CIP: DECj

[Siegurt]

So I'm aspiring to mid-level-dom and my Cj has almost devoured the starting spellbook, air+ice isn't a terrible selection, not awesome but not terrible, and I've just gotten a new spellbook, it's full of poison spells, and I'm now debating on whether to branch into poison casting, now and/or ever.

  Code:

 Dungeon Crawl Stone Soup version 0.11.0 (console) character file.

Prannik the Conjurer (Deep Elf Conjurer)            Turns: 8259, Time: 00:42:50

HP  41/41        AC  4     Str  4      XL: 8   Next: 79%
MP  23/25        EV 13     Int 23      God:
Gold 193         SH  0     Dex 17      Spells:  5 memorised,  4 levels left

Res.Fire  : . . .   See Invis. : .   C - quarterstaff
Res.Cold  : . . .   Warding    : .   a - +0 elf robe
Life Prot.: + . .   Conserve   : .   (no shield)
Res.Poison: +       Res.Corr.  : .   (no helmet)
Res.Elec. : .       Clarity    : .   (no cloak)
Sust.Abil.: . .     Spirit.Shd : .   n - +1 pair of gloves
Res.Mut.  : .       Stasis     : .   (no boots)
Res.Rott. : .       Ctrl.Telep.: .   (no amulet)
Saprovore : . . .   Levitation : .   t - ring of life protection
                    Ctrl.Flight: .   j - ring of poison resistance

@: somewhat resistant to hostile enchantments, quite stealthy
A: camouflage 1, deformed body, fast metabolism 2, AC +1, Str -1, Dex +2
a: no special abilities


You are on level 5 of the Dungeon.
You are not hungry.

You have visited 1 branch of the dungeon, and seen 6 of its levels.
You have also visited: Ossuary.

You have collected 173 gold pieces.

Inventory:

Hand weapons
 g - a blowgun
 o - a dagger (quivered)
 w - a sling
 C - an uncursed quarterstaff (weapon)
Missiles
 i - 7 darts
 l - 17 exploding darts
 m - 12 poisoned needles
 y - 37 stones
Armour
 a - a +0 elven robe (worn)
 n - a +1 pair of gloves (worn)
Magical devices
 d - a wand of lightning {empty}
Comestibles
 b - 2 bread rations
 A - 2 chokos
 H - 2 meat rations
Scrolls
 e - 5 scrolls of remove curse
 h - 4 scrolls of identify
 p - 2 scrolls of enchant armour
 q - a scroll labeled STENAP KLOYMMU
 r - a scroll labeled UHEALE RAMNA
 s - a scroll labeled ICUFALA NERUOL
 u - a scroll labeled TWUFEYCOXA
 v - 2 scrolls of magic mapping
 x - a scroll labeled THRIPRA ZUOJA
 z - a scroll labeled IWKIKK HUCYUPN
 B - a scroll labeled XEADEF TAJOA
 F - 2 scrolls of teleportation
Jewellery
 j - a ring of poison resistance (left hand)
 t - a ring of life protection (right hand)
Potions
 f - a potion of heal wounds
 D - a potion of might
Books
 c - a book of Conjurations   
   
   Spells                             Type                      Level
   *Magic Dart                        Conjuration                  1
   *Throw Frost                       Conjuration/Ice              2
   *Mephitic Cloud                    Conjuration/Poison/Air       3
   *Lightning Bolt                    Conjuration/Air              5
   *Bolt of Cold                      Conjuration/Ice              6
   Freezing Cloud                     Conjuration/Ice/Air          6
 k - a Young Poisoner's Handbook   
   
   Spells                             Type                      Level
   Sting                              Conjuration/Poison           1
   Cure Poison                        Poison                       2
   *Mephitic Cloud                    Conjuration/Poison/Air       3
   Olgreb's Toxic Radiance            Poison                       4
   Venom Bolt                         Conjuration/Poison           5


   Skills:
 + Level 0.7 Staves
 - Level 2.4 Dodging
 - Level 2.4 Stealth
 - Level 7.0 Spellcasting
 + Level 9.1 Conjurations
 * Level 2.9 Ice Magic
 - Level 4.0 Air Magic
 - Level 2.0 Poison Magic


You have 4 spell levels left.
You know the following spells:

 Your Spells              Type           Power        Failure   Level  Hunger
a - Magic Dart            Conj           #####        1%          1    None
b - Mephitic Cloud        Conj/Pois/Air  #####....    3%          3    None
c - Lightning Bolt        Conj/Air       ######....   17%         5    ####...
d - Throw Frost           Conj/Ice       ######.      1%          2    None
e - Bolt of Cold          Conj/Ice       ######....   91%         6    ######.


Dungeon Overview and Level Annotations

Branches:
Dungeon (6/27)           
Temple: D:4-7          Orc: D:6-11     

Altars:
Elyvilon
Kikubaaqudgha
Xom

Annotations
D:6 Dowan, Duvessa, Pikel


Innate Abilities, Weirdness & Mutations

You are partially covered in slimy green scales (AC +1).
You have a somewhat thin skeletal structure (Dex +2, Str -1, Stlth).
Your skin changes colour to match your surroundings (Stlth).
Armour fits poorly on your strangely shaped body.
You have a very fast metabolism.



Now the question is, do I invest more skill points into another school which, while very useful in the near term, in the long term isn't going to help me against most of the things my current layout of spells aren't useful against, to wit, undead. While cold spells are pretty useful for a fairly large variety of critters, undead happen to be immune to both cold and poison, and pretty much anything that a poison spell could kill, a cold spell could also kill relatively easily, although I have found that you can use slightly less SP to kill things with poison if you are willing to run away

I'm thinking that if I'm going to branch into poison, I'd best do it soon, before it's not a useful thing, but I'm also leaning towards just chucking the book and holding out until I find one I want.

Opinions?

[BlackSheep]

You've already cherry picked the best spell out of the poison book. Mephitic Cloud is great a crowd control tool, and it dovetails nicely with your existing skill set. It's loud, though, so be wary of that. If I have a couple spare spell levels, I'll also memorize Cure Poison to cut down on the amount of resting I have to do.

If you can get Freezing Cloud castable, you'll be well set up for the majority of a 3 rune run. It's worth noting that undead are immune to poison and resist cold. You can still kill undead with freezing cloud.

[crate]

The only poison conjuration you should consider learning is poison arrow (and that's because parrow is the best single-target conjuration in the game for 3 runes). Bolt of cold/lightning bolt outperfom bolt of venom, and you can use fcloud instead of pcloud, and that about covers the useful poison spells.

You would be much better served by working toward freezing cloud than by getting any of those poison conjurations.

[Siegurt]

Yes, getting fcloud online is high on the list of concerns (I don't need it yet by any means, D:6 is served by spells that don't cost me any food , the question really was is it worth it to divert over into poison magic prior to having level 6 spells being my bread and butter (I find that if I try to use them too early I consume all my permafood and am then fairly screwed. With a DE I can get level 6 spells foodless (or at least not insane food costs) sooner than other races, but I played a little mutation roulette and ended up with fast metabolism 2, so I'm very concerned about keeping my character fed (and won't be touching any corpseless branches until I get that little problem under control) and want to stay away from overly-high level spells until they're either cheap (food wise) or I've licked my eating disorder.

I am sorta tempted to use Jyvia if I find an early altar, Haven't selected a god yet, so while it's a weird choice it might be viable, I am concerned about jellys mindlessly wandering into my cloud spells though, perhaps that's not such a good idea after all...

Anywho no-one's countered my leaning towards just ignoring this spellbook (Maybe I'll grab cure poison, I haven't done lair yet, but I do have an rPoison ring, but you still get hit with an occasional poisoning, probably not worth the spell levels though, I might use it once or twice, hmm...)

[crate]

Jiyva is fine, you might occasionally kill a jelly with fcloud but it is Jiyva so you will be out of penance shortly afterward. Most likely you won't find an altar before finding Slime though so unless you are willing to go godless that long it's probably not important.

[Siegurt]

Feh, gliding down floors no lair as of D:11, only ORC (not ready yet) go down to d12 and we've got

staircase A: two ogres, nessos an orc warrior and two orc priests, Hmm, no my level 10 DDCj isn't quite ready for that noise.
staircase B: near-instant surrounded with a dozen or so killer bees, flee and kill the two that came up the stairs, Maybe could stairdance that, but don't really wanna, let's check the other staircase
Staircase C: A couple orcs and a priest, nice, nuke the priest, and a warrior appears to take his place, confuse him and his two orc buddies, and the wizards and other warrior that joined in the fray from just out of LOS, and finally kill the lot of them, and then I get hit by something invisible, As I'm low on SP this might be a big problem, let's take it upstairs.
Something is hitting me with a flaming scimitar, cloud it and back away, Erica appears, de-confuses and starts flinging spells at me, I'm desperately low on SP, so I head toward another staircase with Erica hot on my heels... and who should I bump into but a pair of slime creatures, Hm, low on HP I try to run another way, but by this point I've lost track of Erica (she re-invised) and walk right into her, try to back up, and find my way blocked by one *large* slime creature, I go splat.

*sigh* on to the next character

Seriously, I seem to get splatted with low ac/hp chars over and over again, I don't know how one wins consistently with them, just seems like they wander into something that oneshots them far too often. How does one keep a frail little spellcaster from wandering around a corner and getting spatted by something huge that wasn't there a minute ago?

[BlackSheep]

Were you out of teleport scrolls?

[Psieye]

This is why I like Wz more than Cj - I get more tools to survive with. Of course the problem then becomes "but what if you don't find a spellbook for Lair?" Which is why I like training bows on my mages - that way I am guaranteed to have a way of outputting good damage (or at least, conserve mana for imp spam) if I get unlucky in my book drops (Sif and Vehumet don't give book gifts until it's a tad too late).

[Siegurt]

I had two in my inventory, but I didn't know I would need them, Erica appeared, zapped me, but I was right next to a corner to get me out of LOS, but when I stepped around it there was a bright green J to take me from 24 -> -2 hps.

When she zapped me the first time I knew that I could get around the corner, then I'd have plenty of space to tp away, but I wasn't willing to count on taking less than 24 points from the second zap (She doesn't *usually* hit for more than 20 but still.) so I figured I'd read the scroll when I was safely out of her blasting zone. But little did I know there was death lurking around that there corner.

[JeffQyzt]

Death is lurking around every corner.