Decision Decisions

[Eric Wright]

garret suen wrote:

> Name : Umaguar Age : 22 STR : 18/120
> Race : Half-Troll Height : 79 INT : 18/89
> Sex : Male Weight : 230 WIS : 18/95
> Class : Warrior Social Class : 1 DEX : 18/70
> Title : Lord (8th) CON : 18/97
> CHR : 18/200

> [Character's Equipment List]
>
> a) Wielding : The Halberd 'Osondir' (3d4) (+6,+9) (+3)
> b) Shooting : a Heavy Crossbow of Accuracy (x4) (+21,+13)
> c) On left hand : a Ring of Speed (+4)
> d) On right hand : a Ring of Damage (+18)
> e) Around neck : an Amulet of Charisma (+4)
> f) Light source : The Phial of Galadriel
> g) On body : The Chain Mail of Arvedui (-2) [14,+12] (+2)
> h) About body : a Cloak of Aman [1,+13] (+3 to stealth)
> i) On arm : a Large Leather Shield [4,+8]
> j) On head : an Iron Crown of Beauty [0,+3] (+1)
> k) On hands : a Set of Gauntlets [2,+8]
> l) On feet : a Pair of Hard Leather Boots [3,+8]

ACK!!! Where is your free action? You're a stupid half-troll.
Your saving throw sucks. One good hit from a carrion crawler
and bye-bye! Get some form of free action immediately.

> [General Inventory List]
>
> a) 32 Pieces of Elvish Waybread
> b) 2 Potions of Speed
> c) a Potion of Healing
> d) 6 Scrolls of Phase Door
> e) 2 Scrolls of Phase Door {25% off}

Go into the options screen and select the option about
override enscriptions when stacking items. These
last two piles will stack into a single slot.

> f) 2 Scrolls of Protection from Evil
> g) a Rod of Recall
> h) a Staff of Teleportation (7 charges)
> i) a Jewel Encrusted Crown of Might [0,+10] (+1)

Not enough of a stat boost to make it all that useful...

> j) The Hard Leather Cap of Thranduil [2,+10] (+2)

HUH? You'd rather have +1 to charisma than +2 to int and
wis (improved saving throw) AND telepathy???

> k) The Dagger of Rilia (2d4) (+9,+8)

resist poison and disenchantment... use this for the Mim
family.

> l) The Broad Axe 'Barukkheled' (2d6) (+13,+19) (+3)

Only good thing is the +3 to Con. It has slay evil
and the westernesse slays, but no free action!

> m) 15 Bolts of Slay Dragon (3d5) (+16,+13)

Wow! I've never seen ammo with 2 extra damage dice!
I bet dragons don't stand much of a chance against
your xbow/bolt combo.

> n) 6 Bolts (2d5) (+4,+5)
> o) 44 Bolts (1d5) (+1,+1)
>
> [Home Inventory]
>
> a) 6 Potions of Restore Life Levels
> b) 2 Potions of Restore Dexterity

These are usually plentiful enough in the shops.
Potions of RLL more so than res. dex.

> c) 3 Potions of Self Knowledge

Use one of them. If you see a high level resist other
than shards and nexus, that is what the cloak of aman
is giving you. If that's all that's there, you know that
you'll still have either shards or nexus when you upgrade
to better armor.

> d) 85 Scrolls of Identify
> e) 5 Scrolls of Identify

??? Why aren't these stacking?

> f) 2 Scrolls of *Destruction*

Carry or sell. Pretty useless to store at home.

> g) a Rod of Recall (charging)

The rod of recall you have can't be destroyed, only stolen.
If you are playing with monsters carry items and object
stacking on, you shouldn't ever lose a rod permanently.
Consider selling, especially if you need a just a bit more
money for that nice item in the black market.

> h) Blue Dragon Scale Mail (-2) [30,+16]

Sell when you can get top price for it.

> i) a Cloak of Protection [1,+25]
> j) a Dagger of Slay Evil (1d4) (+8,+10) (+1)
> k) a Dagger of Demon Slaying (1d4) (+9,+9)
> l) a Sabre of Troll Slaying (1d7) (+10,+6)

Hmm, what version are you playing? I use angband.281
or a couple of variants. Have these been renamed in v282?

> a) The Broad Sword 'Orcrist' (2d5) (+10,+15) (+3 to stealth)

Sell when you can get a good price.

> b) a Spear (Holy Avenger) (1d6) (+12,+13) [+1] (+4)

Nice. Can my dwarf priest have it?

> c) a Beaked Axe of Troll Slaying (2d6) (+7,+4)
> d) a Glaive of Flame (2d6) (+8,+8)

Again, sell...

> Well first thing is I found a RoS!!!! Got it off of Lokkak

Damn nice find for him!

> osondir which I use for selling and buying (a +3 to CHR and the amulet
> and the crown of beauty brings my Chr to 18/200)...

Oh? And what do you fight with? I presume you use Thranduil
in the dungeon?

> that I did find off of two
> scrolls of aquirement were Rilia and Thranduil's cap. Rilia is very nice
> 'cause it has that resist to poison. The questions I have are:

> 1) I have aman's cloak, should I use my cloak of Protection at [1,
> +25]... I
> haven't been able to find out what Aman's cloak does except the stealth
> part.

As I alluded to above, a cloak of aman has a random high resist.
Take off Arvedui and quaff a potion of self knowledge. The high
resist that shows up should be the one that you get from the
cloak. Even if it is shards or nexus, the +3 stealth is
nice for a lumbering oaf of a half-troll warrior.

> 2) I am wearing Arduvai's, should I switch to the DSM? DOing
> both (switching to the cloak of protection) would boost my AC up
> significantly but I would lose the nexus
> protection.

...and fire, cold, acid, and shards resistances. Not to mention
the +2 to STR. Blue DSM just ain't worth it.

> 3) should I continue using Thranduil's cap, even though I
> don't have the free action? (I got paralyzed by an Arch priest and almost
> didn't make it out... then I quaffed a self knowledge and figured out the
> Crown of might gives free action). Thranduil's gives the ESP and the
> Blind protection which is nice but....

Aah, you should really use the crown of might until you get
another form of free action. Then, ditch it for Thranduil.
ESP will help you avoid most of the paralyzers, but carrion
crawlers have a 'wierd mind', meaning they sometimes are
detected...

> 4) Should I switch to using Rilia instead of Burkhelled since I get the
> poison resistance and the 4 blows/round? I would lose the sustains to Dex
> and Constitution though and Rilia only slays Orcs while Burky slays
> trolls. orcs. giants and also evil? It also increases my Cons by 3 which
> means about 30-40 Hp at this level.

See below...

> 5) I am currently spelunking down to 2200'... should I go lower or wait
> till I find a better cloak, boots and shield and gauntlets? (I am looking
> for anything that is resistant to acid ie. Thorin's, Fingolfin's etc.)

HOLY SHIT!!!!! You are past 2000' without either poison resist
or free action! You should have been killed long ago!
Use the crown of might for the free action, and get the hell
out of there if you find a heavy poison breather, like a drolem
or AMHD. If you get stuck with no way out, wield Rilia and
hope for the best.

You have all the elemental resists covered by Arvedui, so
you don't have to worry about resist acid. Now, Thorin's
shield, with the immunity, would be nice...

All in all, I think you have been diving way too fast.
Using plain shield, boots, and gloves, I assumed you were
somewhere around 1200-1500'. You can usually find boots
or gloves of free action by then...or have you been
underestimating the necessity of free action? If so,
you should learn something from the run-in you had with
that archpriest...

> I've been working pretty well with carrying all the things I need and
> switching on and off between weapons... however, this means less stuff I
> can get and a chance of losing something really good 'cause all of my
> slots are taken up with mandatory things... I've been using only healing
> potions that I find and none of the cure serious or critical.

You should REALLY carry cure critical potions. Your fail
rates on the staff of teleportation go way up when you get
confused, and, if you don't use Thranduil, you will be
susceptable to blindness attacks. CCritW will fix those
problems.

> The uniques
> I've killed without any healing potions are pretty impressive:

> Akhorahil the Blind
> Adunaphel the Quiet
> Ji Indur Dawndeath
> Ren the Unclean
> UVatha the Horseman
> Lorgan the Easterling Chief
> Scatha the Worm!!!
> Gorlim the Betrayer of Barahir
> Waldern King of Water
> Vargo, King of Fire
> Kavlax the many headed

Most of these are easily killable by a studly warrior without
much problem. I usually have to use some sort of healing
with Lorgan (damn summoner with teleport to spell), Lorgan
(first mana bolt caster you run into, water bolts too), and
Kavlax (sometimes, if he starts breathing a lot!)...

> Do you think I can continue to off uniques without some healing potions of
> any sort??? When will the regenerate and healing artifacts start popping
> up? Thanks in Advance

Very soon, you will be dead if you don't cover things like poison
and free action. Also, uniques will more frequently have blinding
or confusing attacks, which you REALLY need CCritW potions to
fix.

What do you mean by healing artifacts? Those with healing
activations? Well, there is the Crown of Gondor, which
activates for heal(500) and Soulkeeper for heal(1000).
Many games, I never find soulkeeper, and only find Gondor
in about 50% of the games I've won. As for regeneration,
many ego items will have this too... like defenders.
The ultimate weapon (Ringil, ok, one of the ultimate) has
regeneration... but regeneration won't help too much in
the heat of battle. You just don't have to rest as long
to heal up afterwords...

> Garret

E

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FOR SALE: Parachute. Used once. Never opened. Slightly stained.