Archived from groups: rec.games.roguelike.misc (More info?)
(This part covers D:1 through D:9)
Since I'd like to serve the public good by logging another "educational"
(stereotypical/prototypical) character, and I can't find the patience to
log another one similar to "a", I've decided to log a prototypical combo
that also happens to be my Crawl "first love" -- the respected, feared,
and easily killed
Deep Elf Conjurer
....and this one's name is, of course, "b".
--------
If a pure fighter is the ultimate in simplicity (sort of), then a pure
conjurer must be the ultimate in complexity? Sort of.
So much of the complexity can be simplified that it all works out OK,
and comprehensible.
The Conjurer's commandments are:
* Start each battle at full MP.
* Never enter melee.
Just these two! And their whole game is about these! These are ideals,
not really achievable, you say? Ah, but an elf's reach should exceed his
grasp, or what's a heaven for?
---------
D:1
---
b entered the dungeon and I turned off all of his skills other than
Spellcasting -- I want to pour every point into that skill I can while
it's still at its maximum discount. This is a gambit, because
Spellcasting brings far less direct benefit than Conjurations or the
elements. However, Deep Elves have a bit of a buffer in the magic
department... we won't talk about the little matter of them having next
to no hitpoints. ;-)
(For non-native-speaker and non-vocabulary-fanatics: a gambit is an
early risk intended to ensure a later gain.)
b has the fire/earth conjurations book, which is fantastic news -- while
the ice/earth book is fine for a character who will become a reaver, if
you're never going to damage things without magic, you need at hand
something unresistable like Earth (and Fire ain't bad that way either).
IMO of course.
b first stood around for a minute firing Magic Dart at the wall to make
sure his pool goes into magic skills rather than dodging/stealth; note
that I take this kind of stuff to extremes.
I wouldn't recommend it to anyone else, unlike other techniques
described here. It's a little boring and can leave you stranded. But
it's something I do, and this *is* a log, so...
b sees his first fearsome foe -- a rat!
#.%#
#..#
#..#
#@..
Oops, I blinked. I *immediately* and *reflexively* (that latter
point is important) shift-5'd after killing it -- for a pure conjurer,
this is a lifesaving reflex. The venerable Mark Mackey once wrote
something like "for a conjurer, when MP reach 0, HP reach 0 soon after",
and I can only agree.
Soon b finds an amulet. Since he's a pure conjurer, he wears it -- the
only early bad amulet (and the only uncursed bad amulet period),
Inaccuracy, isn't going to do him any harm.
And likewise as a pure conjurer, he wield-tests every short blade he
sees immediately. If he finds a cursed one, it's no harm to his attack
powers, and it lets him ID Remove Curse. Normally I might wield-test
every axe and eventual long blade as well (to improve my chances of
finding a weapon Of Protection), but this is a truly risky gambit, as
walking around with a cursed war axe you can't find an RC for that
hinders your spellcasting is not very fun. Sure, the hinderance ain't
THAT big, and Deep Elves have low failure rates to start with, but every
little bit counts. So I won't set a bad example. And weapons that can't
butcher are, of course, right out of the running.
Even after I get Throw Flame, I stick mostly to Magic Dart, because as
far as I can tell, my Int and Spellcasting are still in the range where
the food-cost difference between the two spell exists and is important,
and meanwhile, Magic Dart doesn't seem to have hit its cap. (Spells have
"caps" at which their effects stop improving and it's then usually more
efficient to simply use a more expensive spell, if available.)
I level up. *Very* important for a conjurer, to the point that the key
to a tough initial enemy can simply be to reach level 2 before taking
them on.
Stealth isn't just for stabbers:
Cast which spell ([?*] list)?
You miscast the spell.
Nothing appears to happen.
Move the cursor around to observe a square.
Press '?' for a monster description.
Floor.
A giant cockroach.
It doesn't appear to have noticed you.
#a..#
#@#
#..
I get to retreat to the southwest and restore full MP, and I also get a
chance to start firing from an angle where the initial distance to the
cockroach is larger. Giant cockroaches are a bit tricky for a starting
conjurer in any case -- they have good enough AC to soften magic darts,
good enough evasion to dodge all too many throw-flames, and too much
speed to retreat from safely to regain MP. Thus a good initial distance
is quite useful. (Jackals and geckos are similar except for a lower AC
and the terrifying pack-creature nature of jackals.)
I can't get a good angle, so I go around to the SW in hopes of
approaching from the NW. On the way I sight an ooze. Like many slow,
tough monsters, the best thing a conjurer can do with it if lacking the
firepower to take it out in one go is to simply avoid it. I do try a
test round against it, though:
[...]
You kill the ooze!
Shouldn't underestimate myself...
I eventually take on the cockroach from the original angle... and do fine.
D:2
---
A snake. I use magic darts against it -- its evasion is a worse problem
than its AC.
Clevel 3.
Quaff-tested !oCM :-(
Whenever I find a potion at this point, I double-check that I have at
least one healing potion -- otherwise, quaff-testing !oPoison can be fatal.
Two rings, which don't wear-ID, but one gives me a numb sensation, so I
remove it -- it's a ring of ice. I'll true-ID it when I get a spare
ID'ing someday.
A snake. It hasn't noticed me and there's an immediately visible angle
where it can be approached from a greater distance, so I cancel my
conjuration before selecting a spell and re-approach.
I've now got Conjure Flame, which lets me artificially increase the
distance between me and my foe if there's a corridor available. But for
the moment it's unreliable and it's expensive in relation to my max MP;
it's more useful for running away, which I don't like to do because it's
boring. ("And if that's boring, then what's
firing-spells-at-the-wall?" you ask? Oddly soothing, is what.)
My fire magic skill reaches 1; I turn it off. ;-)
A third ring arrives and soon after I learn that one of my two rings is
poison resistance. This is *tremendously* useful for the early-game food
game. I rejoice.
I *still* haven't found any cursed items, but I'm starting to be in
danger of losing scrolls to orc wizards. I get a weak monster in view,
make sure there's something with unknown curse status in my pack, and
start read-IDing scrolls, smallest piles first (in hopes of getting
curse weapon/armour). Yeah, I'm weird.
Oh... I'm wearing an AotG. (Forgot to attempt that pseudo-ID.) This
won't be a short game...
In case you're wondering, I'm still firing spells at walls. I'm making
sure to be far from explored territory when doing it, to reduce the
chance of something nasty wandering in (monster generation while
visiting a level tends to be milder than monster generation during level
generation IME, and the monsters that came with the level are more
likely to pop up when I'm "close to the black"). I also only do this
when I'm not hungry, or at least not very -- in those times, it's time
to move on and generate some corpses.
D:3
---
I enter in the middle of an orc pack, and this is a corridor-starved
level. I try to form a defensive position and encounter Jessica. I lead
two orcs up and defeat them, then typo-redescend when trying to head to
another down staircase. Sigh. I test a big still-unID'd scroll pile and
get teleportation immediately, escaping smoothly.
First orc wizard. Damn, these guys have good AC/evasion. He costs me my
only healing potion (perhaps used in haste, but I really don't want to
die with this guy). He yields a +2 robe.
Rest goes uneventfully. Learn bolt of magma (only so I don't forget to
later -- it's still too unreliable to be useful for the moment).
D:4
---
Been running about with a cursed orcish dagger for some time now. Cursed
orcish daggers are the new black.
An early Temple this game -- yet more luck! I form my initial stash and
curse-test some cursed armour. Time to double-uncurse! Fortunately, I
still have a runed knife available to id itself as cursed, and it does.
:0) Ohh.... and I also happen to find a dagger of draining, but that's
only really usable "for show".
I convert to Vehumet, of course. Sif Muna is perhaps better for
beginners, and this is meant as a sort of "sample road map" for
beginners (who've already read the story of "a"), but really, for a game
you believe will reach the endgame and for a conjurer who knows what he
wants spell-wise, Vehumet outpaces SM by miles.
Level-6 voluntary stat increase goes to Int... for a starting conjurer,
there really are no other stats.
I find a +2 leather armour, but stick to the robe -- I'd rather have a
slightly lower spell failure rate than a slightly better AC.
D:5
---
An imp. I take him out with magic dart rather than stone arrow -- due to
imps' frustrating regeneration, AC, and evasion, what you want is cheap
and accurate, and that's magic dart for you. I *don't* try to get
Vehumet-piety from him -- the turns wasted that way tend to stretch out
early imp battles quite a bit. Heck, it's only one consecrated kill;
there'll be plenty more ahead.
A general store shows a rod of destruction -- a steal at only 350 gold.
Eventually buy it for use in food-free destruction? Or not? This will be
one interesting game...
Edmund. Ambushes me, but he's only got a knife and leather armour
(armour generally affects spells too), so he goes down painlessly.
Jeezus. I'm beginning to think my last still un-ID'd ring is
sustenance... this is getting ridiculous. I feel like a walking meat
counter.
Nope. It's see invis. And my newish amulet is resist slowing. I'm
starting to feel the RNG is preparing something nasty up ahead Since
I don't have Haste, I keep wearing the Gourmand for sake of convenience.
Ambushed by an ant while spell-training, zap-ID first two wands --
something resistable, plus Fire.
Short three staircases this level -- two downs and an up. I go to find
the missing up staircase first, since I want to, more generally
speaking, always go by the path of least resistance.
D:5 part 2
----------
Other wand was disintegration. Weird -- I suspected it. Must be magic.
Still missing a down staircase.
D:6
---
Orc pack, detected one move later than I could have. Gotta pay more
attention... I *do not* pray to Vehumet yet, concentrating on the orc
priest first instead. I reach half-health before taking him out; danger
Will Robinson! I break LOS in hopes of getting the vanilla orcs in front
of the wizard before I re-engage. I find I'm able to reach an up
staircase without *having* to re-engage the wizard (I guess when he
blinked he got lost somewhere). Before ascending, I double-check that
this is the staircase I came down -- don't want to ascend into new trouble.
I heal and return, and the wizard falls easily.
Have lots of armour to curse-check now, so I can check weapons too... A
runed quarterstaff I found a while ago is Of Protection. W00t!
Randart scale mail. Sigh.
D:5 part 3
----------
I open a door into a room and there's a centaur and other fine
company... oops. I immediately close the door to break LOS and start
praying, and then retreat to let *them* spend the turn opening the door.
They don't... darn that stealth...
The immediately adjacent enemy when I open the door is a giant ant. I'm
more afraid of the centaur than the ant, so I use Stone Arrow (which is
less accurate than Throw Flame) and aim through the ant at the centaur
-- as expected, the second shot is dodged by the nimble ant, but not the
lumbering centaur. The third kills the ant, and the centaur -- who, I
discover, is shooting bolts of flame -- trades flames with me until a
snake blocks his aim and I repeat the process, successfully prepping the
centaur for a quick death once the snake fails to dodge.
I switch to using a vanilla sabre for butchering... moving through
"more" messages due to spam from that dagger of draining and the
quarterstaff of protection combined is pretty annoying.
First stash run this game. A random-looking orc in a quiet, shallow
place drops +2 leather of poison resistance upon dying. Yeah, that'll
work.
D:7
---
Wide-open level, and *2* orc priests at the edge of my field of view.
I'll try to take out 1 before the other can reach the stair, then heal
upstairs... well, the first one goes down before I get damaged much. How
about the other right away? Ouch, burn a !oH... and it's through.
An orc warrior, who can't be taken out before he closes to melee range.
After he slugs me for 51% of my hitpoints, I take advantage of his slow
weapon speed to open up a space between us, giving me that vital 1 turn
to read a scroll of teleportation. (No safely available up staircase
around.) Since the level is mostly uncleared, I run as far as I safely
can before reading the scroll, so I'll be in the best possible shape if
I land into trouble.
Ah, but what's this? He stops to pick up a scroll laying on the ground.
OK, OK, I chickened out and maneuvered him into it. It gains me 2
squares. However, my stone arrow gambit (orc warriors are poor enough
dodgers for stone arrow to often be a smart choice) fails, and it's back
to plan A. Plan A works.
I'm now approached by a series of natural creatures, some weaker some
stronger. I use magic dart for the accuracy, and concentrate on routing
them rather than killing them. This has the side benefit that I don't
feel bad about not wasting turns on prayers.
I get reminded that because this is an open level, I just ain't gonna
get a chance to fully rest here -- I maneuver towards the stairs for the
job.
Immolation. Well, glad to have *that* out of the way...
"You can now gain power from killing in Vehumet's name." Gaining speed...
Most of the time, nobody has fewer weight problems than a deep elf
conjurer -- nothing much out there worth ID'ing!
First spellbook -- and it's the Book of Fire! I take just Evaporate for
now, and try again to learn ordinary Fireball from my starting book,
finally succeeding. If we look at the other spells in the Book of Fire,
we see they fail either the "no Selective Amnesia" test or the
learability test:
Fire brand -- *what* weapon?
Summon elemental -- useful if you really really need to dig, but if you
don't, that's 4 wasted spell slots. OK, you can summon fire elementals
in combination with Conjure Flame, but I hate summoning...
Bolt of Magma -- already learned
Remaining 3 -- Not yet feasibly learnable.
I finally start deliberately training my Earth magic using the fairly
ineffective stone arrow. It's cheaper to make Bolt of Magma reliable by
training both Fire and Earth than by training just Fire, but I couldn't
afford to use Stone Arrow as more than a toy until recently.
D:8
---
"oRCorrosion. Ho hum.
Yet another game where =oTeleportation are wooden. Probably a
coincidence... I take this occasion to test some armour, then rid my
finger of it.
Drive-by level-clearing...
D:9
---
Checkboard vault. I'm welcomed into it by an eye of draining, who
fortunately is alone. It leaves a corpse. Should I? Shouldn't I? Well,
you know me...
Before I can eat, giant spore gets me for 31 HP. I have a max of 34...
and then with me still at 3 HP, a centaur, blocked only by a flimsy
hobgoblin, appears. !oSpeed, !oH, conjure flame, run to up stairs, heal.
Heh, no mutagenic chunks for *me*...
I hear a bellow and see a staff. I unfortunately respond to the staff
(picking it up) rather than the bellow... yak's right on top of me. I
rout the yak using the wand of fire (for its 0% fail rate) followed up
by some spells. No praying, though. Hope Vehumet doesn't begrudge me
that orc. Yaks are pack creatures, so I retreat before the rest can
show up.
It's a staff of conjuration.
And that wraps up part 1.
Dungeon Crawl version 4.0.0 beta 26 character file.
Welcome, b the Deep Elf Conjurer.
Let it end in hellfire!
Drop which item?
Okay, then.
####
#...
#.##
### #.#.
### #@# #######.#.
#.####.# #....##.#.
#....#.# #....##.#.
#.##.#.# #....##.#.
#.##.#.# #....#....
#.##.#.# #....#....
#.##.#.# #....#....
#.##.#.#######....#...#
#.#....................
b the Thaumaturge (Deep Elf)
(Level 8 Conjurer)
Play time: 05:00:35 Number of turns: 13696
Experience : 8/2204
Strength 6 Dexterity 15 Intelligence 22
Hit Points : 34 Magic Points : 21/28
AC : 7 Evasion : 10 Shield : 0
GP : 106
You are on level 8.
You worship Vehumet.
Vehumet is most pleased with you.
You are completely stuffed.
Inventory:
Hand weapons
a - an uncursed runed quarterstaff of protection
b - an uncursed sabre
Armour
i - a +0 pair of gloves (worn)
j - a +0 helmet (worn)
k - a +0 pair of boots (worn)
l - a +2 orcish leather armour of poison resistance (worn)
Magical devices
D - a wand of disintegration (8)
E - a wand of fire
K - a plastic wand
M - a long copper wand
Comestibles
n - an apple
p - a honeycomb
v - a pear
x - 3 meat rations
G - a bread ration
H - 4 chunks of centaur flesh
Q - 4 chunks of orc flesh
Scrolls
e - 2 scrolls of identify
g - a scroll of teleportation
o - 2 scrolls of fear
q - a scroll of blinking
A - a scroll of detect curse
N - a scroll of remove curse
Jewellery
h - an amulet of the gourmand (around neck)
m - an amulet of resist corrosion
y - an amulet of resist slowing
z - a ring of poison resistance (right hand)
// worn out of habit ;-)
C - an uncursed wooden ring
// teleportation
L - an uncursed silver ring
// ice
O - a ring of see invisible (left hand)
Potions
r - 2 potions of might
u - 2 potions of healing
// will pick up only other !oHW when I visit stash -- this game has been
short on them
w - a potion of restore abilities
Books
c - a book of Conjurations
// carried so I could keep attempting to learn Fireball; will now drop
s - a book of Fire
Magical staves
I - a staff of conjuration (weapon)
You have 10 experience left.
Skills:
- Level 1 Short Blades
- Level 1 Staves
- Level 2 Dodging
- Level 3 Stealth
+ Level 11 Spellcasting
- Level 9 Conjurations
- Level 4 Fire Magic
- Level 1 Earth Magic
You have 7 spell levels left.
You know the following spells:
Your Spells Type Success Level
a - Magic Dart Conjuration Excellent 1
b - Throw Flame Fire/Conjuration Excellent 2
c - Conjure Flame Fire/Conjuration Excellent 3
d - Stone Arrow Earth/Conjuration Great 3
e - Bolt of Magma Fire/Earth/Conjuration Very Good 5
f - Evaporate Fire/Transmigration Very Good 2
g - Fireball Fire/Conjuration Very Good 6
Vanquished Creatures
[a bunch of] creatures vanquished.
(This part covers D:1 through D:9)
Since I'd like to serve the public good by logging another "educational"
(stereotypical/prototypical) character, and I can't find the patience to
log another one similar to "a", I've decided to log a prototypical combo
that also happens to be my Crawl "first love" -- the respected, feared,
and easily killed
Deep Elf Conjurer
....and this one's name is, of course, "b".
--------
If a pure fighter is the ultimate in simplicity (sort of), then a pure
conjurer must be the ultimate in complexity? Sort of.
So much of the complexity can be simplified that it all works out OK,
and comprehensible.
The Conjurer's commandments are:
* Start each battle at full MP.
* Never enter melee.
Just these two! And their whole game is about these! These are ideals,
not really achievable, you say? Ah, but an elf's reach should exceed his
grasp, or what's a heaven for?
---------
D:1
---
b entered the dungeon and I turned off all of his skills other than
Spellcasting -- I want to pour every point into that skill I can while
it's still at its maximum discount. This is a gambit, because
Spellcasting brings far less direct benefit than Conjurations or the
elements. However, Deep Elves have a bit of a buffer in the magic
department... we won't talk about the little matter of them having next
to no hitpoints. ;-)
(For non-native-speaker and non-vocabulary-fanatics: a gambit is an
early risk intended to ensure a later gain.)
b has the fire/earth conjurations book, which is fantastic news -- while
the ice/earth book is fine for a character who will become a reaver, if
you're never going to damage things without magic, you need at hand
something unresistable like Earth (and Fire ain't bad that way either).
IMO of course.
b first stood around for a minute firing Magic Dart at the wall to make
sure his pool goes into magic skills rather than dodging/stealth; note
that I take this kind of stuff to extremes.
I wouldn't recommend it to anyone else, unlike other techniques
described here. It's a little boring and can leave you stranded. But
it's something I do, and this *is* a log, so...
b sees his first fearsome foe -- a rat!
#.%#
#..#
#..#
#@..
Oops, I blinked.
I *immediately* and *reflexively* (that latter point is important) shift-5'd after killing it -- for a pure conjurer,
this is a lifesaving reflex. The venerable Mark Mackey once wrote
something like "for a conjurer, when MP reach 0, HP reach 0 soon after",
and I can only agree.
Soon b finds an amulet. Since he's a pure conjurer, he wears it -- the
only early bad amulet (and the only uncursed bad amulet period),
Inaccuracy, isn't going to do him any harm.
And likewise as a pure conjurer, he wield-tests every short blade he
sees immediately. If he finds a cursed one, it's no harm to his attack
powers, and it lets him ID Remove Curse. Normally I might wield-test
every axe and eventual long blade as well (to improve my chances of
finding a weapon Of Protection), but this is a truly risky gambit, as
walking around with a cursed war axe you can't find an RC for that
hinders your spellcasting is not very fun. Sure, the hinderance ain't
THAT big, and Deep Elves have low failure rates to start with, but every
little bit counts. So I won't set a bad example. And weapons that can't
butcher are, of course, right out of the running.
Even after I get Throw Flame, I stick mostly to Magic Dart, because as
far as I can tell, my Int and Spellcasting are still in the range where
the food-cost difference between the two spell exists and is important,
and meanwhile, Magic Dart doesn't seem to have hit its cap. (Spells have
"caps" at which their effects stop improving and it's then usually more
efficient to simply use a more expensive spell, if available.)
I level up. *Very* important for a conjurer, to the point that the key
to a tough initial enemy can simply be to reach level 2 before taking
them on.
Stealth isn't just for stabbers:
Cast which spell ([?*] list)?
You miscast the spell.
Nothing appears to happen.
Move the cursor around to observe a square.
Press '?' for a monster description.
Floor.
A giant cockroach.
It doesn't appear to have noticed you.
#a..#
#@#
#..
I get to retreat to the southwest and restore full MP, and I also get a
chance to start firing from an angle where the initial distance to the
cockroach is larger. Giant cockroaches are a bit tricky for a starting
conjurer in any case -- they have good enough AC to soften magic darts,
good enough evasion to dodge all too many throw-flames, and too much
speed to retreat from safely to regain MP. Thus a good initial distance
is quite useful. (Jackals and geckos are similar except for a lower AC
and the terrifying pack-creature nature of jackals.)
I can't get a good angle, so I go around to the SW in hopes of
approaching from the NW. On the way I sight an ooze. Like many slow,
tough monsters, the best thing a conjurer can do with it if lacking the
firepower to take it out in one go is to simply avoid it. I do try a
test round against it, though:
[...]
You kill the ooze!
Shouldn't underestimate myself...
I eventually take on the cockroach from the original angle... and do fine.
D:2
---
A snake. I use magic darts against it -- its evasion is a worse problem
than its AC.
Clevel 3.
Quaff-tested !oCM :-(
Whenever I find a potion at this point, I double-check that I have at
least one healing potion -- otherwise, quaff-testing !oPoison can be fatal.
Two rings, which don't wear-ID, but one gives me a numb sensation, so I
remove it -- it's a ring of ice. I'll true-ID it when I get a spare
ID'ing someday.
A snake. It hasn't noticed me and there's an immediately visible angle
where it can be approached from a greater distance, so I cancel my
conjuration before selecting a spell and re-approach.
I've now got Conjure Flame, which lets me artificially increase the
distance between me and my foe if there's a corridor available. But for
the moment it's unreliable and it's expensive in relation to my max MP;
it's more useful for running away, which I don't like to do because it's
boring.
("And if that's boring, then what's firing-spells-at-the-wall?" you ask? Oddly soothing, is what.)
My fire magic skill reaches 1; I turn it off. ;-)
A third ring arrives and soon after I learn that one of my two rings is
poison resistance. This is *tremendously* useful for the early-game food
game. I rejoice.
I *still* haven't found any cursed items, but I'm starting to be in
danger of losing scrolls to orc wizards. I get a weak monster in view,
make sure there's something with unknown curse status in my pack, and
start read-IDing scrolls, smallest piles first (in hopes of getting
curse weapon/armour). Yeah, I'm weird.
Oh... I'm wearing an AotG. (Forgot to attempt that pseudo-ID.) This
won't be a short game...
In case you're wondering, I'm still firing spells at walls. I'm making
sure to be far from explored territory when doing it, to reduce the
chance of something nasty wandering in (monster generation while
visiting a level tends to be milder than monster generation during level
generation IME, and the monsters that came with the level are more
likely to pop up when I'm "close to the black"). I also only do this
when I'm not hungry, or at least not very -- in those times, it's time
to move on and generate some corpses.
D:3
---
I enter in the middle of an orc pack, and this is a corridor-starved
level. I try to form a defensive position and encounter Jessica. I lead
two orcs up and defeat them, then typo-redescend when trying to head to
another down staircase. Sigh. I test a big still-unID'd scroll pile and
get teleportation immediately, escaping smoothly.
First orc wizard. Damn, these guys have good AC/evasion. He costs me my
only healing potion (perhaps used in haste, but I really don't want to
die with this guy). He yields a +2 robe.
Rest goes uneventfully. Learn bolt of magma (only so I don't forget to
later -- it's still too unreliable to be useful for the moment).
D:4
---
Been running about with a cursed orcish dagger for some time now. Cursed
orcish daggers are the new black.
An early Temple this game -- yet more luck! I form my initial stash and
curse-test some cursed armour. Time to double-uncurse! Fortunately, I
still have a runed knife available to id itself as cursed, and it does.
:0) Ohh.... and I also happen to find a dagger of draining, but that's
only really usable "for show".
I convert to Vehumet, of course.
Sif Muna is perhaps better for beginners, and this is meant as a sort of "sample road map" for
beginners (who've already read the story of "a"), but really, for a game
you believe will reach the endgame and for a conjurer who knows what he
wants spell-wise, Vehumet outpaces SM by miles.
Level-6 voluntary stat increase goes to Int... for a starting conjurer,
there really are no other stats.
I find a +2 leather armour, but stick to the robe -- I'd rather have a
slightly lower spell failure rate than a slightly better AC.
D:5
---
An imp. I take him out with magic dart rather than stone arrow -- due to
imps' frustrating regeneration, AC, and evasion, what you want is cheap
and accurate, and that's magic dart for you. I *don't* try to get
Vehumet-piety from him -- the turns wasted that way tend to stretch out
early imp battles quite a bit. Heck, it's only one consecrated kill;
there'll be plenty more ahead.
A general store shows a rod of destruction -- a steal at only 350 gold.
Eventually buy it for use in food-free destruction? Or not? This will be
one interesting game...
Edmund. Ambushes me, but he's only got a knife and leather armour
(armour generally affects spells too), so he goes down painlessly.
Jeezus. I'm beginning to think my last still un-ID'd ring is
sustenance... this is getting ridiculous. I feel like a walking meat
counter.
Nope. It's see invis. And my newish amulet is resist slowing. I'm
starting to feel the RNG is preparing something nasty up ahead
Since I don't have Haste, I keep wearing the Gourmand for sake of convenience.
Ambushed by an ant while spell-training, zap-ID first two wands --
something resistable, plus Fire.
Short three staircases this level -- two downs and an up. I go to find
the missing up staircase first, since I want to, more generally
speaking, always go by the path of least resistance.
D:5 part 2
----------
Other wand was disintegration. Weird -- I suspected it. Must be magic.
Still missing a down staircase.
D:6
---
Orc pack, detected one move later than I could have. Gotta pay more
attention... I *do not* pray to Vehumet yet, concentrating on the orc
priest first instead. I reach half-health before taking him out; danger
Will Robinson! I break LOS in hopes of getting the vanilla orcs in front
of the wizard before I re-engage. I find I'm able to reach an up
staircase without *having* to re-engage the wizard (I guess when he
blinked he got lost somewhere). Before ascending, I double-check that
this is the staircase I came down -- don't want to ascend into new trouble.
I heal and return, and the wizard falls easily.
Have lots of armour to curse-check now, so I can check weapons too... A
runed quarterstaff I found a while ago is Of Protection. W00t!
Randart scale mail. Sigh.
D:5 part 3
----------
I open a door into a room and there's a centaur and other fine
company... oops. I immediately close the door to break LOS and start
praying, and then retreat to let *them* spend the turn opening the door.
They don't... darn that stealth...
The immediately adjacent enemy when I open the door is a giant ant. I'm
more afraid of the centaur than the ant, so I use Stone Arrow (which is
less accurate than Throw Flame) and aim through the ant at the centaur
-- as expected, the second shot is dodged by the nimble ant, but not the
lumbering centaur. The third kills the ant, and the centaur -- who, I
discover, is shooting bolts of flame -- trades flames with me until a
snake blocks his aim and I repeat the process, successfully prepping the
centaur for a quick death once the snake fails to dodge.
I switch to using a vanilla sabre for butchering... moving through
"more" messages due to spam from that dagger of draining and the
quarterstaff of protection combined is pretty annoying.
First stash run this game. A random-looking orc in a quiet, shallow
place drops +2 leather of poison resistance upon dying. Yeah, that'll
work.
D:7
---
Wide-open level, and *2* orc priests at the edge of my field of view.
I'll try to take out 1 before the other can reach the stair, then heal
upstairs... well, the first one goes down before I get damaged much. How
about the other right away? Ouch, burn a !oH... and it's through.
An orc warrior, who can't be taken out before he closes to melee range.
After he slugs me for 51% of my hitpoints, I take advantage of his slow
weapon speed to open up a space between us, giving me that vital 1 turn
to read a scroll of teleportation. (No safely available up staircase
around.) Since the level is mostly uncleared, I run as far as I safely
can before reading the scroll, so I'll be in the best possible shape if
I land into trouble.
Ah, but what's this? He stops to pick up a scroll laying on the ground.
OK, OK, I chickened out and maneuvered him into it. It gains me 2
squares. However, my stone arrow gambit (orc warriors are poor enough
dodgers for stone arrow to often be a smart choice) fails, and it's back
to plan A. Plan A works.
I'm now approached by a series of natural creatures, some weaker some
stronger. I use magic dart for the accuracy, and concentrate on routing
them rather than killing them. This has the side benefit that I don't
feel bad about not wasting turns on prayers.
I get reminded that because this is an open level, I just ain't gonna
get a chance to fully rest here -- I maneuver towards the stairs for the
job.
Immolation. Well, glad to have *that* out of the way...
"You can now gain power from killing in Vehumet's name." Gaining speed...
Most of the time, nobody has fewer weight problems than a deep elf
conjurer -- nothing much out there worth ID'ing!
First spellbook -- and it's the Book of Fire! I take just Evaporate for
now, and try again to learn ordinary Fireball from my starting book,
finally succeeding. If we look at the other spells in the Book of Fire,
we see they fail either the "no Selective Amnesia" test or the
learability test:
Fire brand -- *what* weapon?
Summon elemental -- useful if you really really need to dig, but if you
don't, that's 4 wasted spell slots. OK, you can summon fire elementals
in combination with Conjure Flame, but I hate summoning...
Bolt of Magma -- already learned
Remaining 3 -- Not yet feasibly learnable.
I finally start deliberately training my Earth magic using the fairly
ineffective stone arrow. It's cheaper to make Bolt of Magma reliable by
training both Fire and Earth than by training just Fire, but I couldn't
afford to use Stone Arrow as more than a toy until recently.
D:8
---
"oRCorrosion. Ho hum.
Yet another game where =oTeleportation are wooden. Probably a
coincidence... I take this occasion to test some armour, then rid my
finger of it.
Drive-by level-clearing...
D:9
---
Checkboard vault. I'm welcomed into it by an eye of draining, who
fortunately is alone. It leaves a corpse. Should I? Shouldn't I? Well,
you know me...
Before I can eat, giant spore gets me for 31 HP. I have a max of 34...
and then with me still at 3 HP, a centaur, blocked only by a flimsy
hobgoblin, appears. !oSpeed, !oH, conjure flame, run to up stairs, heal.
Heh, no mutagenic chunks for *me*...
I hear a bellow and see a staff. I unfortunately respond to the staff
(picking it up) rather than the bellow... yak's right on top of me. I
rout the yak using the wand of fire (for its 0% fail rate) followed up
by some spells. No praying, though. Hope Vehumet doesn't begrudge me
that orc.
Yaks are pack creatures, so I retreat before the rest can show up.
It's a staff of conjuration.
And that wraps up part 1.
Dungeon Crawl version 4.0.0 beta 26 character file.
Welcome, b the Deep Elf Conjurer.
Let it end in hellfire!
Drop which item?
Okay, then.
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b the Thaumaturge (Deep Elf)
(Level 8 Conjurer)
Play time: 05:00:35 Number of turns: 13696
Experience : 8/2204
Strength 6 Dexterity 15 Intelligence 22
Hit Points : 34 Magic Points : 21/28
AC : 7 Evasion : 10 Shield : 0
GP : 106
You are on level 8.
You worship Vehumet.
Vehumet is most pleased with you.
You are completely stuffed.
Inventory:
Hand weapons
a - an uncursed runed quarterstaff of protection
b - an uncursed sabre
Armour
i - a +0 pair of gloves (worn)
j - a +0 helmet (worn)
k - a +0 pair of boots (worn)
l - a +2 orcish leather armour of poison resistance (worn)
Magical devices
D - a wand of disintegration (8)
E - a wand of fire
K - a plastic wand
M - a long copper wand
Comestibles
n - an apple
p - a honeycomb
v - a pear
x - 3 meat rations
G - a bread ration
H - 4 chunks of centaur flesh
Q - 4 chunks of orc flesh
Scrolls
e - 2 scrolls of identify
g - a scroll of teleportation
o - 2 scrolls of fear
q - a scroll of blinking
A - a scroll of detect curse
N - a scroll of remove curse
Jewellery
h - an amulet of the gourmand (around neck)
m - an amulet of resist corrosion
y - an amulet of resist slowing
z - a ring of poison resistance (right hand)
// worn out of habit ;-)
C - an uncursed wooden ring
// teleportation
L - an uncursed silver ring
// ice
O - a ring of see invisible (left hand)
Potions
r - 2 potions of might
u - 2 potions of healing
// will pick up only other !oHW when I visit stash -- this game has been
short on them
w - a potion of restore abilities
Books
c - a book of Conjurations
// carried so I could keep attempting to learn Fireball; will now drop
s - a book of Fire
Magical staves
I - a staff of conjuration (weapon)
You have 10 experience left.
Skills:
- Level 1 Short Blades
- Level 1 Staves
- Level 2 Dodging
- Level 3 Stealth
+ Level 11 Spellcasting
- Level 9 Conjurations
- Level 4 Fire Magic
- Level 1 Earth Magic
You have 7 spell levels left.
You know the following spells:
Your Spells Type Success Level
a - Magic Dart Conjuration Excellent 1
b - Throw Flame Fire/Conjuration Excellent 2
c - Conjure Flame Fire/Conjuration Excellent 3
d - Stone Arrow Earth/Conjuration Great 3
e - Bolt of Magma Fire/Earth/Conjuration Very Good 5
f - Evaporate Fire/Transmigration Very Good 2
g - Fireball Fire/Conjuration Very Good 6
Vanquished Creatures
[a bunch of] creatures vanquished.
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