CiP -> YASD : HECj of Ash (again!), wishing to improve

[SchwaWarrior]

EDIT: Killed by a Spiny Frog... no teleport or blink scrolls left, was trapped inside L:8's forest with no way to get past the Dire Elephant. >_< All my progress gone in an unavoidable instant.

Feh... so depressed now. Well, below is my original post I guess, no reason to delete it...

- - -

I have a pretty good character going this time, and I decided to post on the forums to get people's input, as this community is really awesome and full of advice that has been constantly helping me improve.

My character log so far, minus the unimportant parts.

  Code:


Skwaa the Thaumaturge (High Elf Conjurer)          Turns: 16168, Time: 01:14:57

HP  62/62        AC  7     Str  8      XL: 11   Next: 16%
MP  29/29        EV 17     Int 22      God: Ashenzari [****..]
Gold 253         SH 13     Dex 18      Spells:  4 memorised, 16 levels left

Res.Fire  : . . .   See Invis. : +    p - +4 elf scimitar (flame) (curse)
Res.Cold  : . . .   Warding    : . .  H - +0 troll leather armour
Life Prot.: . . .   Conserve   : .    v - +1 buckler (curse)
Res.Acid. : . . .   Res.Corr.  : .    (no helmet)
Res.Poison: +       Clarity    : +    y - +1 cloak {rPois}
Res.Elec. : .       Spirit.Shd : .    f - +0 pair of gloves
Sust.Abil.: . .     Stasis     : .    (no boots)
Res.Mut.  : +       Ctrl.Telep.: .    q - cursed amulet of resist mutation
Res.Rott. : .       Levitation : .    (no ring)
Saprovore : . . .   Ctrl.Flight: .    h - cursed ring of invisibility

@: somewhat resistant to hostile enchantments, quite stealthy
A: Int +1, Dex +1
a: Scrying, Renounce Religion, Evoke Invisibility


You are on level 1 of the Lair of Beasts.
You worship Ashenzari.
Ashenzari is extremely pleased with you.
You are not hungry.

You have visited 3 branches of the dungeon, and seen 15 of its levels.
You have visited 2 portal chambers: sewer, volcano.

You have collected 669 gold pieces.
You have spent 436 gold pieces at shops.

Inventory:

Hand weapons
 p - a cursed +4,+4 elven scimitar of flaming (weapon)
Missiles
 C - 4 darts of dispersal (quivered)
Armour
 f - a +0 pair of gloves (worn)
 r - a +0 elven leather armour of fire resistance
 v - a cursed +1 buckler (worn)
 y - a +1 cloak of poison resistance (worn)
 H - a +0 troll leather armour (worn)
Magical devices
 j - a wand of heal wounds (0)
Comestibles
 g - 2 sausages
Scrolls
 l - a scroll of teleportation
 A - a scroll of vulnerability
 B - 2 scrolls of blinking
Jewellery
 h - a cursed ring of invisibility (left hand)
 q - a cursed amulet of resist mutation (around neck)


   Skills:
 + Level 1.0 Fighting
 * Level 9.0(12.3) Long Blades
 + Level 0.4 Armour
 * Level 8.0 Dodging
 + Level 5.6 Stealth
 + Level 3.8 Stabbing
 + Level 3.5(5.6) Shields
 + Level 3.8 Traps & Doors
 * Level 9.3 Spellcasting
 + Level 7.5(9.9) Conjurations
 + Level 1.5(3.1) Charms
 + Level 5.6(7.9) Air Magic
 + Level 3.5(5.6) Poison Magic
 - Level 3.0(5.4) Evocations


You have 16 spell levels left.
You know the following spells:

 Your Spells              Type           Power        Failure   Level  Hunger
a - Mephitic Cloud        Pois/Air/Conj  ######...    1%          3    None
q - Flight                Air/Chrm       #####.....   2%          3    None
z - Magic Dart            Conj           #####        1%          1    None
X - Lightning Bolt        Air/Conj       ######....   8%          5    Honeycomb


A summary of my adventure so far:

D1: Focus-trained Spellcasting to begin the game and turned off everything else, until I got about 4 or 5 levels in it later. Was granted a Ring of Invisibility right off the bat. This time I've actually been using it, too! It doesn't have the best success rate, so I mainly use it before I go down stairs.

D2 through D4: Found a BUNCH of Orc mobs, complete with Wizards, Priests and even Warriors. Yikes. Most of the time I had to run away, and after enough guerilla attacks from various corridors (using the three staircases strategically to sneak around behind them over and over), they would split up and spread throughout the dungeon, where they were easy picking. So far all I had was a dagger, so I tried something I hardly ever do, and used an Orc Falchion (with my Elf) as a weapon and began training up Long Blades. Also got to visit the Sewers and got a Potion of Gain Dexterity down there, and found the Temple pretty early, converting to Ashenzari like usual.

(NOTE: Since I've beaten the game with HECj of Ash before, my plan this game is to win with more than 3 runes-- gonna shoot for at least 6, and if I'm doing well then maybe all 15. Later in the game my hope is to switch to Jiyva and win the rest of the game with him, because A) it's new and different, and B) Jiyva is wonderful and holds a very special place in my heart :'3 mmm)

D5 through D7: I got one of those wide-open "gladiator arena" dungeons, shaped like a cross, all three stair entrances in the middle. Adders, Worker Ants, Ogres (plural), some Ice Beasts, Orcs (including Priests, and Warriors with Glowing Tridents) and Gnolls (including one General) immediately saw me and woke up all at the same time. *sigh* This... took some work to breach through, along with copious use of my Invisibility ring. I was chased clear down to D:8 before I got a breather and I almost starved to death as well, however I was lucky enough for D:8 to be a 16-room Suite arrangement (4 rows and 4 columns of rooms with doors) as I ran into a medium-sized group of Yaks, was able to isolate one into a room, fight it solo, kill it and eat all 4 meats, preventing myself from starving. :) Moments later I found some permafood again. I was very lucky. Eventually after enough hit and run maneuvering I was able to go back up and clean out the cross-shaped Arena floor, as well as the neighboring, square-shaped Arena floor. I also found the spellbooks of Earth, Ice, and Dragon, and considered learning Frost Aura to help me fight, however I usually try to run with fire spells BEFORE ice spells, since Fireball is my favorite offensive spell and I'd hate to play a full game without it. I did learn Flight though, plus Lightning Bolt from my starting book. Still no sign of the Orc Mines or the Lair.

D:8 through D:10: It got even more insane. On the same floor, which was a 16-room Suite setup, I met Harold, Psyche, two Trolls, two Hill Giants, two Boring Beetles (guarding the Lair at first but eventually chewing up most of the left half of the dungeon) a convention of Wights, and one Necrophage-- not all at the same time, but spread out, so no matter where I ran to finally rest up, something else dangerous would disturb me. o_o Somehow I managed to find a safe spot, then one at a time, I started baiting out the biggest threats and killing them without anything else to distract me. The trolls went down somewhat easily compared to normal, thank God, and I skinned one to get a fully working Trollhide Armor. I also found the Orc Mines entrance, with a bunch of un-ID'd potions scattered about. I use-ID'd all of them, and they were all nasty. Poison, Confusion, Slow, one potion of Water hilariously, and Degeneration, which cut my STR stat down from 8 to 4! :( I had to drop most of my stuff in a hiding spot 'cause it was too heavy to carry, nor had I found any potions of Restore Abilities to help. I explored a little bit of the Orc Mines, but as soon as I saw the room with a whole bunch of Wargs and Priests all together, I got the fuck out and it cost me one of my two Blink scrolls. Whew.

Lair: Decided to double-back to the Lair now, set up my stash-- had to kill some Electric Eels waiting right at the entrance to do so-- and from there I started exploring. Spiny Frogs and Komodo Dragons and one Black Mamba appeared, and Lightning Bolt took them out REAL nicely this time! (Using that spell scares me, it's so loud and somewhat innacurate unless I use a rebound-shot to hit it multiple times.) In L:2, I found a Volcano entrance, and decided to try it, even without any Fire resistance handy. I got the layout with a big pool of lava in the center, occasionally filling half the screen with flame clouds, and in the middle of it was a small fortress filled with humanoids that carry Fire-ego weapons and armor. In this case, it was Humans (last time it was Orcs for me), and killing them was a LOT easier than when it was Orcs! (Admittedly it scared me when the fire clouds would go off and I was in the middle of it, losing about a fourth of my health in one turn. The trick: sidestep into the nearest smoke cloud, where flame clouds can't generate. My Troll Armor also helped me heal off the damage quick enough for it not to be an insurmountable problem.) I picked up a whole bunch of fire-branded equipment, including a +4+4 Fire Ankus! Hahaha. But the thing I switched to was the +2+2 Elven Scimitar of Flame, and awesomely I had saved up all my enchantment scrolls for this instead of wasting them on the Orcish Falch I was still using. So now I'm using a +4+4 Elven Scimitar of Flame, with my elf, so I get an accuracy bonus on top of it. Pure win.

And that's it so far; after the successful volcano raid I headed back to my Stash to save my game and post this post.

My questions:
1) Where should I go now? The obvious one is probably to clear out the Lair, is what I'm thinking, but I'm trying to open myself to other options that I haven't been seeing when I play this game. Also, any suggestions in which direction to raise up this character some more? I've been putting points into INT each level-up, but I'm thinking I'll put some more into STR and get at least 10 STR, mainly for carrying more stuff. (Scimitars are mostly Dexterity-based for dealing damage, right? Isn't it like, 70% DEX weighted and 30% STR?)

2) Big dilemma: Switch to +0 Elven Leather Armor of Fire Resistance, or keep +0 Troll Leather Armor? Eventually I need to curse one or the other since I play Ashenzari, but for now I can switch back and forth, except, carrying both might end up being kind of heavy with my low STR at the moment. Give me some expert advice for this one, it's what you guys are good at :)

3) What am I missing/should be trying to get? Or, anything else worth mentioning? Really, no matter what input people have for this, even if it's "Cool character, keep up the good work", it'll make me smile. ^^

Anyway thanks for reading! People have told me that they "enjoy my enthusiasm and my long story-posts", but at the same time I realize I'm a bit of a spazz. ^^ My hope is to get to the point where my "enthusiastic, long story-posts" describe a successful and awesome game of Crawl rather than one where, I dunno, I try to fight Fredrick with Mephitic Cloud (again) and that somehow gets me killed, whaddya know. X'DD It's not completely off the wall for me to be both good at Crawl and enthusiastic about it at the same time, at least that's the theory. Maybe if I do a 15-rune run I'll get my mind changed by Cerebov (whom I have never reached before, let alone even been inside the Hells or Pandemonium for that matter).

Cheers! And have a beautiful rest-of-the-weekend. "Love what is, don't hate what isn't", and long live Crazy Yiuf's Shaft. ;D
--Schwa

EDIT: Okay, this Scimitar is AWESOME. Two-shotting Spiny Frogs in melee? Yes please! ^__^

[Jabberwocky]

Does your desire to follow Jiyva stem from your sexual attraction to jellies?

[KoboldLord]

1) Lair should be pretty safe, but train ice magic. Bolt of Cold is much quieter than Lightning Bolt, so if you get a level with all three stairwells grouped together you won't attract everything in the level to the entry point all at the same time. Then you eventually get Freezing Cloud.

2) You currently have zero pips of fire resistance, so if it were me I'd go for one pip over zero pips plus regeneration.

3) DIVE onto ice magic as quickly as possible. Bolt of Cold is better than Lightning Bolt, and Freezing Cloud is stupid-good. Plus you have a book of ice, which means you have nearly all the cold spells in the game. Being able to kill things in their sleep before they even wake up is awesome. Anyway, you have Ashenzari, so with your jewelry bondage you can get Freezing Cloud earlier than anybody not following Vehumet. Turn off everything but conjurations, ice magic, and air magic until you have Freezing Cloud; it's that good.

[eeviac]

I strongly encourage you to set your skill training to manual, and only train 1-2 skills at a time. Automatic training leaves your skills too spread out, and it ends up training/overtraining skills you don't want (like your stabbing, stealth, and poison).

[SchwaWarrior]

2) You currently have zero pips of fire resistance, so if it were me I'd go for one pip over zero pips plus regeneration.

The boosted Regeneration has come in great handy several times already, though. I don't have to bind my armor right away, so what I'll probably do is carry both armors with me until Fire Res. becomes more pressing, such as banishment to the Abyss, or around D:15 when Dragons and various, dangerous Uniques show up.

I'll keep in mind though that having at least one pip of each thing is typically a goal for players. That's a good tip.

3) DIVE onto ice magic as quickly as possible. Bolt of Cold is better than Lightning Bolt, and Freezing Cloud is stupid-good. Plus you have a book of ice, which means you have nearly all the cold spells in the game. Being able to kill things in their sleep before they even wake up is awesome. Anyway, you have Ashenzari, so with your jewelry bondage you can get Freezing Cloud earlier than anybody not following Vehumet. Turn off everything but conjurations, ice magic, and air magic until you have Freezing Cloud; it's that good.

Not only that, but on L:3 I got a Book of Frost too. That, plus your advice... maybe I'm fated to play an Ice character? x.x Maaan, no matter what way I look at it, you're right. I'll go ahead and do it.

That plus I have a fire weapon and can take on anything ice spells would be bad against... except, even if my sword is good vs. Undeads because it's fire, I don't wanna get drained in melee either @_@

I strongly encourage you to set your skill training to manual, and only train 1-2 skills at a time. Automatic training leaves your skills too spread out, and it ends up training/overtraining skills you don't want (like your stabbing, stealth, and poison).

You know, I only started doing this very very recently, at the beginning of the game; used to be I train all skills right off the bat, but just lately I've been starting games by turning off everything but Spellcasting, then slowly turning more skills on until they're all on. My games have improved a great deal since then; Mephitic Cloud has a 20% fail rate by the time I memorize it instead of 30% for example. I'll go ahead and do this too, though, I'm really paranoid about all my skills that are OFF being an even number and not a decimal x_x I would have turned Stabbing and Poison off at 3.0, but they accidentally hit 3.3 so then I wanted to wait until they were at 4.0 x__x ugh it bugs me help someone agh agh

Does your desire to follow Jiyva stem from your sexual attraction to jellies?

Partially yes!

The other part is that Jiyva is such a novel and rarely-seen deity for me that it's hard not to be fascinated with the idea of getting a chance to use her. Much as I dislike Orcs, the couple times I played a Hill Orc Priest just for the novelty factor of using Beogh for once, I had a load of fun and didn't do too badly either.

But I will always love and adore Slimes and Jellies the most. Eating, growing, multiplying... it's like they're the purest and most primal form of the love of a child's heart, given a form, and to me that is the most beautiful and alluring thing, even among my general xenophiliac tendencies, the Jellies stand out a lot as a shining star. I promise to keep them PG-rated in the forums though for your benefits ;p

[Deimos]

Quick question, how do you use Freezing Cloud best? Its amazing against giant packs like in the Orcish Mines, but I'm having trouble keeping smaller packs of mobs in it long enough for the damage to be worth it.

Also, I have the same decimal point issue, 3.1 stabbing? Nope, 4.

[SchwaWarrior]

Quick question, how do you use Freezing Cloud best? Its amazing against giant packs like in the Orcish Mines, but I'm having trouble keeping smaller packs of mobs in it long enough for the damage to be worth it.

Cast it multiple times. Unlike Mephitic Cloud, the 3x3 square will change shape if you cast it beside narrow walls, other clouds, or ESPECIALLY in hallways (in a 1 tile hallway it'll fill the entire corridor up to 9 spaces in a line). In that way it's actually less effective in the Mines unless you get a Wand of Digging to combo it up with, bait all your pursuers into the "death trench" and then BAM FREEZE TRAP SUCKAS, and since they're all lined up single file there's no way they're getting out. Just don't kill yourself with it on accident, and you'll frequently have to outlast a couple of turns of melee combat with the dangerous foes you're trapping, i.e. if they're in the front of the line in the hallway, fighting you as you bar their escape from the frigid death.

Also, I have the same decimal point issue, 3.1 stabbing? Nope, 4.

Even so, IMO it's an improvement over the way DCSS version 8 handled the skill leveling, with the % system.

[SchwaWarrior]

Double post: trapped and killed by a Dire Elephant Spiny Frog dynamic duo, no healing or teleports left to save me. Game over. >_< Edited my first post and thread title to show it.

I always get so far and then something unavoidable like this happens and it's over. Everyone here makes the game look so easy, and it drives me crazy... it's even crazier that I continue playing though.

[KoboldLord]

Double post: trapped and killed by a Dire Elephant Spiny Frog dynamic duo, no healing or teleports left to save me. Game over. >_< Edited my first post and thread title to show it.

I always get so far and then something unavoidable like this happens and it's over. Everyone here makes the game look so easy, and it drives me crazy... it's even crazier that I continue playing though.

Dire elephants only appear in Lair in two Lair 8 vaults. Don't enter Lair 8 vaults until you've cleared a buffer area around them in case you need to retreat.

[thecolorofthatsky]

You know, the first time i've read about Jiyva, i wanted to try her out right away . The idea of worshipping a god who constantly changes shape, randomized stat and mutation is almost addictive, especially when i compare her to the Old one, or more likely, a Shoggoth . I made a OpTm following Jiyva once, named her Saya , best character i've have.
About improvement, how about you try something easier? Better species are those with higher skill comprehension (lower xp required to level up), beefier? Those like HO, HA, MI, maybe even DD, Mf.
But i think the best way to play Crawl is to enjoy yourself, make 1-2 novelty character just to have fun, keep that fire going .

[SchwaWarrior]

You know, the first time i've read about Jiyva, i wanted to try her out right away ;) . The idea of worshipping a god who constantly changes shape, randomized stat and mutation is almost addictive, especially when i compare her to the Old one, or more likely, a Shoggoth :mrgreen: . I made a OpTm following Jiyva once, named her Saya :lol: , best character i've have.

Saya no Uta! :D Wow, awesome to meet someone besides me who's into that sort of thing. I mean I'm not super into the Cthulhu Mythos the way some are but I couldn't possibly admit that they're not wildly awesome on so many levels, and that particular reference you made by itself is just beautiful, the story about a boy's romance with an extraplanar-something, whatever Saya is, that's the stuff that I'm into and that just tickles my xeno senses silly ^///^

The Shoggoth thing and Jiyva, I never made that comparison, though I do see it when I look at it that way, and I agree that mutations are very addictive; normally I purposefully drink Potions of Mutation or eat mutagenic chunks as often as possible just to play the Mutation roulette and hope for something good. I've never got something game-destroying before-- really the game-destroying ones only happen if you're repeatedly mutated by enemies like Shining Eyes or Orbs of Fire, it seems.

About improvement, how about you try something easier? Better species are those with higher skill comprehension (lower xp required to level up), beefier? Those like HO, HA, MI, maybe even DD, Mf.

It's about the character personality for me. Ugly hulking Minotaurs really ick me out. On the other hand, Elves brighten my heart. I like Tengus too because they're cool the way ninjas are cool. >:3

But i think the best way to play Crawl is to enjoy yourself, make 1-2 novelty character just to have fun, keep that fire going ;) .

Crawl's the kind of game I enjoy even when I hate it, so that's covered ^^ Strangely enough, I only do well when I don't "play to win". The one guy I ever made who won the game with 3 runes only won when I said at the start "Gonna play this character as far as I can and just do my best".