The 'Questions too small to need their own thread' thread

[asdu]

When Mara clones you, is your clone buffed with the same spells you had active at the time?

[galehar]

Yes.

[mageykun]

Yes, and on your clone those buffs won't expire. 0_0

[asdu]

Yes, and on your clone those buffs won't expire. 0_0

I half-suspected that would be the case, for some reason (BECAUSE CRAWL HATES YOU being the reason)

[XuaXua]

SO... I can't use Vorpalize Weapon to affix a PAIN brand to my weapon from Excruciating Wounds?

At least, that's what the knowledge bot tells me.

Available as a temp brand (Excruciating Wounds - L5 ench/necro; Unlife), only affixable via a one-time gift from Kiku.

Vorpalize Weapon Scroll is looking even worse to me now.

[Kate]

You cannot, no.

[Jeremiah]

Noob question - but how do you get a character dump/CIP for an online character? I know where the morgues are for dead/winning characters but can't find anything for my currently active one.

[hxy]

use the # key to dump the character file
filename will be <character_name>.txt in the morgue directory

[jejorda2]

I drank a potion of gain dexterity but did not gain dexterity. Is that because I'm a halfling with mutation resistance, because I'm wearing a ring of sustain abilities, or because the RNG is cruel and the potion failed?

[Tiber]

Mutation resistance. The amulet version lets those potions through, but the mutation is effective versus all sources of mutations.

[Jenchy]

Does equipping a shield really effect your casting that much? Just had yasd from a miscast with a ice explosion. Had no issues before I put it on, merfolk crusader. Have worn bucklers before.

[Galefury]

Shields hit your spell success pretty hard at low skill. You can check how much putting on a shield changes spell success in your spell list, what you see there includes armor and shield penalties.

[XuaXua]

Mutation resistance. The amulet version lets those potions through, but the mutation is effective versus all sources of mutations.

I am not a fan of the "gain" potions being mutations rather than simply applying; that makes them much less rewarding and easy to lose as opposed to, say, a potion of experience.

[Regnix]

I'm a Hill Orc Priest with a Sorcerer ally, when his summons get kills does he get experience?

[sxoz]

Mutation resistance. The amulet version lets those potions through, but the mutation is effective versus all sources of mutations.

I am not a fan of the "gain" potions being mutations rather than simply applying; that makes them much less rewarding and easy to lose as opposed to, say, a potion of experience.

If they weren't mutations, it would be completely optimal to quaff every gain stat potion the instant you identify it.

Honestly, I thought that was the whole point of them. They're so rare that I figured they were meant to be a permanent boon (like potions of experience), unlike mutations, which are fairly common.

[eharper256]

So, the game suddenly gave me two awesome x-bow's this level (Lair 7):
The fixedart "Sniper" {+10, +0, Pois}
The randart "Wyrd" {+5, +6, speed, MR}
Which is best?
I'm thinking the randart is best due to the speed brand, MR, and balanced stats, but, typically, this is the first FixedArt I've ever seen (unless one counts Crazy Yrifs staff of chaos) and it feels a shame not to use it, especially since that accuracy boost is incredible, and I'm mainly using Short Blades (have only 4 skill in X-Bows since I found a basic +0/+0 one in D5)...

EDIT: Also, does Haste still work with a Quick Blade?

EDIT2: Thirdly, how useful is an antimagic brand, just picked up a dagger with it on!

[KoboldLord]

So, the game suddenly gave me two awesome x-bow's this level (Lair 7):
The fixedart "Sniper" {+10, +0, Pois}
The randart "Wyrd" {+5, +6, speed, MR}
Which is best?
I'm thinking the randart is best due to the speed brand, MR, and balanced stats, but, typically, this is the first FixedArt I've ever seen (unless one counts Crazy Yrifs staff of chaos) and it feels a shame not to use it, especially since that accuracy boost is incredible, and I'm mainly using Short Blades (have only 4 skill in X-Bows since I found a basic +0/+0 one in D5)...

Early on and with low skill, a venom brand is going to be incredible. You'll be able to stack several doses of poison on a normally-formidable enemy and calmly walk away, allowing it to succumb on its own without it even getting a chance to touch you. Later on, more things start to resist poison so the ability to quickly pump targets full of steel bolts will become more valuable.

Also, does Haste still work with a Quick Blade?

Yes.

Thirdly, how useful is an antimagic brand, just picked up a dagger with it on!

It is a weapon brand of choice for berserkers and heavy armor users against spellcasters, but the effect is dependent on the amount of damage you inflict, so you'd probably prefer to have it on a heavier weapon that can deal more damage. It's also entirely useless against non-casters, so you may prefer a more generally applicable brand anyway.

[Tiber]

Sniper would be great against anything not poison-resistant, but wyrd is much better overall. I believe speed and velocity don't count as arrow brands, so you can fire an arrow of frost and still gain the benefits of those brands, so it's like they're double-branded.

[eharper256]

So Haste would allow my attack speed to go faster than 'Blindingly Fast' with the Quick Blade (3 delay is it?)?

I see your point for using both; I'm still at the stage where Pois is useful; I'll use Sniper until it gets less useful then drop it in the L2 Stash.

Finally, whilst I'm here: I heard Katana's were removed in 0.8 (?) but a longblade using high elf character that I YASD'ed the other day managed to get a randart one from a Scroll of Acquirement. Wasn't a very good one {Cursed, +1, -1, +2 STR, Vorpal, -3 INT} and I couldn't remove it before a pair of Hydras wandered along and kicked the crap outta her, but still... I take it they're still in the code as a result? And out of interest, were they trope-a-riffic and the best long blades in previous versions?

Regardless, thanks.

[XuaXua]

So Haste would allow my attack speed to go faster than 'Blindingly Fast' with the Quick Blade (3 delay is it?)?

I see your point for using both; I'm still at the stage where Pois is useful; I'll use Sniper until it gets less useful then drop it in the L2 Stash.

Finally, whilst I'm here: I heard Katana's were removed in 0.8 (?).

0.8 has katanas, 0.9 doesn't.

[Grimm]

Amulets of warding do not appear to protect against ranged or magic attacks from summoned creatures. Is this an oversight or is it intentional?

[KoboldLord]

Amulets of warding do not appear to protect against ranged or magic attacks from summoned creatures. Is this an oversight or is it intentional?

Intentional. It's meant to give you an edge so you don't simply get swarmed before you can react, not shut down the entire post-endgame. It works great against all summoned level 2 through 5 demons except hellions, tormentors, neqoxecs, smoke demons, ynoxinuls, and white imps, plus executioners. It works against all spammals, which are the most commonly encountered summoned monsters.

Warding may not be as good as faith, gourmand, or rMut for most characters, but that's a consequence of the fact that these three amulets are ridiculously good, not a specific problem with warding.

[Grimm]

Thanks.

It works great against all summoned level 2 through 5 demons except hellions, tormentors, neqoxecs, smoke demons, ynoxinuls, and white imps, plus executioners.

The sixfirhies seemed to be hitting me pretty hard, so +Elec attacks apparently get through as well.

[XuaXua]

Do the involuntary teleports from a ring of teleportation cause hunger / MP loss?

[slowcar]

Two very nice sets of gloves, but which are better?
+3 Gauntlets of War (Acc+3, Dam+3)
+2 Fencer's Gloves (EV+3, Dex+3, Acc+5)
Playing a Kobold Stalker, currently using Captain's cutlass (+6/+7 Sabre, speed, Dam+2)

[pratamawirya]

I'd pick the Gauntlets of War.

[XuaXua]

I'd pick the Gauntlets of War.

This. I always read feedback that the Dex/Str bonus isn't all that great and you should always go for the straight damage +; also the speed brand diminishes the overall damage of your cutlass.

[XrBob]

I'm looking to play a naga caster. My original thought was wizard, but after I died due to not being able to run away from iron devil from a mahkleb alter, I noticed that transmuter begins with spider form. I haven't tried the naga transmuter yet, but I would think that early access to spider form would help a lot to remedy the slow movement speed. However, my main concern is when I saw that he starts with 4 less mp and 5 less inteliigence. I do get a couple more hp, strength, and dex, but I feel like I'd rather have the mp and int.

The plan would be to get sif muna either way and eventually be able to cast all the important spells and nuke down whatever I need with high level conjurations. Is getting spider form worth it for losing some mp and int and taking some time to transition to a more offensive spellcaster?

[Galefury]

Don't worry about starting stats. Also don't go in there planning to become a conjurer. If you start as a transmuter and go with Sif Muna, you will first and foremost be playing a transmuter. Sif book gifts come late and are quite random. If you really absolutely want to play a conjurer either start as one (or as an elementalist) or worship Vehumet.

That being said, transmuter is great fun, and quite powerful throughout the whole game. Spider form will definitely come in handy. Plus you still get mephitic cloud via evaporate. Having to melee everything might get difficult, nagas have pretty bad defenses early on. Tm gives you a nice bag of tricks though, so give it a shot!

[KoboldLord]

Spider Form completely nullifies the naga species' only significant drawback. You can expect an exceptionally easy early game when you take the naga's laundry list of advantages and omit their slow movement speed, a particularly crippling disadvantage that mostly does balance the advantages.

The Book of Minor Magic is also a good start for naga, however. Blink, Mephitic Cloud, and Conjure Flame are precious escape options that help mitigate your slow movement. They don't work against that particular vault, but you should have recognized the threat before the iron devil actually reached you. Hit a teleport scroll and wriggle for the nearest stairwell down, there's no point in fighting an unwinnable battle. Open levels are also notorious naga deathtraps.

You can safely disregard the mp and intelligence difference between the two starting backgrounds. A wizard will get hungerless high-level spells earlier, but while this isn't a completely trivial matter everything that happens in the late game is much less important to your total chance of success than what you have to work with in the early game.

That said, transmuter play and wizard play are completely different and it is not at all easy to shift between the two, particularly when it's early enough to make a significant difference. If you start as a transmuter, odds are you're going to be punching rather than blasting for a long time, Sif Muna or no. If you specifically want to play an offensive blaster a transmuter is probably not the most promising start, even if they do start with a fantastic suite of abilities.

[hxy]

... also the speed brand diminishes the overall damage of your cutlass.

Can someone explain how this works? I had the impression speed brand just reduces the time taken per attack.

[Galefury]

It now also reduces damage by 10%. This happens last (even after slaying gets added).

[XrBob]

I considered vehumet, he(she?) has a lot of great bonuses and great book gifts. The sif reasoning is that in the later part of the game the most dangerous thing you'll run into is torment, so I'm wanting to have some sort of plan for torment immunity. Randomly finding the necromonicon on the floor or in a book shop is possible, but sif would eventually give me a book with it, so I'll more likely get it by the time I need it. I figure I'd also more quickly the good utility spells.

Yea I shoulda ran away when I saw the lava, but I tend to play with a lot more risk in the early part of the game, sometimes you are pleasantly surprised and I'm not really very invested in the character, it could have been one of those lava demon islands.

Yea though that's true about using sif with a transmuter, it could be some time before you get good nuking spells, so my primary source of damage will be unarmed combat and transmutation for a while. Naga wizard is still probably perfectly playable, I just gotta be more careful.

[KoboldLord]

I considered vehumet, he(she?) has a lot of great bonuses and great book gifts. The sif reasoning is that in the later part of the game the most dangerous thing you'll run into is torment, so I'm wanting to have some sort of plan for torment immunity. Randomly finding the necromonicon on the floor or in a book shop is possible, but sif would eventually give me a book with it, so I'll more likely get it by the time I need it. I figure I'd also more quickly the good utility spells.

This is not correct. Sif Muna does not guarantee Necromutation. Sif Muna can only gift Necromutation if it randomly happens to show up in a randart spellbook, which is still fairly uncommon even after an entire game of Sif Muna gifts. Unlike the non-randart Sif Muna gifts, your odds of getting a randart-only spell that you're missing do not improve as she gifts you more books. At best, you have a modest improvement to the chances of finding a Necronomicon on the floor or in a shop. Besides, while Torment is certainly an obnoxious late-game threat, it's also manageable by other means.

If your heart is really set on getting Necromutation for some reason, you can always worship both Vehumet and Kiku. Then it's guaranteed.

[pratamawirya]

I concur. My latest HuTr went Sif, got 10 runes, and then died without ever seeing Necromutation

[XrBob]

hmm, I'm seeing that necromutation is actually a pretty big investment for a character. Not only do I have to figure out how to get the spell, but I'm sure the skill investment into schools I may not need is pretty costly. Can I ask what are the best ways to manage torment? I'd imagine level 3 life protection a must, though without the shining one that's a major equipment investment. Is the answer just to be be careful, have good defenses and escape options, and recognize when the danger when there are multiple tormentors attacking you?

[KoboldLord]

Most sources of Torment are fairly fragile. The trick is to know how long it will take your character to take a source down, and evaluate whether you can hit it hard and fast or whether you should retreat before it notices you. A tormentor is actually pretty easy to handle, since you can one-shot it before it even notices you if you can get the drop on it. The four flavors of fiends are all more durable, but they're still made out of tissue paper compared to late-game uniques like Boris and Tiamat, so if you hit them hard and fast enough they just die. Your character will already be set up to take dangerous things down quickly, just to get to this point.

Torment itself gets less threatening the more injured you are. The first one seems horrible, because it just took off half your max health! But then the second one is more reasonable, and the ones after that are even less threatening than normal attacks. Good defenses will keep you safe whether you're at 200hp or at 50hp, and by the time you're knocked into a critical range you should already have started your escape plan. This is particularly telling in Tomb, where the top-end mummies are very good at taking your health down but not so great at finishing you off. You can get Tormented every fight, and as long as you follow your plan you can just rest it off afterward.

Finally, you should have an overlapping system of escape options and defenses set up by this point, so if the fight opens with you in a bad position you have a tool to correct that. Monsters in this game don't cast intelligently; they pick a valid spell of their spell list at random and cast it. Tormentx3 then shoot shoot shoot! is probably the best strategy for them, but you'll rarely actually see them follow it. If you do, retreat and come back and you probably won't see it the second time around. Haste and semi-controlled Blink solve lots of problems. Sources of Torment aren't actually common, even in the post-endgame. There's only a few locations where you're likely to see multiple non-summoned (foobar) fiends on the screen at once, and in most of these cases you can back off and let them disperse. One-on-one matchups are firmly in your favor.

[pratamawirya]

Torment is only really scary in Hells, because you can hardly rest to regain lost HP down there. Anywhere else, Torment is quite manageable by careful play.

Level 3 life protection isn't a must; it makes Torment deals 35% damage instead of 50%, which isn't such a huge difference.

[XrBob]

This is true, I've thought that if moster ai acted intelligently with their spells then the game would be significantly harder. What do you mean by foobar? Thanks for the advice, I'll give naga wizard of vehumet a go.

[MyOtheHedgeFox]

Foobar is "something or other without any special difference in the case". A (foobar) fiend is any fiend.
This word is from IT people's professional slang, somewhat equal to "John Doe" and "ACME Inc." in usage.

[Regnix]

I have two rings of regeneration, is there any benefit to wearing both? The knowledge bot says it stacks with OTHER forms of regeneration...

[galehar]

Can I ask what are the best ways to manage torment?

If you're playing trunk, you can also try statue form. Since friday, it gives 50% resistance to torment. Since it also gives rN+, it means you take 22.5% damage instead of 50% (or less if you have other sources of rN).

I have two rings of regeneration, is there any benefit to wearing both? The knowledge bot says it stacks with OTHER forms of regeneration...

Yes, they stack.

[Phlimm]

Just learning still, having some real problems with inventory management. Do any bags exist in game? Also if I find a book and have NOT memorized all the spells is it OK to drop the book? Will I still have access to those spells for memorization later on? Are there any containers in game that let me stash items without worrying about monsters taking them?

[MyOtheHedgeFox]

Be a good Crawl squirrel and make yourself a stash in a place where no one would be able to use your potions, scrolls, wands and toys. =)
Usually the Ecumenical Temple and the second or (in my opinion) the first level of the Lair make good places for stashes (once there are no monsters that can dissolve or shatter your items). The Hive can be a good place to stash your items in as well, but it is a bit harder to reach and to clear.

Drop down everything you don't need immediately and perhaps won't find use for soon enough.

[eharper256]

Just learning still, having some real problems with inventory management. Do any bags exist in game? Also if I find a book and have NOT memorized all the spells is it OK to drop the book? Will I still have access to those spells for memorization later on? Are there any containers in game that let me stash items without worrying about monsters taking them?

No, you can't memorise the spells without the book. And there's none of that D&D staple, the bag of holding (sadly!) or Tensers floating disc (of mobile treasure storage).

As noted, you have to create a stash to keep your gear. The universally decreed best place for this LAIR 2, as it doesn't respawn critters that can steal your stuff (they're all beast types) and it in my experience it also seems to naturally form at least one place that feels well defensible. Not that the second part is a requirement, but it makes you feel better if there is a single entrance or something (Well, I feel better if its in a locked off cavern, LOL).

Are you possibly playing things like Deep Elf Casters? They can be rough due to that 5 starting strength, so perhaps try something with more STR until you're used to the game. If you need to stash stuff prior to LAIR, dump it in the TEMPLE for now as there are never any spawns there.

You can just drop stuff anywhere and find it again later with the FIND feature; books are pretty safe, armour is moderately safe, but weapons (if they're good) can and will be stolen by creatures with hands. Of course, if a Jelly spawns and eats the items you're boned either way, so there's always a risk. Personally, I'd find an out of the way location. Also, evaluate if you really need something.

[Phlimm]

Thanks a lot for the tips! So far the only place I have found that seems safe is the Ecumenical Temple. I cleared 1-3 of the Orc Mines but assume that will regen monsters. On another note, my god gifted me with this seemingly useless item:

-4 Scale Mail of the Seven Moons (-2 str -2 int)

What possibly use could that have and why would I be given that? My title is Commander and I am a prized avatar of Okawaru. Is there any piety hit for not using it or abandoning it in the temple? My +1 Ring Mail of Poison Resistance serves me MUCH better!

[Galefury]

Gods can be cruel, and so can the item generator.

There's no piety hit for not using god gifts.