[Crawl] YASD on D:27

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....and there goes, TicMuna the DEIE. I should be sad, but to be honest,
I'm not. He was going a lot further than I expected. Compared to my 2.
best char, he improved to almost a factor of 10! Not only it was the 1.
time I got a rune, I got 3! The first time I saw the portal to the
Realms of Zot. Also a first timer: the Crypt, which I cleared
completely, though I was barely able to escape from the Tomb (scary
place)

So now, what happened on D:27?

I almost finished the last level of the main dungeon, when my Detect
Creatures spell showed a big D around a corner. I had no particular
problems with Dragons before, so what gives, I thought... Unfortunately
it was a dangerous shapeshifter, which appeared as an azure jelly (never
met one, only heard of them; never entered the Slime Pits) at first and
changed into an Iron Dragon. I was prepared for a tough fight (Repel
Missiles/Ozocubu's Armour/Swiftness), but I was in a bad position here,
in the middle of a hallway. One shot got me down to <50%HP, although I
recently got the 'robust' mutation (HP>100). So teleport was no option,
I couldn't risc the delay and the 1 move loss for reading. I probably
should have tried blink, but I was just too shocked to think clear.
Anyway, it was a closed fight with a worthy opponent who's 3th shot was
deadly.

Dungeon Crawl version 4.0.0 beta 26 character file.

The iron dragon is almost dead.
The iron dragon breathes.
The spray of metal splinters hits you!
You die...


### ####
#.###############..#
#.D....@.......)...####
#.##############...{{{#
#..J... #...{{{##
#..!....# #...{{{{#
#.......#########..%{{{{#
##..................%....
#..#############...{{{##
.<. #...#....
#### ##...#.###

TicMuna the Devastator (Deep Elf)
(Level 24 Ice Elementalist)

Play time: 1 day, 13:37:02 Number of turns: 133710

Experience : 24/879769
Strength 13 Dexterity 14 Intelligence 31
Hit Points : -7/102 (dead) Magic Points : 28/45
AC : 32 Evasion : 14 Shield : 0
GP : 3081

You are on level 27.
You worship Vehumet.
Vehumet is exalted by your worship.
// thanks for never dropping a book with Selective Amnesia. Though it
// wasn't really needed and surely not the reason for my death...

You are not hungry.

Inventory:
Hand weapons
b - a +4,+6 dagger of holy wrath
L - a +2,+1 dagger of flaming
Armour
g - a +4 robe of fire resistance (worn)
i - a +0 pair of boots of running (worn)
s - a +0 cloak of poison resistance (worn)
t - a +2 pair of boots of stealth
u - a +2 pair of gloves of strength (worn)
C - a +2 visored helmet (worn)
Magical devices
e - a wand of flame (2)
f - a wand of teleportation (5)
j - a wand of digging (7)
p - a wand of fireball (6)
G - a wand of fireball (2)
K - a wand of enslavement (3)
M - a wand of invisibility (1)
P - a wand of lightning (11)
Q - a wand of disintegration (10)
Comestibles
k - 2 meat rations
I - 2 royal jellies
Scrolls
m - 3 scrolls of fear
o - 2 scrolls of teleportation
x - 5 scrolls of remove curse
y - a scroll of blinking
z - a scroll of enchant armour
F - a scroll of summoning
N - a scroll of recharging
R - a scroll of identify
Jewellery
c - a ring of sustenance
h - a ring of teleport control
l - the ring "Ynewixuxom M X" (right hand)
This ring either protects its wearer from harm or makes them more
vulnerable to injury, to a degree dependent on its power.
It affects your AC (+5).
It affects your intelligence (+2).

n - an amulet of resist corrosion
q - a ring of sustenance
w - a ring of see invisible
A - an amulet of warding
D - a ring of sustain abilities
E - a +6 ring of strength
H - an amulet of the gourmand (around neck)
J - a ring of ice (left hand)
Potions
r - 7 potions of healing
Magical staves
a - a staff of conjuration (weapon)
B - a rod of demonology // played around with, but never used seriously
Miscellaneous
d - a lantern of shadows
// As you can see, I wasn't carrying the 3 runes. I wasn't planning to
// finish the game right now, rather then hoping for some decent stuff
// or shop. After D:27 I probably would have went to the Tomb again and
// died there instead of D:27 *g*

You have 3 experience left.

Skills:
- Level 1 Short Blades
- Level 3 Staves
- Level 9 Dodging
- Level 11 Stealth
- Level 16 Spellcasting
- Level 24 Conjurations
- Level 8 Enchantments
+ Level 4 Summonings
- Level 3 Translocations
+ Level 3 Divinations
+ Level 21 Ice Magic
- Level 3 Air Magic
+ Level 13 Earth Magic
- Level 1 Poison Magic
- Level 11 Invocations
- Level 8 Evocations


You have 6 spell levels left.
You know the following spells:

Your Spells Type Success Level
a - Freeze Ice Perfect 1
b - Throw Frost Ice/Conjuration Perfect 2
c - Ozocubu's Armour Ice/Enchantment Perfect 3
d - Ice Bolt Ice/Conjuration Perfect 4
e - Shock Air/Conjuration Perfect 1
f - Swiftness Air/Enchantment Excellent 2
g - Mephitic Cloud Poison/Air/Conjuration Perfect 3
h - Repel Missiles Air/Enchantment Excellent 2
i - Static Discharge Air/Conjuration Perfect 4
j - Summon Ice Beast Ice/Summoning Perfect 5
k - Levitation Air/Enchantment Excellent 2
l - Bolt of Iron Earth/Conjuration Perfect 6
m - Lee's Rapid Deconstruction Earth/Transmigration Great 5
n - Blink Translocation Great 2
o - Teleport Self Translocation Good 5
p - Detect Creatures Divination Great 2

Mutations & Other Weirdness
Your vision is a little blurry.
You are robust (+10 percent hp).
You are partially covered in purple scales (AC + 2).
You are partially covered in orange scales (AC + 1).


Vanquished Creatures
A royal jelly (shapeshifter) (Vault:8)
Margery (Crypt:5)
A lich (Crypt:3) // summoned by the sphinx (see below)
A curse skull (Crypt:3)
An Orb Guardian (shapeshifter) (Vault:8)
2 quicksilver dragons (Vault:8)
2 titans (Vault:8)
3 shadow dragons (Vault:8)
A sphinx (Tomb:1) //horrible!
4 storm dragons
Frances (D:20)
Francis (Snake:5)
[snipped the rest]
....
3213 creatures vanquished.

That game was FUN!
Btw, shortly before I made a security save for technical reasons (I'm
currently updating my system which may crash during the process). I hate
save-scumming, but this time I'll probably use it to see what's going on
in the Realms of Zot (to be a little prepared next time I reach them...

Rubinstein

 

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Archived from groups: rec.games.roguelike.misc (More info?)

Rubinstein wrote:

> ...and there goes, TicMuna the DEIE.

The stout fellow deserves a proper military funeral. What an honorable death
and thrilling path towards it (and very nearly to an escape instead!)!

[...]

> Realms of Zot. Also a first timer: the Crypt, which I cleared
> completely, though I was barely able to escape from the Tomb (scary
> place)

The only really troublesome thing in the Crypt are the curse skulls, and these
can be overcome either by killing them fast or Abjuring a lot and killing them
slow.

The Tomb... scary place! I recently cleared it for the second time, and I must
say that of all the places I have visited in all the roguelikes I have played,
it is the one that has made me sweat and nail-bite the longest and hardest. It
is only my considerable vanity and greed that brought me there again.

> So now, what happened on D:27?
>
> I almost finished the last level of the main dungeon, when my Detect
> Creatures spell showed a big D around a corner. I had no particular
> problems with Dragons before, so what gives, I thought... Unfortunately
> it was a dangerous shapeshifter, which appeared as an azure jelly (never
> met one, only heard of them; never entered the Slime Pits) at first and
> changed into an Iron Dragon. I was prepared for a tough fight (Repel
> Missiles/Ozocubu's Armour/Swiftness), but I was in a bad position here,
> in the middle of a hallway. One shot got me down to <50%HP, although I
> recently got the 'robust' mutation (HP>100). So teleport was no option,
> I couldn't risc the delay and the 1 move loss for reading. I probably
> should have tried blink, but I was just too shocked to think clear.
> Anyway, it was a closed fight with a worthy opponent who's 3th shot was
> deadly.

:4:2:75730:Tim:0:5:10::15:26:16:3:398:127:an iron dragon:spray of metal
splinters:12:0:0:-10:65:65:31:7:26:15:9:200:0:0:20041013180434S:20041015195112S:
58755:73155:0:0:

I sure wish I knew how to work with the high score list properly... anyway,
either a shapeshifter (there were a lot on the given level, which was only
level 12!) or a real iron dragon also dashed one of my earlier greatest
hopes... man, those first encounters with iron dragons are painful!!!

> The iron dragon is almost dead.

:-(

> AC : 32 Evasion : 14 Shield : 0

That's FANTASTIC AC!

> GP : 3081

If I were a rich man, da-dee-da-dee...

> You are on level 27.
> You worship Vehumet.
> Vehumet is exalted by your worship.
> // thanks for never dropping a book with Selective Amnesia. Though it
> // wasn't really needed and surely not the reason for my death...

As Ru mentioned, he never does; he has a strict order of something like
conjurations-power-annihilations-callings-summonings-demonology, and skips
books you've already seen. I think.

Selective Amnesia might well have saved your life, in the sense that you would
have had a better selection of defensive/escape spells (Controlled Blink and/or
Tomb of Doroklohe). In any case, either I've been quite lucky or you've been
quite unlucky, as I've found 2 books of Enchantments and 1 of Practical Magic
during my current game. So if you run a conjuring type again soon, I think
you're likely to finally encounter that spell.


> Inventory:
> Hand weapons
> b - a +4,+6 dagger of holy wrath
> L - a +2,+1 dagger of flaming

Never found a short blade with the Protection ego? IMO it's more useful both
for training Fighting and for those moments when you're surprised while
dissecting.

> Armour
> g - a +4 robe of fire resistance (worn)
> i - a +0 pair of boots of running (worn)

:-O

Envy

Envy

Envy

> s - a +0 cloak of poison resistance (worn)
> t - a +2 pair of boots of stealth
> u - a +2 pair of gloves of strength (worn)
> C - a +2 visored helmet (worn)
> Magical devices
> e - a wand of flame (2)
> f - a wand of teleportation (5)
> j - a wand of digging (7)
> p - a wand of fireball (6)
> G - a wand of fireball (2)
> K - a wand of enslavement (3)
> M - a wand of invisibility (1)
> P - a wand of lightning (11)
> Q - a wand of disintegration (10)

Ooof. Wands are heavy! 10 units apiece. Might this have been behind your weight
problems? Or just still waiting to be stashed after a long dive?

[...]

> Skills:

Might've been good to have built up some Fighting. It's only 2-3 points per
level, though, so hard to say if it would have saved your life.

> - Level 1 Short Blades
> - Level 3 Staves
> - Level 9 Dodging
> - Level 11 Stealth
> - Level 16 Spellcasting

Debatable... more spellcasting = more spell levels = more flexibility, plus
there are the extra spell points, lessened hungering, and easier casting to
consider...

> - Level 24 Conjurations
> - Level 8 Enchantments

Haste is no waste...

> + Level 4 Summonings
> - Level 3 Translocations

....nor is Controlled Blink, nor is Teleport Control. Controlled Blink has
literally saved my life several times.

> + Level 3 Divinations

Identify, however, has not.

(Now watch me YASD and put my foot in my mouth forever. )

> + Level 21 Ice Magic
> - Level 3 Air Magic
> + Level 13 Earth Magic
> - Level 1 Poison Magic
> - Level 11 Invocations
> - Level 8 Evocations
>
>
> You have 6 spell levels left.
> You know the following spells:
>

[A pretty useful set except for the excursion into air conjurations.]

> Mutations & Other Weirdness
> Your vision is a little blurry.

OUCH.

[...]

> Vanquished Creatures

[...]

> A sphinx (Tomb:1) //horrible!

At least one can take care of sphinxes oneself... greater mummies are like
sphinxes that will curse you if you kill them by your own hand. The Tomb really
is an unpleasant place.

[...]

> That game was FUN!
> Btw, shortly before I made a security save for technical reasons (I'm
> currently updating my system which may crash during the process). I hate
> save-scumming, but this time I'll probably use it to see what's going on
> in the Realms of Zot (to be a little prepared next time I reach them...

I'm tempted to ask to be spoiled, but I think I'll pass. I look forward to
hearing of your further adventures!

Erik

 

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Archived from groups: rec.games.roguelike.misc (More info?)

Erik Piper wrote:
> Rubinstein wrote:
>
>> ...and there goes, TicMuna the DEIE.
>
> [...]
>
>> Realms of Zot. Also a first timer: the Crypt, which I cleared
>> completely, though I was barely able to escape from the Tomb (scary
>> place)
>
> The only really troublesome thing in the Crypt are the curse skulls,
> and these can be overcome either by killing them fast or Abjuring a
> lot and killing them slow.

Yes, I actually met (my first) one there. The skull was sitting at the
diagonal opposite wall of a greater square room and at first I was to
busy with other monsters. Thanks to my pretty high Stealth (I guess), he
didn't start summoning immediately, but when I was ready to attack him
(it?), it was too late and I got his summonings in LOS. Fortunately I
had a nice corridor to retreat, where I could defeat his summonings and
prepare for the final attack.

This monster reminds me to a very similar one I met first in Oangband.
It's a 'skull' type, too, I don't recall the correct name anymore. It's
a nasty (even for buff characters), non moving summoner, even more
aggressive (higher level of awereness, I think) than this one. At least
it seemed to me, but comparison is nearly impossible since Stealth with
my Oangband char could have been much lower than my recent Stealth, for
instance.

> The Tomb... scary place! I recently cleared it for the second time,
> and I must say that of all the places I have visited in all the
> roguelikes I have played, it is the one that has made me sweat and
> nail-bite the longest and hardest. It is only my considerable vanity
> and greed that brought me there again.

Imagine, it was the very first time for me! I've still to clean up the
puddle under my chair... ;-)

>> So now, what happened on D:27?
>> [...]
> [...]
>> AC : 32 Evasion : 14 Shield : 0
>
> That's FANTASTIC AC!

Indeed, though +5 came from temporary Ozo's Armour.

>> GP : 3081
>
> If I were a rich man, da-dee-da-dee...

Deedle-deedle-dim-dam... goes the line ;-)

>> You are on level 27. You worship Vehumet. Vehumet is exalted by
>> your worship.
>> // thanks for never dropping a book with Selective Amnesia. Though it
>> // wasn't really needed and surely not the reason for my death...
>
> As Ru mentioned, he never does; he has a strict order of something
> like conjurations-power-annihilations-callings-summonings-demonology,
> and skips books you've already seen. I think.

Oops, I must have missed this comment. Though it perfectly makes sense,
IMO: who would follow Sif Muna at all, if he wouldn't keep the monopoly
on this abbility?
But that's not quite fair, though. Personally I also like Sif Muna's
'contemplative' personality (you don't have to pray and offer all the
time).

> [...]
>> Inventory:
>> Hand weapons
>> b - a +4,+6 dagger of holy wrath
>> L - a +2,+1 dagger of flaming
>
> Never found a short blade with the Protection ego? IMO it's more
> useful both for training Fighting and for those moments when you're
> surprised while dissecting.

Good point, but...
At a certain point I just forgot about this possibility, but then I
never got seriously disturbed while dissecting. And since I also stopped
touching anything in melee anymore, I didn't want to use anything else
than a (magical) staff. The 2 daggers above are nothing more than some
kind of decadent dissecting utilities, though still no artifact(s). ;-)

As for the fighting skill...
I also believe to understand now why I saw several trees in some
player's vanquished monster lists. But then, one of the very few things
I miss in Crawl are Druids. And if I can't play a Druid, I can act like
a Druid at least, thus bashing trees for 1 or 2 levels of fighting isn't
an option for me (I only cut them down if they block the only path I
_need_ to go). Call me silly now, but keep in mind that when playing
RPGs I'm in no way a chessplayer anymore...

>> Armour
>> g - a +4 robe of fire resistance (worn)
>> i - a +0 pair of boots of running (worn)
>
>:-O
>
> Envy
>
> Envy
>
> Envy

Yes, I would walk miles for this boots! They even replaced my beloved

>> t - a +2 pair of boots of stealth

for almost all the time since I've found them. I've learned to
appreciate them in the Crypt and they savely (close enough, though)
carried my ass out of the Tomb.

>> u - a +2 pair of gloves of strength (worn)
>> C - a +2 visored helmet (worn)
>> Magical devices
>> [snip 9 wands]
>
> Ooof. Wands are heavy! 10 units apiece. Might this have been behind
> your weight problems? Or just still waiting to be stashed after a long
> dive?

At this time I didn't have any weight problems. Otherwise they would
have been the first items to drop.

> [...]
>
>> Skills:
>
> Might've been good to have built up some Fighting. It's only 2-3
> points per level, though, so hard to say if it would have saved your
> life.

Didn't know that, I somehow thought the requested amount of XP would be
disproportionally higher than for fighter types and thus a waste. But as
I understand it now, the disproportional part is only the time it needs
for a spellcaster to finally get those 2-3 points into the fighting
skill, which leads to tree-bashing which leads to not playing like a
Druid, yadda, yadda... you know the story. ;-)

>> - Level 1 Short Blades - Level 3 Staves - Level 9 Dodging - Level 11
>> Stealth - Level 16 Spellcasting
>
> Debatable... more spellcasting = more spell levels = more flexibility,

Imagine, I didn't know this, too! Only that

> plus there are the extra spell points, lessened hungering, and easier
> casting to consider...

>> - Level 24 Conjurations
>> - Level 8 Enchantments
>
> Haste is no waste...
>
>> + Level 4 Summonings
>> - Level 3 Translocations
>
> ...nor is Controlled Blink, nor is Teleport Control. Controlled Blink
> has literally saved my life several times.

At what level does blink turn into controlled blink? Or is this another
spell?

>> + Level 3 Divinations
>
> Identify, however, has not.

Actually I wasn't going for Identify, just have to take better care with
my skill switches.

> (Now watch me YASD and put my foot in my mouth forever. )

Owh c'mon, not for a missing Identify...

>> + Level 21 Ice Magic
>> - Level 3 Air Magic
>> + Level 13 Earth Magic
>> - Level 1 Poison Magic
>> - Level 11 Invocations
>> - Level 8 Evocations
>>
>>
>> You have 6 spell levels left.
>> You know the following spells:
>>
>
> [A pretty useful set except for the excursion into air conjurations.]

And what's about Repel Missiles? I'm still uncertain whether and how a
higher Air Magic skill affects this spell. The spell itself seems very
useful, though.

> [...]
>
>> That game was FUN! Btw, shortly before I made a security save for
>> technical reasons (I'm currently updating my system which may crash
>> during the process). I hate save-scumming, but this time I'll
>> probably use it to see what's going on in the Realms of Zot (to be a
>> little prepared next time I reach them...

Update: Meanwhile I think this would feel like spoiling myself. I'm
close to delete that file...

> I'm tempted to ask to be spoiled, but I think I'll pass.

YOU wanted to be spoiled? I can't believe that, so I assume either a
misspelling or misreading and thus: thanks for resisting. ;-)

I've a lot to learn yet, but sometimes it's not quite easy to devide
spoilers from informations. Better not knowing one or the other spoilers
and even miss some vital information than beeing spoiled too much too
soon. That's the way I like it.

But if you actually wanted to hear about my 'adventures' with that saved
game, I'm afraid I must disappoint you here since I'm not going to use
it. It's still there, though, if you want it...

> I look forward to hearing of your further adventures!

Then you'll need some patience here, currently I'm back to where it all
began: random chars! As you easily can imagine, those games are
extremely short, usually... *g*

Rubinstein

 

[Guest]

Archived from groups: rec.games.roguelike.misc (More info?)

Rubinstein wrote:

> Erik Piper wrote:
> > Rubinstein wrote:

[...]

> >> You are on level 27. You worship Vehumet. Vehumet is exalted by
> >> your worship.
> >> // thanks for never dropping a book with Selective Amnesia. Though it
> >> // wasn't really needed and surely not the reason for my death...
> >
> > As Ru mentioned, he never does; he has a strict order of something
> > like conjurations-power-annihilations-callings-summonings-demonology,
> > and skips books you've already seen. I think.
>
> Oops, I must have missed this comment. Though it perfectly makes sense,
> IMO: who would follow Sif Muna at all, if he wouldn't keep the monopoly
> on this abbility?
> But that's not quite fair, though. Personally I also like Sif Muna's
> 'contemplative' personality (you don't have to pray and offer all the
> time).

The "chesslike" solution is to worship Sif Muna until you have all of the books
that you wouldn't want to play without, then convert to Vehumet. Unfortunately,
or rather fortunately, this strategy has some severe drawbacks of its own, as
the wrath of a spurned god is severe and long-lasting. That said, there's a
semi-recent YAVP by Darshan involving a conversion from Xom to Vehumet... it
seems Darshan's conviction that things couldn't get any worse than they already
were was justified.

[...]

> As for the fighting skill...
> I also believe to understand now why I saw several trees in some
> player's vanquished monster lists. But then, one of the very few things
> I miss in Crawl are Druids. And if I can't play a Druid, I can act like
> a Druid at least, thus bashing trees for 1 or 2 levels of fighting isn't
> an option for me (I only cut them down if they block the only path I
> _need_ to go). Call me silly now, but keep in mind that when playing
> RPGs I'm in no way a chessplayer anymore...

I handle losing to humans quite poorly (sometimes I even handle losing to
computers poorly, but if I make sure to whisper instead of shouting, I usually
don't embarass myself too badly in the process...), so I fear I am forever
locked out of the true joys of chess. Feeling no need, therefore, to whet an
appetite I can't satiate, that is, to play computer chess, I play "chess" by
playing roguelikes. But their RPG appeal is clear to me... personally, I guess
"calculatedness" of action fits my vision of the personality of a conjurer, so
I have no trouble with tree-bashing in any case. :=)

There is another option, however. There is a small but unignorable degree of
random monster generation in Crawl. Normally it's not large enough for one to
make deliberate use of it -- the food consumption during the search for one's
victims is too high. With the use of Detect Creatures, however, this problem is
solved, as you can quickly determine if there are any "edible" creatures on a
level, and then go straight to them. Thus a foray to the upper dungeon with a
few thousand XP to burn can bear fruit, and you can gain some fighting skill
while still heading your YAVP with the line "No plants were harmed during the
filming of this YAVP." I understand, of course, that this still may be
unacceptable from the RPG standpoint, but otherwise... it's an option.

[...]

> >> Skills:
> >
> > Might've been good to have built up some Fighting. It's only 2-3
> > points per level, though, so hard to say if it would have saved your
> > life.
>
> Didn't know that, I somehow thought the requested amount of XP would be
> disproportionally higher than for fighter types

It is! (About double the cost charged to every fighter race except a certain
one that is exceptionally dumb at EVERYTHING.) Keep in mind that this is the
result of race, not class. Class has no effect on skill costs; only race,
number of skill levels already gained, and (in the case of spellcasting only)
level do. Bear this in mind during your random-combo adventures; if you are,
for instance, handed a deep elven fighter, you may consider gradually turning
it towards a profession that suits it better.

> and thus a waste.

It isn't! Still, there are also conjurers, summoners, elementalists, etc. who
succeeded without the extra HP that fighting brings.

> But as I understand it now, the disproportional part is only the time
> it needs for a spellcaster to finally get those 2-3 points into the
> fighting skill,

No, no, no! By "2-3" I meant the HP gain per level. However, the second part of
what you write is correct --

-- you have low HP and low AC, so fighting anything that can fight back is
disproportionally dangerous. (Incidentally, once you reach fighting level 2,
plant-bashing won't raise your fighting anymore, so this eventually becomes a
concern even for the "chess-player.)
-- you have low strength, and since AFAIU you only pump XP into fighting when
you do damage, you have less frequent pumping. (For this reason, I usually
start by bashing Fungi instead of Plants. Just have to be careful to stop at
"almost destroyed" so I can later go back and beat them up some more. )
-- you have low strength, and while this does not affect the XP cost of
fighting, it does affect the difficulty of pumping points into it even when you
*do* do damage. (This applies universally -- each skill is tied to ST, DX, or
IN, and the difficulty of pumping points into it depends in part of the level
of its corresponding stat.)

> which leads to tree-bashing which leads to not playing
> like a Druid, yadda, yadda... you know the story. ;-)



> > ...nor is Controlled Blink, nor is Teleport Control. Controlled Blink
> > has literally saved my life several times.
>
> At what level does blink turn into controlled blink? Or is this another
> spell?

Another spell. BTW, IME it's preferable to the blink/control teleport
combination. Control teleport, then blink, will save your life in two turns.
Controlled blink will save your life in *one* turn. My kingdom for one turn...

> >> + Level 3 Divinations
> >
> > Identify, however, has not.
>
> Actually I wasn't going for Identify, just have to take better care with
> my skill switches.
>
> > (Now watch me YASD and put my foot in my mouth forever. )
>
> Owh c'mon, not for a missing Identify...

That also occurred to me, and indeed for all my efforts I couldn't imagine any
*expensive* divinations short of Forescry helping to save my life. The cheap
ones, on the other hand...

You'll laugh, though, when you see that I have 7 levels of divinations
myself... the reason is that since I've maxed out Spellcasting and
Conjurations, I hardly know where to put my XP any more.

[...]

> >> You know the following spells:
> >>
> >
> > [A pretty useful set except for the excursion into air conjurations.]
>
> And what's about Repel Missiles?

Oh, Repel Missiles is very nice! In terms of skill development, there's nothing
wrong with knowing air conjurations: air is useful as such, and so are
conjurations as such. But air-resistant monsters are so frequent later on that
they are regrettable unless you can forget them as needed.

> I'm still uncertain whether and how a higher Air Magic skill affects this
> spell.

The core factor in the power with which a spell is cast is the average of all
skills involved -- in this case, the average of Air and Enchantments. But how
does a higher power affect the spell? Sadly, the spoilers are silent on the
effects of power on the spell, and I'm not skilled in source-diving, so I can't
help you here. The author of the only relatively detailed spell spoiler is Mark
Mackey, who recently popped around here, so perhaps he will pop up again with
an answer.

[...]

> > I'm tempted to ask to be spoiled [on the basis of your planned "tourist"
> > trip to Zot], but I think I'll pass.
>
> YOU wanted to be spoiled? I can't believe that, so I assume either a
> misspelling or misreading and thus: thanks for resisting. ;-)

IRONY LAYERS OVERFLOW ERROR
CANNOT PARSE UNAMBIGUOUSLY

[...]

> > I look forward to hearing of your further adventures!
>
> Then you'll need some patience here, currently I'm back to where it all
> began: random chars! As you easily can imagine, those games are
> extremely short, usually... *g*

*g*

If you get bored of random characters but still want some randomness, I can
heartily recommend human wanderers.

+----------+---+---+---+---+---+---+---+---+---+---+---+---+---+---+---+---+---+
| |Fighting | | | | | | | | | | | | | | |
| | |Short Blades | | | | | | | | | | | | |
| | | |Long Swords| | | | | | | | | | | | |
| | | | |Axes | | | | | | | | | | | | |
| | | | | |Maces&Flails | | | | | | | | | |
| | | | | | |Polearms | | | | | | | | | |
| | | | | | | |Staves | | | | | | | | | |
| | | | | | | | |Slings | | | | | | | | |
| | | | | | | | | |Bows | | | | | | | |
| | | | | | | | | | |Crossbows | | | | | |
| | | | | | | | | | | |Darts | | | | | |
| | | | | | | | | | | | |Throwing | | | |
| | | | | | | | | | | | | |Armour | | | |
| | | | | | | | | | | | | | |Dodging| | |
| | | | | | | | | | | | | | | |Stealth| |
| | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | |Stabbing
| | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | Shields
| | F | S | L | A | M | P | S | S | B | C | D | T | A | D | S | S | S |
+----------+---+---+---+---+---+---+---+---+---+---+---+---+---+---+---+---+---+
|Human |100|100|100|100|100|100|100|100|100|100|100|100|100|100|100|100|100|

+----------+---+---+---+---+---+---+---+---+---+---+---+---+---+---+---+---+---+
| |Traps&Doors| | | | | | | | | | | | | | |
| | |Unarmed Combat | | | | | | | | | | | | |
| | | |Spellcasting | | | | | | | | | | | |
| | | | |Conjurations | | | | | | | | | | |
| | | | | |Enchantments | | | | | | | | | |
| | | | | | |Summonings | | | | | | | | | |
| | | | | | | |Necromancy | | | | | | | | |
| | | | | | | | |Translocations | | | | | | |
| | | | | | | | | |Transmigration | | | | | |
| | | | | | | | | | |Divinations| | | | | |
| | | | | | | | | | | |Fire Magic | | | | |
| | | | | | | | | | | | |Ice Magic | | | |
| | | | | | | | | | | | | |Air Magic | | |
| | | | | | | | | | | | | | |Earth Magic| |
| | | | | | | | | | | | | | | |Poison Magic
| | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | Invocations
| | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | Evocations
| | T | U | S | C | E | S | N | T | T | D | F | I | A | E | P | I | E |
+----------+---+---+---+---+---+---+---+---+---+---+---+---+---+---+---+---+---+
|Human |100|100|100|100|100|100|100|100|100|100|100|100|100|100|100|100|100|

Instead of you choosing a profession for the dungeon, the dungeon chooses a
profession for you!

OK, enough unrequested spoilers for one day. Good luck and good hunting!

>
> Rubinstein

Erik

 

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"Erik Piper" <efrniokr@sdky.cz> wrote:

[...]
> The "chesslike" solution is to worship Sif Muna until you have all
> of the books that you wouldn't want to play without, then convert
> to Vehumet. Unfortunately, or rather fortunately, this strategy
> has some severe drawbacks of its own, as the wrath of a spurned
> god is severe and long-lasting.

If you've a decent character, you can usually survive having a god
or two displeased with you. Iirc, Sif Muna isn't terribly nasty.

> That said, there's a semi-recent YAVP by Darshan involving a
> conversion from Xom to Vehumet...

Xom to Sif Muna, as a matter of fact. In Xom's defence, he's nice to
have on your side if your character is pretty sulf-sufficient
already. My merfolk transmuter win was a Xom-worshipper and got a
lot of neat mutations from the deal.

Darshan

 

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On 29 Dec 2004 09:43:18 GMT, Darshan Shaligram <scintilla@gmail.com>
wrote:

>If you've a decent character, you can usually survive having a god
>or two displeased with you. Iirc, Sif Muna isn't terribly nasty.

Two gods, though? Okay, Sif Muna and... who do you want to try as the
second angry god? I'm thinking Xom, as Xom's randomness can make happy
Xom and angry Xom hard to distinguish.

R. Dan Henry
danhenry@inreach.com

 

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R. Dan Henry <danhenry@inreach.com> wrote:
> On 29 Dec 2004 09:43:18 GMT, Darshan Shaligram
> <scintilla@gmail.com> wrote:

>>If you've a decent character, you can usually survive having a god
>>or two displeased with you. Iirc, Sif Muna isn't terribly nasty.

> Two gods, though? Okay, Sif Muna and... who do you want to try as
> the second angry god? I'm thinking Xom, as Xom's randomness can
> make happy Xom and angry Xom hard to distinguish.

Xom and the Shining One, in my case. Apparently the Shining One and
Makhleb don't get along very well.

Darshan

 

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In article <33dm8aF3vjlakU1@individual.net>,
Erik Piper <efrniokr@sdky.cz> wrote:
>
>The core factor in the power with which a spell is cast is the average of all
>skills involved -- in this case, the average of Air and Enchantments. But how
>does a higher power affect the spell? Sadly, the spoilers are silent on the
>effects of power on the spell, and I'm not skilled in source-diving, so I can't
>help you here. The author of the only relatively detailed spell spoiler is Mark
>Mackey, who recently popped around here, so perhaps he will pop up again with
>an answer.

<FX: pop!>

For most (but not all) enchantment enhancement spells, a higher spell
power gives a longer duration but doesn't change the nature of the
effect. Deflect/Repel Missiles are in this category.

--
Mark Mackey
The Association for the Advancement of Dungeon Crawling
Hints, tips and spoilers
http://www.swallowtail.org/crawl/

 

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Rubinstein wrote:

<snip>

> You worship Vehumet.
> Vehumet is exalted by your worship.
> // thanks for never dropping a book with Selective Amnesia. Though it
> // wasn't really needed and surely not the reason for my death...

Vehument only gives you conjuration and summoning books.