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Dungeon Dilettante

Posts: 2

Joined: Friday, 24th February 2012, 01:49

Post Friday, 24th February 2012, 02:04

New player

Hey everyone I just started playing the game last week and I play mainly offline. My highest character to date was a simple lvl 9 human fighter who died on the 10th level of the starting dungeon. A couple of things to mention:

I started out with simple equipment but then soon got lucky and got dwarven armor and what ended up turning out to be a waraxe +2 highest attack bonus that did a simple amount of electricity damage and was cursed.

I managed to kill some guy named King Ribbet I belive. It was a frog that was described as a human when he died. Anyway I killed him with little effort.

When I died I had a total AC of 14. Not sure if thats decent for a 9th lvl character.

My main inventory items were food, extra armor, scrolls of teleportation and detect curse, 3 spellbooks, and some amulet that did nothing.

I ended up dying when I reached the 10th lvl of the starting dungeon and I was surrounded by 4 orc priests and some creature I dont recall the name of. I managed to kill 2 priests and severly wound the creature in question when it hit me for 40 damage by some attack it had. I managed to kill it but in the process I discovered that the other 2 priests hit me both for damage and I died. Not sure if that qualifys as a stupid death but I thought it was worth noting.

Anyway thats that and I look forward to making better progress in the game lol. If anyone has tips or advice, I welcome it. Best of luck to everyone on there future adventures in the game. :mrgreen:

Vaults Vanquisher

Posts: 461

Joined: Monday, 13th June 2011, 00:21

Post Friday, 24th February 2012, 02:14

Re: New player

Advice? Sure. Orc priests - especially multiple ones - are always bad news early in the game. They can smite you if they can see you, which scores an automatic hit. The next time you're in that situation, you should try to get away (reading a scroll of teleport or blinking if necessary).

That touches on one of the things all new players should know about the game, anyway - you won't be able to kill everything you meet (at least early on). Sometimes it's best to run away.

If you're going to play melee characters, you should also know that humans aren't that great. I would recommend minotaurs, which are better than humans at almost everything melee-related. Ogres and Trolls, too, but they have to put up with some restrictions that most other races don't have.

Dungeon Dilettante

Posts: 2

Joined: Friday, 24th February 2012, 01:49

Post Friday, 24th February 2012, 02:20

Re: New player

Thanks
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Eringya's Employee

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Location: Athens, Greece

Post Friday, 24th February 2012, 07:51

Re: New player

Actually I see why one might pick a human. In almost every MMO I've played to date I play humans as my race of choice. It's a matter of flavour for me.

In roguelikes however, I don't really care. I pick whatever race seems like fun. Humans are more of a hybrid type, but mostly a jack-of-all-trades. They can do anything but they excel at nothing other than being average in everything in Crawl.

Most Hybrids have pluses in skills though, so that means Humans are actually quite weird in the end. They will allow you to train every skill without a penalty or a bonus, but most people have set goals when they start out, which a human probably doesn't fulfil as well as a specific race.

For example as Happy Corner said; Probably the easiest melee character to get into is the Minotaur right now. It's insanely OP imho, if you have a respectable amount of EV to allow for retaliation to proc more frequently. Other than that you have Hill Orc for melee which are good with gods that require Invocations. I got my first win with a Hill Orc Fighter. Then there's Deep Dwarves which are kinda easy but also bring some abilities to the table that are pretty exotic for the species to be reccomended as your first race to play, although they're very powerful according to experienced players of Crawl.

In spellcasting, Humans will allow you to learn many different schools without worrying about minuses in specific schools but that's what Deep Elves do better and have a better INT growth than humans anyway, which is the spell caster's primary concern in stats, most of the time...

I haven't played humans almost at all because they are really, really bland. And more people can testify on this. Their only benefit is if you want to try a totally random character. They can pick up anything the dungeon gives them and use it without major issues. They won't excel in it, though.
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Shoals Surfer

Posts: 288

Joined: Wednesday, 11th May 2011, 20:51

Location: Britain

Post Friday, 24th February 2012, 07:59

Re: New player

On the other hand, Humans aren't ~awful~ at doing Melee, since they're ok at everything (+0 aptitudes everywhere). In fact, with Mountain Dwarves gone, they're effectively now 5th best at using armour. What hurts them a little over more monsterous races is the lack of cool unarmed auxilliary attacks. What really makes a human character is versatility; they're not vastly fascinating in their playstyle, perhaps, but they can more easily adapt to stuff the dungeon throws at them, as they're mostly starting with a clean slate.

One thing about Fighters in general; they start with a Kite Shield (and hopefully a Falchion), which is awesome, but they don't actually quite have the skill to utilise their Shield as well as they could initially. I always focus on making Shields better initially, so you don't trip over yourself. Fighters have to play smarter than Berserkers, without the safety nets that Trog offers.

As already noted, Orc Priests are very dangerous early on, due to Smiting. Don't forget to right-click on enemies you haven't seen before, to examine them (assuming you're using Tiles) and get some idea of what you're facing.

Later on, once you get to pick a god; if you're happy with melee'ing things to death, Okawaru is a decent choice, simple but effective, and you get gifts of free items (though not all of it ~good~ free stuff).
"If the world's a stage, and the people actors, then who the f**k has my script?"

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Eringya's Employee

Posts: 1783

Joined: Friday, 7th October 2011, 19:24

Location: Athens, Greece

Post Friday, 24th February 2012, 08:08

Re: New player

Humans could have been cut out of the game if only they weren't the specie every other one compares their selves to.
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Shoals Surfer

Posts: 288

Joined: Wednesday, 11th May 2011, 20:51

Location: Britain

Post Friday, 24th February 2012, 08:34

Re: New player

TehDruid wrote:Humans could have been cut out of the game if only they weren't the specie every other one compares their selves to.

That would be an unfortunate choice for Crawl newbies; new starters have a natural predesposition for choosing humans and other easy things that they can recognise. One of my mates that I introduced Crawl to still ONLY plays humans. This topic is almost a perfect example, isn't it?

But I guess I've always been in the camp of "Who cares about redundancy? I want lots of thematic choices!". Its the same with MD, I mean, sure I understand the argument that Minotaur did it better, but so what? I want a Dwarf to do it; I want a beard, I don't want to be a half-cow! :D

But anyway, this is swerving off topic.
"If the world's a stage, and the people actors, then who the f**k has my script?"

My Games/Anime/Weirdness blog: http://detarame.wordpress.com/
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Eringya's Employee

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Joined: Friday, 7th October 2011, 19:24

Location: Athens, Greece

Post Friday, 24th February 2012, 08:40

Re: New player

I'm on the same team eharper. I don't like species and background being removed no matter how redundant they may be. Despite all I said above and how it may has sounded, I still like having humans there for the same reasons you do, pretty much. :)

Still I respect devs and hope they'll keep on bringing awesome stuff to us like they've done before. :D May they only have their health and time to spend on crawl development.
MuCK;
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Vestibule Violator

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Joined: Wednesday, 21st September 2011, 01:10

Location: St. John's, NL, Canada

Post Saturday, 25th February 2012, 20:17

Re: New player

the quicker experience is a little useful also. if humans are too weak that would be a good place to improve them as it's already not average.
Won all race/bg, unwon (online): Nem* Hep Uka
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Crypt Cleanser

Posts: 720

Joined: Friday, 7th January 2011, 01:43

Post Saturday, 25th February 2012, 22:42

Re: New player

Humans learn quicker than most and having average aptitudes makes them more resourceful. Crawl is a game of no-fixed class-style of playing but rather conditioning your character evolution to some degree depending on which items you find. Therefore humans are versatile and adaptable than other species, which is good if you don't have a definite plan or strategy in mind.
duvessa wrote:Christ, you can't remove anything without tavern complaining about it.

Ziggurat Zagger

Posts: 6393

Joined: Friday, 17th December 2010, 18:17

Post Sunday, 26th February 2012, 06:51

Re: New player

eharper256 wrote:Later on, once you get to pick a god; if you're happy with melee'ing things to death, Okawaru is a decent choice, simple but effective, and you get gifts of free items (though not all of it ~good~ free stuff).

I dissent here. I feel Okawaru is better for hybrids. Makhleb is a better melee god.
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Shoals Surfer

Posts: 288

Joined: Wednesday, 11th May 2011, 20:51

Location: Britain

Post Sunday, 26th February 2012, 09:45

Re: New player

Grimm wrote:
eharper256 wrote:Later on, once you get to pick a god; if you're happy with melee'ing things to death, Okawaru is a decent choice, simple but effective, and you get gifts of free items (though not all of it ~good~ free stuff).

I dissent here. I feel Okawaru is better for hybrids. Makhleb is a better melee god.

And ironically, worshipping Makhleb as a pure melee character makes you into a Hybrid. (now with destruction and summoning!) :P
"If the world's a stage, and the people actors, then who the f**k has my script?"

My Games/Anime/Weirdness blog: http://detarame.wordpress.com/

Ziggurat Zagger

Posts: 6393

Joined: Friday, 17th December 2010, 18:17

Post Sunday, 26th February 2012, 11:19

Re: New player

Precisely.

Mines Malingerer

Posts: 36

Joined: Saturday, 21st January 2012, 22:56

Post Thursday, 1st March 2012, 04:50

Re: New player

My main inventory items were food, extra armor, scrolls of teleportation and detect curse, 3 spellbooks, and some amulet that did nothing.

Another tip: use identify scrolls on jewelry (and also potions or wands if you have extra scrolls). Jewelry always does something, although it may not be something you care about right away. Also, "some amulet that did nothing" could have been an amulet of inaccuracy or hunger (bad!), and identifying a ring of poison resistance, for example, can be very valuable in the early game.

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