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MR checks suck no matter where you go. But let's look at the sources: E: slow/confuse (archers), abyss (sorcs/demonologists) V: Same as E due to elves, but also has mark and paralysis (sentinel, orb of eyes) U: Still has elves, also has liches and vampire knights (paralysis, liches can also banish),...

Wouldn't 2x slouch very nearly kill enchantress?

I'm not so sure about doing depths before Elf and Vaults. There's no cosplay conduct for doing that and depths is the most dangerous of the 3, even ignoring uniques.

Further, a Wz^Vehm should be playing such that they are never adjacent to an enemy. Quoted is a pipe dream, and it's why Vehumet is not considered a strong god. Lots of things before, during, and after lair are either faster than you or have ranged attacks. Low HP and flimsy AC/defenses in general ...

Some time ago, I read somewhere (maybe here) that on a melee dude the most import factor for choosing body armour is GDR Can you tell me where you read this, so that I can use my +9 rapier of distortion on the people responsible You might want to send them to the abyss, but you leave the chance of ...

TheMeInTeam: You often write long posts arguing for some position, but just about every time I read one you've taken some strange definition or a "problem" that applies to all of crawl specialized to a spell to argue against it. In the case of conjure flame: using it requires understandin...

If you make noise while in LoS it will almost always alert the monster, so in practice Qaz removes any benefit of stealth letting you avoid detection. Stabbing confused or paralyzed monsters works like usual, however. For all its bad rep Qazlal does give a lot of nice passive benefits and some nice ...

Okay, in that case it does meet your requirements and I'd say it's a strict, if mild, improvement over what we have now. I'd certainly prefer it to the janky "make a cloud under character that can be stomped out" interaction.

I'm aware that cflame already has some issues. My point is that the proposed update somewhat exacerbates those issues rather than improves upon them. Using ~spoiler information (exact monster move speed + random energy) to estimate monster movement nearly every time you use this spell (which will be...

I'd be 100% for raising spell level, weakening the spell's damage + making monsters just walk into it, or alternative fewer input/calculation solutions. If the argument that conjure flame is too strong for level 3 (a reasonable assertion) these are preferable. I'm thinking easiest is probably the pr...

# of skills trained is much less important than simply ensuring that what you're training will be of benefit in the near or immediate future. I've had ~10 skills going at once relatively early and still had an easy run, but that's an outlier (caster/stabbing hybrid). Most cases you simply don't have...

Conjure flame might be more "balanced" than 0.24, but it's a non-trivial increase in player tedium. Both in direct inputs and needing ~spoiler information or calculations in order to ensure flames are where you want them to be before monsters get there.

There is no human being who played or plays crawl "optimally". Not even if you properly pin down the definition of "optimal" and constrain actions towards your stated goal as much as humanly possible. On an unrelated note, can I append this to my sig at some point? Full credit t...

Having recently made a thread about ally control/orders, it's occurred to me that positional attack spells will similarly interact very poorly with some gods, especially Hep/Yred. It's something of an abrasive interaction to have spells that depend on positioning while being denied agency for positi...

I will once more, politely, decline to engage with this meritless, semantic argument, which fails on its own terms as I've outlined above. Talking about "meritless semantics" isn't polite. The only thing failing here is the supportive reasoning for your statements regarding items. ~~~ As ...

AFAIK only way to prevent shafts/random teleports into bad situations is to worship Ashenzari. I'm not sure if/how much piety you need for full protection. Of course, the most dangerous time for shafts by far also happens to be the time in the game before you've found altars, so how much this helps ...

E-peen waving of "optimal play" needs some numbers/reasoning attached, along with why it's relevant to a particular mechanic. Elite players aren't always right, and even if the greatest idiot yells that the sun is shining at noon, the world won't go dark where he lives as he says it. To th...

I disagree. Having hep ancestor CONSTANTLY moving to block the player is pretty annoying, enough to make me pick Hep less frequently than I otherwise would on sheer tedium alone. Removing ally commands/positioning stuff only makes them less appealing to use than they already are from a tedium perspe...

Checking wands, spells, potions, and scrolls and considering them is a good idea in any situation you identify as dangerous. The trick is otherwise knowing the situation is dangerous soon enough. For shafts specifically best stuff tends to be magic mapping, fear, digging, blinking, buff potions (has...

High aptitude + spellcasting training AND high intelligence makes most spells hungerless anyway, so hunger isn't going to a typical issue on DE. Other species can hold a staff of energy if wanting to spam high level spells...or simply delay using them lots until trained up more. There's lots of viab...

You can pick up items after clearing a level usually. Apportation is usually just okay/solid, though it's fantastic in abyss. Butterflies is not a consistent spell. Good against juggernauts, not a solid choice vs floating eyes or ranged enemies (butterflies have reasonably high EV). Better example w...

Right now, ally commands are a bit inconsistent. I'm going to ignore mindless, below is for allies that at least broadly try to execute player orders: - "Follow me" does not cause allies to disengage and follow the player. - If the player attacks, there is no way to keep allies in present ...

I don't know about OP, but I value playing more rapidly in games generally for the following reasons: - Choice density: the faster the player gets through the game, the more interesting choices are presented per time spent - More games: very relevant in times like the tournament, but it can also let...

Games in different genres have different mechanics. Comparing items in crawl to items in an action game (or others) is argumentatively strange in the first place. Let's consider your standard in a different light: If The Legend of Zelda doesn't need the player to pick up fired arrows, neither does c...

A power-up mushroom from Super Mario Bros is nothing like this. It doesn't have a fixed location or a permanent presence in the game. You cannot come back for it later. You cannot drop it or swap it or throw it. Monsters cannot use power-up mushrooms, cannot pick them up, cannot influence them in a...

You generally want rF ++ or higher in Gehenna, hell effect can strip rF there. Can be okay if you have a fast swap, but not if more rF is on non-ring/weapon slots. IMO you want MR+++ unless the concessions to get it are enormous. With careful play, not many things can kill you instantly the way gett...

As others said for 3 rune the demon whip will usually be better given the brands. I also advocate holding onto both. Enemies susceptible to holy wrath aren't as common in 3 rune but they are still often things you want to die pretty quickly (lich variants, tentacled monstrosities, curse toes, death ...

Right now, items disappear for most species in deep water, but not for species like Merfolk and Octopode. There are a few issues with this: 1. Non-undead species can access a relatively inexpensive transformation ability that swims (ice form), and its inability to access deep water items is inconsis...

XP for demon whip or eveningstar is very reasonable, put enchants towards one of those. Smacking stuff with the morningstar as-is should be fine for popcorn for now. Train throwing on the side, eventually it'll be your #1 strongest offensive option, and if trained from start can handle hydras and su...

It is a particularly shiny cloak, even in its description it's pretty unique. Probably one of the more reasonable times for this ID sequence!

I'm not saying it doesn't, I'm saying it shouldn't. There's no good reason for that interaction. A random "gotcha". If the player actually wants to do literally nothing while near enemies, there's already a button available for that.

"Monster refuses to move out of the way" should not cause a turn to pass.

^ I had long thought that "frenzy" = "berserk", but that isn't true. Since it isn't true, the game should make the difference more clear. Berserk monsters can't shoot AFAIK, while frenzied ones apparently can. Similarly, undead can be frenzied (though not with darts IIRC, you CAN...

^ Just make skills for stuff you don't have off-colored so players know they're training XP into something they don't have at present. Current toggle interface could show/hide them.

Ddoor, cBlink, revivification, and shatter (for wall destruction utility) are the most obvious picks for it, and these do make it a very powerful ability on their own. I wouldn't mind seeing weaker spells cost less though, just to encourage some usage. Too much less and we will get brutes running fa...

Huh, I had no idea. My apologies for misinformation then. Makes me wonder if I've missed stuff that way while using auto explore.

Unread post 45 minutes ago I think this is because when you haven't stood on a stack you're not supposed to know what's in it. The game keeps track of what you know and only tells you about objects you "know" about. I don't think this explanation holds/is internally consistent. If you con...

USUALLY, by lair you have resources and could have had god abilities to save you. It's the early dungeon traps that can just end a run: https://crawl.kelbi.org/crawl/morgue/TheMeInTeam/morgue-TheMeInTeam-20191028-225358.txt This ended my streak in the tournament. Since then, I have died to a 100% mi...

The "better" the RNG generator, the less predictable the random numbers generated are, but even the worst of them wouldn't generate clusters of results like you seem to allude to. Yeah. You only get stuff like this if the devs *intentionally* add some factor to bias outcomes. Example woul...

Not sure why you don't have death's door + revivification memorized in general, but these + cblink mean you have to really screw up badly to die anywhere outside of Zot. This character could definitely do extended if desired. IMO gnolls are one of the better choices. Only real downside is that you'r...

IMO confusion is in a decent place. It's far weaker than paralysis, but still a risk to player turns/defenses and still useful on monsters. Gimping its impact on shields makes it significantly less threatening...and less useful. Melee characters might barely notice in some situations. It also has a ...

IMO irradiate is more a "get off me" spell for tmut setups than it is something for conjurations. If you have dragon form or something it only takes a little bit of conjurations to get it pretty solid. Having something with respectable AoE that can't miss is nice utility on transmuters, ev...

Throwing is annoying though because it's like a pseudo consumable. Not nearly enough to use in every fight, but plenty to use in every *meaningful* fight. Good bow can just mow everything down under Oka too. That throwing is possible with a shield is a very nice aspect of it however. I almost always...

Why not train throwing or for a good ranged weapon? Oka is incredible with either, and these would handle hydras trivially also. If going exe axe I'd probably go with a longbow, but heroism/finesse boomerangs + javelins are also extremely powerful (and if you have silver, better vs OOF/TRJ). I'm not...

I switch gods pretty often, whenever I get a god I don't like from a faded altar. Usually it's survivable. As a goul you don't have much to fear from Kiki wrath, I think. I agree with the others that corpse delevery is very strong, though it shines especially when you're underleveled (doing a lairl...

People usually switch gods just before extended. Switching out of Kiku is silly in nearly every case, as Kiku's corpse ability is useful all game (including extended, and even more relevant for ghouls there than usual). The spells in necronomicon are excellent (even if undead can't use some of the g...

Dragons have hands but I guess they're not long enough in most cases. Unless it's a special dragon that throws a tantrum and breaks the door. Or a jelly.

Yeah, skill points are already and would remain the significant cost for high level spells (along with gear consideration, since casting level 8+ spells in plate or gold scales takes ridiculous amounts of XP). We haven't actually demonstrated that "mummy stairscumming" is an issue backed b...

Thanks. I didn't expect that with enough exploration. I am thinking of trying Ash with a Gnoll, since then all of my aptitudes would be very high to make the most of the boost. Or is that silly? It's slightly silly, in that the skill boost is a flat +X, independent of your aptitudes. (X does depend...

Your advocacy for this underserved community is admirable. As part of a refutation to your largely unsupported "shouldness", it will suffice. Also, apparently the answer to this question: That said, "people struggle to win" is only a small piece of my refutation. Do you care to ...

@TheMeInTeam: There's a former dev who had a word for what you're doing: "playerthink." I don't care that people who've played ten games of dcss haven't beaten it and neither should you. There are people who have played *hundreds* of games of DCSS and never beaten it. If you want new peop...

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