[dnethack] Status and equipment at Medusa

[Janis Papanagnou]

After having got the Chaos Key I skipped most of the other quests and
decided to clear the Tomb, skip Moloch's Temple, and continue downward.
So I reached Medusa's level that I almost cleared. A yellow dragon left
scales, and I reconsidered my body armor; I have

a blessed +1 elven mithril-coat -- that I had worn till now
an uncursed +0 crystal plate mail
a blessed +1 yellow dragon scale mail

The first one had the huge advantage of being very light.
The advantages of the crystal plate appeared not too important for my
role/race with the additional equipment I have. Best AC but the damage
reduction is not better than the dragon scales. I can anyway cast only
divination spells with Nenya, and that is at 0% fail anyway.
The yellow dragon armor provides acid- and stone-resistance; the latter
is indeed very interesting, also for Medusa.
All armor provide sufficient damage reduction, as I see. So I'll drop
the mithril and crystal mails and continue with dragon armor.

The essence of my (openly carried) equipment:

Amulets
y - an uncursed very rusty amulet versus curses (being worn) {20}
Weapons
a - the blessed +7 Lifehunt Scythe (weapon in claws) {64}
Z - the blessed rustproof +5 Mjollnir {50}
Armor
A - a blessed +1 yellow dragon scale mail (being worn) {150}
B - a blessed fireproof +3 pair of speed boots (being worn) {20}
C - an uncursed burnt +2 leather dwarvish cloak (being worn) {15}
G - the uncursed rustproof +0 Gauntlets of Spell Power (being worn) {30}
H - an uncursed greased +0 mithril dwarvish helm (being worn) {20}
T - the blessed fireproof +5 Tie-Dye Shirt of Shambhala (being worn) {5}
Rings
I - an uncursed ring of free action (on right claw) {3}
J - the uncursed Nenya (on left claw) {3}
Tools
b - the blessed fireproof greased Wallet of Perseus {1733}
l - an uncursed candle of invocation (lit) {2}
s - a blessed stethoscope {4}
u - a blessed +0 stained unicorn horn {20}
K - the uncursed etched Second Key of Chaos {3}
Gems
e - a blessed luckstone {1}
O - the blessed Heart of Ahriman {1}

I still have some unused enchantment scrolls; shall I enchant the boots
or the dragon mail?

My stats:
St:25 Dx:10 Co:19 In:13 Wi:17 Ch:8 Chaotic
Dlvl:24 $:0 HP:499(499) Pw:158(158) Br:6 AC:-13 DR:12 Xp:25/553988
T:93814
Burdened Fly

I'm not yet crowned, but I have (at least currently) all resistances
but disintegration.

Current Attributes:

You last prayed 8292 turns ago
That prayer was well received
You have since reconciled with your god.
You are piously aligned.
You are acid resistant.
You are cold resistant.
You are fire resistant.
You are level-drain resistant.
You are magic-protected.
You are waterproof.
You are petrification resistant.
You are poison resistant.
You are shock resistant.
You are sleep resistant.
You are resistant to magical damage.
You have a drunkard score of 0.
You have 83 sanity points.
You have 0 insight points.
You see invisible.
You are telepathic.
You are sensing the presence of monsters.
You have a carrying capacity of -752 remaining.
You have 966 points of nutrition remaining.
You are invisible to others.
You are stealthy.
You aggravate monsters.
You can teleport.
You have teleport control.
You can fly.
You can walk on water.
You are protected.
You are very fast.
You have reflection.
You have free action.
You have augmented spellcasting.
You are extremely lucky.
You have extra luck.
Good luck times out slowly for you.
You can safely pray.

On Medusa's level I stumbled across some "gorgonian ward"; I'd suppose
it would somehow protect me against Medusa - is a ward some engraving
like Elbereth?
(But I think I don't need that now that I have the yellow scale mail.)

I also got "prayer warded wrappings", and various engraved rings. And
I have no idea how I get advantages from these properties, or whether
these are relevant (in my game or generally).

So continuing to face Medusa and then directing towards the Castle...

Janis

[Ron Nazarov]

Janis Papanagnou <janis_pap...@hotmail.com> writes:

> After having got the Chaos Key I skipped most of the other quests and
> decided to clear the Tomb, skip Moloch's Temple, and continue downward.
> So I reached Medusa's level that I almost cleared. A yellow dragon left
> scales, and I reconsidered my body armor; I have
>
> a blessed +1 elven mithril-coat -- that I had worn till now
> an uncursed +0 crystal plate mail
> a blessed +1 yellow dragon scale mail
>
> The first one had the huge advantage of being very light.
> The advantages of the crystal plate appeared not too important for my
> role/race with the additional equipment I have. Best AC but the damage
> reduction is not better than the dragon scales. I can anyway cast only
> divination spells with Nenya, and that is at 0% fail anyway.
> The yellow dragon armor provides acid- and stone-resistance; the latter
> is indeed very interesting, also for Medusa.
>

Remember that you have reflection from the Heart of Ahriman, so Medusa
is trivial (just step in LoS while not invisible and she will stone
herself in her reflection).

I'd probably enchant on whichever slot has the least DR (see ^X for
per-slot DR), if I was going to keep the armour.

>
> My stats:
> St:25 Dx:10 Co:19 In:13 Wi:17 Ch:8 Chaotic
> Dlvl:24 $:0 HP:499(499) Pw:158(158) Br:6 AC:-13 DR:12 Xp:25/553988
> T:93814
> Burdened Fly
>

I would recommend not being burdened. Do you really need to carry 10398
aum worth of stuff in your bag?

>
> I'm not yet crowned, but I have (at least currently) all resistances
> but disintegration.
>

> [attributes]

>
> On Medusa's level I stumbled across some "gorgonian ward"; I'd suppose
> it would somehow protect me against Medusa - is a ward some engraving
> like Elbereth?
> (But I think I don't need that now that I have the yellow scale mail.)
>

See https://nethackwiki.com/wiki/Ward_(dNetHack). They're kind of
engravings, but they're engraved with #ward (^W) and can share a square
with an ordinary engraving. Elbereth in dNetHack only scares orcs,
ogres, and Nazgul unless you are either: an elf, worshipping a Tolkien
elf god (elf ranger/priest/priestess pantheons), or worshipping a holy
drow goddess (Eilistraee), in which case it's just as powerful as in
3.4.3 vanilla.

>
> I also got "prayer warded wrappings", and various engraved rings. And
> I have no idea how I get advantages from these properties, or whether
> these are relevant (in my game or generally).
>

Prayer warded wrappings provide (100%) curse resistance and act as mummy
wrappings (block invisibility). You could replace your leather dwarvish
cloak with them and wear an amulet of life saving. Engraved rings are
just rings with engravings. Some of them are wards and can be read to
learn the ward or applied towards a monster to scare it (if it is scared
by that ward), some of them are drow houses and can be applied towards
drow to either pacify or anger all drow of the same house on the level,
depending on your gender and body armour (I think if you are male you
need to also be wearing the correspoding body armour, and you need to be
not wearing another drow house's body armour either way), and others are
just for flavour.

[Janis Papanagnou]

On 23.09.2023 01:29, Ron Nazarov wrote:
> Janis Papanagnou <janis_pap...@hotmail.com> writes:
>> [Medusa]

>
> Remember that you have reflection from the Heart of Ahriman, so Medusa
> is trivial (just step in LoS while not invisible and she will stone
> herself in her reflection).

My problem is that recently I played a lot of variants[*] and in
some the reflection did not work; I just did not know how it's in
dNethack, so I assumed the worst be be sure. (In my current game
I decided to simply zap death at her.)

>> [inventory list]

>>
>> I still have some unused enchantment scrolls; shall I enchant the boots
>> or the dragon mail?
>
> I'd probably enchant on whichever slot has the least DR (see ^X for
> per-slot DR), if I was going to keep the armour.

Meanwhile I've got some more types of armor and used some of the
scrolls to enchant some pieces. (I usually try them on and check
the DR, because the AC often doesn't change; which I still find
to be confusing - but given that I operate like a tank fighter I
decided that AC is of minor importance to me (at least till now),
and I focus more on noticeable primary magical armor properties
(as far as I understand them).

(My divine protection is also already at maximum; not that I'd
notice it in my AC value.)

> I would recommend not being burdened. Do you really need to carry 10398
> aum worth of stuff in your bag?

Well, you never know what you'll need. :-) But honestly, no, I
don't need all these items. It's just the [not uncommon] pack-rat
effect - and since it works to stay alive despite reduced speed.

Of course some game design decisions contribute to that carrying
(mis-)behavior of mine; these tons of items littering the games
(in most/all variants I noticed) is something I don't like (as I
already mentioned some time ago). - Is it really necessary to
achieve "complexity"/"difficulty" mostly by generation of hordes
of monsters that leave tons of items? - Is the introduction of
materials really contributing an _essential_ factor to the game
(besides adding [maybe] some realism)? - Is it sensible to equip
(say) any dwarf with a potion of booze? (Just to name an example.)

So I happen to carry also duplicates, or carry armor variants of
different material, keep items that indicate to have same useful
properties (whether they actually have them or not, whether they
are actually necessary or not, etc.). Occasionally I drop them at
my stashes, some were used up (mostly to just reduce my load), but
there are still far too many items in my bag, yes.

> [...]

>>
>> I also got "prayer warded wrappings", and various engraved rings. And
>> I have no idea how I get advantages from these properties, or whether
>> these are relevant (in my game or generally).
>>
>
> Prayer warded wrappings provide (100%) curse resistance and act as mummy
> wrappings (block invisibility).

Okay, so the wards here have just a single property and I can drop
the spare ones. I assumed and noticed the anti-invisibility effect.
I try to be invisible if possible (it wears off, I think), so I
avoid the wrapping as a standard piece of armor. I've obtained the
anti-curse amulet that proved to be very important and that I wear
constantly now.

> You could replace your leather dwarvish
> cloak with them and wear an amulet of life saving.

I found a cloak of displacement (it's now my standard cloak), and I
use the curse-absorbing amulet, as mentioned. - It appears to me to
be a sensible choice. (I never was a fan of amulets of life saving.
Though when playing new variants with yet unknown dangers it can be,
well, a live-saver, I'm sure.)

> [...]

Thanks again for your insights.

Janis

[*] That's one reason why I'd prefer some Vanilla version (or only few
variants) that is (that are) sensibly designed and balanced, and that
will incorporate interesting and proven contributions from variants.
Having more than a dozen variants, to be honest, just confuses me; the
details may differ greatly or even in subtle ways amongst the variants,
and I'm never sure whether one thing or another works or will show to
be deadly. Yet I haven't found the One and Only variant that I'd like
to focus on. (Of course this is just me and my humble opinion. YMMV.)

[RecRanger]

This is my biggest issue with a lot of variants. Having the extra things and
the added realism is interesting and can be fun, but the pack rat in me gets
quite overwhelmed quite quickly. It is hard to know what is junk and what is
not when you are trying to learn a new game. Often, when I do let things lay
on the ground, I find later they are important and end up retracing a lot of steps.

Even in simpler games or vanilla I find myself hording all weapons, ammo,
armor, potions, scrolls and all tools just to polypile.

--