Another YASD... of DDEE

[nordetsa]

Was really frustrated to see that oklob plant vault in lair 1, but was able to clear out after quaffing an invisi potion. This time I went for heavy armor...but then forgot how it affects my spellcasting. Eventually I wanted to go for plate armor, but then I wouldn't be able to cast my spells. Should I train spellcasting at this stage? Or wear leather armor/robe for now (one of the shop sells robe of the archmagi) and train spellcasting? Right now I'm relying on my weapon dmg, but it won't do if I meet death yak or something (and there's elephants and death yaks running around in lair 8, couldn't clear it fully).

When EE go heavy armor, do they forfeit their spells? Or train spellcasting high enough to make spells castable? LRD is good but I have to use it 3~4 times to kill a stone giant, and that makes me low on both mp and nutrition rate.

  Code:

Dungeon Crawl Stone Soup version 0.12-a0-984-g507c6f2 (tiles) character file.

Norther the Geomancer (DDEE)                       Turns: 30237, Time: 02:53:15

HP 106/106       AC 17     Str 16      XL: 14   Next: 60%
MP  23/30        EV  7     Int 22      God: Makhleb [******]
Gold 1568        SH  0     Dex 11 (13) Spells:  8 memorised,  7 levels left

Res.Fire  : + . .   See Invis. : +   h - +7,+5 halberd "Onlar" {vamp, rElec MR SInv
Res.Cold  : . . .   Warding    : .   d - +0 orc splint mail
Life Prot.: + . .   Conserve   : .   (no shield)
Res.Poison: .       Res.Corr.  : .   t - +0 cap
Res.Elec. : +       Clarity    : .   w - +0 cloak
Sust.Abil.: . .     Spirit.Shd : .   f - +0 pair of elf gauntlets
Res.Mut.  : .       Stasis     : .   M - +1 pair of boots {run}
Res.Rott. : .       Ctrl.Telep.: .   o - amulet of rage
Saprovore : . . .   Levitation : .   I - +2 ring of intelligence
                    Ctrl.Flight: .   v - ring of protection from fire

@: non-regenerating, nauseated, quick, extremely resistant to hostile
enchantments, extremely unstealthy
A: damage resistance, recharge devices, life protection 1, sense surroundings 2,
slow healing 3, Str +1, Int +2
a: Device Recharging, Minor Destruction, Lesser Servant of Makhleb, Major
Destruction, Greater Servant of Makhleb, Renounce Religion, Evoke Berserk Rage


You are on level 3 of the Orcish Mines.
You worship Makhleb.
Makhleb is exalted by your worship.
You are not hungry.

You have visited 4 branches of the dungeon, and seen 29 of its levels.
You have also visited: Labyrinth, Sewer, Bailey and Volcano.

You have collected 1668 gold pieces.
You have spent 120 gold pieces at shops.

Inventory:

Hand weapons
 h - the +7,+5 halberd "Onlar" (weapon) {vamp, rElec MR SInv}
   (You found it on level 3 of the Lair of Beasts)   
   
   It inflicts no extra harm, but heals its wielder somewhat when it strikes a
   living foe.
   
   It insulates you from electricity.
   It increases your resistance to enchantments.
   It enhances your eyesight.
 u - an elven dagger of venom
Missiles
 b - 68 stones (quivered)
Armour
 d - a +0 orcish splint mail (worn)
 f - a +0 pair of elven gauntlets (worn)
 t - a +0 cap (worn)
 w - a +0 cloak (worn)
 M - a +1 pair of boots of running (worn)
Magical devices
 a - a wand of heal wounds (6)
 m - a wand of polymorph other {zapped: 3}
 z - a wand of draining {zapped: 1}
 D - a wand of digging (7)
 J - a wand of magic darts
 O - a wand of fire {zapped: 1}
Comestibles
 j - 2 bread rations
 n - 2 rotting chunks of orc flesh
 q - a chunk of orc flesh
 B - an apple
 C - 2 rotting chunks of orc flesh
 L - 3 meat rations
Scrolls
 i - 5 scrolls of remove curse
 l - 5 scrolls of teleportation
Jewellery
 o - an amulet of rage (around neck)
 r - an uncursed ring of protection from cold
 v - a ring of protection from fire (left hand)
 x - a ring of sustain abilities
 I - a +2 ring of intelligence (right hand)
Potions
 c - 4 potions of brilliance
 e - a potion of heal wounds
 g - 2 potions of curing
 k - 4 potions of agility
 p - 3 potions of speed
 A - a potion of might
 G - a potion of resistance
 H - a potion of levitation


   Skills:
 - Level 2.6 Fighting
   Level 11.0 Maces & Flails
 - Level 13.5 Polearms
 - Level 10.1 Armour
 - Level 2.1 Dodging
 - Level 2.4 Stealth
 - Level 7.0 Traps
 * Level 7.3 Spellcasting
 - Level 5.1 Conjurations
 - Level 0.8 Transmutations
 - Level 14.2 Earth Magic
 - Level 13.7 Invocations


You have 7 spell levels left.
You know the following spells:

 Your Spells              Type           Power        Failure   Level  Hunger
a - Sandblast             Erth           #######      1%          1    None
b - Stone Arrow           Conj/Erth      #######      8%          3    None
c - Stoneskin             Trmt/Erth      ######....   10%         2    None
d - Lee's Rapid Deconstr  Erth           #######...   10%         5    ####...
e - Apportation           Tloc           ##........   94%         1    None
f - Passwall              Trmt/Erth      ######....   17%         3    None
g - Petrify               Trmt/Erth      ######...    58%         4    ###....
h - Summon Butterflies    Summ           ##.......    94%         1    None


Dungeon Overview and Level Annotations

Branches:
Dungeon (16/27)            Temple (1/1) D:6             Orc (4/4) D:8
   Lair (8/8) D:8           Swamp (0/5) Lair:4       Spider (0/5) Lair:6
   Elf: Orc:3-4      Slime: Lair:6-8    Vaults: D:15-20     

Altars:
Cheibriados
Elyvilon
Fedhas
Kikubaaqudgha
Makhleb
Nemelex Xobeh
Okawaru
Sif Muna
Trog
Vehumet
Xom
Yredelemnul
Zin

Shops:
D:5: *  Orc:1: %  Orc:3: [


Innate Abilities, Weirdness & Mutations

You are resistant to damage.
You can recharge devices by infusing magical energy.
You resist negative energy.
You passively map the area around you.
You do not heal naturally.
Your mind is acute (Int +2).
Your muscles are strong (Str +1).


Message History

The orc warrior throws an orcish club. The orcish club hits the orc wizard.
The orc wizard drops a club.
The orc wizard picks up an uncursed orcish dagger.
The orc wizard picks up an orcish club.
You climb upwards.
There is a stone staircase leading down here.
You closely miss the orc wizard.
The orc wizard is lightly wounded.
The orc wizard completely misses you.
Your magical contamination has completely faded away.
You puncture the orc wizard!
The orc wizard is severely wounded.
The orc wizard hits you but does no damage.
You hit the orc wizard.
The orc wizard is almost dead.
You hit the orc wizard.
You kill the orc wizard!
Makhleb accepts your kill.
Things that are here:
an orcish dagger; an orcish club; an orcish robe


[BlackSheep]

Please surround your char dump with code tags instead of quote tags.

[cganya]

heavy armour definitely will make it take longer to get higher spells cast-able to reasonable standards but its not out of the question. as a dwarf, dwarven armour give you less of a spell casting penalty and as you raise your armour skill your penalty will be reduced even further (correct me if I'm wrong guys, the penalty is reduced by 2.2% per armour skill level).

edit - as blacksheep pointed out, you don't get less of a spell-casting penalty while wearing dwarven armour but you do get no extra penalty while still enjoying the dwarven benefits (more ac, corrosion resistance)

When going for heavy armour and high end spells, recognise that your spells will be weaker, relative to the threats you face, when you face them (compared to other characters in less heavy armour). Specialization in magic will help immensely, try to get your earth magic as high as possible (this would be more important than spell-casting but don't exclude spell-casting entirely).

Once you get to the late game, you'll have plenty of xp to top off your armour and spell skills and you'll notice little to no difference to casting the same spells in a robe.

[BlackSheep]

Dwarven armor carries a spellcasting penalty for all species. The bonus that dwarves get while wearing it only offsets the penalty. It doesn't make it easier for them to cast in dwarven armor than in equivalent vanilla armor.

[JeffQyzt]

as a dwarf, dwarven armour give you less of a spell casting penalty

Sort of. As a dwarf, you don't suffer the additional spellcasting penalty from dwarven equipment that non-dwarfs suffer. It also raises your effective armour skill more than for non-dwarfs, which will effectively make it easier to cast *if* you have any armour skill.

edit: Ninja'd.

[crate]

If you get like 2 more levels of earth magic you will have LRD back to ~6-8% fail in your armour which is just fine. Obviously if you find several useful spellbooks early then you probably don't want to use heavy armour ... both of the DDEEs where I wore plate I did not find other useful spellbooks early on.

[nordetsa]

Ugh, Died again. In all three cases My DDEE's died around lv 13~15. I think the major issue for me is midgame when my spells fall apart in terms of its effectiveness... Without decent aoe spells like fireball I find it really hard to kill bunch of mobs that are dangerous to melee yet too tough to be taken down by my spells (3~4 orc warriors, for example). LRD is good but it's really hard to position monsters so I can actually make use of the scatter effect.

[Psieye]

Ugh, Died again. In all three cases My DDEE's died around lv 13~15. I think the major issue for me is midgame when my spells fall apart in terms of its effectiveness... Without decent aoe spells like fireball I find it really hard to kill bunch of mobs that are dangerous to melee yet too tough to be taken down by my spells (3~4 orc warriors, for example). LRD is good but it's really hard to position monsters so I can actually make use of the scatter effect.

Probably won't help in the midgame, but later on when you have high AC you can blow up walls/petrifications in your own face with LRD without taking much (if any) damage.