[CiP] Promising HaHu of Okawaru

[fspades]

Hi Tavern! Long time no see... I haven't played Crawl since 0.9 version times I believe. Yesterday I decided to kill some time with it and welp, I'm hooked to this damn game again!

I have been trying HaHu for some time now and finally I have a really great going one. I know it's a bit early but I have been lucky with items. I'm feeling comfortable with him right now but we all know that's a bad omen in this game. So I want to ask some questions to delay his inevitable & horrible death.

Here's the character:

  Code:

 Dungeon Crawl Stone Soup version 0.12.1 (tiles) character file.

Fordo Boggit the Whirler (Halfling Hunter)         Turns: 18082, Time: 02:44:30

HP  75/83        AC 11     Str  9 (10) XL: 13   Next:  4%
MP  19/19        EV 27     Int 11      God: Okawaru [*****.]
Gold 306         SH  0     Dex 21      Spells:  3 memorised,  5 levels left

Res.Fire  : . . .   See Invis. : .   a - demon blade
Res.Cold  : . . .   Warding    : .   k - +3 leather armour of Curiosity {rN+}
Life Prot.: + + .   Conserve   : .   (no shield)
Res.Poison: +       Res.Corr.  : .   z - +1 wizard hat
Res.Elec. : +       Clarity    : .   e - +2 dwarf cloak
Sust.Abil.: . .     Spirit.Shd : .   n - +0 pair of gloves
Res.Mut.  : .       Stasis     : .   (no boots)
Res.Rott. : .       Ctrl.Telep.: .   y - amulet of rage
Saprovore : . . .   Flight     : .   I - +2 ring of evasion
                                     j - ring of Kowomp {rElec rPois rN+ MR}

@: burdened, slow, quite resistant to hostile enchantments, fairly stealthy
A: mutation resistance 1, slow metabolism 1
a: Heroism, Finesse, Renounce Religion, Evoke Berserk Rage


You are on level 4 of the Lair of Beasts.
You worship Okawaru.
Okawaru is exalted by your worship.
You are encumbered.
You are very full.

You have visited 3 branches of the dungeon, and seen 15 of its levels.

You have collected 626 gold pieces.
You have spent 340 gold pieces at shops.

Inventory:

Hand weapons
 a - an uncursed demon blade (weapon)
 b - a +1,+1 sling
 q - the +1,+2 sabre "Toubluth" {holy, rElec rPois Int+2}
   (You found it on level 8 of the Dungeon)   
   
   It has been blessed by the Shining One to cause great damage to the undead
   and demons.
   
   It affects your intelligence (+2).
   It insulates you from electricity.
   It protects you from poison.
Missiles
 c - 79 sling bullets
 h - 16 sling bullets of flame
 t - 22 silver sling bullets
 C - 24 exploding sling bullets
Armour
 e - a +2 dwarven cloak (worn)
 k - the +3 leather armour of Curiosity (worn) {rN+}
   (You found it on level 5 of the Dungeon)   
   
   It protects you from negative energy.
 n - a +0 pair of gloves (worn)
 z - a +1 wizard hat (worn)
 K - a +1 elven robe of cold resistance
Magical devices
 i - a wand of paralysis (3)
 D - a wand of fireball (5)
 F - a wand of confusion (14)
 G - a wand of magic darts (6)
 J - a wand of heal wounds (2)
Comestibles
 f - 5 bread rations
 v - 6 meat rations
Scrolls
 l - 3 scrolls of fear
 w - 7 scrolls of remove curse
 B - 2 scrolls of fog
 E - a scroll of teleportation
Jewellery
 j - the ring of Kowomp (left hand) {rElec rPois rN+ MR}
   (You found it on level 10 of the Dungeon)   
   
   [ring of life protection]
   It insulates you from electricity.
   It protects you from poison.
   It affects your resistance to hostile enchantments.
 p - an uncursed ring of fire
 u - an uncursed amulet of clarity
 x - a ring of ice
 y - an amulet of rage (around neck)
 I - a +2 ring of evasion (right hand)
Potions
 d - a potion of porridge
 g - 2 potions of curing
 m - 2 potions of agility
 o - 2 potions of speed
 A - 6 potions of heal wounds
Miscellaneous
 s - a plain deck of defence {the Mercenary}


   Skills:
 + Level 6,9 Fighting
 - Level 14,0 Short Blades
 * Level 2,4 Long Blades
 + Level 17,2 Slings
 + Level 12,2 Dodging
 - Level 6,1 Stealth
 - Level 1,1 Stabbing
 + Level 1,4 Translocations
 + Level 1,2 Invocations
 - Level 4,0 Evocations


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

 Your Spells              Type           Power        Failure   Level  Hunger
a - Blink                 Tloc           N/A          41%         2    ###....
b - Repel Missiles        Chrm/Air       #.........   67%         2    ###....
c - Flight                Chrm/Air       #.........   95%         3    ####...


Dungeon Overview and Level Annotations

Branches:
Dungeon (10/27)            Temple (1/1) D:5            Lair (4/8) D:10
 Shoals (0/5) Lair:3     
   Orc: D:6-11       Swamp: Lair:3-6     Snake: Lair:3-6    Spider: Lair:3-6

Altars:
Ashenzari
Cheibriados
Elyvilon
Fedhas
Kikubaaqudgha
Makhleb
Nemelex Xobeh
Okawaru
Sif Muna
Trog
Vehumet
Xom
Yredelemnul
Zin
the Shining One

Shops:
D:10: +


Innate Abilities, Weirdness & Mutations

You are small and have problems with some larger weapons.
You are somewhat resistant to further mutation.
You have a slow metabolism.

And here are my questions:

1) Skill training... This is the most confusing aspect of new crawl for me. Should I focus on one or two skills at a time or can I spread them like I'm somewhat doing right now? How much further should I train Slings? When should I focus on magic? Should I train Evocations further?

2) Weapon choice... I took a Demon Blade from Maude really early. Which is awesome! But I'm a Halfling, which is less awesome . I can't use a buckler with this, right? I really, really doubt Short Blades and Slings can carry me all the way forward in this game. But what other choice do I have? Stick with Demon Blade?

3) Anything important should I know about changes between 0.9 and this version I should know about? Besides skill system change I mean...

[dirtywick]

I wouldn't actually use the demon blade until your skill is higher, and you can use a shield with it. With this skill system though you can turn everything off but long blades and use a short blade and still gain xp in long blades. Before all of that though I'd train Invocations to use finesse and heroism more reliably, get blink and rmsl under 10%, then worry about long blades. I'd also drop a lot of the sling bullets to stop being burdened, you won't need that many and Oka will give you more.

[rchandra]

at any given time, train one skill (out of laziness, training 2-3 skills and using focus can make sense). change that skill whenever you decide something else is more important. If you are training more than one, using manual mode splits the xp evenly (useful for not worrying about victory dancing).

I'd use the demon blade once you get some invocations and your spells more reliable - its description will say if it's 2h for halflings, but I don't think it is.

and yeah, don't be burdened.

You can take a skim through the changelog (http://gitorious.org/crawl/crawl/blobs/ ... ngelog.txt) - this list includes some of the 0.13 changes, but you can scroll down to see 0.12/11/10