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

[KoboldLord]

I'm at the end of a labyrinth, but it appears that there are teleportation traps next to the exit/minotaur vault. will they send me somewhere random, or take me inside?

Random, and because this is a labyrinth it is guaranteed to move you farther away from your goal. This vault always has a path that doesn't have a teleportation trap, although it might have some other sorts of traps instead.

[joellercoaster]

It'll be somewhere random. Search carefully, they shouldn't be blocking the exit completely (unless there's a really evil Lab layout I haven't seen).

Getting this one is cool when you're probably not 100% up to fighting the bloke with the horns though, he tends to run in straight lines

[edit: Ninjaed! I'll get a coffee.]

[robulon]

What does the "you evolve" mutation in trunk do? I can't seem to find it on the list (any of mutation lists really )

[Galefury]

It makes you mutate over time. 50% good mutations, 50% random I think. It will go away after some time.

Edit: Oh, also wearing rMut will make it go away faster, and it cant be waited out. Gaining new mutations is triggered by gaining exp. I'm not sure if rMut protects against the mutations gained from evolution.

[robulon]

Thank you! Was trying to decide if I should quaff a !cure mut, I guess I'll let it work its mutation magic for a bit first.

[File200]

What is the attack delay penalty for using a bow or crossbow with a shield?

[absolutego]

does cross training not take into account fractional levels of skills? according to the skill menu it doesn't. e.g.:

  Code:

b - Axes              0.0          0 +4
c + Maces & Flails    3.3    9%    0
d + Staves            3.5    9%    0

(staves cross trains with maces and there's no bonus.)

that would bring back the problem that in order to play optimally you have to micromanage. is it an oversight or an implementation problem?

[Blade]

I have a few new questions:

What is the skill required for a non-elf to have no casting penalties from a medium elven shield?

With Mutation Resistance 1 and an amulet of resist mutation, what is the chance of being mutated on any given attempt (Neqoxec, Shining Eye, etc.)?

Just how good is Piercer (+2 +10 longbow of velocity, -2 EV)? Is it worth training bows up on a mid-level character with fairly high investment in shields and magic, with no bow skill (I would be astonished if this was the case)? What about a mid-level fighter hovering between one-handed or two-handed weapons and, again, no bow skill?

[Serne]

For the mutation question I do believe the answer would be something like this - Rmut from the amulet stops a mutation 9/10 so thats a 10% chance of mutation there. Mutation resistance 1 stops mutations 1/3 times. so it would come out to being something like 3% chance overall of being mutated on any given check.

I think my math is right on that. someone correct me if I'm wrong.

As for the bow: On the fighter I'd say it depends if they have any viable ranged options already such as some throwing or slings skill, if not then getting a few levels in Bows might be nice to pick up in order to soften your opponents. For the caster it's a trickier question which I'm not gonna try and answer.

[AtT]

What is the skill required for a non-elf to have no casting penalties from a medium elven shield?

You need 5/15/25 skill to eliminate melee speed, damage, and casting penalties for bucklers/shields/large shields for normal races (including draconians, except they can't use bucklers), 7/21/- for kobolds and halflings, 9/-/- for spriggans, 3/9/15 for nagas and centaurs, -/9/15 for trolls and ogres.

[Serne]

Does inventory have bearing on character score in .9?

And now for another question that is directly related to that: For randarts and unrandarts how are their score values calculated? AND how are artifact spellbooks pertinent to scoring(flat bonus for artifactiness and then levels of spells contained or something)?

And now for a WEIRD question: how many tiles are possible on a single floor of the dungeon?

[Blade]

What is the skill required for a non-elf to have no casting penalties from a medium elven shield?

You need 5/15/25 skill to eliminate melee speed, damage, and casting penalties for bucklers/shields/large shields for normal races (including draconians, except they can't use bucklers), 7/21/- for kobolds and halflings, 9/-/- for spriggans, 3/9/15 for nagas and centaurs, -/9/15 for trolls and ogres.

Elven shields inhibit casting less, so that's what I'm wondering about. The bots only apply to regular shields.

[Blade]

Elven shields don't inhibit casting less.

And that is what I get for assuming elven shields worked like elven body armor. In that case, shields in general inhibit casting much less than I'd assumed.

[rchandra]

Does inventory have bearing on character score in .9?

And now for another question that is directly related to that: For randarts and unrandarts how are their score values calculated? AND how are artifact spellbooks pertinent to scoring(flat bonus for artifactiness and then levels of spells contained or something)?

And now for a WEIRD question: how many tiles are possible on a single floor of the dungeon?

http://crawl.develz.org/info/inline.php?q=score says inventory no longer counts - just gold, time, runes, winning, and experience.

[Dingo]

What determines spell accuracy (for say, iron shot)?

[Galefury]

Spellpower. Which in turn is determined by The relevant spell schools (important), spellcasting (about 1/4th as effective as the spell school of a single-school spell, so less important) and int (important). There is also a stepdown function which makes high power hard to get.

[cjo]

What do people think of Shroud of Golubria? I'm not quite sure how to use it to best advantage, as it seems too slow to be a reliable get-out-of-trouble spell.

EDIT: I meant Passage of Golubria.

[varsovie]

I don't use it as a mean of escape.
I cast it when there is a dangerous or a big battle to come.
Like a vault full of gnolls.

I don't find it usefull on a full caster, since you will want to avoid melee anyway, but it's tier 2, so easily castable by a fighter.

[cerebovssquire]

Whatever everyone is referring to (it seems a bit mixed up):

"Shroud of Golubria", the l2 charms/tloc spell, isn't a means of escape but of damage prevention: it is very useful in the early game due to preventing relatively low damage values, or later on with high AC/GDR.
"Passage of Golubria" isn't a very good spell for escaping (not only does it take a lot of turns to set up, but monsters can follow you through). As a warper cTele/Blink is a better means of escape from your starting book, and anyone else should also go for this. I've heard it being useful for luring monsters into certain locations (oklob farms?) but can't say much on this matter.

[WhiteShark]

How do I safely abandon Kiku as a living character? I've started building a stockpile of abominations because from what I've read you can wait it out in the temple with sufficient abominations. Anything else I would need, aside from lots of food (and rings of sustenance)?

[cerebovssquire]

Kiku wrath is pathetic, and only annoying if you intend to cast Necromancy spells constantly during it (miscasts).
You'd want some potions of healing/curing in 0.10 to stop rotting when you get it, though.

[greepish]

Well, if you're new, I'd just wait it out in the temple, spawned zombie hordes right next to you can be as bad as gold dragon zombies, or fast powerful zombies. But yeah, no preparations needed for waiting it out in temple, you just don't want zombies in your face during a fight. And as cerebov said, don't use necromancy. You basically get wrath with no penance reduction.

[sir_laser]

Does disarming traps give XP?

[dassem]

I am playing a polearm wielding DSWz (actually as a bit of a hybrid) and want a good suggestion for an endgame weapon in trunk (which means inbuilt reaching).

As I've got a shield of resistance too, it seems that a demon-trident is almost a no-brainer, but what brand should I aspire to?
My main spells are ice-based, so freezing seems a bit redundant (and is not much use against undead or cold-resisting demons).
Similarly, if you're not a DS, a blessed trishula is awesome.
In Shoals I found a demon trident of venom, which let me rip through most of the early/mid game. Now that's close to +8, but more and more things have rPois.
I've found a demon trident of electrocution, which looks like an awesome supplement to ice-based attacks. I'd be able to enchant that to about +5 fairly quickly.
Should I wait for one that I can give a flaming brand? Or stick with one of those?

[ilpalazzo]

Electrocution is great - maybe the best brand you can get. Very good damage (better than vorpal) and very few things can resist. I would enchant that.

[WhiteShark]

How worthwhile is it to train up dodging on a dedicated conjurer? If it is worth it, how far? (Given the time frame/xp of a 3 rune game)

[KoboldLord]

How worthwhile is it to train up dodging on a dedicated conjurer? If it is worth it, how far? (Given the time frame/xp of a 3 rune game)

Once you have your big boom spells, you're good to train support skills up to middling levels. If you don't have your big boom spells yet, train the relevant skills for those exclusively until you have them. After you have your big boom spells, a few levels of dodging are cheap and useful.

It is not really feasible to give a universally-applicable time frame for support skill training, because they're relatively low-priority and will get pushed to the back of the desirability queue whenever you get a good spellbook drop. In practice, I generally don't touch dodge on conjurors until I have all my level 4-6 direct damage spells working properly, and then I train dodging/fighting/stealth/shields/traps to somewhere between 5 and 15 skill levels each, depending on aptitudes, equipment availability, and whatever new spellbooks have spawned. By the time I have a third Rune to work with, I will have decided whether I'm going for Ice/Fire Storm, or whether I'm going to hybridize with melee. In the latter case, I'll keep pumping stealth, fighting, and dodging as xp becomes available.

[rchandra]

Is there a quick way to find out what a key does / is bound to (preferably ingame) so I can decide if I want to put a macro over it?
if not, does ';' do anything? Given its position, seems like it would.

[dassem]

Hmm, given that I will be going for the extended endgame, I'm not totally sure about the electrocution brand for flying demons.
We'll see.

How worthwhile is it to train up dodging on a dedicated conjurer? If it is worth it, how far? (Given the time frame/xp of a 3 rune game)

Absolutely.
It can depend a bit on which way your items push you. If your artifacts also have +EV, then it can be great to take full advantage. I had a really nice DS mage who cleared most of the later dungeon with a really high EV. He could stand next to really nasty things and they just couldn't hit him.

[jejorda2]

?? tells what keys do.

; tells you what is in the square with you. If there is one stack of some kind of item, it will give you a prompt of how many to pick up.

[Dingo]

Are Panlords immune to silence or something? I'm in a zig and these damn panlords keep summoning despite being silenced (by another panlord). This legit or is it a bug?

[Serne]

They don't need to speak to cast magic so silence doesn't work on them or on any other demons/devils.

[greepish]

Hrm, think I ran into a bug, but I'm not sure. So I put on a ring of -3 intelligence as a troll. Whoops! Currently brainless at -1 int. So... I put on a ring of +4 int, eat a royal joyal, quaff a potion of brillance. I have 10 int and I'm still brainless. So... am I screwed or does brainless last a few turns?

[pratamawirya]

Electrocution is probably just as good as, or better than, flaming or freezing until the extended game (most dangerous demons fly).

What does that mean? Do flying creatures always get electricity resistance? If I cast Flight and fly, will I get electricity resistance?

[greepish]

Electrocution is probably just as good as, or better than, flaming or freezing until the extended game (most dangerous demons fly).

What does that mean? Do flying creatures always get electricity resistance? If I cast Flight and fly, will I get electricity resistance?

Pretty sure it's only a monster thing. Monsters always get annoying advantages like that I wish demonspawn could cast spells while silenced heh.

Also, answered my own question, the brainlessness does just go away after a few turns.

[sage]

Hrm, think I ran into a bug, but I'm not sure. So I put on a ring of -3 intelligence as a troll. Whoops! Currently brainless at -1 int. So... I put on a ring of +4 int, eat a royal joyal, quaff a potion of brillance. I have 10 int and I'm still brainless. So... am I screwed or does brainless last a few turns?

It lasts a few turns. You won't die, but you can't cast until you wait it out.

[MyOtheHedgeFox]

Electrocution is probably just as good as, or better than, flaming or freezing until the extended game (most dangerous demons fly).

What does that mean? Do flying creatures always get electricity resistance? If I cast Flight and fly, will I get electricity resistance?

Electrocution is nice when enemies stand in the water and you do not.

[greepish]

Okay, is an (amulet of inaccuracy +3Dam) positive or negative? Unarmed troll. Seems like it's better than nothing, as it should average (-2.5,+3), but I'm never sure about the wiki.

[KoboldLord]

What does that mean? Do flying creatures always get electricity resistance? If I cast Flight and fly, will I get electricity resistance?

Electrocution brand will not kick in against flying or levitating targets, although the regular weapon damage still applies as normal. Flying and levitating will not protect those same targets from other sources of electrical damage, such as air magic, dragon breath, or wands.

Okay, is an (amulet of inaccuracy +3Dam) positive or negative? Unarmed troll. Seems like it's better than nothing, as it should average (-2.5,+3), but I'm never sure about the wiki.

I wouldn't bother wearing it. Accuracy is generally less important than damage, but for this reason you probably aren't stacking all that many other forms of accuracy bonuses. The effect will most likely be noticeable, and I generally don't find trolls to need damage that's even swingier than normal. +3 damage is very nice, at least if you're not playing Trunk where it was nerfed, but trolls already have very high unarmed combat damage.

[pratamawirya]

What does that mean? Do flying creatures always get electricity resistance? If I cast Flight and fly, will I get electricity resistance?

Electrocution brand will not kick in against flying or levitating targets, although the regular weapon damage still applies as normal. Flying and levitating will not protect those same targets from other sources of electrical damage, such as air magic, dragon breath, or wands.

Does that apply to the player too?

[CommanderC]

Why potions of brilliance aren't marked as useless items for Trog's worshipers?

[Serne]

Because they can still be useful if you run into a bunch of int draining enemies(?)

[KoboldLord]

Does that apply to the player too?

Yes. A levitation potion will completely protect you from the brand damage if Agnes or Rupert pulls out a latajang or executioner's axe of electrocution, but you will still suffer axe-to-the-face damage as normal. That levitation potion will do exactly jack squat against Nikola.

[ilpalazzo]

Wow, never had a clue...

[XuaXua]

What does that mean? Do flying creatures always get electricity resistance? If I cast Flight and fly, will I get electricity resistance?

Electrocution brand will not kick in against flying or levitating targets, although the regular weapon damage still applies as normal. Flying and levitating will not protect those same targets from other sources of electrical damage, such as air magic, dragon breath, or wands.

Okay, is an (amulet of inaccuracy +3Dam) positive or negative? Unarmed troll. Seems like it's better than nothing, as it should average (-2.5,+3), but I'm never sure about the wiki.

I wouldn't bother wearing it. Accuracy is generally less important than damage, but for this reason you probably aren't stacking all that many other forms of accuracy bonuses. The effect will most likely be noticeable, and I generally don't find trolls to need damage that's even swingier than normal. +3 damage is very nice, at least if you're not playing Trunk where it was nerfed, but trolls already have very high unarmed combat damage.

This post belongs in the Protips thread.

[Joehai]

Other than standing around in water and having conservation, are there any other ways to put out sticky flames?

[greepish]

Not sure, but fire resistance does lessen the damage I think, mottled drasgon armour eliminates it to begin with, and dropping scrolls always works to prevent the most dangerous part of it.