I think we learned an important lesson today.

[joellercoaster]

An early crossbow is actually quite a nice find.

[joellercoaster]

Also, groups of monsters will happily all herd into a teleportation trap if you dance around it. This can make a large hard fight into a small easy fight

[Ratgina]

When you're running away from max sized slime creatures, you should probably just teleport/blink away. Just in the off chance that you fuck up, you don't take 60+ damage in one round.

[Psieye]

That depends on the exact circumstances, but if you have a titanic slime nearby then a blink might be worth it yes. Chaffs (butterflies, spammals) are much better. Oh and it can hit for up to 110 damage, 60+ is average.

[mattlistener]

#1: don't equip-ID weapons without Remove Curse handy. Curiosity routinely clouds my judgment.

#2: the game is not lost if your polearm-specialized HOWz of Vehumet equips a cursed antimagic artefact hammer (thereby constraining both strategies for killing things). My solution: put 100% of exp into Stealth, park upstairs anything I can't kill in two casts, explore dungeon until saved by a scroll (in this case an Enchant Weapon, which does remove cursed status from artefact weapons). Made it to 6.5 Stealth in the process and was having a noticeably easier time exploring the dungeon toward the end of that self-inflicted mini-challenge...

[Psieye]

Addendum: worship Ash and bind your weapon. Ascend into madness as your curiosity blows up from overfeeding.

[Zidoof]

Never trust any runed items in the early dungeons...they will be cursed.

[prozacelf]

Beogh is not a huge fan of you read-IDing a scroll of immolation right next to your posse. I assume this applies to holy word and torment scrolls as well.

[mopl]

On a numpad, the '5' key is very close to every other one
waiting near a monster you failed to stab seems to be a bad idea !

[Sandman25]

Mercenary becomes hostile after you have read unknown immolation scroll Always 't'ell them to 'r'etreat before reading unknown scroll.

[Frelus]

Just because Trog gifted your MiBe using maces a +0/+9 Holy Wrath 2-handed mace on DL 8 does not mean you won't fall into a pitfall trap and land next to 2 ogres and the spirit of the only character of yours that ever when to DL 9 -.-

[joellercoaster]

On a numpad, the '5' key is very close to every other one

On a related note, the 'hjkl' keys are great, until you want to attack something to the northwest of you and forget you are wielding a bunch of arrows

(The real problem here is my repeatedly hitting keys in combat, but it's still an unamusing way to die.)

[BlackSheep]

The easy_confirm option may help you. It affects the "are you sure? Y/N" prompt behavior. The default value, "safe", requires capital letters only on dangerous questions. Changing it to "none" forces you to use a capital letter on all Y/N prompts.

[rcnr]

When you get a huge haul at the end of a labyrinth, remember that while scrolls of aquirement and jewelry will get picked up immediatly by default, the fixedart speed bow will not, and will be gone forever if you leave.

Edit: Thankfully I had set it to autopickup rods beforehand, since when are you even going to avoid one of those? It should be like that by default.

[Thalfon]

Unbreathing is not a defence against calcifying dust. I was of the mistaken belief that it's something that petrifies when breathed in, but after looking up the definition, it makes sense that it'd be an on-contact effect. Thankfully the net result was just one wasted teleport scroll, and mild embarassment at wasting one on a catoblepas of all things.

[Sandman25]

Don't be greedy to use Berserking potion vs Minotaur. It is extremely dangerous after all. Retreating behind a corner when Minotaur misses you with some "energy bolt" is not enough, you will miss almost dead Minotaur 3 times in a row and then lose about 30hp to Bolt of Inaccuracy. You will "feel much better" after quaffing potion of Heal Wound and will die next turn to 33 damage from the Bolt. Yes, you will have exactly 0 hp left to make the pain bigger
At least you will learn that sometimes Deal Four from destruction deck can be a better option than the healing potion, even if you have very few hp and the monster is adjacent to you.
Not to mention Minotaur could have killed you even without the Bolt.

[Tiber]

Don't be greedy to use Berserking potion vs Minotaur. It is extremely dangerous after all. Retreating behind a corner when Minotaur misses you with some "energy bolt" is not enough, you will miss almost dead Minotaur 3 times in a row and then lose about 30hp to Bolt of Inaccuracy. You will "feel much better" after quaffing potion of Heal Wound and will die next turn to 33 damage from the Bolt. Yes, you will have exactly 0 hp left to make the pain bigger
At least you will learn that sometimes Deal Four from destruction deck can be a better option than the healing potion, even if you have very few hp and the monster is adjacent to you.
Not to mention Minotaur could have killed you even without the Bolt.

Agility also would have been great there, and can be used with berserk (as long as you drink agility first).

[jejorda2]

When "Invis" is grey, it means it isn't working. Because yellow glow is canceling it. Don't passwall next to an Oklob and tap it with a dagger for thirty turns while you get acided to death.

I should already know this. And I should walk away when I realize my cunning plan is not working.

[Sandman25]

Don't be greedy to use Berserking potion vs Minotaur. It is extremely dangerous after all. Retreating behind a corner when Minotaur misses you with some "energy bolt" is not enough, you will miss almost dead Minotaur 3 times in a row and then lose about 30hp to Bolt of Inaccuracy. You will "feel much better" after quaffing potion of Heal Wound and will die next turn to 33 damage from the Bolt. Yes, you will have exactly 0 hp left to make the pain bigger
At least you will learn that sometimes Deal Four from destruction deck can be a better option than the healing potion, even if you have very few hp and the monster is adjacent to you.
Not to mention Minotaur could have killed you even without the Bolt.

Agility also would have been great there, and can be used with berserk (as long as you drink agility first).

I don't like agility potion, it is too unreliable for me. I usually use it only when I run out of other potions and am waiting behind a corner for some ranged monster like Centaur to get to me.

[Mojavemusic]

letting yourself get cornered by things that can constrict you is a poor idea.

RIP Hecateaus The Minotaur

[Frelus]

Yes, even against the odds, an orc wizard can, through pure, blind luck, resist 6 Hybernations.

[Sandman25]

Yes, even against the odds, an orc wizard can, through pure, blind luck, resist 6 Hybernations.

Did you use the hibernation after a successful hibernation on the same monster? There is a "cooldown" period for the spell to work.

[Frelus]

No, I did not.
But that is nice to know.

[rchandra]

I use

  Code:

msc := message_colour
msc += yellow:.* is unaffected

to help with that situation (along with some others, like Pain/agony).

[joellercoaster]

If you have a high-level glass cannon character, and are idly wondering where to go to see if you get some nicer gear - the answer is not the treasure vault in Elf:3.

(This is another one I have had to learn at least twice :facepalm: )

[Psieye]

It's definitely a temptation and a good one - I once almost cleared Elf:3 at XL:15 as a mage and died to the last elf camping in the treasure room itself.

But as with many temptations in crawl: you don't need the rewards that early (or at all).

[joellercoaster]

Yeah this was an OpTm at XL22 who failed to deal at all with the arrival of two Master Archers while fighting a Blademaster...

I did have a perfectly good chance to teleport, but spent two rounds thinking I could outmaneuver them and activating Finesse instead of reading the scroll (had forgotten just how much ground some of the pointy-eared jerks could cover and how much damage they could dish out), and that was enough.

In retrospect it wasn't certain death; there were a bunch of things I might have done differently - but that character, at that time, had no real business in that vault *sigh*

[Draugr]

While the Orc Mines are generally a great source of bodies for any Necromancer and rather easy with Mephitic Cloud or even Poison Cloud... don't get too comfy since a single Orc Warlord will still one-hit your fragile little caster.

[Lasty]

While the Orc Mines are generally a great source of bodies for any Necromancer and rather easy with Mephitic Cloud or even Poison Cloud... don't get too comfy since a single Orc Warlord will still one-hit your fragile little caster.

People use the term "one-hit" a lot, but I don't think I've ever been killed by a single attack from full health, even on spriggans w/o any Fighting training, even from the Lernaean Hydra (though I would imagine the latter could do it on a series of bad rolls . . . )

That said, if your hp is relatively low and you have poor defenses, definitely don't stand next to even an orc warrior, much less a warlord. You're a necromancer, so you must have buddies willing to stand there for you.

[Frelus]

Oneshotted MiPr by a very OOD Great Orb of Eyes on D...4-8 somewhere with a beam of disintegrate.
Oneshotted SpEns all around.
Also, open a door, face 3 Orc Priests, all smite. Yay.
Also: Do not use recite with more than 1 Orc priest around, if even then. They WILL use smite while you need to spend 3 rounds. If you survive, though, they may simply go poof.

[Sandman25]

Don't go into ZoT with Amulet of Faith on your neck if you are with Oka. You will see OoF and will put rMut amulet on, but it will make you unable to use Finesse. There will be 2 Tentacled Monstrosities and a ZoT trap near you to give you a hint that you should run away now. If you are too stubborn and insist on fighting, you will get yellow contamination after quaffing potion of speed and despite losing just 40hp in the process of killing the monsters, you will feel it was not smart.

Edit: And you will get Deteriorating Body mutation from the yellow contamination while cure mutation potion is still unidentified.

[SchwaWarrior]

Don't go into ZoT with Amulet of Faith on your neck if you are with Oka. You will see OoF and will put rMut amulet on, but it will make you unable to use Finesse. There will be 2 Tentacled Monstrosities and a ZoT trap near you to give you a hint that you should run away now. If you are too stubborn and insist on fighting, you will get yellow contamination after quaffing potion of speed and despite losing just 40hp in the process of killing the monsters, you will feel it was not smart.

Edit: And you will get Deteriorating Body mutation from the yellow contamination while cure mutation potion is still unidentified.

Your advice is somewhat specific.

Solution to first issue: Should've used Finesse before taking off Faith. Twice, even, just so you know you have enough Finesse to last you.

Solution to second issue: Assuming you're not playing a Deep Dwarf, Deteriorating Body 1 is nothing to fret over. All it means is go back to your stash when you get a chance and carry around a Potion of Restore Abilities or two, so that when your stats dip below a point you're comfortable with (for me it's three points in one stat and one point in the other two), or if a Neqoxec or something else bruises your tender stats even worse, you can quaff up and get your head back up out of the water for a while. Also, Ring of Regeneration (or even the spell Regeneration) does in fact restore lost stats at a very slightly faster rate, plus it's all-around useful for everything. If you've got Deteriorating Body 1 or 2 and don't want to lug SustAb around just for that, Regeneration is a sweet alternative. If you've got Deteriorating Body 3, yeah, you're definitely gonna want Sustain Abilities instead, because you WILL die otherwise. 'Specially if you're a Troll or some other dumb melee character (haha Minos can suck it) with no spare INT to buffer those brain-sucking attacks.

Also, a little Mutagenic Glow is okay sometimes. If you need to Controlled Blink like six or seven times while Hasted to get out of a mob of Ancient Liches and Orbs of Fire and back to an up-staircase, and you Glow because of it and get a couple of nasty mutations tacked on... well, you didn't die. So there's that. It means you could have planned better, but things could have been worse too, and it's extremely unlikely that one or two bad mutations "ruined your character". Once the Glow clears, look at your new bad mutations (if any), look back at your equipment, spells, etc., assess the situation down below, and decide whether or not you're in sufficient shape to try again (from a different staircase), or if you should hold off on this battle for now and explore elsewhere for Runes, loot, etc.

EDIT: Also, there's Jiyva! A couple times, if I suddenly get Deteriorating Body 3, and I have zero access to Cure Mut or Sustain Abilities, I abandon my god and go Jiyva for the rest of the game. By that point not once have I been "too weak" to deal with god wrath. Except possibly Ashenzari's.

[Sandman25]

Solution to first issue: Should've used Finesse before taking off Faith. Twice, even, just so you know you have enough Finesse to last you.

Solution to second issue: Assuming you're not playing a Deep Dwarf, Deteriorating Body 1 is nothing to fret over. All it means is go back to your stash when you get a chance and carry around a Potion of Restore Abilities or two, so that when your stats dip below a point you're comfortable with (for me it's three points in one stat and one point in the other two), or if a Neqoxec or something else bruises your tender stats even worse, you can quaff up and get your head back up out of the water for a while. Also, Ring of Regeneration (or even the spell Regeneration) does in fact restore lost stats at a very slightly faster rate, plus it's all-around useful for everything. If you've got Deteriorating Body 1 or 2 and don't want to lug SustAb around just for that, Regeneration is a sweet alternative. If you've got Deteriorating Body 3, yeah, you're definitely gonna want Sustain Abilities instead, because you WILL die otherwise. 'Specially if you're a Troll or some other dumb melee character (haha Minos can suck it) with no spare INT to buffer those brain-sucking attacks.

Also, a little Mutagenic Glow is okay sometimes. If you need to Controlled Blink like six or seven times while Hasted to get out of a mob of Ancient Liches and Orbs of Fire and back to an up-staircase, and you Glow because of it and get a couple of nasty mutations tacked on... well, you didn't die. So there's that. It means you could have planned better, but things could have been worse too, and it's extremely unlikely that one or two bad mutations "ruined your character". Once the Glow clears, look at your new bad mutations (if any), look back at your equipment, spells, etc., assess the situation down below, and decide whether or not you're in sufficient shape to try again (from a different staircase), or if you should hold off on this battle for now and explore elsewhere for Runes, loot, etc.

EDIT: Also, there's Jiyva! A couple times, if I suddenly get Deteriorating Body 3, and I have zero access to Cure Mut or Sustain Abilities, I abandon my god and go Jiyva for the rest of the game. By that point not once have I been "too weak" to deal with god wrath. Except possibly Ashenzari's.

Well, I didn't want to use Finesse before removing Faith because it could bring me one more mutation. Shoutis, Teleportitis or Slowness could kill me in that battle.
I didn't have Regeneration spell (found it in Elf 3 later), Regeneration ring (found it in Zig later) or ring of sust. abil. Later I got burdened in the middle of some fights so it wasn't harmless mutation. (Yes, I know I could account for the potential lose of Str point and had less weight in inventory)
Yes, I know Glow can be safe with rMut in 50% cases, but it is too little IMHO so I try to avoid Glow as much as I can.
But you are right, my advise is very specific. Here is another: if you have bad mutations, go into Zig to get 10 potions of cure mutation and never worry about mutations again

[Psieye]

All this round-about fretting over mutations when you could just go to Zin and get holy lich-form to solve it. Though sure, not always an option or a preference.

[HenryFlower]

Tangling with a catoblepas in a deep corridor is not a good idea.

[Sandman25]

All this round-about fretting over mutations when you could just go to Zin and get holy lich-form to solve it. Though sure, not always an option or a preference.

I don't want to do it because it is not a permanent solution. If Zin could cure mutations multiple times, I would not care about mutations indeed.

[crate]

you know what else cures mutations
winning the game

[Sandman25]

you know what else cures mutations
winning the game

Yes, that's a good idea unless extended is your favorite part of the game.

[crate]

well if you plan to do extended the fact that orbs of fire mutate you is one reason you should not do zot:5 before extended.

[Sandman25]

well if you plan to do extended the fact that orbs of fire mutate you is one reason you should not do zot:5 before extended.

Yes, I didn't do ZoT5. Oka is stronger than TSO in ZoT so I did ZoT1-4 with Oka. Actually I got this situation in ZoT3.

[Psieye]

All this round-about fretting over mutations when you could just go to Zin and get holy lich-form to solve it. Though sure, not always an option or a preference.

I don't want to do it because it is not a permanent solution. If Zin could cure mutations multiple times, I would not care about mutations indeed.

If you stay at 200 Zin piety (not hard in extended), you pretty much get 100% immunity to mutations. The probability to get a new mutation (that happens to be crippling) likely drops lower than the probability of finding a cure mutation potion.

[Sandman25]

All this round-about fretting over mutations when you could just go to Zin and get holy lich-form to solve it. Though sure, not always an option or a preference.

I don't want to do it because it is not a permanent solution. If Zin could cure mutations multiple times, I would not care about mutations indeed.

If you stay at 200 Zin piety (not hard in extended), you pretty much get 100% immunity to mutations. The probability to get a new mutation (that happens to be crippling) likely drops lower than the probability of finding a cure mutation potion.

Yes, you are right. But I wanted to use TSO so I would leave Zin and could get new mutations. That's my own problem, I know

[Frelus]

well if you plan to do extended the fact that orbs of fire mutate you is one reason you should not do zot:5 before extended.

Yes, I didn't do ZoT5. Oka is stronger than TSO in ZoT so I did ZoT1-4 with Oka. Actually I got this situation in ZoT3.

...How is Oka stronger than TSO in Zot? Genuinly curious here, as I thought that TSO with Halo, lifesaving, summoning angels and blasting areas would be stronger than Oka's Heroism and Finesse.

[cerebovssquire]

Finesse makes your character 2x as good when he needs to be. TSO is very good but he doesn't do quite as much in Zot:5. Yes, a ton of angels will do that, but a ton of angels also cost a lot more piety than Finesse so you can't fight with them as much.

[Schussel]

Titans are capable of airstriking so its not a very good idea to try to kite him to regain mana for the final OOD and meanwhile dodging a pack of Yaktaurs ... going from 100hp to -10 is quite possible then especially if you are a Tengu caster *sobs*

[adozu]

fulminant prism is REALLY loud. you don't quite understand just how loud it is until you start a teleport, cast prism, get dragged to the exact opposite side of orc 4 and still hear it go off.

[Southpaw]

Sticky Flame (and Mottled Dr Breath) will reveal invisible monsters for you. Not groundbreaking info but still good to know.

[aegis]

Sticky Flame (and Mottled Dr Breath) will reveal invisible monsters for you. Not groundbreaking info but still good to know.

But stay away from monsters that have stick flame. (Expect you have a mottled armor.)

[Annonith]

Sticky Flame (and Mottled Dr Breath) will reveal invisible monsters for you. Not groundbreaking info but still good to know.

But stay away from monsters that have stick flame. (Expect you have a mottled armor.)

Also: Not using sticky flame against pack of sheeps while having means to do so is an offense against every Crawl god ever.

[CommanderC]

grunt_profane_halls can place orbs of fire on D:27.