Archived from groups: rec.games.roguelike.nethack (More info?)
I decided I really like knights in the early game. My latest knight is
doing pretty well. Went down to DL20 and emptied Ludios. Working
towards the medusa and the castle. Have SDSM, cloak of MR, and crowned
and disintegrated resistance. Successfully brought naked AL down to 1
early. AL now down to -27ish. Note that comments below only applies
to early to mid game...
Likes:
Jumping is a good way to run away in the early game. Cute. Watch me
hop away from those mob of monsters...
Pony is better than kittens and puppies. A lot better in fact. Not
only do they have slightly better stats especially once they grew up to
be a warhorse, but they are also herbivore, which makes it much easier
for you to manage hunger situation very early in the game before
sokoban. Also, they don't stop fighting to eat that corpse of gnome
when there are 3 more gnomes and a gnome lord bearing down on you in
the mines. The only downside of the horses compared to the other kind
of domesticated pets is that maxxed out warhorses will attack
shopkeepers and you'll have to make sure they don't end up dead (from
shopkeepers, or the subsequent mimic attacks).
Riding is super. According to the spoiler, the chance of riding
increases as the animal gets tamer, so you can ride with fair
confidence at XL 1 given the pony munchied on enough of that carrots
you start out with. And horses are fast! Warhorses without any
outside help starts with 24 speed. It's like having a speed boots at
that point. With a shot of wand of speed, they go up faster than speed
boots. Add that with jumping, you can basically outrun anything.
Lance and jousting is also great in the early-mid game. Jousting adds
2d10 to your damage according to the spoiler, and it's a huge bonus in
the early game. Then, jousting pushback becomes valuable when the
monsters get a bit bigger and they don't die to the first jousting hit
since lance can attack from 2 squares away. I've had many occasions
where I hit a monster at 2 squares away, monster move in, joust it
back, and hit it again from 2 squares away, never letting the monster
actually attack. Also the fact that the lance distance attack doesn't
have to be a straight line can made to work with the shopkeeper and
monster at the door.
Dislikes:
The biggest dislike I have is the low intelligent knights start with.
I was playing a wizard before the knight and I really hate the power
points being wasted as unused resource now. I am having tough time
learning spells with the low intelligence, even with lvl spells. A
healing spell would have been *so* nice trying to keep my horses alive
when they decide to chomp on the shopkeepers.
Alignment hit due to hitting scared/sleeping monsters haven't been an
issue. This is due to the fact that early part of the game is spent
with my horse doing all the fighting.
Starting with Ludios, I'm slowly hitting the wall with my steeds. My
warhorse died 3 times there, and I had to abanduned him later when I no
longer had a wand of turn undead. My silver dragon is much sturdier,
but slow. Painfully slow even after the shot of speed monster. I
really would like to go back to warhorses, but everytime I catch one, I
haven't been able to raise them to their full-potential (partly because
I lack the healing spells and stethoscopes...). I also expect to have
the lance lag behind in the late game compared to two-weaponing and
hard hitting weapons like Greyswandir. Plus jousting knockback also is
a bit less useful when I'm dealing with massive amount of monsters, and
I don't think it works against large monsters.
I also don't have the lance broken yet and according to the spoiler, it
could happen when jousting. I have some backups, but I'd have *really*
hated to lose it before I picked up some spare lances.
All in all, I find knights very good in the early game. I like when my
combat doesn't consist of pressing the same key over and over again...
-K
I decided I really like knights in the early game. My latest knight is
doing pretty well. Went down to DL20 and emptied Ludios. Working
towards the medusa and the castle. Have SDSM, cloak of MR, and crowned
and disintegrated resistance. Successfully brought naked AL down to 1
early. AL now down to -27ish. Note that comments below only applies
to early to mid game...
Likes:
Jumping is a good way to run away in the early game. Cute. Watch me
hop away from those mob of monsters...
Pony is better than kittens and puppies. A lot better in fact. Not
only do they have slightly better stats especially once they grew up to
be a warhorse, but they are also herbivore, which makes it much easier
for you to manage hunger situation very early in the game before
sokoban. Also, they don't stop fighting to eat that corpse of gnome
when there are 3 more gnomes and a gnome lord bearing down on you in
the mines. The only downside of the horses compared to the other kind
of domesticated pets is that maxxed out warhorses will attack
shopkeepers and you'll have to make sure they don't end up dead (from
shopkeepers, or the subsequent mimic attacks).
Riding is super. According to the spoiler, the chance of riding
increases as the animal gets tamer, so you can ride with fair
confidence at XL 1 given the pony munchied on enough of that carrots
you start out with. And horses are fast! Warhorses without any
outside help starts with 24 speed. It's like having a speed boots at
that point. With a shot of wand of speed, they go up faster than speed
boots. Add that with jumping, you can basically outrun anything.
Lance and jousting is also great in the early-mid game. Jousting adds
2d10 to your damage according to the spoiler, and it's a huge bonus in
the early game. Then, jousting pushback becomes valuable when the
monsters get a bit bigger and they don't die to the first jousting hit
since lance can attack from 2 squares away. I've had many occasions
where I hit a monster at 2 squares away, monster move in, joust it
back, and hit it again from 2 squares away, never letting the monster
actually attack. Also the fact that the lance distance attack doesn't
have to be a straight line can made to work with the shopkeeper and
monster at the door.
Dislikes:
The biggest dislike I have is the low intelligent knights start with.
I was playing a wizard before the knight and I really hate the power
points being wasted as unused resource now. I am having tough time
learning spells with the low intelligence, even with lvl spells. A
healing spell would have been *so* nice trying to keep my horses alive
when they decide to chomp on the shopkeepers.
Alignment hit due to hitting scared/sleeping monsters haven't been an
issue. This is due to the fact that early part of the game is spent
with my horse doing all the fighting.
Starting with Ludios, I'm slowly hitting the wall with my steeds. My
warhorse died 3 times there, and I had to abanduned him later when I no
longer had a wand of turn undead. My silver dragon is much sturdier,
but slow. Painfully slow even after the shot of speed monster. I
really would like to go back to warhorses, but everytime I catch one, I
haven't been able to raise them to their full-potential (partly because
I lack the healing spells and stethoscopes...). I also expect to have
the lance lag behind in the late game compared to two-weaponing and
hard hitting weapons like Greyswandir. Plus jousting knockback also is
a bit less useful when I'm dealing with massive amount of monsters, and
I don't think it works against large monsters.
I also don't have the lance broken yet and according to the spoiler, it
could happen when jousting. I have some backups, but I'd have *really*
hated to lose it before I picked up some spare lances.
All in all, I find knights very good in the early game. I like when my
combat doesn't consist of pressing the same key over and over again...
-K
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