I think we learned an important lesson today.

[Yet Another Stupid Noob]

If you are playing after a long day at work and talking to your wife, be REALLY careful about how you cast those cloud spells. Especially if you don't happen to have rPois....

[Marten]

Just happened at WebTiles, lol.

[TwilightPhoenix]

Random wtfdamage spikes from stuff I've been otherwise slaughtering left and right seem to be how I lose most of my promising characters these days. My most recent example, I was stabbing Margery's band on a SpEn, something suddenly woke them all up, and they all managed to hit me through invisibility, 30ish EV and 20ish SH, dealing around 117 points of damage in one turn.


On a good note, high stealth + high stab + invisibility + silence = easiest Elf 5 ever.


Another one I forgot: Joining Zin and then donating about 1.5k gold will take you to 4 stars of piety before you can get back to your stash.

[SchwaWarrior]

Freaking invest in Abjuration.

I never bothered with this spell before until tonight, and HOLY CRAP it is incredible. Suddenly surrounded by summoned Tier-1 Demons while fighting the Orc Sorcerors/High Priests in O:4? Drop the spell one time. BAM, they're all instantly dead in one hit.

I was so happy and relieved to FINALLY figure out a solid defense against those things, that I stood up at the Starbucks and cheered! ^_^

Learn the freaking spell no matter what. Even if you're a Melee character, take the time to level up Summoning Skill and learn the spell. It's simply pure win.

[AtT]

heh enjoy it while you got it. I believe it was nerfed to single target in trunk

[Zelkelion]

heh enjoy it while you got it. I believe it was nerfed to single target in trunk

It was, but it's still excellent. Much better than the counterpart Dispel Undead. I remember working toward learning that, then finding it only did middling damage to the undead. So I resumed hitting them in the face, with greater success.

[AtT]

It was, but it's still excellent. Much better than the counterpart Dispel Undead. I remember working toward learning that, then finding it only did middling damage to the undead. So I resumed hitting them in the face, with greater success.

I don't know what you're talking about if you got halfdecent necromancy dispel undead is an incredible spell. Abjuration works on summoned demons while dispel undead is used for undead enemies.

[SchwaWarrior]

I don't know what you're talking about if you got halfdecent necromancy dispel undead is an incredible spell. Abjuration works on summoned demons while dispel undead is used for undead enemies.

Yes, you need to level up the relevant spell school Skill.

My Summoning skill was like... 10 or 12 I believe. Reason I raised it up so high was because I also had the spell Summon Demon, and I picked up Abjuration too just so I could undo a summon-gone-awry if it appeared, and I was really anal about the Summon Demon spell because I did NOT want to get an Executioner out of nowhere to suddenly turn on me, so I raised Summoning Skill up reeeeal high first. It was total coincidence, basically, that I found out just how powerful Abjuration is even without it needing to be "the other half" of another spell. I'm really glad it happened.

And on that note, Summon Demon is awesome. If you want some powerful summon support, that's the one to pick, hands down. Again, get Summoning Skill up really high before you even attempt to cast (my success rate was "Excellent"), but once you get that, if you ever go up against anything horrifying (such as an entire room of Hill Giants, Ettins, Cyclopses and Stone Giants waiting for you down the stairs), get 4 or 5 demons on the field immediately and follow up with any offensive spells of your choice to take pot-shots at anything you get a straight line shot at from behind your summons. Mystic Blast and Evaporate worked wonders. I successfully beat every single foe and looted a MASSIVE stash full of extremely exotic weapons and over 500 Gold.

[ilpalazzo]

dispel undead is pure overkill.

scary ancient lich? just zap him twice...

[MyOtheHedgeFox]

...and hope he does not attack you between them.

[joellercoaster]

Monsters can use scrolls of summoning. It's not funny when hobgoblins do it on D:5!

Joel
Running like a squirrel

[TwilightPhoenix]

On the summoner I had that got strong enough, my strategy was if I ran into something deadly, Summon Greater Demon 2 or 3 times and then run away and don't come back for a hundred or so turns.

[TehDruid]

Just happened at WebTiles, lol.

I lost my most promising melee mummy of Okawaru that was wielding a demon trident of electrocution to Margery and her fire spells because I got reckless and went in with the x in fire resistance. It's only natural that you died by that dragon since you still got the weakness.

[Blade]

Being able to handle the monsters of a branch is no guarantee that you'll defeat the uniques in that branch.

Taking Snake right after Lair after finding a spellbook with Ignite Poison seemed like a great idea until Wiglaf said "lolno" on Snake:3.

[Eaki Godsbane]

Being able to handle the monsters of a branch is no guarantee that you'll defeat the uniques in that branch.

Taking Snake right after Lair after finding a spellbook with Ignite Poison seemed like a great idea until Wiglaf said "lolno" on Snake:3.

Yep, that's a given.

After I met both Mara and Mennas on Swamp 4.

[Stormfox]

Taking Snake right after Lair after finding a spellbook with Ignite Poison seemed like a great idea until Wiglaf said "lolno" on Snake:3.

Hit him with Mephitic or Poisonous Cloud and then ignite the cloud. Or stick him with a few poison needles and then cast Ignite.

Unless he's pulling a stunt like Rupert did for me a few games back and spawns with rPois armour. (Although the first option would still work there.)

[Blade]

Taking Snake right after Lair after finding a spellbook with Ignite Poison seemed like a great idea until Wiglaf said "lolno" on Snake:3.

Hit him with Mephitic or Poisonous Cloud and then ignite the cloud. Or stick him with a few poison needles and then cast Ignite.

Unless he's pulling a stunt like Rupert did for me a few games back and spawns with rPois armour. (Although the first option would still work there.)

I was an OgFE who had been very sparing on xp allocation; I had nothing like that, unfortunately. I don't think even that would've worked; ogres are squishy and he could take out most of my HP with a single hit.

[joellercoaster]

Stop *wham* getting *wham* killed *wham* by *wham* the dire *wham* elephant *wham* vault.

Once is unfortunate, three times is starting to look like. You know. Being a moron.

[daggaz]

Stop *wham* getting *wham* killed *wham* by *wham* the dire *wham* elephant *wham* vault.

Once is unfortunate, three times is starting to look like. You know. Being a moron.

Its worse than that... http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eKgPY1adc0A

[jejorda2]

I learned that potions of curing do not eliminate nausea.

[AtT]

I learned that rMut does not protect against mutations from glowing.

[Galefury]

I learned that rMut does not protect against mutations from glowing.

It sure does, but only at 50% effectiveness.

[Blade]

Hydrae love to take double actions and hit you with every single one of their attacks while you're pillar dancing them.

I've lost three or four characters to them recently, just because they're really really good at hitting you while you're trying to run away.

[Galefury]

Wands are your friend. If you have any good ones. Also note that hydras are very fast in water.

[Blade]

Wands are your friend. If you have any good ones. Also note that hydras are very fast in water.

The times it's happened, I've had no good wands and was in the Lair with no water in sight. My hydra-slaying technique in the past with FE (the class I've been losing most to them) was to sticky flame them and then run; most of the time it handled them; if it didn't, I thought of something else. Lately, however, they've started lagging behind more often before charging forward and hitting in one turn, making situations where it seems safe to take an action

  Code:

D.@

deadly if you do anything besides run. Even if you run, they occasionally will get another hit in out of the blue, and a hydra that occasionally hits you is deadly.

Did something change with monster actions between .9 and trunk?

(also, I had no attack wands.)

[joellercoaster]

Charms miscasts can include paralysis. Think about that success rate hard when The Centaur Warrior Shouts.

[XuaXua]

Did something change with monster actions between .9 and trunk?

I wonder if that random speed jiggering alteration went into play.

[joellercoaster]

Having a character you've spent hours on get one-shotted because you forgot about an elemental vulnerability you didn't still need equipped? Yep. Hurts.

[Galefury]

Did something change with monster actions between .9 and trunk?

I don't think so. Random double actions have been possible for a while, and a quick search of the commit log for energy (as in energy randomization) didn't turn up anything. Double actions are usually pretty rare though. Also afaik there are no random double attacks, just move+attack.

Taking out Hydras at range on low AC chars is generally a good idea. That, or running. Letting them get close to sticky flame them is a rather bold move.

[Blade]

Did something change with monster actions between .9 and trunk?

Taking out Hydras at range on low AC chars is generally a good idea. That, or running. Letting them get close to sticky flame them is a rather bold move.

In my one victory, a DEFE, I did it to seven or eight hydrae through Lair and never had a problem. One sticky flame is usually all it takes to kill them or get them running. It's only after that (OgFE and HuFE, both not as squishy as DEFE) that I've had a lot of unexpected hydra attacks that either chase me off or kill me. It got to the point where I checked the bots to see if maybe hydrae were suddenly speed 11 or something.

Meh. Not too big a deal. I should probably look for something more healthy than sticky flame against hydrae anyway.

[Stormfox]

Conjure Flame. Hydrae are dumb enough that they'll walk through it most of the time, and three consecutive grids are enough to take down anything up to 8 heads, even if they start running -- since they tend to run the way they came, they'll still be in the flames. More than 8 heads are a problem that the player created...

[Blade]

It's a really really bad idea to stop playing in a moment of non-obvious danger. I just opened up one of my recent games, and found that I was slightly under half health and hungry; a few moments later, I remembered that I had just killed Harold before quitting. So I ate, rested up, and went down the nearest stairs. That was when I found out why I had brought Harold up the stairs -- a five-headed hydra was sitting next to me and a basilisk was staring at me.

So, not having anything else to do, I went back up, but it was too late. The basilisk had gotten a petrification in and the hydra had just enough time to peck my stone body to death.

Even worse, the character was named Rock.

[TehDruid]

I find that leaving my game that's been going well to go cook something to eat then coming back to the game often leads to YASD.

[AtT]

It's a really really bad idea to stop playing in a moment of non-obvious danger. I just opened up one of my recent games, and found that I was slightly under half health and hungry; a few moments later, I remembered that I had just killed Harold before quitting. So I ate, rested up, and went down the nearest stairs. That was when I found out why I had brought Harold up the stairs -- a five-headed hydra was sitting next to me and a basilisk was staring at me.

So, not having anything else to do, I went back up, but it was too late. The basilisk had gotten a petrification in and the hydra had just enough time to peck my stone body to death.

Even worse, the character was named Rock.

er meant to quote. anyway you gotta mark off those stairs before you quit lol I used to do that sort of thing all the time lol

[MyOtheHedgeFox]

Indeed, whenever you meet some kind of danger, leave breadcrumbs around to mark them -- be it lone poison needles or enchanted darts lying in a certain fashion or four clubs pointing somewhere, or travel exclusions and level annotations, it does not matter much.
Probably it might end up in vain, but it will at least let your character last longer.

[AtT]

Today I learned that boxing is awesome.

[greepish]

I learned that unwielding distortion ALSO can cause CONFUSION and not just banishment.

On Ziggurat 9. In Lich form without an amulet of clarity. With 4 ancient liches and about 20 fiends.

(Wear an amulet of clarity!)

[MyOtheHedgeFox]

Maybe you should remember that the Orb of Zot is not in the local bookstore? Don't run, you'll just die tired.

[MyOtheHedgeFox]

If you are an elementalist, you should not berserk against a guardian serpent.
Really.

[greepish]

Heh, some OgFEs would beg to differ

[Grimm]

ctrl-o and ! notes are your multigame friends

[Happylisk]

If you bump into Boris with a conjurer who knows IOOD, spam the hell out of it. Seriously, your screen should be nothing but a wave of orbs. They'll blow his orbs up and they'll blow him up.

[Serne]

If you bump into Boris with a conjurer who knows IOOD, spam the hell out of it. Seriously, your screen should be nothing but a wave of orbs. They'll blow his orbs up and they'll blow him up.

QFT.

[AtT]

Running out of toilet paper when you live by yourself is the worst conceivable situation.

[Grimm]

No way man - a detachable shower head functions as a handy makeshift bidet. Failing that, a bucket.

[MyOtheHedgeFox]

Grimm can become a barkeeper.

[AtT]

No way man - a detachable shower head functions as a handy makeshift bidet. Failing that, a bucket.

A slice of bread will do in a pinch if you're not european .

[XuaXua]

Just because your Spriggan finds Pearl Dragon armor doesn't mean he should wear it.

[Happylisk]

Sigmund can't really go invisible once he's been sticky flamed.

[Zelkelion]

Sigmund can't really go invisible once he's been sticky flamed.

If I have it, I cast Corona on Siggy at first sight, with great glee.