The Tavern

So I just found an artifact amulet in a shop, Its description reads {Ward rN+ Str+3}. Will this give me 2 levels of rN or is it showing the rN ward always has?

Warding does not include rN+, amulet of warding provides both warding and rN+. So you will get only one rN+.

Thanks, thats what I figured but wanted to double check. I probably wouldn't have got the amulet either way but was curious.

Generally unrandarts is based on mundane items. If said item already have some properties (such as rF++ rC- on FDA or MP +9 on ring of magical power), it will be listed in unrand description. Amulet of warding gives you Ward and rN+, the amulet you have is just a unrandart based on it, so it only adds Str+3 to amulet's default properties.

why does ammy of warding have rN?

I guess because it was considered useless with only warding.

Yeah pretty much. Now it's useless with warding and rN.

Well, not totally useless, but the only amulet I'd wear it over is stasis, or one of the bad ones.

I wear the amulet in Crypt/Tomb, it's better than any other amulet.

what about faith

(also regen now that it's an amulet, I guess)

It depends but usually I don't need Faith in Crypt/Tomb. Also I dislike Faith during late game when I can want to switch to rMut/stasis (stasis is good in Crypt with low MR).

Edit. I am playing 0.15.1 so I enjoy ring of regen )

Faith is the reason I use ID scrolls on plain amulets. It's great, on the right god, at the right point in the game, but usually it's just a huge piety penalty for me the next time I want to put my clarity/rMut amulet on.

I would wear a regen amulet over warding, for sure. In fact, now I'd probably just keep swapping in clarity and rmut as needed, and wear regen the rest of the time.

Spirit guardian, Faith, and Rage are far and away the best amulets (in no particular order), although of course there will be specific characters who don't benefit from them (dg, troggies, Ds who hit the spirit shield mutation, etc.)

Seriously those amulets are all really good and have a much more significant impact on your game than any other pieces of non-artefact jewelry, except possibly high slaying or maybe +6 AC/EV. And the impact is definitely more interesting than those rings.

Regen is a good ammy brand too now, but really falls in the middle of the pack, except for those specific characters for whom the above good amulets do not apply. Warding is around that level too. Gourmand is just bad (unless you worship Sif), and then inaccuracy is strictly bad. The others are situational switches, though some of them are worth leaving on for a while under certain circumstances. (Clarity cancels *rage, for instance.)

Rage is too risky late game (Crypt/Tomb included), Spirit Guardian can be better than warding for some characters indeed. I tend to be a hybrid at this point so difficult battles result in close to zero mana even without guardian spirit.
Also I believe the more powerful character/player is the less often it needs deity help.
Please elaborate on Faith. How do you use it? Trog's Hand all the time? Finesse/Banish/Scry/Shadow Step just for fun?

If you're competent in melee, berserk lets you kill almost any single not-blinking creature early-, mid-, and lategame (Tomb is postend for the vast majority of characters). That has uses.

Characters with little use for mana can use guardian spirit for extra effective hp.

And Faith is extremely strong when you get a god because gods are extremely strong. It lets you have more mushrooms with Fedhas early on, more and better servants with Yred, more instakills with Elyvilon. It gets Ashenzari past the part where he sucks quicker and to the part where he's awesome quicker. It lets you get more BiA with Trog and also makes them more powerful. Et cetera.

To clarify I was talking about Crypt stage. At this point I usually have end-game weapon and 5-6* piety with any god without Faith. Why do I need Faith here?

You don't need any amulet in Crypt.

You don't need faith, it's just better than all the other amulets, similar to how you don't need a +9 demon whip of freezing but it's better than your -5 dagger of stabbing and the -3 club of orc slaying.

If you have faith on, what do you do when you want to do Slime? Switch to rCorr and take the piety hit or do Slime without rCorr?

They got rid of those brands.

Well potions of resistance give rCorr now so you can quaff that for TRJ fight.

Also rCorr can be found on (at least) artefact armors.