into the Greater Titan room, laid down a pair of runes of protection (2 scrolls) read a scroll of confuse monsters, and went to town. The second Titan didn't wake up until the first went down, and both spent almost the entire battle confused. One did summon, but it only got wood spiders or something.

As that fight was winding down, the Iron Lich and the Crypt Thing both woke up, and HolyMutant charged up to engage them, refreshing his buffs as he went. When it was nearly dead, the Iron Lich summoned undead, getting a Zephyr Lord and some other things. Fortunately, HolyMutant was able to finish the Lich and kill the Zephyr Lord before anything else was summoned.

He then teleported again, landing right next to the Enchantress and the Sorcerer. Both were still asleep, and HolyMutant was able to 1-round kill them both. Then down through the Death Knights and up into the room with the Fallen Angel. The Fallen Angel stuck with melee and was far less of a problem than usual (I generally think of it as in a race with the Dracolich for the 2nd nastiest monster in the place).

After that it was mostly cleanup, because everything remaining was undead, and with that slay, Evil Soldlier (yes, that's the "correct" spelling) makes quick work of undead.

The treasure was very good as usual, with the big finds being Fingolfin, the Palantir (of course), and a bunch of dragon gear. A 5d5 longsword and a 4d4 ball-and-chain appeared, and had they been Excalibur and Fundin's, I would have wet myself, but no such luck. Worpal Blade and a ball-and-chain of slaying. Darn.

Time to shuffle the kit and decide on a race.

On 15.9.2005 00:55 dzhang@its.caltech.edu wrote:
While no-cuts and no-stun is nice from Golem, the -25% SP and -5 WIS is pretty crippling. I'd say try for a Dwarf.

On 16.9.2005 06:30 Elliott946@aol.com wrote:
(clevel: 35, dlevel: 43) Breezing through the mid-level Angband quests at the moment.

Had a brief polymorph self party and while I nearly kept him an Ent, I finally decided vulnerabilty to fire was just too dangerous. Draconian came next and it sounded good. Solid overall stats, good hp, and built in rBase+poison.

After settling on it, I just couldn't make myself get ride of the mutations right away, so he went back and did a few more quests. While doing one, he found a scroll of acquirement. Rather than going back to the Dragon Lair, he instead went to the Mine to cash it in.

The scroll netted a robe of rFire. While cursing over the bad result, HolyMutant picked up a couple items sitting on the ground. One was a crown, which turned out to be Amber! Amber covers RBase except for RAcid, which Fingolfin happens to have. Since its unlikely that HolyMutant will ever put either of them down again, maybe he doesn't need the resists of a Draconian after all. Perhaps he should play the Polymorph game again. Its darn addicting.

On 16.9.2005 06:40 dzhang@its.caltech.edu wrote:
Maybe you should go for an Archon, if you're trying for a "lowest clvl win"? They have a huge +xp penalty, and they also have good +WIS..

Huh, Amber! Nice! Maybe you should do Bull Gates now and pick up RDisenchant? It would suck if any of your awesome items lost some of their shine..

On 16.9.2005 12:30 roblt97@hotmail.com wrote:
Ah, a perfect chance to ask: is RDis "perfect coverage" in Heng? Or is there stilll a chance things will be disenchanted when you have it?

Good job with the Castle.

On 16.9.2005 15:27 Elliott946@aol.com wrote:
Rob, AFAIK, rDis is indeed perfect coverage. I don't think I've ever had an item be disenchanted while the character had rDis. Apparently that doesn't hold true in Nightmare mode, but Nightmare mode sucks.

Dave, I was thinking the same thing. HolyMutant has pushed farther into Angband and is now clevel 37 or so and in the late 60's in Angband, having gotten past Nid-Hogg, Daoloth, Lems, and Glaaki, all pretty easily. Daoloth was the most trouble, with his constant summoning and teleporting (HolyMutant's best range attack is Fingolfin's activation).

He picked up the Runespear and a couple nice cloaks as well (shadow cloak of the bat, and a randart elven cloak), but still haven't fit rDis into the kit (also still using the Sumo Wrestler's Loincloth). Just found some armor of resistance with rDis, but I hate to give up the +Con from Sumo Wrestler. I'd rather swap out a ring, so Bull and Co might be up next.

On 16.9.2005 15:28 Elliott946@aol.com wrote:
Using the Runespear brought his WIS up to 18/220, but he got to enjoy it for about 5 minutes before getting Moronified. Its time to purge the mutations.

On 17.9.2005 07:47 Elliott946@aol.com wrote:
(clevel:37, dlevel:99) Finally purged most of the mutations, but not before a little more polymorphing. Got Archon on the very next try after Draconian, and I'm probably going to stick with it.

Maddeningly, during the purging attracting animals and demons were the second and third to go, and all the good ones were still left, but I decided I wanted Moronic gone badly enough to really do it. Finally got it, though most of the good ones went too. Still had telepathic, but with the Palantir it wasn't really necessary. He then got Moronified again, and the purging removed just about everything else. Just a few left now. I can't bring myself to get rid of Balo, even though I should because he's a pain in the ass sometimes.

So, continued pushing down. Combat Echizen was annoying to fight because of the invulnverability and blinking, but he was never a serious danger. Found two hallways seperated by a single wall, lured him in, and then used wall walk to keep going back and forth to stay on him when he'd try to blink away. When he died, he dropped a bunch of stuff, including that nifty heavy lance and the Jewel.

Experimented with blessing the lance, and while it took a couple tries, I was kinda expecting it to destroy the item when a try failed, rather than just disenchant it, so losing a plus or two was actually a better outcome than I expected.

The lance does the most damage of any weapon I've got, doesn't depend on brands, and deals wicked criticals. Have to use the Sumo Wrestler's armor for the +STR to use it properly, though. Kinda funny to be using THAT at this stage of the game, but I'm open to suggestions.

Tried doing an armor swap to cover rDisenchant, but then realized the STR problem. Hunted down Bull Gates after that, and it went faster than I expected. That lance really smacks things around.

Ring in hand, it was time to press further. I didn't even try with the Unicorn. You just don't mess around with him.

After that, it was time for Oberon. Made a couple of attempts, but both times something intervened spoiling it. The first time, a Quylthulg of some sort called HolyMutant away from his defensive hidyhole into the middle of the room, and Oberon summoned Wyrms. Bye. The second time, Atlas tunneled in from off-screen somewhere, and I was so focused on Oberon, I didn't even see him until he was 2 squares away. Decided to bail again.

During the bailing, HolyMutant has been practicing with the lance by sparring with wyrms. A really thoughtful wyrm of space time slain just before recalling dropped the collar harness (still debating whether or not to use it vs. Oberon) and the ring of speed.

That huge ring of damage was just sitting on the ground, guarded by Grishnak or something equally out of his league, and that amulet of the fairy was right next to it. I'd love to find a way to work that fairy amulet in, but I'm too sleepy to think about it right now.

On 17.9.2005 07:54 blackreaver368@yahoo.com wrote:
CL37 and you are taking on Oberon? *Insane* :-)

What, are you trying to set an unbreakable record or something?

Good Luck on the Serpent at CL38 ...

On 17.9.2005 10:47 dzhang@its.caltech.edu wrote:
WOW!!!

Amulet of Brilliance of the Fairy, +4 to all stats, RPois and RBlind, and also Sus everything except STR. That is one uber item the likes of which I've NEVER seen before! It's not even on the spoiler site!

If you set an unbreakable record, I'm going to blame it on that. :-P

On 17.9.2005 10:49 dzhang@its.caltech.edu wrote:
BTW, is that an ego item, or an artifact? Try to destroy it! ;-) j/k

On 17.9.2005 12:25 Mars wrote:
"WOW!!!" indeed! That's one kickass item!

On 17.9.2005 13:34 Elliott946@aol.com wrote:
Well, its described as "The" Amulet... so I'm assuming its an artifact. From the formatting, it appears to be a randart rather than a trueart.

I should probably send the RNG a thank you note. The character who I decide will be the one who tries to win really early happens to be the one the RNG elects to just shower with super powerful randarts. This character has the best launcher, best cloak, and now best amulet of any Hengband character I've ever created.

RNG, if you're listening, I'd like some randart armor with +CON, rDark and rDisenchantment. Got anything like that sitting around? Thanks.

On 17.9.2005 16:10 roblt97@hotmail.com wrote:
Jeez Elliot, is this ToME or Heng? Knock it off! ;)

On 17.9.2005 17:43 leafsrock2k@hotmail.evilisspam.com wrote:
Okay, that amulet of the Fairy and your ring of Damage +22 (highest I've seen is +18 or +19 I think...) seems to be just screaming to be worn...if only you had the right resistance. Have you found a scroll of Artifact Creation yet?

On 17.9.2005 21:11 Elliott946@aol.com wrote:
Got the first one!

Wow, that was a lot harder than I was expecting, even though he didn't summon anything really nasty (Julian, a LOT of hydras, some middling undead (monastic lich, nightwing, etc.), and, in a huge win for HolyMutant, a pack of shadow hounds). His hitting to drain mana totally shut down HolyMutant's spellcasting, and his disenchant attack forced HolyMutant to shelve his +to-dam rings, nerfing his attacks a bit. If not for the blessed shadow hounds and Oberon teleporting HolyMutant away at a crucial moment, allowing a rest break, I'm not sure it would have worked. At this was about the 6th try, too.

On 17.9.2005 21:15 Elliott946@aol.com wrote:
Leaf, no artifact creation yet. In fact, the only place I've ever seen one in Heng is a couple times in the Black Market for several hundred thousand au, well before the characters had anywhere near that much money. Never used one in Heng.

On 17.9.2005 23:46 Elliott946@aol.com wrote:
Sorting through the loot was annoying, because a bunch of HolyMutant's gear got cursed during the battle so he kept attracting animals and getting randomly teleported and such. Finally he sorted through it, and the key item was probably the Scalemail of Julian (RNG, it appears you weren't listening. Yes, Julian's scalemail is armor with rDark and rDisenchant, but didn't I request +CON as well? Please pay better attention in the future).

Other good items was the Mattock of Nain (which my characters all appear to be destined to find), some nice steel bolts of holy might, and a potion of polymorph. I can't be too mad at the RNG, though, because when drunk, the potion gave the awesome "send evil creatures to hell" mutation, which totally rocks. It also removed Balo from HolyMutant's life.

The de-Baloification step needed to be taken, and I realized what was holding me back was the hope for an augmentation, since HolyMutant's base stats are all around 18/70. Since wielding that amulet, his important stats are mostly 18/220, and CON just needs 1 more full point to get there. Since stats aren't an issue anymore, I'm ok with getting rid of the Chaos diety. And doing it this way gets rid of it in style, which is always nice.

The two main issues now are weapon choice and supplies. First, while the heavy lance didn't exactly disappoint against Oberon, it also didn't quite measure up to my expectations. According to the weaponmaster, it should have hit 75% of the time, and it really appeared to be more like 60%. Second, while it did have some impressive criticals (I love those *GREAT* hits), the damage output just wasn't quite what I was hoping for. I'm toying with switching back to that mace, which at least felt more accurate, albiet not as damaging. Plus, the huge weight of the heavy lance knocked his sp down by almost 1/3. Oberon kept him at 0 sp for most of the battle, so it wouldn't have changed things much, but the Serpent will be a different story.

Second, zipping through the various quests and dungeons so fast meant minimal scumming for supplies time, and the tougher than expected fight against Oberon compounded that (part of the problem is the huge number of uniques left. It feels like there are 10-15 significant ones on every level. HolyMutant didn't avoid them, on the way down, exactly, but he didn't go out of his way to fight them, either. They're work a lot of exp typically, and that's bad for winning at a low level. Stupid autoscummer doesn't help). I mean, 2 scrolls of *Destruction*? How did he get this far and only find 2? He really needs like 15, with 7 or 8 the bare minimum. Since the Serpent doesn't steal mana, he'll be able to heal himself, which will help, but the potion stock is also very low. Haven't decided what to do about it yet.

On 17.9.2005 23:57 roblt97@hotmail.com wrote:
Collecting spellbooks to chart frequency? Or biblio-fetishist? :0

On 18.9.2005 01:54 Elliott946@aol.com wrote:
Well, early on I thought he might want to change his second school, but I didn't know what to, so I figured I should collect them all, just in case.

Just checked the remaining uniques, and while I don't know exactly how many are left, the highest level dead uniques after Oberon are Combat Echizen and Wahha-man. After them, the highest level dead unique is... Julian. Yikes. There are a LOT of uniques left.

On 18.9.2005 02:11 blackreaver368@yahoo.com wrote:
Yikes ... If I understand you correctly that leaves the likes of Azathoth, Nyarlathotep, Shub-Niggurath, The Destroyer, Shuma-Gorath, etc. etc.

But if you kill them all, you might end up CL50 ;-)

On 18.9.2005 05:24 Elliott946@aol.com wrote:
Whew.

On 18.9.2005 05:29 Elliott946@aol.com wrote:
That was awful. The battle itself went fine, but the supplies were so tight I felt like every move had to be perfect. It was all the stress of fighting the Serpent for the first time with none of the fun newness.

Yeah, but none of the really bad guys showed up in the final battle. Well, there was a HUGE vault with unbreakable walls which I gave an extremely wide bearth. I suspect they were all locked up in there. The uniques who caused the most trouble were Banor=Rupart and Kaschei, both of whom were destructed.

Finally spent some time scumming for supplies, but still went in pretty light. Also decided to go with the mace, which really did seem to be more accurate. I'll write more later.

On 18.9.2005 05:56 roblt97@hotmail.com wrote:
Wow. That's a low level character alright.

Congratulations.

On 18.9.2005 06:25 leafsrock2k@hotmail.evilisspam.com wrote:
Congrats...often I'm not even in the Old Castle before clvl 39 :)

On 18.9.2005 08:02 kingvictoty2003@yahoo.com wrote:
Simply amazing. Puts me to shame for sure :) Grats.

On 18.9.2005 13:58 Mars wrote:
Impressive! What's next to expect, an artifactless lazy yeek tourist in nightmare mode winning at clev 35? ^_^

On 18.9.2005 17:06 blackreaver368@Yahoo.com wrote:
Congratulations! One of the finest achievements in all of *band history!! Well done!

On 20.9.2005 05:50 Elliott946@aol.com wrote:
Thanks, everyone. When I started out, I was hoping to win by level 45 or so, but everything fell into place even more quickly than I hoped and I pushed HolyMutant forward as far as he could handle things. Even near the end, I was thinking clevel 41 or 42, but he kept taking big steps forward, and when he spanked Glaaki and Combat Echizen at clevel 37, I knew he was ready.

Interestingly, HolyMutant had a much easier time going toe-to-toe with the Serpent than he did with Oberon. Part of it was Oberon's disenchantment and drain mana attacks, and part was that, and I'd never realized this, Oberon just does more damage in melee, because his attacks tend not have their damage reduced by high AC. The better ability to last in melee combined with not having his mana constantly drained meant HolyMutant went through far fewer supplies per round of combat than he did with Oberon.

The final battle with the Serpent was pretty middle of the road. I actually went down to the level to cash in the scroll of *acquirement* gotten from the Arena by beating the Black Reaver (got past the Fenguang, but never tried the GWoP. I should have at least given it a shot. Oh well.). But HolyMutant was fully loaded and when I saw what the level looked like, I thought it would be worth a try. The scroll netted a helm of wisdom and a 'thanc.

While the Serpent summoned pretty often, it tended to summon manageable stuff. Dungeon guardians twice, the first time while we were in melee, and it got Azog, the Minotaur, the Midgard Serpent, and the Chameleon Lord. The Serpent must have been pissed at that result. The second time, the Serpent was fairly far away, but got near to LoS in a fluke through a destructed area, and got Cthulu, Null, and Shooting Star. HolyMutant was able to *destruct* them away without getting the Serpent.

The Serpent also breathed a lot, but almost always Toxic Waste, to which HolyMutant was double resisted almost the whole time. It never cast a single mana storm, nor did it successfully land a hand of doom.

The final key is that basically all of the nasty uniques were still alive, yet virtually none of them put in an appearance during the battle. I don't know why that is, but the level had a really big vault with indestructable walls, and my hunch is that the Unicorn, Destroyer, Nodens, etc were all stuck in that vault and safely out of the battle.

Life/Craft is an extremely powerful combination for a good melee character, and HolyMutant was a pretty darn good melee character. The healing power of Life magic is well known, but those glyphs of warding were just as powerful. One handy thing about them is that when the Serpent summons and then tries to attack you when you're on a glyph and it fails to break the glyph, it typically attacks the summoned monster. That's great, because the shatter attack would then tend to entomb other summoned monsters, getting rid of them. The Serpent was thus my best summoned monster removal device.

Can't decide if I ultimately made the right call going with the mace over the lance. I guess it worked out, but I never really came to a decision on that.

Really, though, I can't take full credit for winning at clevel 39. The RNG, that fickle creature, for some reason totally jumped on board with what I was trying to do, and gave HolyMutant everything he needed, right when he needed it. With normal luck, I think my original guess of clevel 45 would have been about right, assuming he actually succeeded. Its my Roger Maris moment. I'm a pretty good Hengband player, but for a brief moment everything totally came together. I doubt I could pull this off again if I had 100 tries. HolyMutant got break after break after break, and it took every single one to make it happen.

On 21.9.2005 12:48 dzhang@its.caltech.edu wrote:
Wow... CONGRATS!! Clvl 39... don't think I'm taking this record away from you, with anything short of/less cheesy than taking off all equipment with an Android :-D

Your speed is also a new personal record too, no? I'll bet this stays the character you're most fond of for a long time to come!

Congrats again! (And see you in Nightmare mode? :-P)

On 21.9.2005 16:46 Elliott946@aol.com wrote:
I didn't even notice it, but you're right, HolyMutant is indeed my lowest speed winner. Part of the reason I didn't notice was that, I dunno if its possible, but the Serpent seemed kinda slow. Maybe because it spent much of the battle dancing around glyphs of protection I just didn't notice all the extra moves. Still, it seemed faster the previous times I fought it.

Now that my ToME Hobbit Rogue has been squashed, I guess I'll go back to that mage, though I'm really not having fun with him.

HolyMutant was, for his level, by far the most powerful character I've had in Hengband. Perhaps I'll try him again in Nightmare mode...

On 9.10.2009 13:02 dzhang@its.caltech.edu wrote:
Elliott, after playing a low level win character, I must say I am really impressed you managed to win with 775 HP and +21 speed. With 860 HP and +26 speed, I was still brought down to less than 50 HP two times by Serpent and once by Oberon.

What've you been playing recently? Haven't seen you dump any Heng characters in a while...

On 9.10.2009 22:06 Elliott946@aol.com wrote:
Hi, dave. Oh, I'm still around :).

Holy crap, this guy was almost exactly 4 years ago, but I remember him like he was yesterday.

Life has just kinda caught up with me in various ways, I suppose. I've got two daughters (had one at the time, but she was much littler then) plus work, etc has changed my schedule a lot. I periodically start up a Heng or Fangband character but I'm horribly out of practice. They usually die by level 20 or so and since when I think myself playing 'bands, dying in, say, the Mimic Quest isn't what I envision, so I'm too embarrassed at the poor outcome to post them.

Also, I hate to admit this, but my attention span might not be what it once was. Part of it is life changing on me and part of it is the rise of games like WoW and Aion which are more like, oh, I dunno, "computer games" whereas I think of 'bands as kinda being more like chess. I still remember killing the Serpent on this guy (and those DAMN fights against Oberon. HE was the tough one to kill, really), and actually spending time on each move during those fights, rechecking that nothing was sneaking up on me, that my consumables were keeping up with the pace of the fight, scanning LoS every turn to make sure I wasn't out of position, etc. I'm just not sure I've got that kind of focus in me these days, but I'm still around.

On 9.10.2009 22:19 Elliott946@aol.com wrote:
Two other thoughts. First, that cloak he had was really quite extraordinary is still probably the best cloak I've ever found in Hengband, but that amulet is still downright bizarre. I definitely never saw anything even remotely similar again, though I have a vague and unconfirmed memory of someone else eventually finding another one.

Looking back, I suspect it was an incredibly rare (like 1 in 100,000 or less chance) ego item that perhaps was removed from the game when the 1.7 version of Heng came out, because I really have no other explanation for how good it was nor why, of all the people who played the game, it weirdly seemed to only exist for this guy.

So, I'm hoping you're an alum at Tech by now, or are you working on a Doctorate?

On 9.10.2009 23:59 dzhang@its.caltech.edu wrote:
I've just about defended to get my PhD from Caltech... should happen within the year.

Hm, Oberon was tough for me too, but I thought that was because I didn't have RBlind. He only has 1/3 the HP of the Serpent, and similar offense capabilities, so at over 1000 damage per round, it took me only about 12 rounds to kill him, given proper terrain.

My Heng playstyle (and I think Chris's too) have become scummy of late. It used to be that I'd fearfully wander around the Castle or Angband 30-40 trying to find stat potions and decent gear, after I hit clvl 31 from the Killing Fields. Now, all we ever do is find a Quartz Vein in the Tower, and then farm it for 20 minutes for 2-3 milion gold, and then shop scum for an hour. It's much safer, but it feels more like a chore than fun.

Hah! I'll bet lvl 18-20 is also where about 1/2 of my characters die... during the Vault dives. An exorbiant number of characters get suicided at lvl 4, after the Thieves quest, if I don't get the stat-ups (or mutations/rewards for Beastman/Chaos Warrior) that I want. The other place where I lose a lot of characters is between clvl 38 and 44, due to a general lack of speed and sloppy play.



On 22.10.2009 18:26 Elliott946@aol.com wrote:
Yeah, in a way its a shame. You finally figure out what the "best" result is for a particular situation and it feels like a waste to get something else. That's probably part of the problem I have getting back into Entro/Heng especially, a LOT of my best characters started out as Beastmen with a Chaos Patron. Its an absurdly powerful combination, since you're getting arguably the best ability from a Chaos Warrior. Then assuming you get Polymorph Self as an ability eventually (and Beastmen almost always do. It definitely shows up far more often than any other ability. If you don't have it already, I'd ballpark that your chance of any new mutation being Polymorph Self is in the 20% range), you can pretty much pick what race you want to play as (or what kind of race, anyway. Maybe the RNG is never going to give you Golem, but if you're willing to settle for Troll or Ogre or something it becomes easy), though I'd argue that the Beastman's starting package is actually a lot stronger than people think at first glance.

So, being aware that this is an awesome combination, there's a strong temptation to scum for it, which can be amazingly tedious and time consuming. Rerolling a Beastman to get a chaos patron generally takes a minimum of 20 minutes and I've had it take over an hour. That's a serious impediment to someone who doesn't play that often (and thus has to relearn the generate/reroll muscle memory all over again) and isn't very good at keeping himself alive these days.

I can blow 30+ minutes rolling up a character or I can play a character that I recognize is a step down in capabilities and who isn't quite as much fun (getting the level-up "gifts" from the Chaos patron just never gets old for me. Its fun every time). Bleh.

On 23.10.2009 13:47 dzhang@its.caltech.edu wrote:
Elliott, I've found a solution to our woes!

We each do our start scumming of one sort or other, and then, when we have the decent start we want, we backup the savefile and declare it a competition for everyone! That minimizes the grunt-work for everyone and produces a steady stream of interesting characters.

I've started this with Sexy Ukyo, the High-Elf Warrior. She's level 18, and has Colluin and a Crown of Might (+3), plus randart weapon and shooter. Not bad a start, if I say so myself. I've emailed Nick (who's running the competitions) and he'll make this one of the competitions in the near future.

The trick to this competition: Minimize the number of uniques killed (other than Oberon and the Serpent) and minimize the number of in-game turns. Winner will be the one to kill the Serpent with the smallest product:

(Number of uniques killed) * (game turns).

I've used up 3 days already, but have visited all 4 towns, so Town teleporting is already fully available. I'm expecting you to show up for this! (Feel free to check out Ukyo's dump before the competition starts)

On 23.10.2009 23:30 Elliott946@aol.com wrote:
Dave, you're a genius! I'll be looking out for it!

On 28.10.2009 13:19 Elliott946@aol.com wrote:
Just realized I never clarified one point. Its been a really long time, but if memory serves, Oberon really does hit harder in melee (for most characters) than the Serpent, even though the data sheet (and common sense) suggests it would be the other way around. The reason is the type of melee attacks they both have.

See, for both of them, all their melee attacks have some special ability tacked on top of the actual damage they do (hit to drain charges, hit to drain mana, hit to blind, etc). Some of Oberon's additional melee abilities make it so that his base melee damage is unaffected by character armor, while the Serpent doesn't have that. So even though the Serpent's base attacks are stronger, after some of them get reduced by armor, Oberon's attacks end up actually hitting for more.

On 28.10.2009 17:00 dzhang@its.caltech.edu wrote:
Are you sure about this? Because, with only a few exceptions, the Serpent always is a lot tougher than Oberon for me. Checking the Spoiler descriptions, Oberon has 3 "hit" attacks, while the Serpent has two "crush" and one "bite" attack. I thought all of these are susceptible to AC reduction? Note: "novice warrior"'s attacks are also "hit."

One thing that make make a bigger difference is that the Serpent casts 1 time in 3, while Oberon is 1 time in 2. So you're much more likely to eat Mana Storm after Mana Storm from Oberon than the Serpent.

Actually, now that I look at this... the Serpent doesn't actually cast Mana Storms!? It breathes Mana, and invokes Logrus, but the former caps at 250 damage, while the latter caps at 350 expected (before reduction from RChaos). The Serpent's strongest magical attack appears to actually be Rocket for 800 (400 with RShard). Oberon's Mana Storm, on the other hand, is 505 expected damage and irresistible.

What else? Oberon is +35 speed, while Serpent is +45.


On 28.10.2009 17:04 dzhang@its.caltech.edu wrote:
Oops, the Spoilers appear to be wrong, at least for v. 1.7.2. My monster memory from Ryoko says the Serpent casts 1 in 2. Neither Oberon or Serpent shows as invoking mana storms, but it could just be that they didn't actually do this in the fight against Ryoko.

On 28.10.2009 17:06 dzhang@its.caltech.edu wrote:
Ryoko doesn't show Sauron (who she killed) as invoking Mana Storms either, huh. I just she just got really lucky in dealing with those guys.

On 28.10.2009 17:18 dzhang@its.caltech.edu wrote:
Apologies for spamming your board, but here's some interesting facts:

Nodens: 1 time in 1, 13 different spells including Mana Storm (so mana storm 1 in 13)
Oberon: 1 time in 2, 27 different spells including MS (1 time in 54)
Serpent: No MS.
Sauron: 1 time in 2, 24 different spells including MS (1 time in 48)
Morgoth: 1 time in 2 (from monster memory, spoilers are wrong), 10 different spells include MS (1 time in 20).
Unicorn of Order: No MS.
Plain Gold Ring: 1 time in 2, 10 different spells including MS (1 time in 20)

So, based solely on the most damage aspect, Mana Storm, the danger of the monster go like this: Nodens > Plain Gold Ring = Morgoth >> Sauron > Oberon.

That's why we avoid Nodens when we can!

On 1.11.2009 19:13 dzhang@its.caltech.edu wrote:
And the competition for Ukyo is on! Good luck!

On 2.11.2009 13:52 Elliott946@aol.com wrote:
It is? Looks like the old one still has a couple days to run.

As for Mana Storm, yeah that Nodens is a tricky bugger. If you can lock him in place you can blow him up fast, but if he catches you in the open you're in for a world of hurt, which is probably why he's the non-"super named" on that list. Ditto for the Plain Gold Ring and Morgoth. I only killed the PGR once ever on all my characters and Morgoth only a few times. The Unicorn can't MS, but he's just badass all around, and I've in fact never killed him on any character. Just never seemed worth it.

As for the hit type, I'm pretty sure its the "effect" rather than the description, and its just kind of a fluke. I think there are two or three effects that allow you to ignore armor, all of which are the ones Oberon has.

On 2.11.2009 14:05 dzhang@its.caltech.edu wrote:
Here's the link. http://angband.oook.cz/forum/showthread.php?t=2419 (This is harder than it first looks! I've already had to start over once because I killed a brown P that ended up being a new unique, rather than a cyclops! And then I almost killed Old Man Willow, forgetting he's a Unique too...)

Mana Storm damage is linked to monster level, so the PGR definitely hits for the hardest of any of them! I remember Gatsby having to go through something like 20 !o*Healing* to take down the ring.



On 3.11.2009 04:45 Elliott946@aol.com wrote:
Argh. Do the uniques in the arena count?

Had a kickass start, too. Found Hammerhand and a +8 ring of speed in the Mimic Quest (that place has ALWAYS taken care of me). Down to the low 40s at level 27 or so. Maybe I'll keep going since he's doing so well.

On 15.11.2009 13:32 Mars wrote:
You examine your spamtrap (h)
You see [angband ladder] New comment on Mighty HolyMutant (x16)
Fun, email notification on old characters ;D :p

On 15.6.2010 19:31 ewan wrote:
Speaking of dead threads :). The competition idea sounds like fun; but for me at least it would have to be 1.6.2. I am not buying a PC just to play up-to-date Heng :-).

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