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Shields got reworked a while back so that you get less SH value but each point of SH does more. As for the question of whether to use a shield or not it depends on the character and what the dungeon has lying around. In general I'm more likely to use a shield if the character has trouble getting def...

Duvessa are you sure monsters don't roll a zero for damage? I just had a situation where I had 0 AC (batform), was hit by a goblin wielding a +0 dagger, and got the message "the goblin hits you but does no damage".

I follow your reasoning now, though would you mind running a sample calculation? Total defensive value (not mariginal) for 10 AC (0 GDR) vs. a yak? I'm curious as to how you're determining average damage reduction for AC, as my understanding of it would require a fairly laborious calculation; enumer...

I'm not following your method for making the original graphs, specifically "defensive value". I'll provide an example of my thinking: Assume the character is fighting a yak and initially has 0 AC, 0 EV and 0 SH. Now assume the character has 1 AC, 0 EV and 0 SH. The marginal increase in def...

Use that 30 dex and train some dodging?

Evocations to 15 for max summons from elemental evokables + general usefulness (really helps certain wands, also is there an invis ring/cloak anywhere?), eventually get higher on any spriggan. Sacks of spiders are insanely good for stabbers as they can web targets and allow you to stab them, as well...

Labels are purely for cosmetic reasons. I agree with the majority that labeling a character does nothing useful. I train according to what I find in the dungeon, not because I feel I'm a fighter or a mage.

Folks who can't handle a self-reference paradox are real suckers.
I love obscure references...

For me if the character does a lot more damage with spells then it's a mage. If it does a lot more damage with anything else it's a fighter. If roughly the same a fighter-mage, which as mentioned in the OP is very rare (I have had one character that I remember that I would consider a fighter-mage). ...

A traditionally depicted fantasy deity is ... much more prone to anger and spite than any real-life significant other that you are likely to have. You see, gentlemen, behind every great man, there is a woman... urging him on. And so it was with my Stella. She urged me on into outer space. Uh, not t...

And then maybe you find a wand of hasting... And this is the crux of the argument against training lots of charms for haste. For all you haste (the spell) addicts, how often do you haste in a typical 3-rune game? I haste maybe 10 times total, half of those in Zot:5. Why sink xp into charms for hast...

To kill later threats that are magic immune you'll want a better short blade + more skill (around 15 is enough). Also elemental evokables help a ton, on top of the damage they can do the summons also do damage and can even distract opponents, allowing you to stab them. Throwing nets are awesome for ...

If you worship Trog acquiring book gives manuals, and not of magic (or invo I think). Pretty good odds to get something you want.

A true gem. Dungeon Crawl Stone Soup version 0.16-a0-3230-gc2f0b36 (webtiles) character file. 10112 keymashgrqeeg the Lord of Darkness (level 11, -11/80 HPs) Began as a Demonspawn Necromancer on Dec 21, 2014. Was the Champion of Kikubaaqudgha. Killed from afar by an orc zombie (34 damage) ... with a...

For the stone ego, how about as you level up earth magic it slows you down a bit? Like the proposed swiftness ego, just the other way. Chei worsippers rejoice.

When using the lamp of fire there's the risk that you'll hit an ally and incur penance (not sure about stone since I rarely use) when worshipping certain gods like TSO or Oka. No warning is given, and I have done this multiple times. I'm probably not the only one. Many thanks to the dev who implemen...

For weapons that already have the brand identified would like to see the enchantment level auto-id. For example instead of a naga ritualist wielding a dagger of venom, it's a naga ritualist wielding a +3 dagger of venom. I find myself picking up and wielding weapons I already know the brand of to se...

Right now the best way to deal with spiny frogs is do do some more dungeon. You entered lair very early, xp is probably easier up to d:12. Then maybe do a bit of orc if you still haven't found a way to deal with the frogs (invis, rod, some spell like confuse or a conjuration).

If by the time you're fighting fire giants EH is your best option something's very wrong.

This is one of the very few times where I'd train something other than polarms on a Mf. +12 and elec brand on a fairly quick weapon is stupid good at this point in the game. Also would start putting points into dex and abuse the +3 dodge apt even more, though if you're set on being a caster then int...

Do not overtrain summonings, let Sif's miscast protection save you some xp. 20% failrate for higher level summonings is good for awhile, then eventually knock down to 10% or lower. Right now you have plenty of xp in summonings, train something else. Probably get 6 wep skill and 6 fighting for popcor...

Availability of a good weapon should take priority over aptitude in 99.9% of cases. If you go Trog the first gnoll w/ polearm you find is good enough until Trog gifts you something better. Even if you don't go Trog orc warriors or the odd wight carry glaives fairly early. Only situation I can think...

And here I thought that HuFi game was that broke my streak was the server updating or something (remember streaks being temporarily broken awhile ago due to updating). Though in my case the point is moot since I lost a game soon after.

So I died right out the gate (HuWr vs. hobgoblin w/ club). Forgot that Wr starts with a blinking scroll, and wanted to see where I could have blinked to (though likely wouldn't have made a difference). The morgue file generated the following map: . .# .. . .## #. #. .... ###### .... #.. .##..##>#<#....

I'm of the opinion that if you've gotten any character as far as you have you can get 15 runes so stick with Jiyva if you want. Skilling wouldn't have invested in charms myself, also you've got plenty of throwing. Probably would first finish getting 15 shields then just turn on fighting and max it o...

Zombies being permanent is an issue, but for me animate dead is more useful during a fight as well as the zombies can deal lots of damage (deep troll packs especially). This could be fixed as mentioned earlier by giving a larger boost to ac+sh, but it'd be tricky to figure out the right balance. Jus...

Also train 5 shields and wear that buckler. At some point much later you may want to upgrade to a regular shield, large shield usually is never worth it unless you're going for 15 runes and have xp to burn.

My impression of Cig's Embrace is that it is not very useful. In order for it to provide any meaningful benefit you have to have a decent number of corpses in the area. By the time you get a decent number of corpses you've either won the battle already or could put those corpses to better use as zom...

Sadly you've sunk a ton of xp into staves when your character screams short blades for stabbing. Given how you've trained stick with staves for now and get some dodging (maybe 10), then some fighting (again 10). After getting that xp should be a little easier to come by and you'll probably want to s...

You are absolutely dominating when it comes to defense, focus on more offense. Either train more UC (21 is enough even for extended) or get a ranged option. Normally would say throwing but not sure if Jiyva will lower str too much for large rocks to be effective. Evocations is good on every characte...

I love speedruns of all types, grats. When you go through Pan, do you search levels completely until you find the demonic rune then keep taking portals, or do you take portals until you stumble across the demonic rune or see a level with a guaranteed rune (like holy pan or hellion island)? Also a tr...

@Mikee: Now all I can think about is Harry Potter and He-Who-Must-Not-Be-Named. Or the Wheel of Time and Shai'tan for us hardcore nerds. Question: Do entire shard shrike flocks spawn from hell effects, or just individual shrikes? Given how brutal these things seem to be spawning a pack plus a fiend ...

Just nuke them with slouch. And people say Chei sucks in extended...

Actually have no experience with them, but slouch works for executioners so guessing would work for these?

The wiki is fickle, I remember trolls used to be considered a "hard" species. Concerning backgrounds "challenging" is a subjective term but for new crawlers general consensus is that melee backgrounds are easier than spellcasting ones. This is probably because a mage has more thi...

Have some critiques. First is that you had two identify scrolls, and had unidentified potions/scrolls. Typically most players read scrolls to id them and use identify scrolls on unknown potions. Regardless should use identify scrolls on consumables as soon as able. Also don't know what the situation...

I first encountered it as Linley's dungeon crawl Same here, also remember that I tried for the longest time to win as a mummy, never figured out could just scum. Can't remember how exactly I found DCSS, think it might have been due to frustration after finally getting a minotaur (gave up on the mum...

Here's a fairly typical skald game with a human: http://crawl.akrasiac.org/rawdata/keymashgrqeeg/morgue-keymashgrqeeg-20140724-065627.txt I like to really pump weapon skill early on (I actually overtrained wep skill in the game), as a Mf should be very easy. Would get 10 or so polearms, then pump do...

Two games without wucad mu so guess more typical: opee, another 0 wep skill. Seems I used a short sword a lot, don't know what the deal with that is. http://crawl.akrasiac.org/rawdata/keymashgrqeeg/morgue-keymashgrqeeg-20140817-114228.txt dgwr, looks like I found early conj books so stopped training...

@Sandman25: Eh the wucad mu games are why I trained over 15 evoc. Even without wucad mu still try to get at least 15 evoc to get max summons from elemental evocables, sometimes go for more evoc if I've got a lot of phials, sack gets really good too at high evoc. Also I noticed that I don't train cha...

I would like to begin with saying that I truly do enjoy playing octopodes... Maybe someone really wanted octopodes... Yeah, I think if Octopodes... though I would suggest octopodes... and in the late game octopodes... Keep in mind that the reason octopodes... It's settled, Octopode s ! https://craw...

Didn't know that about Ru piety, suppose it makes sense. Disagree with fuzzy numbers in general (the piety argument is pretty good) but it is minor either way. Would still argue for a change in stealth, as the current display system was implemented before dith. I've noticed a difference between norm...

And how do you deal with Ghost Moths in Spider? Have you ever been teleported by permanent trap/Naga Mage or surrounded by Guardian Naga at low MP? Or do you always have staff of energy? To deal with moths tyically use invis (can't drain MP when you're invis). In snake being teleported is rarely an...

Few gripes/suggestions: 1) Stealth currently has 11 different levels, which seems excessive. Also if I'm playing a stealthy character (say a vamp) and worship Dith, I can go considerably beyond "uncannily stealthy" aka "++++++++++". At least I think so, I don't know due to the cu...

@Sandman25: 3 runes. I've had games where I just wield an elemental staff at zero weapon skill because it's kinda funny bonking stuff on the head with zero weapon skill and owning (fighting provides to-hit), though typically I do train a bit of weapon skill before Zot. Also I'm in the "if you g...

Since the opportunity cost in words of using the phrase to convey the idea it expresses is lower than not using the phrase, it is optimal.

@Wahaha You misunderstoond my argument. I'm only criticizing training a weapon skill. I train fighting+dodging+shield+general spell schools (tloc, charms, spellcasting for mp/slots) + evocations + invocations (if applicable) + stealth (even firestormers should train a bit of stealth at some point) b...

Concerning optimization (assuming this means "maximizing chances to win") it is hard for me to see a situation where training UC/melee weapon is optimal for a mage, barring races that shouldn't be playing as mages (troll, ghoul, mino, ogre), or hybrids like skalds. As a mage you kill stuff...

I believe it doesn't depend on your aptitudes, in the general case I think this is basically correct, see below. *code and method* I tackle the problem a different way. Instead of asking "how to split a certain amount of exp" I ask "how much exp is required to reach a certain level&q...

To give accurate advice would have to see the character file, typically I'm a fan of just using a staff. For my playstyle melee is a backup backup weapon on a mage, usually use elemental evocables and/or some source of chanelling before going to melee or just retreating. Claws 3 is wonderful if you ...

Ozymandias by Percy Bysshe Shelley The desert just seems to make for great literature. This poem appears in game (flavour text for ghoul): In the Desert by Stephen Crane In the desert I saw a creature, naked, bestial, Who, squatting upon the ground, Held his heart in his hands, And ate of it. I sai...

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