The Tavern

I decided to play an experimental game where I play a "normal" character, but don't eat any chunks at all. I'm not really sure what all this will change, but I've come across my first decision point in Lair:8:

Should I go for it or not? For reference, I'm currently carrying all the uneaten food I've seen up until this point.

(well, technically it's my second decision point: I might have opted not to finish Lair at all once I found snake/shoals)

I suspect the conduct does not work well with Trog, berserk costs much food, all other invocations require food too. Jiyva might be easier.

Edit. I would enter Lab.

Or playing a Spriggan.

If you believe you can get through it pretty smoothly, yes. Otherwise it's not worth the risk, especially with berserk hunger later.

I rarely eat chunks in my runs just because 10 seconds later you are 'hungry' again and it's evil and annoying.

With any luck, I won't need to berserk much. MiBe can be pretty tough! I do wish I knew whether Trog's Hand or resting was more food efficient for healing, but I'm not going to worry about that now.

I hadn't considered a god that feeds you: that could work for the actual conduct challenge, and I might try it sometime. But for now, I wanted to see how much of a restriction it puts on an otherwise normal character. I was a bit nervous at one point when I was down to just 2 meat rations, but things are somewhat better now.

I expect to try a basic 3-rune snake/shoals/vaults. Although if my food situation is really good at that point, I might try more.

But then "no chunks" conduct would become meaningless. I think OP can check if chunks eating is really needed for melee characters.

My Fe almost starved to death by spamming invisibility/haste and high hunger spells so I suspect chunks eating is really needed for some characters.

So would it if he'd follow Jiyva. Well, the difference is you need to find an altar first.

Zin might be a fun choice for this. You don't care about his food restriction, vitalise feeds you a little, and recite costs no food.

My minotaurs have had good luck with starting places, and I have a wand of disintegration: I decide to do it. Turned out I got bad start, but the wand let me short-cut. Alas there was nothing remarkable: just filled out my jewelry selection and got a couple artifacts I can't use.

Ow, Snake is really rough on low-EV mid-game characters. I went through a bajillion potions of heal wounds. Also quite a few potions of curing despite rPois.

But, I've managed to come away with the serpentine rune, so progress. I did have to berserk several times and used Trog's hand a lot, so I'm down to 3 meat rations. Not an emergency yet, but I'm unhappy about it.

I think Orc should be next on the agenda: I need more exp, and maybe the shops will have something useful. (I actually want a food shop for once!)

If I try this again I might try Zin as suggested. I really ought to play him sometime to see what I think: the description makes him seem weird to choose.

If you are trying to save food, don't use ring of regeneration unless absolutely needed. Resting is more food efficient.

do not listen to that and use a ring of regen if you find one because they are really good.
I've done this a couple of times without really noticing it btw and there is much more enough food in the dungeon than you'll ever need.

wear the ring of regeneration because it will mean less piety decay which will mean better weapons which will mean you lose less hp which will mean you rest less which will mean you use less food.

... unless, of course, that chain of tenuous implications falls apart at any point. It's especially a stretch, since I already have +1,+4 anti-magic exe axe and +0,+5 anti-magic battleaxe.

Had to berserk twice for Orc: once for a warlord (although it was probably overkill) and once for Saint Roka's band. A couple of Trog hands too. All in all, it cost me 2 meat rations to clear orc, so I was down to only one.

Orc shops offered up 2 meat rations, +2 boots of stealth, and +1 plate armour of cold resistance. (Roka dropped a +0 plate armour of poison resistance)

I'm a bit worried about doing Shoals. Evoking flight will cut into my food reserves, and it's annoying without flight. And there are Harpies.

But I should do more dungeon first.

Vaults might stress my food reserves through requiring berserk/bia. I wonder if abyssal rune is a better choice than vaults or maybe shoals? Anyways, we'll see how much food I have when I get that far.

Sorry, I was wrong. Regeneration rate for Mi with 137 HP is 32 for 3 nutrition points, ring of regeneration adds 40 for extra 3 nutrition points. Consider exploring non-dangerous levels at 80-90% HP without ring of regeneration.

How many ?Map do you have ?
It may be a good idea to go for shoals, reading a scroll when you think a good part of the map in unseen, and simply go without flying, but not clearing every last island...

Two scrolls of magic mapping.

I've cleared down to D:20. Dungeon is indeed somewhat more generous with food: I'm up to 8 meat rations now, despite a harpy eating one meat ration and one bread ration, and a Hungry Ghost landing a hit.

I suppose if I was playing to win the conduct (rather than playing to see how conduct affects game), I ought to be leaving all of my food on the previous level, to protect it from destruction.

I think it's time to do shoals next, and see how that goes.

So your conduct is "Don't eat chunks and have all permafood in inventory", isn't it?
If it is "don't eat chunks" only, then it can be optimal to leave the food on stairs before going down to next level. I find it boring too but it saves food on those rare occasions when a giant spore explodes as soon as you enter the level.

I'm not fully sure what the conduct is: I didn't really think too hard about it when I started.

Normally I would only carry one ration around with me, but that's because I mainly live on chunks. Or I am a spriggan and finding fruit's enough to stay fed. With no chunks and normal metabolism, it's not clear what "normal" should be. I feel that always leaving food on previous floor goes against the spirit of the conduct, but in times of food surplus, stashing some food is reasonable too. But with high str, carrying all the food ought to be reasonable as well.

I try to always have 3+ rations, it makes me be less afraid of Banishment.

Ah, I made a mistake: I have Swamp, not Shoals. All of my worrying was for naught!

It was a bit of a risk, but I indulged myself and let Roxanne blink me close, so that I could chop her to bits with anti-magic axe. Also, yay Trog: I have exe axes of anti-magic, flaming, and freezing. I wonder how many more gifts I get by not eating any chunks?

Two runes down, and food situation is good. I'm optimistic now that I won't run into problems unless there are a million harpies in the lower dungeons. Still have to decide between abyss and vaults.

Vault was easy enough. Hitting 8 vault guards at a time is fun. I'm now standing on the portal to Zot, with 12 meat rations. I think I'll charge forth with my current inventory when I play next.

D:21 was odd: a fire-themed level with lava everywhere. I couldn't get everywhere without flight, and I left my flight ring back in my Vaults:1 stash, so I couldn't explore it. There was at least one treasure room (mostly gold), and there are still fairly large areas unexplored.

Those large unexplored areas behind lava are extremely dangerous (and fun).

And victory. Mostly trouble free, although I did narrowly escape getting killed by a torment from a summoned brimstone fiend which let an orb of fire blast at me at dangerously low HP levels.

Final food count: 8 meat rations.

I admit that I am a bit surprised. I had expected that some amount of chunk eating was necessary for a 3 rune game, even for a pure melee character. And while I was down to 1 meat ration after clearing snake/orc, I was at at least 3 meat rations for most of the game. And even that scare could probably have been avoided if I didn't do snake so early.

Congratulations and thank you for the experiment!