Favorite weapon/spell/incantation?

[AtT]

I'm curious what weapons,spells, and incantations people prefer. I'm not asking for the best stuff just the ones you like best, the ones that you find a reason to use, no matter how marginal the benefit is. I'm partial to slings of flame and bows with venom. My favorite spells would have to be either the fulsome distillation/evaporation combo or conjure flame. For incantations I'm going to have to pick recite. Nothing better than preaching to heretics and making them confused/bleed/blind. I wish there was a full version of the recitation so I could attempt a "recite" spell on the general public. Not many people where I live would probably pass the "intelligent" requirement so I doubt it would have any effect.

[Dustbin]

Demonwhip of pain/Agony/kiku torment

By your powers combined I am a free 5 runes!

I love M&F because Dwhip is 1handed and only needs 12 skill, and is still absolutely amazing. And pain is tab to victory almost anywhere except hell + pan.
Agony may check MR, but it still seems to work way too often on most threatening high hp mobs like Titans/giants, sphinxes and such, and lots of mid-end game uniques. It's also got full vision range which is fantastic and gives you plenty of time to blast it.
And kiku torment because TRJ loves it!

[Baldurino]

Weapon: Triple sword of speed
Spell: Fire Storm
Invocation:
Not many people here would probably pass the "intelligent" requirement so I doubt it would have any effect.

stop putting Yaktaur dong in your mouth and maybe recite will work

[AtT]

Weapon: Triple sword of speed
Spell: Fire Storm
Invocation:
Not many people here would probably pass the "intelligent" requirement so I doubt it would have any effect.

stop putting Yaktaur dong in your mouth and maybe recite will work

LOL by "here" I meant my college. Just nearly ran over some dumbass chick who was just standing in the road looking at traffic. I'll have to edit my original post

[MyOtheHedgeFox]

Lajatangs -- for the way they look and for the power they show when your adventurers meet Agnes.


Freezing Cloud and Poisonous Cloud are one of the best spells when it comes to combining efficiency with destructive beauty: they look nice, they both require some skill to use, and they are powerful.
Throw Icicle is the simpliest and yet the best looking idea. It's like throwing charmed ice daggers -- I always imagine them when my adventurers use this spell.


Reciting the Axioms to the monsters is a really nice thing flavour-wise, though I could not see its real power. I wonder how these strings are built and whether it will be hard to use this routine for other languages.

From the "Zin expels Blork" topic created by Whelk:

[Jeremiah]

More for 'coolness' than power, though they are pretty powerful as well.

Favourite weapon - staff of earth
Favourite spell - delayed fireball
Favourite invocation - triple draw

[jejorda2]

The Staff of Olgreb is my favorite item in the game. I got it in four consecutive games in 2009. The first time, it was a gift from Trog and allowed me to beat Elf:5 for the first time. I don't think I've seen it since.

[Konebred]

Noob here. Nothing makes me happier in the extreme early game than finding a blowgun and a bunch of poison/curare needles with any character. It makes any early ogres, some uniques and most insects a breeze to kite with, pun fully intended. As for spells I am going with blink. My slow arsed ice mage came on a centaur on level 3 or 4 the other day and I knew I couldn't run so I blink scrolled right next to him and lit him up with freeze. I felt pro that day. Blink has gotten me out of so much trouble it isn't funny, except when it is.

[AtT]

Noob here. Nothing makes me happier in the extreme early game than finding a blowgun and a bunch of poison/curare needles with any character. It makes any early ogres, some uniques and most insects a breeze to kite with, pun fully intended. As for spells I am going with blink. My slow arsed ice mage came on a centaur on level 3 or 4 the other day and I knew I couldn't run so I blink scrolled right next to him and lit him up with freeze. I felt pro that day. Blink has gotten me out of so much trouble it isn't funny, except when it is.

you know i really don't use those thats probably a good idea LOL. Blink is great too. It seems like when I play wizard tho I never find any books w/ better damage spells and sif/veh do not treat me well :/ but the RNG hates me anyway

[Happy Corner]

you know i really don't use those thats probably a good idea LOL. Blink is great too. It seems like when I play wizard tho I never find any books w/ better damage spells and sif/veh do not treat me well :/ but the RNG hates me anyway

If you're not adverse to branching into Necromancy, you could go with Kiku instead. He gives his books MUCH sooner than Sif or Vehumet. (Sure, you could just begin as a Necromancer... but then you don't have a starter book with Blink, Repel Missiles, AND Mephitic Cloud on top of all the Necromancy books you'll get.)

[AtT]

i'll probably start doing that regularly for races that don't suck at necro. sif and veh are real dicks to me and so is trog sometimes. no guaranteed gift = no gift basically. Took me till L5 to get my first gift from trog on my spriggan berserker and I had heard of people getting it on D3-4. Piety shot way the hell up like it was supposed to but trog was feeling stingy

and lol at blork the orc. my favorite unique <3

[Un67]

Favorite Weapon: Demon whip. Any kind except distortion or AM for casters. They're made of pure condensed awesome.
Favorite Spell: Poison Arrow. Only got it castable one time, but I killed everything with it. EVERYTHING.
Favorite Invocation: Brothers in Arms. Destroys absolutely everything up to the endgame.

[joellercoaster]

I still love Shatter!

The Sword of Zonguldrok is also entirely made awesome (apparently it's more useful now, but of course I haven't seen it since the changes).

As for "spells I learn out of love rather than usefulness", I went through a phase of trying to get Evaporate and Fulsome Distillation working on really inappropriate characters

[edit: Forgot the invocation. I will never get tired of Yredelemnul's damage mirror, which I have just realised would have saved me from what I still think of as my most embarrassing zotsplat, had I only remembered its existence.]

[hayenne]

Favorite weapon: sacred scourge (demon whip)
Favorite spell: Fire Storm. I love to see BIG explosions on a screen, especially when they are not aimed at you. The most enjoyable spell ever since I saw it in action.
Favorite invocation: Nemelex prayer, if it could be called an invocation. Yay for Crawl vacuum cleaner!

[molari]

Love weapons of returning. Just feel like such a badass hurling a dagger into the back of a fleeing enemy before it snaps back into my hand.

[Pteriforever]

Weapons of chaos for some reason.

[AtT]

Love weapons of returning. Just feel like such a badass hurling a dagger into the back of a fleeing enemy before it snaps back into my hand.

I've been looking for a spear of returning for a long time. THAT would be badass.

[Stormfox]

Love weapons of returning. Just feel like such a badass hurling a dagger into the back of a fleeing enemy before it snaps back into my hand.

I've been looking for a spear of returning for a long time. THAT would be badass.

I don't think spears can get the returning brand, but a stack of javelins of returning (especially an early one) is a game breaker for any race with half-decent Throwing aptitude. (That is if javelins can still get that brand...)

Of course, because Crawl Loves You, you will only find them when playing a spriggan.

EDIT: Yup, javelins of returning still exist in the latest trunk. Found some a couple of games ago and had entirely too much fun with them, while I lived.

[Blade]

Sticky Flame+Sheep. It is a beautiful sight.

My favorite weapons tend to be rods (which I am counting as weapons), and I haven't played enough with incantations to have a favorite.

[cerebovssquire]

Weapon: Katanas, I mourn for you; Unarmed Combat then.
Of course my new favourite weapon is the Autumn Katana, the +8/+8 vorpal long sword with Dam +5 and Clarity. Also, the Sword of Cerebov is cool (but okay, kinda useless).
Spell: Malign Gateway sounds soooo awesome it has to be that despite I have never casted it. Plan to, though!
Favourite invocation: The whole Elyvilon set, and Imprison. That berserk Orb Guardian my HOPr of Zin encountered looked really lame after it.

[pratamawirya]

Fav weapon: Blowgun + paralysis needles (paralyzing big guys like Dispater and killing them in one or two stabs look quite hilarious)
Fav spell: Statue Form (since 0.9, this is the new cool)
Fav invocation: Slouch (powerful and hilarious effect on a bunch of fast creatures)

[joellercoaster]

Fav invocation: Slouch (powerful and hilarious effect on a bunch of fast creatures)

Oooh yeah, I do love Slouch. I haven't played Chei since my first win, I think you've just nudged me into doing it again

[ramas]

Another noob here...I use to play always the same few combinations, but for now im stick with Fire Elementalists and my favourite spell is Inner Flame...I really enjoy when an escaping enemy with stiky flame on it runs towards his firends...then...*BOOOM*!

With some care (i.e. meph clouds, poison), it is possbile to have some funny chain reaction!

[Blade]

Okay, I've changed my mind. After finding some success with a Fire Elementalist, my new favorite spell is Ignite Poison. I cannot remember every having so much fun in Crawl as when I cleared Hive by spamming it. ...even when I used it while standing over a bee corpse and burned my scroll of blinking, it was fun.

As for weapons...lajatangs. Especially lajatangs of speed. They're awesome.

[Zelkelion]

My favorite things are honestly scrolls of Identify.