YAVP: DsMo 2 HP, asmodeus 0 HP

[Turgon]

I wasn't in good mood when my demonspawn monk encountered asmodeus in Geh:7.

I played unarmed, having a stl/dex/ev-fighter, wearing a +5 steam dragon armour, and I fought without a shield for having an additional punch attack.

In the game I found surprisingly few healing potions, no healing wand, got talons 3 which removed my boots of running, I had no rAcid and slime pits still to do. Although UC skill was at 27 my attacks weren't as strong as I thought. A "normal" holy weapon, combined with TSO's to-hit bonus, is superior. And after all I *finally* was looking for my first 15-runer with < 100 k turns, and still gehenna, slime pits, cocytus and zot to do.

Gehenna was hard, I think that hell effects were increased in 0.10.2, and it wasn't easy to get to asmodeus' chamber. Unfortunately he was in a small room, so it seemed not to be possible to ninja him (as I did with ereshkigal in tartarus).

So I buffed myself as good as possible (wearing a steam dragon armour with EV +0 is nice concerning spellcasting, and I used regeneration and haste quite often), quaffed a potion of beserk - which is risky in the endgame - and started attacking asmodeus.

Well, my HP went down and down, while asmodeus' health bar was still in yellow colour. More than once I expected to die
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U1TmeBd9338
but with my last berserking hit asmodeus died. I passed out and was hit by a brimstone fiend, which took away 11 of my remaining 13 HP.

2 HP and three foes near you in Geh:7... I had luck with emergency escape: heal wounds, uncontrolled blink, uncontrolled teleport.

After that I was told by other players that slime pits *are* doable without rAcid. Yes, it was possible. I suffered less from acid damage than expected but I was surprised by rjrrt's ghost in Pits:6 who was tough. Even better, it was easy to apport the icy rune without any need to fight antaeus.

Here's the morgue file:
http://crawl.develz.org/morgues/0.10/Turgon/morgue-Turgon-20120815-091142.txt

I was disappointed at two things: the low strength of a demonspawn in the endgame as well as the low strength of unarmed combat even at UC 27.

I read that both (playing Ds and fighting unarmed) means suffering in the early and mid game, having advantages in the endgame. So I had double suffering in the beginning with my DsMo, but I missed the advantages afterwards.

Well, there is one thing I really enjoyed when playing demonspawns: you're always curious about what'll happen when you reach the next XL! (Well, not at XL 26 when I had boots of running, knowing to lose them at XL 27 because of talons 3).

Bad luck that a demonspawn can't choose TSO. With a fighter I usually worship TSO in the endgame, but unfortunately this char with intrinsic mutations is said to be unholy. So I went (once again) for Kiku, enjoying his protections from torment and death curses.

There's one question I'm interested in: was it a mistake to fight without a shield? Maybe this can be compared to a two-handed weapon, getting more offense and losing defense. But as my armour was only steam dragon armour (didn't find another dragon armour with few EV penalty) I had low GDR, and my best defense was my EV. But well, shield aptitude is the usual -1, so I'm not sure about this.

[KoboldLord]

Superlative descriptions of unarmed combat usually tend to assume you make some vague efforts in the direction of optimizing your character for unarmed combat. That usually means picking up some transmutations. As it is, your character must have been marvelously painful to nurse through the post-endgame, because you had next to no ways to deal with foo fiends, neqoxecs, tormentors, etc. other than running across the whole screen to punch them in the face.

You would have been much better served to sink a little more xp into transmutations, plus some into earth magic. With the AC you have stacked up from your mutations, Statue Form would make your character into a fairly sturdy tank when it's appropriate, and you'd also be able to Iron Shot neqoxecs and tormentors out of your face when the situation calls for more flexibility.

If you want to tab through the post-endgame without using magic except for Haste, heavy armor is much more suitable for that purpose and you really had no spells that you'd care about losing except for Haste. Assuming fire, ice, or pearl dragon armour, which are pretty much your limit due to your strength, Haste and Blink would be usable again after only a couple more levels of investment.

A shield would certainly have been usable, and the -1 aptitude is pretty much ignorable, but it wouldn't have changed your post-endgame experience significantly. Your spell list is filled with things that do literally nothing in that part of the game.

Also, why the -3 gloves? It isn't like you're hurting for MR at XL27.

[mikee]

It's true that level 27 UC is slightly worse against demons than a very good holy weapon, but still, punching stuff without transmutations is still very strong. It maybe felt less strong to the OP because part of its strength is its speed, so you're not so much opening things like pillowcases.

I don't want to address everything in the OP because it would end up being a mess, so I will just answer the actual question: no, it was not a mistake to not use a shield.

[Turgon]

Thanks at KoboldLord and mikee for your ideas.

I used to play three types of characters:
1) Casting types (HE or DE) with the usual -> poison arrow -> firestorm -> necromutation
2) Heavy armoured fighters (MD, Tr, Mi, Ds), usually with Okawaru -> TSO
3) My beloved OpTm, which start very weak but become extremely powerful when using statue form

So playing with a (pure) monk was a new experience for me. When I reached UC 27 and things were still hard I got the feeling that something went terribly wrong. Nice that it was alright to fight "two-handed" without a shield.

But yes, a fire dragon armour with a bearable -3 to EV would have been better. And I didn't use most of the spells, that's true. Evaporate was great in early and mid game, but in the endgame only haste, regeneration and (of course) apportation were of importance.

KoboldLord, if you want to know why I wore my -3 gloves (MR), have a look at turn counts 26068 and 26069 [and promise not to laugh ]

mikee, I'm really not sure if I want to play a monk again, but if there are serious conceptual mistakes besides the ones mentioned by KoboldLord (not wearing a fire dragon armour, not investing in destructive magic or transmutations) your ideas are welcome.

[Impy]

Blade hands Turgon, just blade hands.

[Turgon]

Blade hands Turgon, just blade hands.

Yes, that is what I missed.