-Crawl- Tips for getting a Necromancer past XL 6 or so?
Jeremy Turner
noticing how cool some of their higher level spells sound. Trouble is, of
the last dozen or so Necros I've created, only two have made it to the
Temple, and one of those died almost immediately after finding it.
I've tried several races. So far I've had the most luck with Kobolds.
My best was a Kobold Necro who made it to XL 7, mainly because he found a
nice stash of +3 darts on the first level.
Can anyone offer me some strategic or tactical advice? Is Animate
Skeleton worth memorising? I've avoided Regeneration because I don't want
to have to train Enchantments in the early stage of the game. Is this
sensible?
jeremy "i just wanna live long enough to get some ZOMBIES!" turner
David Ploog
> jeremy "i just wanna live long enough to get some ZOMBIES!" turner
For immediate zombie fun you might want to try a Deathknight of
Yredelemnul. You can press 'aa' and turn any corpse (or skeleton) into
something useful -- from turn 1.
David
Darshan Shaligram
[...]
> of the last dozen or so Necros I've created, only two have made it to
> the Temple
> Can anyone offer me some strategic or tactical advice? Is Animate
> Skeleton worth memorising?
No, Animate Dead is much better, and Pain and Vampiric Draining should
easily get you to the point where you can use animate dead.
> I've avoided Regeneration because I don't want to have to train
> Enchantments in the early stage of the game. Is this sensible?
There's nothing wrong with training Enchantments, but vampiric draining
is very good for the early game so you should get that first.
Pain and Vampiric Draining are tailor-made for each other; necros are
really quite easy to start when you use both. Vampiric Draining also
makes it easy to train fighting if you're interested in the death knight
style (my preferred approach) rather than a pure necro.
--
Darshan Shaligram <scin...@gmail.com> Deus vult
Jeremy Turner
news:87hc6iv...@antares.sol.net:
Thank you for the tips!
Progress report: my current Kobold Necromancer, Gelder, is doing
absolutely terrific. Only XL 12 so far, but I've got the +4 Robe of Night,
an artefact dagger of pain, artefact amulet of conservation, and gloves of
Dex. My stats are 12,20,20, AC 15, and EV 23. Plus, I'm extremely
stealthy and can turn invisible using the Robe. I'm a terror with Darts
and Short Blades, and I've been very lucky with wands and jewelery.
On the downside, I drank a potion of mutation and wound up with +1 Int
but -20% MP. Then I stupidly decided to drink another in the hope of
counteracting the first. That one gave me -20% HP and the seemingly
useless ability to spit poison. That was 12,000 turns ago, and still no
Cure Mutations in sight. :(
The only non-Necromancy spell I've learned is Blink. I've found a lot of
spellbooks but I've hesitated to branch out into different schools. I'm
considering memorising Sting as a stepping stone to Mephitic Cloud, but I'm
not sure if I should. I'm not used to playing casters who don't worship
Sif, so I'm being extra conservative with my slots. I'm *really* hoping for
an advanced Necromancy book. Will Kiku give me one if I'm extra good and I
clean my room?
jeremy "i'd kill for a Book of Death" turner
Jeremy Turner
Heh... guess what Kiku just gave me.
Bone Shards or Agony?
jeremy "so hard to choose" turner
ian.c....@bigpond.com
> Bone Shards or Agony?
Agony. Halving the hp (and halving them again) of an incoming 9
headed hydra is solid gold.
(And why don't my necros ever find artefact daggers of pain?)
Jac
EmailingR...@gmail.com
the best way to go with them is to branch out into a couple other
schools of magic, as you need a way to take care of enemies immune to
necromantic damage spells. It is also worth branching into fighting,
even if just for the HP alone. As for what god you should pick, Kiku
is the good ol' reliable to the Necronomicon, but really doesn't offer
much aside from recall of undead (which is useful in its own right).
Sif provides a lot more utility, as well as access to other spellbooks
much easier, but takes a lot longer to the Necronomicon. If you are
feeling brave, however, a good route would be to go for Kiku, nab the
Necronomicon, and then convert to Sif.
As for the question of Agony vs. Bone Shards... get agony. Bone shards
is worthless, in my opinion, because it takes an unusually large
amount of encumbrance to use, some extra turns to get it ready (and
while you're holding a skeleton, you can't melee worth anything), and
deals a piddly amount of damage for all that trouble. Not to mention
the wait for a corpse to decompose, unless you're also willing to get
that spell that lets you pop a corpse. Really, it's a two spell
investment, and besides that, extremely impractical.
Besides that, you will find yourself using agony just to wear down
some tough monsters, such as hydras, as noted.
Aside from that all, necromantic minions are okay. They're nothing
special. What I recommend is getting twisted resurrection, and
stringing together slain groups of monsters. On particularly strong
monsters, then, go with making a zombie out of them. Well constructed
abominations are pretty strong, their only bane being the Snake Pit,
because last I played a necro, since 3.4, they weren't immune to
poison like good undead should (perhaps they're like Frankenstein
monsters, actually given life rather than undeath).
Also, necros never find daggers of pain because the game doesn't want
you to have anything that's actually useful to your chosen specialty.
It's just roguelike physics, don't ask.
ian.c....@bigpond.com
> Necros are pretty hard to play, especially pure-bred.
I'd agree with this.
I’m have a level 22 DENe (Kiku) going (spell skills: 18 spellcasting,
27 necromancy, 19 conjuring). I’ve cleared snake, swamp, hive, elf,
orc, crypt, vaults and am now sitting on level 27 of the dungeon. The
plan was to stay pure-bred and drop necromantic-immune enemies with
abominations or spectral stuff (via Death Channel). Sadly tentacled
monstrosities, and to a lesser extent shadow dragons, just grind them
up. I expect fire orbs and electric golems would do so faster. Plan
B was to use Citovui’s Degeneration to turn them into pulsating lumps,
but necro-immune enemies seems to have really high magic resistance.
Plan C was to abandon pure necro and use Isky’s Mystic Blast. Sadly
the book hasn’t turned up.
I guess with conjuring and spellcasting so high, I could just learn
any element-based damage spell, but it seems a shame after being pure
necro for so long. Any advice on which element is best for the
endgame? I’ve only done Zot with melee tanks and stabby enchanters.
> Aside from that all, necromantic minions are okay. They're nothing
> special. What I recommend is getting twisted resurrection, and
> stringing together slain groups of monsters.
As mentioned above. Abominations are good, but not great.
> Also, necros never find daggers of pain because the game doesn't want
> you to have anything that's actually useful to your chosen specialty.
> It's just roguelike physics, don't ask.
And I eventually found a weapon of pain (demon whip), but it trains so
slowly for a DE that I am still on the lookout for a long or short
blade version. It is probably just better to use Excruciating Wounds
(temporary pain brand) on a lanjatang or katana or similar.
Jac
EmailingR...@gmail.com
> any element-based damage spell, but it seems a shame after being pure
> necro for so long. Any advice on which element is best for the
> endgame? I’ve only done Zot with melee tanks and stabby enchanters.
Earth is pretty good for endgame, if only because its damage has no
resistances. Only thing that could possibly counter earth magic is AC
or EV. It deals physical damage, which is why it is probably one of
the best schools of magic.
> And I eventually found a weapon of pain (demon whip), but it trains so
> slowly for a DE that I am still on the lookout for a long or short
> blade version. It is probably just better to use Excruciating Wounds
> (temporary pain brand) on a lanjatang or katana or similar.
That sounds like a good idea. I wonder why I didn't think of that.
Problem, however, is that if you want to rely on that, then artifacts
are somewhat wasted on you. But really, pain, haste, or might is the
only way a short blade will ever deal enough damage to be combat-
practical anymore.