Tips/suggestions for a Human Venom Mage of Vehumet

[AzuredreamsXT]

The description says it has an "easy time early on", but I assume this means VERY early on, because if you get unlucky spawns you start running into alot of poison resistant or outright immune enemies pretty quickly. Running works, but eventually I find there's fewer and fewer avenues/methods of escape left available.

So essentially I'm just looking for tips on non-poison sources of damage until I can find Vehumet's shrine and earn some different spells.

Thanks in advance

[savageorange]

My general experience is that VM have a fairly easy time until Lair. What monsters are you encountering that have RPois?

Inflicting damage:
* Darts are generally underwhelming, but if you get some branded ones those can be moderately effective (wear an enemy away as they approach, so that by the time they reach melee range you can dispatch them in a few turns)
* Wands, of course. Almost all are good (either helping you to escape or inflicting damage)
* Don't neglect melee -- keep trying to upgrade your weapon. Personally I favor light weapons because they can be used somewhat effectively at 0 skill.

[and into]

The description says it has an "easy time early on", but I assume this means VERY early on, because if you get unlucky spawns you start running into alot of poison resistant or outright immune enemies pretty quickly. Running works, but eventually I find there's fewer and fewer avenues/methods of escape left available.

So essentially I'm just looking for tips on non-poison sources of damage until I can find Vehumet's shrine and earn some different spells.

Thanks in advance

What species are you playing? If it is naga, there's your problem. If not, then I'd say that you are probably trying to kill all enemies you come across. You need not, and should not, be doing that.

What enemies are you having problems with, specifically? The most common early rPois (and thus mephitic-immune) enemies are zombies and skeletons, but nearly all of those are slower than your character is and have no ranged items. And they can't use doors. So they are pretty easy to escape from and all but the heaviest hitters can be safely taken down one-on-one in melee even with a bad weapon and no skill.

Crimson imps and phantoms? You can lure those guys upstairs and escape from them thanks to their random blinking, then go back downstairs. Maybe a very early water moccasin? That you should burn some consumables on in order to kill quickly with wands, or else escape; you shouldn't try to tangle with it. Ditto with Grinder obviously. Early wight packs can be bastards too for a VM, don't feel bad running from them until you have some alternative to poison. Otherwise... Pure bad luck from a orc warrior wearing rPois armour? I can't think of much else that should be giving you problems with just sting and mephitic cloud.

Many early game stuff has low MR so hex wands can be a real lifesaver against them. Don't hesitate to burn some wand charges to take out problem enemies. If you've been making a beeline for venom bolt, perhaps you should try experimenting with getting good melee in the best weapon that has thus far dropped, and some dodging, after getting mephitic cloud reliable but before going for venom bolt.

[cerebovssquire]

My general experience is that VM have a fairly easy time until Lair. What monsters are you encountering that have RPois?

Inflicting damage:
* Darts are generally underwhelming, but if you get some branded ones those can be moderately effective (wear an enemy away as they approach, so that by the time they reach melee range you can dispatch them in a few turns)
* Wands, of course. Almost all are good (either helping you to escape or inflicting damage)
* Don't neglect melee -- keep trying to upgrade your weapon. Personally I favor light weapons because they can be used somewhat effectively at 0 skill.

Light weapons aren't categorically better than heavy weapons at 0 skill, e.g. a great sword is a better 0 skill weapon than a falchion or long sword, a war axe is better than a hand axe etc. You just need to account for the fact that you will take more than 1 turn to swing your weapon before you attack. Though the most important factor this early on is generally brands (elec and venom especially, though draining is also good and if you find a distortion weapon, I would probably also use it on VM).

[AzuredreamsXT]

Crimson imps and phantoms? You can lure those guys upstairs and escape from them thanks to their random blinking, then go back downstairs

Oh snap, can't believe I didn't think of that. I've achieved a 3 runer before, I should be thinking of these things by now!

You just saved me a ton of headache lol, and thanks to everyone else for the advice. Mostly I was referring to wights, jellies, phantoms and imps. Phantoms in particular seem to home in on me easily even after I escape and re enter the floor through another staircase.

[Amnesiac]

Speaking of imps, you can probably kill them with one lucky smack of a heavy weapon. I also park mummies upstairs, since it's a pain to uncurse items after every single of these pests.

[savageorange]

Mostly I was referring to wights, jellies, phantoms and imps. Phantoms in particular seem to home in on me easily even after I escape and re enter the floor through another staircase.

Wights can be scary on an open level, but as long as you retreat immediately, they are usually avoidable (especially if your stealth is not terrible). Jellies are much less nasty than they were, and early game you can reserve a 'throwaway' weapon just for hitting them (something heavy-ish), and/or stones with a sling. (Robes are in good supply usually, so I don't worry about degradation early-game.).

There's nothing wrong with just running away, generally. If you are not insisting on finishing absolutely all of a floor, then it's a fine and simple strategy against blinkers.

@Cerebovssquire:
I tend to focus on the 'actually manage to hit the enemy' part of the question, as I've found no matter how heavy I can hit, if I've just missed 3 times in a row, that's bad news. That's where heavy weapons perform worse, and the reason for my preference. Of course, against fast regenerators like Imps, a heavy weapon is indeed superior.

[Lasty]

@Cerebovssquire:
I tend to focus on the 'actually manage to hit the enemy' part of the question, as I've found no matter how heavy I can hit, if I've just missed 3 times in a row, that's bad news. That's where heavy weapons perform worse, and the reason for my preference. Of course, against fast regenerators like Imps, a heavy weapon is indeed superior.

At zero skill, light weapons do so little damage that often even low-AC enemies will take no damage from a successful hit. With no skill, on average, non-terrible heavy weapons will deal more damage per AUT than light ones against most foes.