Dungeon Master
Posts: 1613
Joined: Thursday, 16th December 2010, 21:54
Friday, 14th January 2011, 13:30
YAVP: Xom forever
I'm mainly posting this just to give some feedback on recent changes that affected my game. This was also my first Xom game to get anywhere decent, and it was great fun.
http://crawl.develz.org/morgues/trunk/M ... 043622.txt
One of the first things Xom did was gift me a buckler of resistance, which was pretty sweet. He also gave me a nice rod of destruction[ice] just in time to freezing cloud the Elf:5 vault, many small gold gifts and a wand of teleportation, amongst other things. I didn't get much in the way of ridiculous awesome mutation sets (had to wear stasis for a good while to deal with berserkitis) but neither did I get that many bad Xom effects - a couple of hostile demon summons by which time I could blink away and escape just fine, and only once or twice did he animate my weapon. Generally it'd be nice if he did more varying things than loads of miscast effects and stat drain, though - there's a huge list of spells/effects he can cast on you in combat but I only saw those happen a few times (and once was him casting Dispersal with no monsters next to me). On the plus side I never felt like I really had to do anything obscure to appease Xom, and managed never to be a BORING thing for too long just by playing fairly normally. I've heard it mentioned that at the moment, the game decides to do a Xom action and then looks at whether you have any tension or not to decide what action is taken, instead of making Xom more likely to act in high-tension situations, so changing this alone might make Xom play more interesting.
As minor magic[flame] was one of the first books I found, I thought I'd try and pick up range 1 Sticky Flame when I could. I found it a bit before Vaults, where it was plenty useful. I agree with those who've complained that it perhaps shouldn't be in the FE book any more, as it doesn't fit that playstyle at all, but for a hybrid/reaver it's fine, useful on ugly things and slime creatures and stone giants and everything you'd use it on before, as long as you're a bit more careful and can take a hit or two. It was particularly nice for dealing with Mennas (in combination with zerking and bashing away at him to finish him off), since it autohits and I was having problems with his huge EV initially.
The Enchantments split had no effect on how I played this character. I got 12 Charms skill, learnt my various buffs (Haste, Flight, RMsl, cTele, Regen), turned off Charms and forgot about it, just as I would've done with Enchantments. As it is now, it seems like it'll only affect the Enchanter class, as those are the only ones with any reason to use Hexes. This is also an issue with most Hexes being weak/useless/unreliable for a non-stabber, whereas Haste isn't going to fail completely due to MR most of the time, or arbitrarily have no effect on certain enemies. Something that I've heard suggested for some Hexes would be for them to be harder for monsters to resist, but for their power and/or duration to be decreased by enemies partially resisting - so with some decent Hex skill you could, say, somewhat more confidently slow a strong monster, but only for a few turns if it resisted partially. This has the downside of requiring Hexes to be looked at on a case-by-case basis, though. I'll start a wiki page at some point if there isn't one already.
In summary, all hail Xom.
http://crawl.develz.org/morgues/trunk/M ... 043622.txt
- Code:
Dungeon Crawl Stone Soup version 0.8.0-a0-4521-g1ef65a4 character file.
1303318 MarvinPA the Fencer (level 26, 198/198 HPs)
Began as a Human Healer on Jan 13, 2011.
Was a Favourite Plaything of Xom.
Escaped with the Orb
... and 3 runes (of 3 types) on Jan 14, 2011!
The game lasted 03:29:18 (96708 turns).
MarvinPA the Fencer (Human Healer) Turns: 96708, Time: 03:29:18
HP 198/198 AC 15 Str 10 (12) Exp: 26/806084 (723), need: 41916
MP 43/43 EV 22 Int 23 God: Xom
Gold 2394 SH 22 Dex 14 (16) Spells: 14 memorised, 13 levels left
Res.Fire : + + . See Invis. : + a - +8,+7 double sword (holy)
Res.Cold : + . . Warding : . L - +2 robe "Hoih" {rF+ Dam+3}
Life Prot.: . . . Conserve : . o - +2 buckler {rC+ rF+} {god gift}
Res.Acid. : . . . Res.Corr. : . H - +1 cap
Res.Poison: + Clarity : + r - +2 cloak {MR}
Res.Elec. : . Spirit.Shd : . F - +2 pair of elf gloves
Sust.Abil.: + . Stasis : . u - +1 pair of boots {run}
Res.Mut. : . Ctrl.Telep.: . d - amulet of clarity
Res.Rott. : . Levitation : + m - ring of sustain abilities
Saprovore : . . . Ctrl.Flight: + j - ring of see invisible
@: flying, very slightly glowing, quick, very resistant to hostile
enchantments, stealthy
A: blurry vision 1, sense surroundings 1, poison resistance, slowness 1, AC +2,
Str -2, Dex +4
a: Renounce Religion
You escaped.
You worshipped Xom.
You were a favourite toy of Xom.
You were full.
You visited 10 branches of the dungeon, and saw 73 of its levels.
You visited 1 Labyrinth.
You visited 3 bazaars.
You visited 4 portal chambers: sewer, ice cave, bailey, wizlab.
You collected 9966 gold pieces.
You spent 7672 gold pieces at shops.
Inventory:
Hand weapons
a - a +8,+7 double sword of holy wrath (weapon)
b - a +6,+6 demon blade of freezing
Armour
o - a +2 buckler of resistance (worn) {god gift}
r - a +2 cloak of magic resistance (worn)
u - a +1 pair of boots of running (worn)
F - a +2 pair of elven gloves (worn)
H - a +1 cap (worn)
L - the +2 robe "Hoih" (worn) {rF+ Dam+3}
(You bought it in a shop on level 2 of the Orcish Mines)
It affects your damage-dealing abilities (+3).
It protects you from fire.
Magical devices
f - a wand of teleportation (3)
i - a wand of healing (6)
l - a wand of teleportation (5) {god gift}
A - a wand of hasting (4)
K - a wand of digging (15)
M - a wand of hasting (8)
N - a wand of healing (4)
Comestibles
g - 4 meat rations
z - 5 honeycombs
Scrolls
e - 3 scrolls of teleportation
t - 3 scrolls of fog
B - 3 scrolls of blinking
I - 2 scrolls of remove curse
Jewellery
d - an amulet of clarity (around neck)
j - a ring of see invisible (left hand)
k - an uncursed ring of protection from fire
m - a ring of sustain abilities (right hand)
p - an uncursed ring of protection from cold
s - an uncursed ring of teleportation {god gift}
y - an uncursed ring of protection from magic
C - the amulet of Coronation {god gift, cFly Str+2 Dex+3}
(Xom gifted it to you on level 3 of the Crypt)
[amulet of controlled flight]
It affects your strength (+2).
It affects your dexterity (+3).
Potions
c - 5 potions of heal wounds
h - 5 potions of speed
n - 5 potions of healing
v - 4 potions of magic
J - 2 potions of agility
Magical staves
q - a +3 rod of destruction [ice] (15/15) {god gift}
(Xom gifted it to you on level 1 of the Elven Halls)
Orbs of Power
x - the Orb of Zot
Miscellaneous
w - a decaying rune of Zot
D - a barnacled rune of Zot
G - a silver rune of Zot
You had 723 experience left.
Skills:
+ Level 14 Fighting
- Level 7 Short Blades
- Level 16 Long Blades
+ Level 16 Dodging
- Level 4 Stealth
- Level 2 Stabbing
+ Level 14 Shields
+ Level 4 Traps & Doors
- Level 2 Unarmed Combat
+ Level 16 Spellcasting
- Level 11 Conjurations
- Level 12 Charms
+ Level 4 Summonings
- Level 5 Necromancy
+ Level 8 Translocations
- Level 7 Fire Magic
- Level 4 Air Magic
- Level 6 Earth Magic
- Level 1 Poison Magic
- Level 4 Invocations
+ Level 3 Evocations
You had 13 spell levels left.
You knew the following spells:
Your Spells Type Power Success Level Hunger
a - Phase Shift Tloc #######... Excellent 5 None
b - Blink Tloc N/A Excellent 2 None
c - Mephitic Cloud Pois/Air/Conj ######.... Excellent 3 None
d - Repel Missiles Air/Chrm #######... Excellent 2 None
e - Apportation Tloc #######... Excellent 1 None
f - Flight Air/Chrm #######... Excellent 4 None
g - Regeneration Chrm/Necr #######... Excellent 3 None
h - Haste Chrm #######.. Excellent 6 Honeycomb
t - Control Teleport Chrm/Tloc #######... Excellent 4 None
w - Abjuration Summ ######.... Excellent 3 None
x - Sticky Flame Fire/Conj #######.. Excellent 4 None
z - Stone Arrow Erth/Conj ####### Excellent 3 None
K - Berserker Rage Chrm N/A Excellent 3 None
Z - Summon Small Mammals Summ ##### Excellent 1 None
Dungeon Overview and Level Annotations
Branches:
Dungeon (27/27) Temple (1/1) D:5 Orc (4/4) D:8
Elf (5/5) Orc:4 Lair (8/8) D:12 Swamp (5/5) Lair:4
Shoals (5/5) Lair:3 Slime (0/6) Lair:6 Hive (0/2) D:16
Vault (8/8) D:16 Blade (0/1) Vault:6 Crypt (5/5) Vault:2
Tomb (0/3) Crypt:3 Zot (5/5) D:27
Altars:
Ashenzari
Cheibriados
Elyvilon
Fedhas
Kikubaaqudgha
Makhleb
Nemelex Xobeh
Okawaru
Sif Muna
The Shining One
Trog
Vehumet
Xom
Yredelemnul
Zin
Shops:
D:4: %(?* D:10: + D:13: ( D:15: (/+/( D:16: ! Orc:2: */*/ Orc:3: (
Shoals:5: ? Vault:3: * Vault:4: ( Vault:7: (
Portals:
Hell: D:21 D:22 D:24 D:25 D:26
Abyss: D:25
Ziggurat: D:9 (4730 gp) D:22 (4450 gp)
Annotations
D:12 exclusion: oklob plant
Elf:2 exclusion: Roxanne
Lair:3 exclusion: oklob plant
Lair:8 exclusion: oklob plant
Shoals:2 exclusion: oklob plant
Crypt:2 exclusion: curse skull
Crypt:3 exclusions: 2 beasts and hellion
Crypt:4 exclusion: curse skull
Innate Abilities, Weirdness & Mutations
You are partially covered in rugged brown scales (AC +2, +3% HP).
You are agile (Dex +1).
Your vision is a little blurry.
Your muscles are extremely flexible, but weak (Str -3, Dex +3).
You passively map a small area around you.
Your system is resistant to poisons.
Your muscles are strong (Str +1).
You cover ground slowly.
Message History
Where to? (* - list waypoints, Enter - D:1, ? - help)
Okay, then.
Unknown command.
Magic restored.
There is a stone staircase leading up here.
Are you sure you want to leave the Dungeon?
You have escaped!
###############
#..............
####.#############
#.................
##.##.#########...#
#.@.......# #....
#.........# #.###
#.........# #.# #
#.........# #.# #
#......(..# #.# #
#.........# #.# #
##############.........# #<# #
.......................# #.# #
###############.#..#########.###
There were no monsters in sight!
One of the first things Xom did was gift me a buckler of resistance, which was pretty sweet. He also gave me a nice rod of destruction[ice] just in time to freezing cloud the Elf:5 vault, many small gold gifts and a wand of teleportation, amongst other things. I didn't get much in the way of ridiculous awesome mutation sets (had to wear stasis for a good while to deal with berserkitis) but neither did I get that many bad Xom effects - a couple of hostile demon summons by which time I could blink away and escape just fine, and only once or twice did he animate my weapon. Generally it'd be nice if he did more varying things than loads of miscast effects and stat drain, though - there's a huge list of spells/effects he can cast on you in combat but I only saw those happen a few times (and once was him casting Dispersal with no monsters next to me). On the plus side I never felt like I really had to do anything obscure to appease Xom, and managed never to be a BORING thing for too long just by playing fairly normally. I've heard it mentioned that at the moment, the game decides to do a Xom action and then looks at whether you have any tension or not to decide what action is taken, instead of making Xom more likely to act in high-tension situations, so changing this alone might make Xom play more interesting.
As minor magic[flame] was one of the first books I found, I thought I'd try and pick up range 1 Sticky Flame when I could. I found it a bit before Vaults, where it was plenty useful. I agree with those who've complained that it perhaps shouldn't be in the FE book any more, as it doesn't fit that playstyle at all, but for a hybrid/reaver it's fine, useful on ugly things and slime creatures and stone giants and everything you'd use it on before, as long as you're a bit more careful and can take a hit or two. It was particularly nice for dealing with Mennas (in combination with zerking and bashing away at him to finish him off), since it autohits and I was having problems with his huge EV initially.
The Enchantments split had no effect on how I played this character. I got 12 Charms skill, learnt my various buffs (Haste, Flight, RMsl, cTele, Regen), turned off Charms and forgot about it, just as I would've done with Enchantments. As it is now, it seems like it'll only affect the Enchanter class, as those are the only ones with any reason to use Hexes. This is also an issue with most Hexes being weak/useless/unreliable for a non-stabber, whereas Haste isn't going to fail completely due to MR most of the time, or arbitrarily have no effect on certain enemies. Something that I've heard suggested for some Hexes would be for them to be harder for monsters to resist, but for their power and/or duration to be decreased by enemies partially resisting - so with some decent Hex skill you could, say, somewhat more confidently slow a strong monster, but only for a few turns if it resisted partially. This has the downside of requiring Hexes to be looked at on a case-by-case basis, though. I'll start a wiki page at some point if there isn't one already.
In summary, all hail Xom.
