CIP: VSMo of Yred

[cjo]

I've gotten my Vine Stalker Monk of Yred to the lair, and I'm wondering what skills to invest in. Yeah, I know, I hardly have any skills so it ought to be simple, but lately all my characters seem to "fizzle," so I thought I'd check in with the forum.

-I found a +2 shield of reflection, which I'm tentatively planning on using. How high should I get UC/fighting/dodging/etc first?
-As a Yred worshipper, how valuable would bows be? I'm worried my critters will get in the way.
-If I do invest in bows, when do I make it a priority?
-Can I plan on sticking with that pearl dragon armor indefinitely?
-Are those rods worth using scrolls of recharging on? I don't usually do that, but I thought I'd ask.
-I'm sitting on ID because I have no remove curse, so I thought I'd use the ID if I found artifact armor/rings. Good plan or no?
-What random advice am I not thinking to ask?

  Code:

 Dungeon Crawl Stone Soup version 0.16-a0-3926-g4728e1c (webtiles) character file.

cjo the Martial Artist (Vine Stalker Monk)         Turns: 18666, Time: 01:31:14

Health: 69/69      AC: 20    Str: 17    XL:     13   Next: 31%
Magic:  24/24      EV: 15    Int: 11    God:    Yredelemnul [*****.]
Gold:   2296       SH:  0    Dex: 23    Spells: 0 memorised, 12 levels left

rFire  . . .     SeeInvis +       - Unarmed
rCold  . . .     Clarity  .     I - +0 pearl dragon armour
rNeg   + + .     SustAb   .     (no shield)
rPois  +         Gourm    .     o - +2 hat {SInv}
rElec  .         Spirit   +     v - +0 cloak
rCorr  .         Warding  +     W - +1 pair of gloves
rMut   .         Stasis   .     L - +0 pair of boots
MR     +....                    x - amulet of warding
Stlth  ++........               c - ring of poison resistance
                                E - +5 ring of dexterity

@: somewhat resistant to hostile enchantments, unstealthy
A: fangs 3, regeneration 3, magic shield, antimagic bite, no device heal 3, rot
immunity
a: Animate Dead, Recall Undead Slaves, Injury Mirror, Drain Life, Enslave Soul,
Renounce Religion


You are on level 3 of the Lair of Beasts.
You worship Yredelemnul.
Yredelemnul is extremely pleased with you.
You are not hungry.

You have visited 3 branches of the dungeon, and seen 19 of its levels.
You have also visited: Labyrinth, Bailey and Ice Cave.

You have collected 2296 gold pieces.

Inventory:

Hand weapons
 a - a +3 blowgun
 l - an uncursed longbow of flaming
Missiles
 g - 40 poisoned needles
 q - 12 poisoned arrows
 r - 5 curare-tipped needles
 C - 2 throwing nets
 X - 30 tomahawks of returning (quivered)
Armour
 j - a +2 shield of reflection
 o - a +2 hat of see invisible (worn)
 v - a +0 cloak (worn)
 I - a +0 pearl dragon armour (worn)
 L - a +0 pair of boots (worn)
 W - a +1 pair of gloves (worn)
Rods
 y - a -3 rod of clouds (13/13)
   (You found it on level 3 of the Lair of Beasts)
 P - a -3 rod of ignition (10/10)
   (You found it on level 7 of the Dungeon)
Jewellery
 c - a ring of poison resistance (right hand)
 n - an uncursed ring of flight
 x - an amulet of warding (around neck)
 A - an uncursed ring of invisibility
 E - a +5 ring of dexterity (left hand)
 K - the ring "Haoph" {Ice Int+2}
   (You found it in a labyrinth)   
   
   [ring of ice]
   
   It enhances your ice magic, and weakens your fire magic.
   It affects your intelligence (+2).
   It makes you vulnerable to fire.
   It protects you from cold.
 T - a dented diamond amulet
Magical devices
 f - a wand of teleportation (4)
 k - a wand of disintegration
 J - a wand of disintegration
 M - a wand of fireball
 V - a wand of lightning {zapped: 3}
 Y - a wand of lightning
Scrolls
 d - 4 scrolls of enchant weapon
 e - 3 scrolls of magic mapping
 m - 3 scrolls of fog
 s - 6 scrolls labeled FASAKHEV BLA LERU
 u - 3 scrolls labeled OKKU FAR SKUS
 w - 4 scrolls of identify
 R - 2 scrolls labeled PEAHIV SALIFI
 U - a scroll of recharging
Potions
 h - 2 potions of haste
 i - 5 potions of curing
 p - 3 potions of resistance
 B - a potion of agility
 G - 2 potions of lignification
 N - a murky green potion
 O - a lumpy red potion
 S - an orange potion
 Z - a purple potion
Miscellaneous
 z - a phial of floods
Comestibles
 b - 10 bread rations
 t - 11 meat rations
 D - 8 slices of pizza
 F - 3 beef jerkies
 H - 6 chunks of flesh


   Skills:
 + Level 8.4 Fighting
 - Level 3.2 Throwing
 - Level 7.5 Armour
 + Level 7.1 Dodging
 - Level 4.8 Stealth
 * Level 2.3 Shields
 * Level 14.0 Unarmed Combat
 - Level 4.2 Invocations
 * Level 5.7 Evocations


You have 12 spell levels left.
You don't know any spells.

Dungeon Overview and Level Annotations

Branches:
Dungeon (12/15)            Temple (0/1) D:5            Lair (3/8) D:8
    Orc (4/4) D:12            Elf (0/3) Orc:3       
 Swamp: Lair:3-6    Shoals: Lair:3-6     Snake: Lair:3-6    Spider: Lair:3-6

Altars:
Dithmenos
Makhleb
Trog
Xom
Yredelemnul
The Shining One

Annotations:
D:5 Eldoss' ghost, experienced TrBe
D:6 exclusion: electric eel
Orc:4 ilikehotdogs' ghost, powerful GrFi


Innate Abilities, Weirdness & Mutations

You have razor-sharp teeth.
You regenerate.
When hurt, damage is shared between your health and your magic reserves.
Your bite disrupts and absorbs the magic of your enemies.
Potions and wands cannot restore your health.
You are immune to rotting.


[Siegurt]

You can't really use bows with shields. Pda is great. Recharge scrolls are quite valuable, I sometimes use them on rods, but only when I find more than average, or find a rod that is particularly useful for the character I am playing.

Use id on unidentified potions, then on top tier wands, don't hoard consumables for things you don't have yet.

[celem]

I will add that by the point in the game where you are and looking at scrolls already ID'd, one of those 3 unknown scroll stacks is likely to be remCurse. (not certain, obviously).
My guess would be 'u', 's' feels like it may well be ?tele.

Bow swap doesnt work well with the shield as pointed out, likewise I dont think i've ever read recharge on a rod, you are very early to be making calls about the availability of that scroll and the various things it might be used for. Haste and Heal wound wands end up eating 95% of my recharge scrolls.

Assuming you have not found pot of heal wounds then my ID priorities would be potions until heal, then scrolls until remCurse. The attack wands that produce bolts (or fireball) are also viable targets for ID.

Siegurt's advice not to hoard consumables is great, but recharge scroll is probably an exception, using it on a rod is a bit situational.

[cjo]

-Duh, I can't believe I forgot that I have to choose between bow and shields! Thanks for the reminder.

-At the time I posted, I had found remove curse, but I had a bad streak of cursed negative rings, so I used them all. Thus if I didn't save ID, I had no ability to use any non-ID'd equipment until I found more remove curse. I thought it was worth the gamble to save the ID scrolls. I've sometimes gone many levels without finding remove curse. But since then I found a couple more remove curse scrolls, so I resumed using ID scrolls, and use-ID'ing rings.

-I have ID'd heal wounds, but as a vine stalker, I can't use them. They're littering the dungeon floor.

-I'll save recharge scrolls and plan on sticking with the PDA. I'm glad that's viable, since I rarely find it and am pretty excited to be using something unusual

Any opinions on when to train shields, or which of shields vs bow is more valuable? With two rods, a vial of floods, and with Yred's summons, I'm strongly favoring shields vs bow. I'll skip bows unless someone points out something else I forgot or overlooked!

Thanks for the input!

[tasonir]

Pearl dragon armor is just about as ideal of a mix of ac and ev as you can get. It's balanced by not having the most important resist and being very rare compared to other dragon armors. Congrats on getting one

I'd probably stick with throwing as you have a lot of returning tomahawks. Try to find javelins if you can, but if not the tomahawks are a decent backup weapon. You'll still do most of your damage through melee/minions. That way you can use the shield.

I'd probably take armor/dodging/fighting to 10, maybe push UC up to 15 or so, and then dump 100% of my exp into shields until that's online (equip it somewhere around 9-10 shields, train to 15). Then go back to whatever else - magic or more of the core skills, or evocations.