dcss crawl wiki - orange statue needs a wee edit / additions
Peter Huebner
I just found my first ever orange statue half way down the Lair with my
Mf Crusader.
Barely was I in range, when my int got drained from 11 to 3 ... ouch!
Tried hitting it with my glaive a couple of times, but to little effect.
Hurried withdrawl!
Drinks potion of restore ability, skirts around orange statue and finds
a randart hammer (+int, +dex, inv+). Now, the description of the statue
says 'looks brittle'. Hmmm. Grab hammer, invoke might, cast berzerk,
CHARGE!
Confusion. Things praying on my mind. Whatnot!
Some 10 or 15 combat rounds later the statue has been reduced to so much
funny looking sand, my int is still at 9, and I've forgotten the level
map as well as all my spells! (note to self, this thing might be useful
for clearing spells from memory if all else fails, but that seems
fraught with a certain amount of danger).
Quite handy in this case, since my crusader is mostly using god-gift
weapons now that can't be enchanted with freezing aura and such ... oh,
and a trident of reaching for hydras; retreats to lair 2 to peruse the
'library'.
So I went to crawl wiki to see what I missed about this critter. You
know, things get a bit frenzied when you're berserk ..... tunnel vision
and all that.
Crawl wiki mentions that orange statues can kill instantly if your int
is below 8, but it makes no mention of the confusion attack, the spell-
forgetting or map-forgetting thing. So I clicked on 'edit' - oh, um,
have to log in. The monster table doesn't even mention a drain_int
attack abbreviation (only str and dex).
One does create a login how?
I didn't find it. Probably just my selective blindness at work again.
A pro pos: 'weapon of reaching'. Do you also find this a bit useless?
Nasty when used by orcs or gnolls in the back row of combat on early
levels, but otherwise? Seeing as it prevents other enchantments it's a
nuissance rather than an enhancement I feel. Yes, I get one more blow in
on a fleeing monster, but that's usually not enough to finish them off
any-old-how. A 'trident of piercing' would be ever so much nicer,
surely?
-P.
Zeitgeist
> I just found my first ever orange statue half way down the Lair with my
> Mf Crusader.
>
> One does create a login how?
> I didn't find it. Probably just my selective blindness at work again.
In the top right hand corner there should be a link saying
"Log in / create account"
--
Zeitgeist
garron
Yes this is definitely a weapon that is much more dangerous against
you than used by you. But such things exist in most games... OTOH even
though they suck as a main weapon, they have their place. You can use
them against slow moving enemies for instance for a safe kill, always
keeping one space between you and it.
Öö Tiib
> A pro pos: 'weapon of reaching'. Do you also find this a bit useless?
Sure, "of speed" is usually the best all around if just to kill with
it. Reaching however has decent tactical bonuses. It is good when you
are quick (species spriggan, kenku, centaur or air elementalist) or
when you have allies (beoghite, Tukima's dance) .
David Ploog
> A pro pos: 'weapon of reaching'. Do you also find this a bit useless?
They aren't useless. Their uses may be more special than for other brands.
But the weapon is much better than just for getting an additional attack
on approaching or fleeing monsters: you can use it to very good effect
with allies (summons, zombies, whatever). And you can use it tactically in
corridors, attacking a nasty monster over the head of some puny critter.
> A 'trident of piercing' would be ever so much nicer, surely?
As you see from the above, not for me.
David
Erwin M.
> On Mon, 2 Nov 2009, Peter Huebner wrote:
>
>> A pro pos: 'weapon of reaching'. Do you also find this a bit useless?
>
> They aren't useless. Their uses may be more special than for other
> brands. But the weapon is much better than just for getting an
> additional attack on approaching or fleeing monsters: you can use it to
> very good effect with allies (summons, zombies, whatever). And you can
> use it tactically in corridors, attacking a nasty monster over the head
> of some puny critter.
As was recently pointed out to me, reaching weapons can hit submerged
aquatic monsters in deep water. Still a pretty niche use, but it beats
the heck out of throwing away 50 rocks at an almost-dead electrical eel
or lava snake that you really don't want to see on the surface again.
Weapon of reaching + Conjure Flame + narrow corridor can also be a
lifesaver.
Peter Huebner
says...
> David Ploog wrote:
> > On Mon, 2 Nov 2009, Peter Huebner wrote:
> >
> >> A pro pos: 'weapon of reaching'. Do you also find this a bit useless?
> >
> > They aren't useless. Their uses may be more special than for other
> > brands. But the weapon is much better than just for getting an
> > additional attack on approaching or fleeing monsters: you can use it to
> > very good effect with allies (summons, zombies, whatever). And you can
> > use it tactically in corridors, attacking a nasty monster over the head
> > of some puny critter.
Noted ... now how to juggle that rat between m'avatar and that pesky
troll ;-D
>
> As was recently pointed out to me, reaching weapons can hit submerged
> aquatic monsters in deep water.
Any polearm. Doesn't have to be 'reaching'. Spear, halberd, trident,
glaive ... bows also work i.i.r.c., magic dart, puff of ice/flame ...
A new world of good xp has opened up to me: Killing fish in a barrel!
> Weapon of reaching + Conjure Flame + narrow corridor can also be a
> lifesaver.
I can see how. Don't normally bother with learning conjure flame though,
since you can't cast it on occupied spaces - in other words, you'd need
to be fast or faster to make good use of it in corridors - i.m.o.,
naturally.
----
Well I can see how how 'of reaching' does have its uses, not necessarily
for a primary weapon but carried for those 'special moments'. I was a
bit grumpy about it because that one decent trident my crusader had been
able to find was 'reaching' so I could not enchant it with fire or ice.
And I didn't want to risk using her glaive or halberd on hydras.
Unfortunately she had a wee accident. "The 8-headed hydra roars" - hmmm,
better retreat the two steps to the stairs: except at that moment I
must've had a muscle spasm in my mouse finger or something, because the
next thing I saw was the death screen flash by and then the desktop. No
idea what, why or how :-(
Maybe I inadvertantly clicked on her robe in inventory or some such.
Damn shame, 25 evades, already cleared Snake to level 4 ... even an
amulet of resist slowing.
-P.
Erwin M.
> In article <hcmo7i$8jj$1...@news.eternal-september.org>, erwi...@gmail.com
> says...
>> As was recently pointed out to me, reaching weapons can hit submerged
>> aquatic monsters in deep water.
>
> Any polearm. Doesn't have to be 'reaching'. Spear, halberd, trident,
> glaive ... bows also work i.i.r.c., magic dart, puff of ice/flame ...
> A new world of good xp has opened up to me: Killing fish in a barrel!
Conventional polearms won't hit a critter in deep water. (Been running a
lot of MfCr, MfTm, and MfIE lately...plenty of firsthand experience.)
Shallow water, yes, just do the ctrl-move to bump the disturbance in the
water. Missiles and spells also work, but in deep water, you're throwing
your ammo away. Great for Makhleb-ites and Magic Darts, though.
Nils
> Conventional polearms won't hit a critter in deep water. (Been running a
> lot of MfCr, MfTm, and MfIE lately...plenty of firsthand experience.)
> Shallow water, yes, just do the ctrl-move to bump the disturbance in the
> water. Missiles and spells also work, but in deep water, you're throwing
> your ammo away. Great for Makhleb-ites and Magic Darts, though.
As I'm currently playing a poison mage I can add some info for these
critters:
Most if not all creatures that can go "under water" are prone to
poision. Just for that reason it's worth to learn a simple level one spell.
You hit the critter while you can (great to build up the fight-skill),
poison it with a sting or a bolt of posion once (great to build up
casting skill) and then wait for the critter to die.
Works for me...
Nils
Rupert Swarbrick
>> Weapon of reaching + Conjure Flame + narrow corridor can also be a
>> lifesaver.
>
> I can see how. Don't normally bother with learning conjure flame though,
> since you can't cast it on occupied spaces - in other words, you'd need
> to be fast or faster to make good use of it in corridors - i.m.o.,
> naturally.
No, you just have to be organised! Many monsters carry on charging
through the flames, so as soon as the square before them is in range,
cast on that. Then next turn they'll be standing in the flame and you
can cast it directly in front of them.
Nasties like trolls succumb: when they decide they don't like this burny
stuff, they can't turn and flee fast enough not to get killed by the
stuff behind them.
Greater nagas, not so much. That was the end of a promising HeFE...
Rupert
garron
> Unfortunately she had a wee accident. "The 8-headed hydra roars" - hmmm,
> better retreat the two steps to the stairs: except at that moment I
> must've had a muscle spasm in my mouse finger or something, because the
> next thing I saw was the death screen flash by and then the desktop. No
> idea what, why or how :-(
> Maybe I inadvertantly clicked on her robe in inventory or some such.
> Damn shame, 25 evades, already cleared Snake to level 4 ... even an
> amulet of resist slowing.
Typo deaths are the worst deaths :(
I can't count how many promising characters I killed off with one
wrong keystroke. It doesn't happen so much any more, now that I force
myself to be more careful, but I still do it on occasion.
garron
> Most if not all creatures that can go "under water" are prone to
> poision. Just for that reason it's worth to learn a simple level one spell.
Interestingly enough, they're vulnerable to Sticky Flames too, and
will burn while submerged...
Erwin M.
Water doesn't extinguish napalm, at least not easily. Magically-fueled
napalm can do whatever it likes.