YAVP: HaAs^Pakellas, Grand Gadgeteer with 12 runes

[CanOfWorms]

  Code:

 Dungeon Crawl Stone Soup version 0.18-a0-425-gbbe2579 (webtiles) character file.

6091129 wormsofcant the Grand Gadgeteer (level 27, 207/207 HPs)
             Began as a Halfling Assassin on Nov 26, 2015.
             Was the Champion of Pakellas.
             Escaped with the Orb
             ... and 12 runes on Nov 29, 2015!
             
             The game lasted 11:37:45 (198603 turns).

wormsofcant the Grand Gadgeteer (HaAs)            Turns: 198603, Time: 11:37:45

Health: 207/207    AC: 35    Str: 25    XL:     27
Magic:  46/46      EV: 33    Int: 26    God:    Pakellas [******]
Gold:   11056      SH: 23    Dex: 25    Spells: 15 memorised, 2 levels left

rFire  + + +     SeeInvis +     b - +9 long sword of Responsibility {elec, +Rage rF+ rC+ Str+2}
rCold  + + .     Clarity  .     D - +9 chain mail "Keewky" {+Inv rN++ Int+3 SInv}
rNeg   + + +     SustAt   .     X - +5 shield {rF+}
rPois  +         Gourm    .     P - -2 hat of the Alchemist {rElec rPois rF+ rC+ rN+ MR+ rMut rCorr}
rElec  +         Spirit   .     q - +2 cloak {rPois}
rCorr  +         Warding  .     B - +2 pair of gloves {Dex+3}
rMut   +         Stasis   .     G - +2 pair of boots {Stlth+}
MR     +++..                    n - amulet of Eppureut {rCorr rF- Str+5 Int+6}
Stlth  +++.......               h - ring of the Firefly {rN+ Int+6}
                                g - ring of Ufuirot {rElec rF+ Dex+3 Slay+3}

@: very slightly contaminated, hasted, deflect missiles, very quick, extremely
resistant to hostile enchantments, fairly stealthy
A: clumsy 1, deterioration 1, mutation resistance 1
a: Quick Charge, Device Surge, Supercharge, Renounce Religion, Evoke Berserk
Rage, Evoke Invisibility
0: Orb of Zot
}: 12/15 runes: decaying, serpentine, slimy, silver, golden, iron, bone,
abyssal, glowing, magical, fiery, dark


You escaped.
You worshipped Pakellas.
Pakellas was exalted by your worship.
You were not hungry.

You visited 17 branches of the dungeon, and saw 86 of its levels.
You visited Pandemonium 4 times, and saw 13 of its levels.
You visited the Abyss 6 times.
You visited 1 ziggurat, and saw 12 of its levels.
You also visited: Trove and Volcano.

You collected 16587 gold pieces.
You spent 5531 gold pieces at shops.

Inventory:

Hand Weapons
 a - the +9 quick blade of Gonil {elec, rElec rN+ Dex-2 Stlth+}
   (You took it off a deep elf fighter on level 3 of the Elven Halls)   
   
   Occasionally, upon striking a foe, it will discharge some electrical energy
   and cause terrible harm.
   
   It affects your dexterity (-2).
   It insulates you from electricity.
   It protects you from negative energy.
   It makes you more stealthy.
 b - the +9 long sword of Responsibility (weapon) {elec, +Rage rF+ rC+ Str+2}
   (You took it off a tengu warrior on level 15 of the Dungeon)   
   
   Occasionally, upon striking a foe, it will discharge some electrical energy
   and cause terrible harm.
   
   It affects your strength (+2).
   It protects you from fire.
   It protects you from cold.
   It lets you go berserk.
 k - a +8 scimitar of holy wrath
Missiles
 o - 8 throwing nets (quivered)
Armour
 q - a +2 cloak of poison resistance (worn)
 B - a +2 pair of gloves of dexterity (worn)
 D - the +9 chain mail "Keewky" (worn) {+Inv rN++ Int+3 SInv}
   (You bought it in a shop on level 4 of the Orcish Mines)   
   
   It affects your intelligence (+3).
   It greatly protects you from negative energy.
   It lets you see invisible.
   It lets you turn invisible.
 G - a +2 pair of boots of stealth (worn)
 P - the -2 hat of the Alchemist (worn) {rElec rPois rF+ rC+ rN+ MR+ rMut rCorr}
   (You found it on level 2 of the Lair of Beasts)   
   
   It protects you from fire.
   It protects you from cold.
   It insulates you from electricity.
   It protects you from poison.
   It protects you from negative energy.
   It affects your resistance to hostile enchantments.
   It protects you from acid and corrosion.
   It protects you from mutation.
 X - a +5 shield of fire resistance (worn)
Rods
 x - a +9 rod of shadows (15/15)
   (You found it on level 10 of the Dungeon)
 I - a +3 rod of clouds (9/9)
   (You found it on level 3 of the Tomb of the Ancients)
 O - a +4 rod of the swarm (12/12)
   (Pakellas gifted it to you on level 1 of the Depths)
 R - a +1 iron rod (10/10)
   (Pakellas gifted it to you on level 11 of a ziggurat)
 W - a +5 rod of inaccuracy (13/13)
   (Pakellas gifted it to you on level 3 of the Depths)
Jewellery
 g - the ring of Ufuirot (left hand) {rElec rF+ Dex+3 Slay+3}
   (You took it off a skeletal warrior on level 7 of Tartarus)   
   
   [ring of protection from fire]
   
   It affects your dexterity (+3).
   It affects your accuracy and damage with ranged weapons and melee attacks
   (+3).
   It protects you from fire.
   It insulates you from electricity.
 h - the ring of the Firefly (right hand) {rN+ Int+6}
   (You took it off a frost giant on level 2 of the Depths)   
   
   [ring of positive energy]
   
   It affects your intelligence (+6).
   It protects you from negative energy.
 n - the amulet of Eppureut (around neck) {rCorr rF- Str+5 Int+6}
   (You took it off a deep elf fighter on level 3 of the Elven Halls)   
   
   [amulet of resist corrosion]
   
   It protects you from acid and corrosion.
   It affects your strength (+5).
   It affects your intelligence (+6).
   It makes you vulnerable to fire.
 C - the ring of Ruapewk {rC++ EV+3 Int+3}
   (You found it on level 9 of a ziggurat)   
   
   [ring of evasion]
   
   It affects your evasion (+3).
   It affects your intelligence (+3).
   It greatly protects you from cold.
 U - the amulet of the Four Winds {Clar rN+ MR+++}
   (You found it on level 3 of the Tomb of the Ancients)   
   
   [amulet of clarity]
   
   It provides mental clarity.
   It protects you from negative energy.
   It affects your resistance to hostile enchantments.
Wands
 c - a wand of disintegration (9)
 l - a wand of digging (0)
 m - a wand of teleportation (9)
 r - a wand of hasting (3)
 w - a wand of teleportation (4)
 y - a wand of heal wounds (6)
Scrolls
 f - 11 scrolls of teleportation
 j - 38 scrolls of remove curse
 p - 2 scrolls of holy word
 s - 3 scrolls of blinking
 t - 9 scrolls of fear
 E - 7 scrolls of fog
 Y - 2 scrolls of recharging
Potions
 e - 9 potions of agility
 i - 4 potions of cancellation
 F - 2 potions of might
 H - 33 potions of curing
 J - 8 potions of resistance
 Q - 3 potions of cure mutation
 S - 9 potions of magic
 T - 2 potions of ambrosia
Miscellaneous
 d - 3 phantom mirrors
 u - a sack of spiders {used: 1}
 v - a fan of gales
 z - a box of beasts
 A - a box of beasts {used: 2}
 N - a box of beasts
 V - a phial of floods
 Z - a disc of storms


   Skills:
 - Level 22.0 Fighting
 - Level 7.2(16.7) Short Blades
 - Level 18.3(18.6) Long Blades
 - Level 23.5 Throwing
 - Level 23.4 Armour
 + Level 22.6 Dodging
 * Level 19.4 Stealth
 + Level 20.9 Shields
 * Level 19.1 Spellcasting
 - Level 6.0 Hexes
 - Level 14.3 Charms
 - Level 23.0 Translocations
 - Level 16.2 Air Magic
 - Level 25.3 Evocations


You had 2 spell levels left.
You knew the following spells:

 Your Spells              Type           Power        Failure   Level  Hunger
a - Apportation           Tloc           #######...   0%          1    None
b - Portal Projectile     Tloc           ######       0%          3    None
c - Blink                 Tloc           N/A          0%          2    None
d - Passage of Golubria   Tloc           N/A          0%          4    None
e - Shroud of Golubria    Chrm/Tloc      #######...   0%          2    None
f - Silence               Hex/Air        ######....   1%          5    None
g - Summon Butterflies    Summ           ###.....     6%          1    None
h - Controlled Blink      Tloc           N/A          4%          8    ######.
i - Disjunction           Tloc           #######...   4%          8    ######.
j - Dispersal             Tloc           #######...   1%          6    ##.....
k - Haste                 Chrm           #######.     1%          6    ##.....
l - Repel Missiles        Chrm/Air       ######       0%          2    None
A - Deflect Missiles      Chrm/Air       #######...   1%          6    ##.....
B - Regeneration          Chrm/Necr      ######....   1%          3    None
C - Phase Shift           Tloc           #######...   0%          5    None

Tried out Pakellas on CBRO, got some decent drops so I decided to try a 15 runer. Sadly due to abusing rods I ran out of food doing the Hells, so I had to bail with 12 runes.

Pakellas's MP conduct is pretty interesting since you're locked out of heavy spellcasting, the best you can do is basic utility spells. I ended up with silence, dmsl, regen, pproj, disjunction and cblink as my workhorse spells. You can basically play as if you had infinite teleport/haste/heal wounds thanks to his recharging ability, but otherwise you get no panic buttons so you have to lean on that. The gifting is nice, but gets annoying once you start getting duplicates and have to juggle inventory space. I deliberately wore the Alchemist hat just to save on inventory space by having all my resists covered by a single item. Rods are a mixed bag, on one hand you want to use them since that's the entire point of joining Pak but if you lean too hard on them you run into hunger issues (see game.) When hunger is removed Pak will get a nice buff in power. Hard to tell how good the second power is. I used it a few times but it didn't seem very impressive.

On an unrelated note, Dis got a spike in difficulty now that Iron Giants are in. The Hell effects dropped 5-7 packs on me while I was clearing out Dis:7, and I ended up burning a few hastes and blinks to handle them (don't fight an Iron Giant pack and a Sentinel at the same time...) Iron Giants hit really hard, I probably would have needed to burn more consumables if I didn't use needles to stab them.

[stevs]

Nice write-up! I tried out a mummy of Pakellas based on this post -- I hope you don't mind my piggybacking with some Pakellas feedback.

It is indeed pretty sweet to not have to worry about hunger when you've got an inventory full of rods. I only got situational rods (inaccuracy and swarm) from god gifts after two runes, but I was lucky enough to get an early stack of acquirement that I used for lightning and destruction. I supercharged the rod of destruction and feel like that was a bad choice. The max charge did not turn out to be a multiple of the recharge rate, and both were already really good from the lower-level god ability or scrolls, so it hardly had any practical effect. Waiting for a heal wounds wand to overcharge up to 12(?) zaps would likely be better.

Getting two runes with a mummy without even finding HW is pretty exceptional for my skill level. It's likely the best way to win a mummy. Evocations are strong even if you have to wait a long time on a rod, with the wands and hopefully elemental evokers strewn about, and they're even stronger when you have garbage aptitudes for everything and benefit a lot from focusing one skill that gives several categories of benefit in return.

While mopping up after the snake rune, a naga mage abyssed me, and it went really poorly -- so poorly that I ditched for Lugonu to save myself. I'm not sure of the full list of wrath effects but the noticeable ones are that it discharges wands and rods in your inventory, and maybe causes miscast effects when you use them, though they seemed to work fine for the most part. It's good for thematic cohesion, but I think it could be almost entirely mitigated by dropping rods and valuable wands while it's going on. I didn't actually test whether it finds and discharges things on the ground, though.

Even if the discharge effect is unavoidable I think Pakellas would be a popular god to ditch. That's not necessarily bad, several gods are known to be left behind for the late game, but I'd like to see more reason to stick it out after the gifts start getting duplicated and recharge scroll stocks grow. Wrath should be stronger, and maybe the no-mp-regen could be made a permanent concession like a Ru sacrifice. I'd still bail for Vehumet, Makhleb, or anyone, really, given a staff of energy/sublimation/etc.

More interesting late-game abilities or passives would make for more convincing reasons to stick around. I think the recharge ability is under-costed significantly, and nerfing that could provide room for Pakellas to do some other things without getting OP. Maybe make the evocable power boost a passive effect? The other things that come to mind infringe on Nemelex territory -- a multi-zap, or Pakellas-specific limited-use gifts.