CIP - HuFE of Vehumet, with Trident

[Herode2]

Though humans look hard to play because they have no bonuses at all, except the one about learning and XPs, I always wanted to succeed playing one. Maybe because I'm sort of patriotic, or because I love desperate fights. Anyway, me being a terrible player at Crawl, I never managed to lead any HuXX character past D:5 or so. BTW, I also stopped trying humans for a while, experimenting new species and backgrounds and always enthusiastically discovering new lethal errors to make, new fatal guesses to try, and of course a whole bunch of new stupid ways of being slashed / stabbed / crushed / smashed / punctured / burned / freezed / shocked / corroded / poisoned / smited / blinked / unlucked to death.

Anyway, gods sometimes are benevolent and this evening, while I was tasting a standard (but always fine) 12 years old Maccallan, I somehow managed to lead one of these poor human dolls right to XL10 and D:9. Of course, I know that he will soon die. On overconfidence, tactical mistake, bad luck, no matters what, he is going to perish. That's why, while things are not yet looking awfull and unfair, I'm proud to present you Charles Edouard the HuFE of Vehumet.

Let's just say that this guy has been really lucky early on. He began his travel spamming flame tongues against the usual low level foes. He was training UC and of course magic at this point. Around D:3, he had discovered half a dozen of glowing weapons of various forms. He tried them one after the other and soon found a +2 +2 trident of Protection. No other weapon was branded and protection is always cool, trident are powerfull weapons, not too slow. So he took the trident and began to train it (always with magic).

He soon reached D:4 and enough experience to use Conjure Flame on a regular basis. That's when he discovered how cool was the Conjure Flame + branded Trident combo. You keep your ennemies at distance and puncture them at will. From time to time, some foolish guy enters the flames in an attempt to get closer to you - that's what this pack of orcs, orc knights on gnolls on the picture behind did. And the flame consumes the fool before it has any chance to harm you.

Vehumets loves that, and so do I.

Also, steaming stuff is very photogenic.

fightin' in the steam

HuFE10.bailey.png (368.26 KiB) Viewed 1957 times

How long will that success story last ? That's what you will soon know, ladies and gentlemen. Not very long I guess but hey, if I was not so pathetically optimistic anyway, I would have thrown Crawl out of my PC a long time ago

[KoboldLord]

He was training UC and of course magic at this point… So he took the trident and began to train it (always with magic).

If you're interested in knowing, here's your survival problem. As a fire elementalist, your early-game goal should always be getting your fire spells online as quickly as possible. The damage from your fists or from a typical weapon pales in comparison to getting Sticky Flame to start working properly. D4 is actually quite late to be first getting Conjure Flame online, and it's because you're getting precious early-game xp leeched off into non-magic skills. Eventually you'll want an alternative way to kill things that are resistant to fire, but that's not much of an issue in the early game because there's pretty much only crimson imps to worry about.

[Herode2]

Of course, I am interested in knowing and any meaningful advices are very welcome, so thanks !

About early game tips : what is the early game typical extension ? To D:10 ? D:12 ? Something else ?

Right now, mu HuFE is clearing the Bailey, still training Fire Magic and Polearms. Found a +3 Ring Mail of Fire Resistance and an amulet with { Clar RF+ }. With those items, I may be able to use Sticky Flame now (although the ring mail gives me a casting malus because I have no Armour skill...). But I noticed you mention Sticky Flame it as a 'must go' spell early on. I tried it (a long time ago...) and died many times because the caster was too close to his target. How can you manage to use it on a regular basis before having gained enough RF ?

[cerebovssquire]

Of course, I am interested in knowing and any meaningful advices are very welcome, so thanks !

About early game tips : what is the early game typical extension ? To D:10 ? D:12 ? Something else ?

Right now, mu HuFE is clearing the Bailey, still training Fire Magic and Polearms. Found a +3 Ring Mail of Fire Resistance and an amulet with { Clar RF+ }. With those items, I may be able to use Sticky Flame now (although the ring mail gives me a casting malus because I have no Armour skill...). But I noticed you mention Sticky Flame it as a 'must go' spell early on. I tried it (a long time ago...) and died many times because the caster was too close to his target. How can you manage to use it on a regular basis before having gained enough RF ?

Are you talking about Fireball? Sticky Flame places a "covered in liquid flames" status on the targeted monster in melee range, which does a lot of damage over time. I'm not sure how old Sticky Flame works, besides the fact that it was ranged, but the only way new Sticky Flame will ignite you if you place it on a monster is miscasting the spell. It is absolutely safe with any amount of rF or even rF-, the only thing to worry about is 'can I step up to this monster and ignite it?'

[Herode2]

Yep, my bad ! I was confusing with Inner Flame.

Anyway, this will be useful for my next character, not for this one unfortunately because... he just died (another Orc Warrior, not impressed at all by my flame bolts...)

I knew he would. They all die around D:10 (when not around D:5).
But I do not surrender still

[Herode2]

Managed to lead another HuFE to D:8 / XL 9 and I have to admit that concentrating on magic is efficient. The Inner Flame thing is a good spell after all : Conjure Flame in a corridor to keep ennemies at range + inner flame on the closest one + spam flame tongues allows to process packs of Orcs / Wights and so on. As long as no one has RF at least ^^. Sticky Flame also rocks (but it is expensive).

[Herode2]

... and another fail under Nessos's arrows.
This one just left me not a single chance to escape : he took me by surprise, his arrows are really lethal, even fog/running is useless. Too bad.

Next time, maybe...

[Deimos]

I've grown accustomed to just tapping into a blink/tp scroll the moment Nessos comes into view.

[Herode2]

Yep. Unfortunately, blink does not always drive you out of danger. A few turns before that unfortunate encounter, my HuFE met a troll. Trolls hit hard. Trolls regenerate. Trolls do not fear conjured flames. So my HuFE ended blinking. The spell transported him... just left of the troll he was facin. He blinked. Just behind. He blinked. Just right. He blinked. Just behind. HP in the red zone.
The fifth blink was the good one at least.

Not sure Nessos leaves you four five chances to flee. And his arrows can hit you from afar. The 'O' command drove me really really close to this guy, as well as it drove me really close to Sonja just before.

Maybe O'ing is a bad idea when you reach D:11+ ?

[bobross419]

Save your Blink scrolls for things like Nessos. Regular blinking is a pain, but you can sometimes maneuver so that you have a greater chance of not ending up right next to the monster you are running from. If nothing else, pop a tele then start blinking - You might get out of LOS or make him waste some of his time moving so he only shoots you once instead of the 8 times he normally does. I think the only place I don't O are branch ends and Tomb.