Archived from groups: rec.games.roguelike.misc (
More info?)
bork bork bork Loonie bork 11:21:53 AM bork 1/28/2005 bork bork:
> Rubinstein .-- .-. --- - . ---...
>
> > I'm currently playing a Grey Elf Wizard (L18 now), main school is ice.
> > He's doing quite well, even better than my former DEEE at this stage.
> >
> > Here's the problem:
> > My only offensive, well working non-ice spell is Iskenderun's Mystic
> > Blast. Not bad for now, but I guess I'll need a more powerful
> > alternative elemental spell for the late game.
You'll be tempted to abandon it (got Selective Amnesia?) at some point. My
advice: don't. Insanely accurate, cheap, and hunger-free quite soon. It's a
bit weak, but its judicious use in place of other more expensive alternatives
will save your hide many times.
> Air school would be the
> > obvious choice for a grey elf, though lately I'm also experimenting with
> > Lehudib's Crystal Spear. For casting the latter I need to wield a staff
> > of earth, it's useless otherwise. Besides the annoyance of another
> > swap-weapon (I'm already using 3 swaps, without that staff)
What are the other swaps?
> > it's inducing weight problems and probably leads to nowhere due to the
> > terrible skill aptitude in earth magic for grey elves. On the other hand
> > I doubt there's an adequate replacement for Crystal Spear in the Air
> > school. Would a staff of conjurations lower the problem with Crystal
> > Spear? Unfortunately I couldn't find one yet (though I found 12(!)
> > magical staves already).
One of the few very-near-guaranteed acquisitions from a scroll is a staff
appropriate to your highest skill. Make sure Conjurations is your highest
spell skill, and then cross your fingers...
> It doesn't matter if you wield staff of earth or staff of conjuration when
> you cast Conjuration/Earth spell. This gives you one enhancer anyway. You
> can try however staff of wizardry instead, it gives you less spellpower,
> but probably could give you better casting chances than staff of
> conjuration or earth.
Aha, I see I replied to Loonie, not you... I'd say \oW is not really worth
the weight -- they're somewhat useful for fighter-mages (I've been playing
these a lot), who mostly worry about casting good spells at all, not how
powerful they are. Conjurerlikes need power. POWER. POOOOOOWEEEEEEEERR
muahahahahaaaaa
> > I think it's time to make a decision now between Earth and Air, but I'm
> > really unsure about the best choice. Any Ideas?
[...]
A dissenting opinion...
Build Earth. Build Air a lot more, but build Earth too. The first few levels
are cheap, and they'll be a nice aid to Crystal Spear (and should enable you
to cast it without a swap). Also, if I recall correctly, Annihilations
contains Tomb of Dorolkohe, which is an insanely great spell (assuming you
have a way to get out of it -- but even if you have no escape spell, there
are enough wands of digging/disintegration in the game to cover the typical
number of times you'll cast ToD). Note that it's Conjuration/Earth, so your
Conjuration skill will be a big boost.
A lot of it depends on where you'll be going. The Tomb is a LOT easier if you
can use ToD (and Abjuration, but that's a given if you'll be using X's for
the job, which is about the only choice for a GEIE). The Hells are a lot
easier if you have Earth (mostly the Spear and ToD), too (or Fire in some
cases). (Actually, the one time I did the Hells, I used ALL FOUR elements,
always custom-fit to the particular Hell I was visiting at the time.) I
believe the weapons in the Halls may likewise be resistant to Ice and Air.
Some thoughts on the thoughts I've seen...
STONE SKIN: I wouldn't be too worried about not getting use out of it. Your
best defense against damage is to avoid combat, not to gain a few extra
points of AC, and anyway, Stone Skin is just one spell.
LOW APTITUDE: I'm currently running a HOCr with lots of experience spent on
Spellcasting (aptitude 150) and Enchantments (aptitude 120) and four levels
of Air (150), 4 of Translocations (aptitude 150), several planned for
Divinations (160) and perhaps some Transmigrations (160). (Plus several other
schools with more reasonable aptitudes.) Despite (or because of) all this,
you still wouldn't want to stand in the way of his axe...
Graeme Dice once posted the following, when I was busy minimaxing spell
skills and aptitudes: "The most efficient thing to do is to train those spell
schools that you plan to use to the level at which the spells you plan to use
are very
unlikely to fail." Second most useful Crawl advice I've ever seen. (First
most was some fellow's guide to surviving when you've got an Ogre, etc.
breathing down your neck.) I think it applies here.
HALF-DAMAGE SPELLS: Nice for a lark, not really that great for serious work.
The Spear is expensive... but its power shows it.
EARTH'S TIE TO TRANSMIGRATIONS: The Earth/Transmigration spells that come to
my mind that are tied to Transmigrations are either OK to ignore (e.g.
Sandblast, Stone Skin, Shatter, Lee's Rapid Deconstruction) or not used
frequently enough to eat a lot of experience (e.g. Dig). I wouldn't worry
about it.
Erik
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