[Poll] When I screw up a character before Lair, I usually:

[sardonica]

What happens when you get a really bad mutation, or get rotted down by 20 HP, or get a cursed sling and no scrolls?

What do you do?

[rebthor]

First off, I try not to get into those situations in the first place.

If I do, I try to salvage the character but I do play more recklessly while doing so. For your cursed sling example, I would backtrack to get stones or bullets but at the same time, I'd definitely be more aggressive trying to cover new ground to see if I couldn't find a remove curse scroll.

[Blade]

Considering that I've never been in any of those situations, it's kinda hard to say.

My screwing up before lair usually takes the form of "oops. Now I'm dead."

[Jabberwocky]

If it's below ~D:4 I just roll a new char, if it's after that, I do all I can to save the char from that situation even if it means certain death later on. Escaping from a DrSt by diving into the orcish mines is a example.

[Jabberwocky]

Considering that I've never been in any of those situations, it's kinda hard to say.

You've never picked up a cursed sling?

[rebthor]

I've never picked up a cursed sling and wielded it without any way to use a sling or any way to remove the curse, no.

I don't think I've done this in ages either to be quite honest. It's drilled into you the first time you starve to death after wielding a cursed unbladed foo. At least now it's now as dangerous since you don't need a knife to butcher. That was always a nice FU from the RNG when you see a knife and wield it only to find that you're now in big trouble since you can't deal any damage and don't have any scrolls to remove the curse.

[Dustbin]

I almost never deliberately suicide, and I don't see many ways you could screw a character up, especially pre-lair. There's like, choosing TSO on a necro or something, or quaffing/eating multiple bad muts I guess? Even then, it's still winnable. The rot and curse scrolls aren't really a big deal.

[mageykun]

Yeah, wrecking a character via a bad equip is a lesson you learn once, and then learn not to do again. In my case, it was nethack's good old boots of fumbling that taught me it was definitely not a good idea to blindly try on every piece of armor you came across.

But yeah, if I manage to curse or mutate myself badly, I soldier on. Sometimes interesting gameplay comes from learning to cope with bad mutations! I do roll a lot of odd race / background combinations though, and sometimes I'll suicide or quit if the gameplay turns out not to work like I wanted.

[MyOtheHedgeFox]

...turn off the computer.

[Pteriforever]

> ctrl+Q
> yes

[Confidence Interval]

Shed bitter tears.

[eharper256]

Yep, you shouldn't screw up a character like this more than a few times. The idea is to learn your lesson and not do it again.

Never wield a new weapon or especially a ring without ID'ing it or knowing you have Remove Curse on you. Especially the rings. They're guaranteed to be Cursed Rings of Hunger if you wear them haphazardly.

Losing 20HP is chump change later on, and most mutations are manageable until you find a Cure Mut potion.

To be honest, the only real screw ups you CAN'T do anything about are things like D2 Centaurs, and your squishy mage meeting a camping CornerOgre.

[Southpaw]

If it rot 20hp early on I run away from things sooner

if I equip a weapon of awfulness and can't unwield it than I start using that weapon until I CAN unwield it (if it's sharp I decide it's time to play an ashenzari game)

if I get a whole bunch of bad mutations early on and don't have a way to get rid of them I compensate for them, there are very very few mutations that are absolutely crippling that early in the game, unless you get like Berserk 3 on a caster or something

But the number one thing I do is not get into those situations in the first place. It's trivial to find a sling that's not cursed early on if you really need one (just wait for the enemy to switch weapons then kill him - boom you know the sling is uncursed) or I simply use something else as my ranged weapon for the early game

[Grimm]

y run it to its death, tab-restart, then grimly mutter "once more unto the breach" and pull again from the nearest bottle.

[Guppyfry]

I always play it out. I feel like playing in odd situations like that actually adds to the fun. The odds are the character is going to die even if nothing was screwed up, so why rush it just because something bad happened?