YASD - Failed Ziggurat run

[JeffQyzt]

So - how long does Death's Door last, anyway? Is it extend-able?

[Jenx]

Goddamit, I want to make an Air Elementalist so badly, but they all die too damn fast.

Also what does this mean?

- Kenku are incredibly powerful. HP from Fighting skill should change to depend on species HP; kenku are supposed to be fragile, but right now they aren't because they get so much Fighting skill. I'd say kenku are even more effective than deep elves.

As far as I know Kenku have a 0 aptitude in Fighting, so it's not like they are better at it than other races.

[dpeg]

minmay: We need your input... any suggestions for what to nerf, and how?

[Lantier]

I just started a Kenku AE myself! He seems to work just fine. MP pool is a bit low at the beginning, but viable, as long as I picked my targets and used as much bounce as possible.

With Swiftness and a lucky realy Sustenance ring, he's almost like a more feathery (and slightly chubbier) version of a Spriggan.

@ minmay: I noticed you went with Siffy. Can you tell me why? I just found her altar on D4 and am wondering if I should jump on her now, or keep looking for Ash or Vehmy.

@ Jenx: I dunno, Milo's just been whacking things with a big stick he found on D1. Seems to do the trick. I'm hoping the skill levels kick in soon...

  Code:

 Dungeon Crawl Stone Soup version 0.8.0-a0-5263-gffd1c9c character file.

Milo the Gusty (Kenku Air Elementalist)                                                                                                             Turns: 5806, Time: 00:34:19

HP  28/28        AC  2     Str  9      Exp: 6/594 (350), need: 81
MP  14/14        EV 12     Int 17      God:
Gold 97          SH  0     Dex 14      Spells:  4 memorised,  5 levels left

Res.Fire  : . . .   See Invis. : .   f - quarterstaff
Res.Cold  : . . .   Warding    : .   a - +0 robe (curse)
Life Prot.: . . .   Conserve   : .   (no shield)
Res.Acid. : . . .   Res.Corr.  : .   (helmet restricted)
Res.Poison: .       Clarity    : +   (no cloak)
Res.Elec. : .       Spirit.Shd : .   (no gloves)
Sust.Abil.: + .     Stasis     : .   (boots unavailable)
Res.Mut.  : .       Ctrl.Telep.: .   m - amulet of clarity
Res.Rott. : .       Levitation : .   k - ring of sustenance
Saprovore : . . .   Ctrl.Flight: +   j - ring of sustain abilities

@: slightly resistant to hostile enchantments, fairly stealthy
A: able to fly, beak, talons 3
a: Fly


You are on level 4 of the Dungeon.
You are not hungry.

You have visited 1 branch of the dungeon, and seen 4 of its levels.

You have collected 77 gold pieces.

Inventory:

Hand weapons
 f - an uncursed quarterstaff (weapon)
 o - an uncursed knife
Missiles
 d - 8 steel javelins (quivered)
Armour
 a - a cursed +0 robe (worn)
Comestibles
 c - 2 bread rations
 n - 3 rotting chunks of worker ant flesh
 s - a meat ration
Scrolls
 h - 5 scrolls of remove curse
 p - a scroll of identify
 q - a scroll labeled RIER NUIMMIWAI
Jewellery
 j - a ring of sustain abilities (left hand)
 k - a ring of sustenance (right hand)
 m - an amulet of clarity (around neck)
 r - a silver ring
Potions
 e - a cyan potion
 g - a lumpy inky potion
 i - a potion of heal wounds
 l - a slimy pink potion
Books
 b - a book of Air   
   Spells                             Type                      Level
   *Shock                             Conjuration/Air              1
   *Swiftness                         Charms/Air                   2
   *Repel Missiles                    Charms/Air                   2
   Levitation                         Charms/Air                   2
   *Mephitic Cloud                    Conjuration/Poison/Air       3
   Static Discharge                   Conjuration/Air              4
   


 You have 350 experience left.

   Skills:
 - Level 1 Staves
 - Level 1 Throwing
 - Level 2 Dodging
 - Level 2 Stealth
 + Level 4 Spellcasting
 - Level 4 Conjurations
 - Level 5 Air Magic


You have 5 spell levels left.
You know the following spells:

 Your Spells              Type           Power        Success   Level  Hunger
a - Shock                 Air/Conj       ####.        Excellent   1    None
c - Mephitic Cloud        Pois/Air/Conj  ###.......   Very Good   3    Choko
r - Repel Missiles        Air/Chrm       ###.......   Great       2    Strawberry
z - Swiftness             Air/Chrm       ###.......   Great       2    Strawberry


Dungeon Overview and Level Annotations

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

Altars:
Fedhas
Makhleb
Nemelex Xobeh
Sif Muna
Yredelemnul

Annotations
D:3 exclusion: Sigmund


                    Innate Abilities, Weirdness & Mutations

You can fly.
You have a beak for a mouth.
You have claws for feet.


Message History

Things that are here:
an orc skeleton; an orcish dagger
Found an elven dagger.
Found a deep blue altar of Sif Muna.
r - a silver ring
Welcome back, Milo the Kenku Air Elementalist.
Press ? for a list of commands and other information.

 ...............#.o#####.### #<#  #.#.####
   #.........#..#.o#   #...  #.#  #.#.....
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   #.........#..#..#   #..####.#  #.......
   #.........#..#..#   #.....#.#######..#.
   ##...######..#..#####.###.#..........#.
#####...######..#...%..%.....##########.##
...................#####.##..#..........##
##############.....^#....................#
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      ..........#   #.#........#       #.#
      ###############.#.#..#...#       #.#
            ........@.#.#..#...#       #..
            .#######..# #..#...#       ###
                   #.)# ####...#
                   #..#    ....#
                   #..#     .#.#
                   #..#
                   #..#
                   #_.#
                   #..


There are no monsters in sight!

Vanquished Creatures
  2 ogres
  An orc wizard (D:4)
  A worker ant (D:4)
  3 gnolls (D:3)
  7 snakes
  A giant mite (D:3)
  A worm (D:3)
  6 giant geckos
  8 giant cockroaches
  7 hobgoblins
  4 jackals (D:2)
  8 orcs (D:4)
  2 giant newts
  7 goblins
  6 kobolds
  9 megabats
  10 rats
  A toadstool (D:3)
84 creatures vanquished.

Vanquished Creatures (others)
  A kobold (D:2)
  A rat (D:2)
  9 toadstools
11 creatures vanquished.

Grand Total: 95 creatures vanquished

Notes
Turn   | Place   | Note
--------------------------------------------------------------
     0 | D:1     | Milo, the Kenku Air Elementalist, began the quest for the Orb.
     0 | D:1     | Reached XP level 1. HP: 8/8 MP: 3/3
   441 | D:1     | Reached skill level 1 in Throwing
   859 | D:1     | Killed monsters: 0 trivial, 8 easy, 0 tough, 0 nasty; 5 corpses
   859 | D:1     | Reached XP level 2. HP: 12/12 MP: 4/4
  1884 | D:2     | Killed monsters: 5 trivial, 10 easy, 0 tough, 0 nasty; 9 corpses
  1884 | D:2     | Reached XP level 3. HP: 16/16 MP: 5/5
  2265 | D:2     | Found a blossoming altar of Fedhas.
  2512 | D:2     | Learned a level 3 spell: Mephitic Cloud
  2552 | D:2     | Killed monsters: 10 trivial, 2 easy, 0 tough, 1 nasty; 8 corpses
  2552 | D:2     | Reached XP level 4. HP: 20/20 MP: 6/7
  2552 | D:2     | Killed monsters: 0 trivial, 0 easy, 0 tough, 0 nasty; 0 corpses
  2552 | D:2     | Reached XP level 5. HP: 25/25 MP: 7/8
  2586 | D:2     | Learned a level 2 spell: Swiftness
  2590 | D:3     | Found a basalt altar of Yredelemnul.
  3345 | D:3     | Found a sparkling altar of Nemelex Xobeh.
  3357 | D:3     | Reached skill level 5 in Air Magic
  3603 | D:3     | Found a burning altar of Makhleb.
  3958 | D:3     | Noticed Sigmund
  4364 | D:3     | Reached skill level 1 in Staves
  4923 | D:4     | Killed monsters: 24 trivial, 10 easy, 0 tough, 0 nasty; 17 corpses
  4923 | D:4     | Reached XP level 6. HP: 28/28 MP: 9/12
  4928 | D:4     | Learned a level 2 spell: Repel Missiles
  5803 | D:4     | Found a deep blue altar of Sif Muna.


[Kate]

Removing Archmagi's wizardry effect sounds sensible (but have it boost power for all spells, since it's sort of arbitrary that some are unaffected currently). I also agree with reducing Tornado damage (but restoring it to pure air, hopefully). We talked about making HP from fighting depend on species HP in IRC recently, I think it has a good amount of support but is quite a lot of work to implement.

[evilmike]

Regarding kenkus: I won't talk too much about their actual aptitudes, but I will say that they have a fairly low win rate overall. I queried Sequell, and of the currently available races, Kenkus rank near the bottom at only 0.33% of games won. The only races lower than that are high elves, demonspawn, vampires, mummies, and deep elves, in that order. Also of note is that the average win rate is 0.4%.

Kenkus do have an abnormally high quit/leave rate due to interface reasons, though (people sometimes press qq to try to leave the character creation menu, and kenkus are assigned to q). Ignoring those games, kenkus have a win rate of 0.46%, which is only slightly above average.

All of these races are fairly strong (aside from mummies), and win rates don't say everything about balance, but I think these numbers show that even though kenkus are quite strong with some character builds, they aren't exactly overpowered. They're a lot like deep elves in that they have a somewhat tough early game in exchange for more power later on.

Anyway, I thought these numbers might help, for anyone curious. Crawl has a lot of imbalanced stuff but I'm skeptical about kenkus being imbalanced per se.

[Grimm]

0.4%. I am going to have a stiff drink.

[Stormfox]

0.4%. I am going to have a stiff drink.

Sorry, if you want a potion of booze you'll have to play Nethack or Angband.

[gb]

i just tried a kenku wizard only to be taken down by crazy yiuf, he must have had a cloak of poison resistance because mephitic cloud didn't affect him. character was going pretty well and if i had gotten that cloak i'd have been set. i just can't get a kenku going...