CeHu Armour question

[xxx]

My two questions are:
[list=]
[*]Which armor should I use? IS a high EV or AC build better for a centaur?
[*]Am I not training skills optimally?
[/list]

  Code:

 Dungeon Crawl Stone Soup version 0.14.0-26-g1682e81 (webtiles) character file.

alchemist the Archer (Centaur Hunter)               Turns: 7244, Time: 00:37:41

HP  67/67        AC  5     Str 16      XL: 8   Next: 54%
MP   6/6         EV  7     Int 10      God: Okawaru [......]
Gold 92          SH  0     Dex 11      Spells:  1 memorised,  6 levels left

rFire  . . .     SeeInvis .     a - +0 short sword
rCold  . . .     Clarity  .     F - +0 ring mail
rNeg   . . .     Conserve .     (no shield)
rPois  +         rCorr    .     (no helmet)
rElec  .         rRot     .     h - -1 cloak
SustAb . .       Spirit   .     (no gloves)
rMut   .         Warding  .     (no barding)
Saprov . . .     Stasis   .     k - cursed amulet of faith
MR     .....                    v - ring of poison resistance
                                m - ring of teleport control

@: very quick, not resistant to hostile enchantments, extremely unstealthy
A: hooves 3, deformed body, herbivore 1, speed 2, fast metabolism 1, tough skin
3
a: Renounce Religion, Evoke Teleport Control


You are on level 6 of the Dungeon.
You worship Okawaru.
Okawaru is noncommittal.
You are full.

You have visited 2 branches of the dungeon, and seen 7 of its levels.

You have collected 248 gold pieces.
You have spent 156 gold pieces at shops.

Inventory:

Hand weapons
 a - a +0,+0 short sword (weapon)
 b - a +1,+1 bow
Missiles
 c - 20 arrows
 n - 57 stones (quivered)
 o - 4 tomahawks of returning
Armour
 d - a +0 leather armour
 h - a -1 cloak (worn)
 D - the cursed +6 chain mail of Thrott {Dex+4}
   (You found it on level 5 of the Dungeon)   
   
   It affects your dexterity (+4).
   It has a curse placed upon it.
 F - a +0 ring mail (worn)
 L - the +5 robe of Incorporation {+Rage rN+ Int-2}
   (You found it on level 5 of the Dungeon)   
   
   It affects your intelligence (-2).
   It protects you from negative energy.
   It lets you go berserk.
Magical devices
 J - a wand of flame (6)
Comestibles
 f - 4 bread rations
 w - a banana
 x - a rambutan
 C - 2 pears
Scrolls
 e - 3 scrolls of enchant weapon II
 g - a scroll of fog
 i - 2 scrolls of teleportation
 q - a scroll of enchant armour
 s - a scroll of blinking
 H - a scroll labeled JUADGHA RAONTE
 O - a scroll labeled WOUC AWKEOT
Jewellery
 k - a cursed amulet of faith (around neck)
 m - a ring of teleport control (left hand)
 v - a ring of poison resistance (right hand)
 y - an uncursed ring of wizardry
Potions
 j - a murky inky potion
 l - an oily pink potion
 p - a fizzy pink potion
 r - 3 potions of curing
 t - a potion of restore abilities
 u - a viscous yellow potion
 G - a cyan potion
 K - an emulsified yellow potion


   Skills:
 * Level 4.8 Fighting
 - Level 13.0 Bows
 - Level 1.3 Dodging
 - Level 0.5 Stealth


You have 6 spell levels left.
You know the following spells:

 Your Spells              Type           Power        Failure   Level  Hunger
a - Apportation           Tloc           #.........   45%         1    ##.....


Dungeon Overview and Level Annotations

Branches:
Dungeon (6/15)             Temple (1/1) D:6         

Altars:
Ashenzari
Dithmenos
Kikubaaqudgha
Makhleb
Nemelex Xobeh
Okawaru
Trog
Vehumet
Xom
Yredelemnul
Zin
The Shining One

Shops:
D:4 :   D:5 *


Innate Abilities, Weirdness & Mutations

You have hooves in place of feet.
Armour fits poorly on your strangely shaped body.
You digest meat inefficiently.
You cover ground very quickly.
You have a fast metabolism.
You have extremely tough skin (AC +3).


Message History

Press: ? - help, Shift-Dir - straight line, f/p - giant frog
Aim: a giant frog (almost dead)
You shoot an arrow. The arrow hits the giant frog.
You kill the giant frog!
Okawaru accepts your kill.
c - 16 arrows (gained 1)
a - a +0,+0 short sword (weapon)
c - 17 arrows (gained 1)
c - 18 arrows (gained 1)
c - 19 arrows (gained 1)
c - 20 arrows (gained 1)
There is an open door here.
Found 17 bolts.
You see here a dagger.
Done exploring.
There is a stone staircase leading down here.
Wear which item? (? for menu, Esc to quit)
Okay, then.
Char dumped successfully.
Saving game... please wait.

#.###############..##.##.###..##.
#..................##............
......##########...#####.##..###.
####.##   #........#.....)#......
...#.#    #.###....#.###..#..##.#
##.#.######.#.#....#.###..#..##.#
##.......##...#......#(...#..##.#
.........####.#.##.###.##.#..#..#
.........'......@............#.##
#........####.#.#########.#..#...
##.......#  #...........#.#..####
 #=......#  ###.#######.#.#......
 #.......#    #.#.....#.#.#.#####
 #.......#    #.#.###.#.#...#   #
 ###'#####    #.#..^#.#...###   #
   #.#        #.#####.#.#.#     #
   #.#        #.......#.#.#     #


There are no monsters in sight!

Vanquished Creatures
  3 ice beasts (D:5)
  A centaur (D:5)
  A sky beast (D:6)
  A giant frog (D:6)
  A wyvern zombie (D:4)
  A scorpion (D:4)
  2 water moccasin zombies
  3 crimson imps
  A jelly (D:6)
  2 orc priests (D:6)
  5 hounds
  3 orc wizards
  A big fish (D:4)
  2 worker ants
  An ogre zombie (D:5)
  An ogre skeleton (D:4)
  A worker ant zombie (D:6)
  A gnoll (D:1)
  8 adders
  A giant mite (D:3)
  4 worms
  A giant eyeball (D:4)
  6 giant geckos
  12 orcs
  8 bats
  8 goblins
  18 hobgoblins
  2 ball pythons (D:2)
  8 giant newts
  A hobgoblin zombie (D:5)
  9 kobolds
  A kobold skeleton (D:6)
  4 quokkas
  9 rats
131 creatures vanquished.

Notes
Turn   | Place    | Note
--------------------------------------------------------------
     0 | D:1      | alchemist, the Centaur Hunter, began the quest for the Orb.
     0 | D:1      | Reached XP level 1. HP: 16/16 MP: 1/1
   185 | D:1      | Reached XP level 2. HP: 15/23 MP: 2/2
   399 | D:1      | Reached skill level 6 in Bows
  1127 | D:1      | Reached XP level 3. HP: 28/28 MP: 3/3
  1587 | D:2      | Reached skill level 7 in Bows
  2097 | D:2      | Reached XP level 4. HP: 35/35 MP: 3/3
  2947 | D:4      | Reached skill level 8 in Bows
  2950 | D:4      | Reached XP level 5. HP: 29/40 MP: 4/4
  3087 | D:4      | Reached skill level 9 in Bows
  3292 | D:4      | Found Ommiv's Book Shop.
  3346 | D:4      | Reached XP level 6. HP: 36/47 MP: 5/5
  3579 | D:4      | Reached skill level 10 in Bows
  4549 | D:5      | Entered Level 5 of the Dungeon
  4589 | D:5      | Reached XP level 7. HP: 52/52 MP: 5/5
  4611 | D:5      | Got a transparent chain mail
  4639 | D:5      | Reached skill level 11 in Bows
  4872 | D:5      | Found Bames' Assorted Antiques.
  4885 | D:5      | Bought a scroll of identify for 52 gold pieces
  4885 | D:5      | Bought a potion of curing for 52 gold pieces
  4885 | D:5      | Bought a scroll of identify for 52 gold pieces
  4886 | D:5      | Identified the cursed +6 chain mail of Thrott {Dex+4} (You found it on level 5 of the Dungeon)
  5106 | D:5      | Reached skill level 12 in Bows
  5455 | D:5      | Reached XP level 8. HP: 59/59 MP: 6/6
  5519 | D:5      | Got a steaming robe
  5712 | D:6      | Found a staircase to the Ecumenical Temple.
  5721 | D:6      | Reached skill level 13 in Bows
  5735 | Temple   | Entered the Ecumenical Temple
  5803 | Temple   | Became a worshipper of Warmaster Okawaru
  6113 | D:6      | Learned a level 1 spell: Apportation
  6198 | D:6      | Identified the +5 robe of Incorporation {+Rage rN+ Int-2} (You found it on level 5 of the Dungeon)


Action                   |  1- 3 |  4- 6 |  7- 9 || total
-------------------------+-------+-------+-------++-------
Melee: Short sword       |   108 |   189 |    71 ||   368
 Fire: Bow               |    14 |    51 |   122 ||   187
Throw: Stone             |       |       |    13 ||    13
  Use: Scroll            |     5 |     5 |     8 ||    18
       Potion            |     1 |     3 |     4 ||     8


Somehow, I haven't managed to find a lot of scrolls of remove curse this entire game for some reason .

[Berlioz]

Both is viable for centaurs. They only get half from body armor base AC, so a +0 plate mail is not a good choice. They do get full AC from enchantments and armour skill, so later on heavy armour works. If you want to cast spells go for light or medium armour.
I would wear the one with the highest enchantment bonus for now, +4 dex is useful, too.

I'd probably increase fighting for more hp and armour, if you go with the chain mail. I know centaurs have bad armour/dodge aptitudes, but train it anyways, it increases the survivability a lot.

[Blomdor]

I'm no expert (one win and a lot of stupid late-game deaths). That said, I'd put on that chain mail; you'll get a great deal more AC out of it and more dexterity is always good to have. It's most certainly better than a bog standard suit of ring mail IMO. If not the chain, then the robe; I wouldn't think you'd miss two points of intelligence at the moment.

I play meleetaurs and would not know much about CeHu skilling; however, I think increasing fighting is a very good idea.

[duvessa]

You don't need much fighting on ranged combat characters. It has no effect at all on ranged combat so you are only getting the HP. Of course you're already close to having minimum delay on a longbow during Heroism, so...
Definitely wear the chain mail for a while.
I don't bother with dodging on centaurs unless it's CeBe or something, since you have mediocre dex, size, and the worst dodging aptitude in the game. It's more convenient to just get good AC and spells, you don't really need great defenses anyway since you're a centaur.

Also, that jewellery on d:6, holy shit.

[tasonir]

Training one skill at a time looks pretty good to me. I'd probably keep getting more bows until you're at or near 20, though, and also get ~2 invocations to get heroism reliable. Fighting isn't too critical, after that work on armor skill or or a melee weapon.

You want to go AC eventually. It is true that a +0 plate isn't that great early in the game for you because it's base AC is cut in half, but a +5 plate with decent armor skill is still a good armor in the mid-late game. Once you find a barding it'll make up for that missing 5 ac anyways. You won't get high EV on a centaur unless you do something to get extreme dex (lucky +10 dex from gear, or worshipping chei, etc). Early on a leather/ring/scale mail with a decent +enchantment is good, and then eventually just take whatever heavy armor you normally would.

This will lock you out of casting most spells, but my advice for casting spells on a centaur hunter is more or less don't. You can get one or two low level spells online but there isn't much need. If you do this then you'll probably want to wait until you get a dragon armor like fire/ice/swamp/pearl/storm etc.

[duvessa]

This will lock you out of casting most spells

it really won't

[Lyrick]

I actually like evokable rage in early game. Its immensely powerful, and you feast on the corpses afterwards to make up for it. Chain mail may get in the way of your attacks for a bit too.

[duvessa]

armour penalties have no effect whatsoever on ranged combat and the effect on melee combat is so small that the dex+4 actually gives you a net increase in accuracy over wearing a robe, for this character with most weapons

[tasonir]

This will lock you out of casting most spells

it really won't

I've cast controlled blink in GDA; casting in heavy armor is not only possible in many cases it's a very strong combination.

I stand by my claim, however, that a 3 rune CeHu is not one of those cases. Sure you could use some level 1-3 spells, but in general, I think not using any spells is probably better. Ce has pretty bad aptitudes between armor and dodging at -3, your melee weapon at -1 (unless unarmed at 0), and bows at +3 isn't enough to change that. Training a melee weapon and bows is also more experience than a pure melee character. Throwing experience at spellcasting and spell schools to get a level 1-2 buff online isn't worth much. Regeneration requires a fair amount of experience to get worthwhile, since it's double school. It's an option, and you can certainly do it if you like, I just don't think you're much stronger than the non-regenerating CeHu. This advice would be different if you were going for 15 runes - you'll have more experience to dump into spells, so go for it.

Also not helping the case for CeHu magic is that this character, as well as most CeHu's, is worshiping okawaru (finesse) and is already faster than average at walking, so learning haste is largely redundant.

Furthermore, you probably shouldn't be putting your stat points into int, and will therefore be casting with about 8-10 int. I've done this: http://dobrazupa.org/morgue/tasonir/mor ... 013015.txt

I probably didn't need the GDA, of course, but I had 17.8 charms and 10 necromancy just to get regen back down to 4% fail. You'd need less in lighter armor, but it's honestly just not worth it. I would have been better off with more polearm, bow, fighting, armor, and dodging skill.

TLDR: Heavy armor casting is great, but CeHu's getting 3 runes shouldn't bother.