Note on Ascension #9
Julie M. Bernstein
On my quest to win with every class, I have now ascended with my ninth
class, the Tourist:
2895 creatures vanquished.
No Points Name Hp [max]
1 4164654 Tara-T ascended to demigoddess-hood. 238 [238]
Tara the Voyager St:18/** Dx:22 Co:18 In:23 Wi:22 Ch:18 Neutral S:1965952
Astral Plane $:0 HP:238(238) Pw:124(124) AC:-37 Xp:24/40076884 T:113137 Burdene
(Version: 3.2.2, Unix)
Some highlights:
- On the advice of this group, I decided to forget about using the helm of
opposite alignment this time so that I could retain my deity-granted armor
class. I tell you, it was a big pain bouncing back down those levels
though. I should had just written more scrolls of enchant armor and used
the helm after all. (I only got bounced back once in my Samurai game (also
3.2.2) while wearing the helm.)
- I had a lot of fun casting spells. I was surprised to find that once I
took off my shield, I had a 0% failure rate to cast most spells. OK, the +5
helm of brilliance didn't hurt either ;), but even before I got the godlike
intelligence I still had pretty low failure rates. I identified stuff
whenever I wanted with the identify spell. I didn't bother with the
polymorph spell (once I could cast it; it was a 6th level spell) because I
had an inifinitely charged wand of polymorph thanks to the platinum card.
But it was good to know, that spellcasting in 3.2.2 is not as awful as I
had thought.
For the record, my armor - none of which, except the shield, interfered
with spellcasting - was:
T-shirt
gray dragon scale mail
cloak of displacement
helm of brilliance
gauntlets of dexterity
shield of reflection
speed boots
Everything was enchanted between +3 and +5. This is my normal armor set,
except that I usually wear a helm of telepathy instead of brilliance.
Luckily I got telepathy with the quest artifact so I could be a genius
instead.
- The other fun thing with spellcasting was the charm monster spell, a
Tourist specialty. I couldn't believe it, but it actually worked on the
titan on the Medusa level. So Invisible Harold the Titan and I marched
happily through the game. He even killed eels and scooped them out of the
water and ate them, which was pretty amazing (yes, he could fly, but I
figured eels would sink when you killed them??). Things were great, until
somewhere in Gehennom he ate a chameleon corpse (why, oh why didn't I tin
that corpse) and turned into a rabid rat. I angrily zapped him with my wand
of polymorph and he turned into an Aleax. Not as high a level (15th or so;
Harold had gotten to 21st, with nearly 200 HP), but no appetite, so I
figured he would do. Unfortunately he was killed by an umber hulk - guess
he couldn't fight effectively once he got confused.
- After learning how to disable traps (again, from this group - thanks), I
disabled every trap that I could. I didn't bother to carry around bear
trap and land mines but it was nice getting rid of them and not having to
worry so much where I stepped, especially for the trip back up.
- This was probably the lowest-level ascension I've done; I only reached
24th level, and I usually go for 30. Just not enough wraith corpses I
guess.
- I wimped out and genocided vampires because I'm used to having Excalibur
(I used +7 Vorpal Blade in this game) and I was afraid of the level drain.
I also genocided liches and eels as usual; I almost let eels live, figuring
I could charm them possibly, but I was worried about the Juiblex and Water
levels so I did away with them after the Castle.
- I polypiled a lot for gems - I don't normally, but I was specifically
trying to beat someone's score - and the results were absymal. Once I piled
up 530 rocks and received one worthless piece of green glass. Once I even
made sure the rocks didn't all "stack" (by pushing boulders onto the pile
and pick-axing them there) so I might have a better chance, but that didn't
help either. I found way more gems randomly in Gehennom then I got from
tons of polypiling (with my infinitely charged wand). Waste of time.
- I didn't even bother with the Wizard or the Riders this time. Zapped the
Wizard with wand of death, the Riders with teleportation. My aim was to
win, and not take forever doing it. I only encountered the Wizard seven
times.
Well, that's about it for number nine. Only have Knight, Rogue, and
Valkyrie left to go now.
- Julie
--
Julie M. Bernstein | ju...@clue.ls.berkeley.edu |
http://www.best.com/~juliemb/
GCM d- s:s a- C++ U P+ L E---- W+++$ N+ o? K? w--- !O M+$>++ !V
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(Version: 3.1)
Kevin Hugo
In article <julie-ya02408000...@nntp.best.com>, ju...@clue.LS.Berkeley.EDU (Julie M. Bernstein) wrote:
> - The other fun thing with spellcasting was the charm monster spell, a
[Snip]
> figured he would do. Unfortunately he was killed by an umber hulk - guess
> he couldn't fight effectively once he got confused.
Should've charmed that umber hulk. They're quite effective at
eliminating the mazes in Gehennom.
> - I wimped out and genocided vampires because I'm used to having Excalibur
> (I used +7 Vorpal Blade in this game) and I was afraid of the level drain.
This is also a good strategy because more wraiths are generated
in graveyards.
--
NH 3.2.1M A Elwa-EM 287(287) 246(246) -48 30 97374 4540499 C
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