[DCSS] Advice for Spriggan Enchanter - lvl 13
Joachim Schipper
my Spriggan Enchanter (on crawl.akrasiac.org, username Joachim) seems to
be doing rather well - so well, in fact, that I don't know what strategy
to pursue.
I have cleared Lair, Orc and Hive and am now on Swamp level 1; I have no
rPois, but I do have a rod of venom (which has Cure Poison). I kill
things by putting them to sleep (Ensorcelled Hibernation) and Stabbing
them; if this doesn't work, I melee, use wands, or - if all else fails -
run away and shoot arrows.
I have an awesome +5 ring of protection, a rather nice short sword of
speed, a collection of rings, some spellbooks, and I have just entered a
bazaar. I have plenty of food.
I have some questions about things for the next game:
- Should I have raised Str? I don't use it much, but every advice I've
read says to raise everything to 8...
- Is Sif Muna a good choice? I'm not a full-time wizard, which makes it
harder to gain piety and makes this deity less useful.
- Am I right that spending points in Bows is a waste? I learnt it to
kill fleeing enemies, but running after them, casting a low-level
attack spell, or Evoking something would work equally well.
I also have a couple more immediate problems:
- I have just entered a bazaar; should I spend my hard-earned money? On
what? It's tempting to go for the scroll of acquirement and ask for
armour, but it seems rather risky. A wand of healing would also be
nice...
- What about spending my skill points? I have dabbled in quite a few
things, but so far Ensorcelled Hibernation+Stabbing seems to work
fine. Is that a viable long-term strategy (if I skip undead-heavy
branches), or should I look into Long Blades and/or Conjuration?
Should I raise Enchantments to make sure I can keep affecting
enemies (in particular, the orc wizards in Orc seemed hard to put to
sleep - I usually confused and/or meleed them.)
- I can freely forget spells; should I? I have quite a few more spells
that I don't use that much:
+ Corona: used to be nice, but I rarely miss anyway. Good for
training, I suppose.
+ Invisibility: seems to make attacks less likely to hit, which is
nice, but it's rather high level and I rarely use it.
+ Blink: useful if you're surrounded, but I've always been able to
avoid that by finding chokepoints and/or running around the mob.
Very few things are faster than a Spriggan...
+ Sublimation of Blood: getting back spell points is quite nice, and
it's not like I have other uses for corpses, but my store of spell
points usually suffices.
I have access to Deflect Missiles, Mass Confusion, Metabolic
Englaciation, Identify, and quite a few other spells including some
attack spells (see list of items, below the character dump). I have
rather high Spellcasting, high Int and a Ring of Wizardry, so most
spells should be casteable.
- I am quite easy to kill; monsters usually end up confused and/or
asleep before they can do serious damage, but my AC is still rather
bad. Should I try to raise Dodging/Fighting further to compensate for
this? Should I try to Acquire some armour? Should I just be careful?
- Where to now? Is Swamp a good choice, even if I do lack rPois and rely
primarily on bladed weapons?
- Should I read all Enchant <foo> scrolls? My short sword of speed seems
rather powerful at the moment, but I'm scared that it'll fail to hurt
more powerful enemies. On the other hand, enchanting it further does
help with that...
Thanks for reading this huge post!
Joachim
Dungeon Crawl Stone Soup version 0.5.1 (crawl-ref) character file.
Joachim the Bewitcher (Spriggan Enchanter) Turns: 26821, Time: 04:06:03
HP 62/62 AC 10 Str 4 Exp: 13/44250 (220), need: 18799
MP 32/32 EV 24 Int 21 God: Sif Muna *****
Gold 1368 SH 0 Dex 17 Spells: 9 memorised, 3 levels left
Res.Fire : x . . See Invis. : + a - +2,+6 orc short sword (speed)
Res.Cold : + . . Warding : . J - +2 orc robe
Life Prot.: . . . Conserve : + (shield restricted)
Res.Poison: . Res.Corr. : . (helmet restricted)
Res.Elec. : . Clarity : . v - +0 cloak
(gloves unavailable)
Sust.Abil.: . Rnd.Telep. : . (boots unavailable)
Res.Mut. : . Ctrl.Telep.: . p - amulet of conservation
Res.Slow : . Levitation : . I - +5 ring of protection
Saprovore : . . . Ctrl.Flight: . g - ring of ice
@: very quick, extremely resistant to magic, extremely stealthy
A: unfitting armour, herbivore 3, slow metabolism 3, speed 3, see invisible
a: Channel Energy, Forget Spell, Renounce Religion
You are in a bazaar.
You worship Sif Muna.
Sif Muna is exalted by your worship.
You are not hungry.
You have visited 7 branches of the dungeon, and seen 31 of its levels.
You have visited 1 portal chamber (including bazaars).
You have collected 1893 gold pieces.
You have spent 548 gold pieces at shops.
Inventory:
Hand weapons
a - a +2,+6 orcish short sword of speed (weapon)
b - a +2,+2 bow of protection
E - a +0,+2 dagger of draining (quivered)
Q - a glowing orcish falchion
Missiles
s - 4 +1 arrows
x - 15 +4 arrows
Armour
v - a +0 cloak (worn)
D - a +2 orcish robe
J - a +2 orcish robe (worn)
Magical devices
f - a wand of digging
h - a wand of disintegration {zapped: 2}
j - a wand of slowing
u - a wand of confusion {zapped: 1}
A - a wand of enslavement {zapped: 1}
C - a wand of fire
T - a wand of disintegration
U - a wand of paralysis {zapped: 2}
Y - a wand of lightning
Z - a wand of slowing {zapped: 2}
Comestibles
l - 5 honeycombs
w - 2 royal jellies
Scrolls
c - 3 scrolls of teleportation
i - 2 scrolls of fear
y - a scroll of detect curse
L - a scroll of magic mapping
N - a scroll of blinking
Jewellery
d - an uncursed ring of wizardry
e - a ring of ice
g - a ring of ice (left hand)
k - an uncursed ring of teleport control
n - an uncursed amulet of resist corrosion
o - an uncursed ring of protection from magic
p - an amulet of conservation (around neck)
z - an uncursed ring of protection from cold
I - a +5 ring of protection (right hand)
O - an uncursed amulet of resist mutation
R - an uncursed ring of fire
Potions
m - 2 potions of healing
r - 2 potions of might
t - 3 potions of speed
B - 3 potions of heal wounds
K - a potion of resistance
P - a potion of invisibility
V - a potion of restore abilities
Magical staves
q - a rod of venom (11/11)
(You found it on level 4 of the Lair of Beasts)
Miscellaneous
X - a box of beasts
You have 220 experience left.
Skills:
+ Level 3 Fighting
+ Level 10 Short Blades
- Level 2 Long Blades
- Level 8 Bows
- Level 2 Darts
- Level 1 Throwing
+ Level 11 Dodging
+ Level 11 Stealth
- Level 13 Stabbing
+ Level 4 Traps & Doors
+ Level 9 Spellcasting
+ Level 15 Enchantments
- Level 1 Necromancy
- Level 1 Translocations
+ Level 4 Ice Magic
+ Level 5 Evocations
You have 3 spell levels left.
You know the following spells:
Your Spells Type Power Success Level
a - Corona Ench #######... Perfect 1
b - Ensorcelled Hibernat Ice/Ench ####### Excellent 2
c - Invisibility Ench #######... Excellent 6
d - Confuse Ench #######... Excellent 3
e - Repel Missiles Air/Ench ######.... Excellent 2
f - Ozocubu's Armour Ice/Ench #######... Excellent 3
g - Blink Tloc N/A Great 2
h - Sublimation of Blood Necr ###....... Great 2
i - Haste Ench #######... Excellent 6
Overview of the Dungeon
Branches: (use G to reach them and ?/B for more information)
Temple: D:4 Orc : D:9 Elf : Orc:4 Lair : D:12
Swamp : Lair:5 Slime : Lair:8 Snake : Lair:4 Hive : D:12
Altars: (use Ctrl-F "altar" to reach them and ?/G for information about gods)
Vehumet: D:9
Okawaru: D:3
Makhleb: D:8
Trog: Lair:4
Shops: (use Ctrl-F "shop" to reach them)
D:5: ! D:6: = D:10: [ Lair:3: +
Portals:
Ziggurat: D:5 (11890 gp)
---- SELECTED STUFF ----
DUNGEON:
a book of the Sky
a book of Unlife
a book of Wizardry
a book of Minor Magic [frost]
a book of Charms
Some scrolls of enchant <foo>
Lots of arrows
SHOP IN DUNGEON:
a book of the Warp (1440 gold)
a Young Poisoner's Handbook (640 gold)
a book of Control (1040 gold)
the Collected Works on Attacks (505 gold)
a book of Callings (480 gold)
a book of Power (720 gold)
a book of Conjurations [fire] (480 gold)
a book of Transfigurations (880 gold)
a book of the Tempests (1120 gold)
a book of Party Tricks (800 gold)
SHOPS IN BAZAAR:
scroll of acquirement (676 gold)
scroll of remove curse (39 gold)
a wand of polymorph other (4; 88 gold)
a wand of fireball (4; 196 gold)
a wand of healing (3; 288 gold)
a wand of disintegration (8; 169 gold)
ANTIQUE SHOPS IN BAZAAR:
an encrusted falchion (128 gold)
a long sword (72 gold)
a robe (14 gold)
a robe (14 gold)
David Ploog
[Spriggan in midgame]
> I have some questions about things for the next game:
> - Should I have raised Str? I don't use it much, but every advice I've
> read says to raise everything to 8...
Get it to six, I'd say.
> - Is Sif Muna a good choice? I'm not a full-time wizard, which makes it
> harder to gain piety and makes this deity less useful.
It's okay.
> - Am I right that spending points in Bows is a waste? I learnt it to
> kill fleeing enemies, but running after them, casting a low-level
> attack spell, or Evoking something would work equally well.
Bows may not be a waste if you don't cast. But you should have other ways
of dealing ranged damage: evocations (wands, rods) or spells.
> I also have a couple more immediate problems:
> - I have just entered a bazaar; should I spend my hard-earned money? On
> what? It's tempting to go for the scroll of acquirement and ask for
> armour, but it seems rather risky. A wand of healing would also be
> nice...
Generally yes. Be happy that you can spend the money. The point of bazaars
is to create choices... but don't be greedy. Buy that wand of healing at
least.
> - What about spending my skill points? I have dabbled in quite a few
> things, but so far Ensorcelled Hibernation+Stabbing seems to work
> fine. Is that a viable long-term strategy (if I skip undead-heavy
> branches), or should I look into Long Blades and/or Conjuration?
> Should I raise Enchantments to make sure I can keep affecting
> enemies (in particular, the orc wizards in Orc seemed hard to put to
> sleep - I usually confused and/or meleed them.)
Try to get Enchantments so high that you can safely use Haste.
> - I can freely forget spells; should I? I have quite a few more spells
> that I don't use that much:
> + Invisibility: seems to make attacks less likely to hit, which is
> nice, but it's rather high level and I rarely use it.
It increases Stealth by a lot. That can be very valuable. Also, many
monsters don't see invisible (you can examine them to check that). For
example, oklobs and dragons don't.
> + Sublimation of Blood: getting back spell points is quite nice, and
> it's not like I have other uses for corpses, but my store of spell
> points usually suffices.
Plus you have Channel Energy from the god.
> I have access to Deflect Missiles, Mass Confusion, Metabolic
> Englaciation, Identify, and quite a few other spells including some
> attack spells (see list of items, below the character dump). I have
> rather high Spellcasting, high Int and a Ring of Wizardry, so most
> spells should be casteable.
Deflect Missiles will be useful (as are the others but I wouldn't bother
with Identify).
> - I am quite easy to kill; monsters usually end up confused and/or
> asleep before they can do serious damage, but my AC is still rather
> bad. Should I try to raise Dodging/Fighting further to compensate for
> this? Should I try to Acquire some armour? Should I just be careful?
Well, that's the innate problem of a spriggan. It is possible to raise
Fighting but I lost many characters doing that :)
Be alert all the time. Actually, having access to haste, invisibility and
healing at all times is probably good. So buy the wand and keep the spell.
> - Where to now? Is Swamp a good choice, even if I do lack rPois and rely
> primarily on bladed weapons?
The only thing you get from Swamp is some xp...
> - Should I read all Enchant <foo> scrolls? My short sword of speed seems
> rather powerful at the moment, but I'm scared that it'll fail to hurt
> more powerful enemies. On the other hand, enchanting it further does
> help with that...
I am not sure you really want another weapon.
Sorry for the terse answer, hopefully there'll be more replies.
David
IcemageJT
> On Sat, 3 Oct 2009, Joachim Schipper wrote:
>
> [Spriggan in midgame]
> > - I have just entered a bazaar; should I spend my hard-earned money? On
> > what? It's tempting to go for the scroll of acquirement and ask for
> > armour, but it seems rather risky. A wand of healing would also be
> > nice...
>
> Generally yes. Be happy that you can spend the money. The point of bazaars
> is to create choices... but don't be greedy. Buy that wand of healing at
> least.
Agree with this emphatically. Wands of Healing are very rare and
should never be turned down. Gold you can always find more of if
you're resourceful.
> > - What about spending my skill points? I have dabbled in quite a few
> > things, but so far Ensorcelled Hibernation+Stabbing seems to work
> > fine. Is that a viable long-term strategy (if I skip undead-heavy
> > branches), or should I look into Long Blades and/or Conjuration?
> > Should I raise Enchantments to make sure I can keep affecting
> > enemies (in particular, the orc wizards in Orc seemed hard to put to
> > sleep - I usually confused and/or meleed them.)
>
> Try to get Enchantments so high that you can safely use Haste.
Be aware that Ensorcelled Hibernation doesn't work against some enemy
types. You're going to need some backup plans just in case.
> > - I can freely forget spells; should I? I have quite a few more spells
> > that I don't use that much:
As a Sif Munite you'll get access to more or less every spell in the
game eventually, except maybe for some of the more restrictive spells
like Lehudib's Crystal Spear. With your high Enchantment, you really
have no reason to use Sif Muna's Forget Spell ability - hold out and
sooner or later she should gift you a book which contains Selective
Amnesia, which will let you zap unwanted spells at will (and yes, you
can use Selective Amnesia to forget itself after you're done if you so
choose).
> > - Where to now? Is Swamp a good choice, even if I do lack rPois and rely
> > primarily on bladed weapons?
>
> The only thing you get from Swamp is some xp...
Without rPois or an amulet of Clarity, I would stay away from the
swamp. You really don't want to get attacked by a swamp drake without
one of those two unless you like pointlessly quaffing heaing potions
and praying or risking permanent death by confusion/drowning.
> > - Should I read all Enchant <foo> scrolls? My short sword of speed seems
> > rather powerful at the moment, but I'm scared that it'll fail to hurt
> > more powerful enemies. On the other hand, enchanting it further does
> > help with that...
>
> I am not sure you really want another weapon.
Unless you find a sabre of speed, there's really nothing else that
will outdo your short sword of speed on that character.
Joachim Schipper
> On Oct 3, 3:33?pm, David Ploog <pl...@mi.fu-berlin.de> wrote:
>> On Sat, 3 Oct 2009, Joachim Schipper wrote:
>>
>> [Spriggan in midgame]
Thanks, both of you, for your helpful replies!
>> > I also have a couple more immediate problems:
>> > - I have just entered a bazaar; should I spend my hard-earned money? On
>> > (...) the scroll of acquirement [for] armour, [or a] wand of healing?
>>
>> Generally yes. Be happy that you can spend the money. The point of bazaars
>> is to create choices... but don't be greedy. Buy that wand of healing at
>> least.
> Agree with this emphatically. Wands of Healing are very rare and
> should never be turned down. Gold you can always find more of if
> you're resourceful.
Ok, I'll do that.
>> > - What about spending my skill points? (...) Ensorcelled
>> > Hibernation+Stabbing seems to work fine. Is that a viable
>> > long-term strategy (if I skip undead-heavy branches), or should I
>> > look into Long Blades and/or Conjuration? Should I raise
>> > Enchantments to make sure I can keep affecting enemies (in
>> > particular, the orc wizards in Orc seemed hard to put to sleep -
>> > I usually confused and/or meleed them.)
>>
>> Try to get Enchantments so high that you can safely use Haste.
>
> Be aware that Ensorcelled Hibernation doesn't work against some enemy
> types. You're going to need some backup plans just in case.
I can cast Haste reliably (Excellent); it's great for the more
"interesting" fights.
What would you recommend as a backup? Melee (with Haste, Ozocubu's
Armour and in the future maybe Condensation Shield)? Attack spells
should work, but the easiest school to branch into would be Ice Magic,
and I guess most undead are rather resistant to that. (Ice Bolt would
still work, of course.)
>> > - I can freely forget spells; should I? I have quite a few more spells
>> > that I don't use that much:
>
> As a Sif Munite you'll get access to more or less every spell in the
> game eventually (...). With your high Enchantment, (...) hold out and
> (...) she should gift you (...) Selective Amnesia (...).
Hmm, ok, I'll wait for that.
>> > - Where to now? Is Swamp a good choice, even if I do lack rPois and rely
>> > primarily on bladed weapons?
>>
>> The only thing you get from Swamp is some xp...
>
> Without rPois or an amulet of Clarity, I would stay away from the
> swamp. You really don't want to get attacked by a swamp drake without
> one of those two unless you like pointlessly quaffing heaing potions
> and praying or risking permanent death by confusion/drowning.
Ok, that makes sense. I do have some healing potions, and I could learn
Levitation to make drowning very unlikely, but still.
The main reason to head for Swamp was that natural creatures seem less
resilient to Ensorcelled Hibernation than, say, Elves. And the Wiki
recommends Life Hold there, which I don't have.
Should I head for the Slime Pits (I do have an amulet of resist
corrosion) or the Snake Pits (I can *cure* poison, after all)?
>> > - Should I read all Enchant <foo> scrolls? My short sword of speed seems
>> > rather powerful at the moment, but I'm scared that it'll fail to hurt
>> > more powerful enemies. On the other hand, enchanting it further does
>> > help with that...
>>
>> I am not sure you really want another weapon.
>
> Unless you find a sabre of speed, there's really nothing else that
> will outdo your short sword of speed on that character.
It's great; I was just worried about heavily-armoured enemies - will I
be able to damage them at all? I have little Str, no better than decent
Dex, and a weapon with low base damage. And no rings to help.
But I'll enchant it.
Should I wait for better armour before enchanting it? It would be nice
to have at least some resistance from my robe, but I'm not sure if such
robes are generated. I do have a scroll of acquirement in a shop...
Joachim
Joachim Schipper
> On Sat, 3 Oct 2009, Joachim Schipper wrote:
> [Spriggan in midgame]
>
>> I have some questions about things for the next game:
>> - Should I have raised Str? I don't use it much, but every advice I've
>> read says to raise everything to 8...
>
> Get it to six, I'd say.
Thanks for your help!
I'll try to do that.
>> - I can freely forget spells; should I? I have quite a few more spells
>> that I don't use that much:
>> + Invisibility: seems to make attacks less likely to hit, which is
>> nice, but it's rather high level and I rarely use it.
>
> It increases Stealth by a lot. That can be very valuable. Also, many
> monsters don't see invisible (you can examine them to check that). For
> example, oklobs and dragons don't.
Hmm, I'll try to use it more often.
>> + Sublimation of Blood: getting back spell points is quite nice, and
>> it's not like I have other uses for corpses, but my store of spell
>> points usually suffices.
>
> Plus you have Channel Energy from the god.
Yes. On the other hand, Sublimation of Blood doesn't cost food (I can't
eat the corpses anyway) and seems to restore a lot of mana (~ 10 MP).
This, admittedly, doesn't matter as much now that I have a large store
of food.
>> I have access to Deflect Missiles, Mass Confusion, Metabolic
>> Englaciation, Identify, and quite a few other spells including some
>> attack spells (see list of items, below the character dump). I have
>> rather high Spellcasting, high Int and a Ring of Wizardry, so most
>> spells should be casteable.
>
> Deflect Missiles will be useful (as are the others but I wouldn't bother
> with Identify).
I'll try to get some of the others. Identify would be very convenient,
but you're right - I have rarely had problems identifying something.
>> - I am quite easy to kill; monsters usually end up confused and/or
>> asleep before they can do serious damage, but my AC is still rather
>> bad. Should I try to raise Dodging/Fighting further to compensate for
>> this? Should I try to Acquire some armour? Should I just be careful?
>
> Well, that's the innate problem of a spriggan. It is possible to raise
> Fighting but I lost many characters doing that :)
> Be alert all the time. Actually, having access to haste, invisibility and
> healing at all times is probably good. So buy the wand and keep the spell.
Raising Fighting shouldn't be *too* hard - sure, I'm not exactly a melee
powerhouse, but I do have good weapon skills and enough Dodging to last
a while.
Should I just disable all other skills and go toe-to-toe with some weak
monsters?
> Sorry for the terse answer, hopefully there'll be more replies.
It only seems terse because the original was so verbose...
Thanks again!
Joachim
Öö Tiib
wrote:
> What would you recommend as a backup? Melee (with Haste, Ozocubu's
> Armour and in the future maybe Condensation Shield)? Attack spells
> should work, but the easiest school to branch into would be Ice Magic,
> and I guess most undead are rather resistant to that. (Ice Bolt would
>still work, of course.)
Most enchanters have silence. Most people who have ring of teleport
control pick up blink at least.
> Should I just disable all other skills and go toe-to-toe with some weak
> monsters?
Yes, spriggans and deep elves often use such tactics for training up
fighting. After all it is HP that protects you from dying.
Avoid becoming too attached to your spriggan ... these may die in
rather unexpected manner and str 4 is certainly risky.