I think we learned an important lesson today.

[Sandman25]

Flying Skull is actually good ally if you have reaching attack. Its high EV helps a lot.

[joellercoaster]

It is possible to get hilariously into trouble at the bottom of any of the Hells at any time.

[Edgarlcarter]

Sometimes, you need more than one backup weapon when worshiping Xom, because he'll happily swap your randart executioners axe as you flee off of Shoals 5, and then swap out your enchanted crossbow when you go down to retrieve the axe... leaving you with two spears you don't know how to use, while surrounded by angry merfolk wielding two scary weapons, and a Boris that is all too happy to remind you of why you left Shoals 5 in the first place.

RIP Tibbers, Teddy Bear of Xom.

[Funkymoses]

You can blow up scrolls on the floor with fireball and fire storm.

[FalconNL]

If Agnes spawns with a lajatang of distortion, do not try to kill her. She will send you to the Abyss regardless of your uncannily high MR. When you get back from said Abyss, do not think: "This time I'll get her". She will send you to the Abyss again. Instead, come to the same conclusion I did after two Abyss trips and simply skip the level. It's just easier that way.

[Lasty]

Distortion banishment doesn't check MR.

[Maverick535]

If you enslave a queen bee, the whole rest of the hive will turn against her, and she can't berserk the lesser bees.

[SchwaWarrior]

Today I learned a new one-turn-game-over scenario.

Never underestimate:
* Shapeshifters
* Death Dragon breath
* Deep Elf Annihilator Poison Arrow
* all at the same time
* with no way to Blink

Next time, no rushdown strategy for me. Heh, yeah.

[prozacelf]

It turns out that it is possible for Erica's invisibility to wear off at exactly the same time her emergency teleport kicks in. Coincidentally, it is also possible for all this to occur at the same time your teleport happens and for her to wind up adjacent to your new position. I imagine the odds against it are astronomical, but I can verify firsthand that it can happen.

[zxc23]

Roxanne can blink you to her before you have a chance to walk back up the stairs the first time you enter the floor. Was not exactly fatal or even remotely dangerous in my instance, but it was unnerving having such a total lack of control over events.

[rebthor]

It turns out that it is possible for Erica's invisibility to wear off at exactly the same time her emergency teleport kicks in. Coincidentally, it is also possible for all this to occur at the same time your teleport happens and for her to wind up adjacent to your new position. I imagine the odds against it are astronomical, but I can verify firsthand that it can happen.

Erica's probably posting on the monster version of this forum
Topic: YAS?D What could I have done?
"WTF! I was at low health, invisible and about to port. I was so worried I was going to die and then my invisibility dropped. I though I was dead for sure but suddenly my port went off and I was safe from prozacelf. Before I even get a chance to move there's prozacelf again, right next to me and then I died. Dump below:"

[siprus]

Quaterstaff of chaos might be nice weapon for 99% of the time, but you shouldn't use it cause berserking ork with electrocution brand can be quite deadly.

[Sandman25]

Random panlords can wield chaos weapon.

  Code:

Wuffyze hits you! You feel yourself speed up.

I am not sure if I want to post it in "I love when..." thread because previously he did this:

  Code:

114154 | Pan      | Paralysed by Wuffyze for 5 turns

[BlackSheep]

Random pan lords get a random melee brand. No weapon needed.

[Sandman25]

Fungus can pick up runes

  Code:

You are very lightly contaminated with residual magic.
You are engulfed in seething chaos. You turn into a fleshy mushroom.
Your +4,+6 eudemon blade of holy wrath melds into your body.
Your +4,+6 eudemon blade of holy wrath stops glowing.
Your +2 cloak of preservation melds into your body.
The +0 helmet "Saoxun" {Str+5 Int+3} melds into your body.
You feel weaker. You feel stupid.
Your +2 pair of elven gloves of dexterity melds into your body.
You feel clumsy.
Your +2 pair of boots of stealth melds into your body.
You feel less stealthy.
Your +1 buckler of poison resistance melds into your body.
Your +8 fire dragon armour melds into your body.
Found an abyssal rune of Zot.
You see here a green rat corpse.
There is an open door here.
You see here an abyssal rune of Zot.
You pick up the abyssal rune and feel its power.


Chaos clouds are so fun.

[SchwaWarrior]

Fungus is awesome.

One D:2 instance against Terrence and his Wand of Polymorph had me in fungus form, and I had happened upon a D:1 Amulet of Rage that game too. I got to experience the thrilling sensation of making an Enraged Fungus KO that day. Boy did that put me in a good mood. Just the IDEA of it even being a thing.

[Sandman25]

Fungus is awesome.

One D:2 instance against Terrence and his Wand of Polymorph had me in fungus form, and I had happened upon a D:1 Amulet of Rage that game too. I got to experience the thrilling sensation of making an Enraged Fungus KO that day. Boy did that put me in a good mood. Just the IDEA of it even being a thing.

Lol.
I was a hasted Fungus (chaos cloud hasted me before polymorphing, also previously it put to sleep some monsters that were chasing me). Fungus is the most stealthy "species" - it has stealth factor 30! while even bloodless vampires have only 21. (I found it via source diving, it is listed in neither wiki nor knowledge bot) so with Stealth skill 27 I had 810 stealth score (520 is uncannily stealthy). So Fungus is not so bad for stealthy characters.

[siprus]

Hubris kills. No matter how good items you got nothing can help you if you don't make correct strategical choices.

[Grimm]

Well then clearly hubris is wildly OP. Devs can we get hubris removed or nerfed please?

[siprus]

true, probably single greatest cause of death after dungeon 1-5.

Anyway today led me to another realization: You shouLd decide your weapon type based on your tier 2 mutation! Spears is probably the best choice as you can have demon trident and if you get rot you can poke enemies who are too afraid to come closer cause of your terrible smell.

Longswords are probably best if you tier 2 fire mutations, they probably cause more bleeding and hench fire clouds. (if someone knows better please do correct me)

[SchwaWarrior]

Hubris kills. No matter how good items you got nothing can help you if you don't make correct strategical choices.

Oh yes.

I had a D:2 Ring of Regeneration last night on a promising DsAK.

Turns out that didn't mean he was ready to melee the D:8 Cyclops. RIP.

[Funkymoses]

if you hate yourself, be sure to kill a lot of draconians right after they get to L7 and ghost up with draining breath that has no recharge.

[le_nerd]

Minotaurs are able to one-shot a ~60HP SpEn immediately after an almost-killing stab; always test in Wiz-Mode if your stabbing is high enough!

[prozacelf]

It turns out that it is possible for Erica's invisibility to wear off at exactly the same time her emergency teleport kicks in. Coincidentally, it is also possible for all this to occur at the same time your teleport happens and for her to wind up adjacent to your new position. I imagine the odds against it are astronomical, but I can verify firsthand that it can happen.

Erica's probably posting on the monster version of this forum
Topic: YAS?D What could I have done?
"WTF! I was at low health, invisible and about to port. I was so worried I was going to die and then my invisibility dropped. I though I was dead for sure but suddenly my port went off and I was safe from prozacelf. Before I even get a chance to move there's prozacelf again, right next to me and then I died. Dump below:"

Comically enough, I killed her then got murdered by an electric eel who wandered in.

[Petro]

Don't even think about going to the abyss as a mummy without resist mutation and/or sustain ability. Wretched Stars' annoying little temporary mutation aura becomes a permanent stat drain aura. My level 27 articifer/necromancer/fighter went down there and was promptly crushed under the weight of gravity while a group of stars danced around me flashing (I think they were holding a rave over my dead body?).

[Arrhythmia]

You do know that Mu can instantly clear all rot and statloss for the cost of perma-MP, right?

I get the feeling you just learned a new important lesson today.

[Kirbypowered]

Okay, I wrote that poorly. It needed a hyphen.

Don't read unidentified scrolls in an attempt to ID them whilst standing next to your BiA-summoned berzerking ogre, lest they turn out to be immolation and you become the target of said ogre's rage.

No penance, just the summoned ally turned hostile.

I should add, watch out read IDing scrolls when worshiping Okawaru as well. Sure, you're alone with no allies, but look at all those adorable little butterflies that scroll of random uselessness just summoned. The ones burning to death now, thanks to that scroll of immoliation. Yeah, all those butterflies were your allies. That you just brutally murdered. Okawaru hates you.

Always be aware of your circumstances before doing anything. Ever.

[omegonthesane]

Tarantella spiders will happily Tekken Juggle you to death if you didn't bring clarity.

Also, being a Demigod Necromancer is no excuse for reaching Spider's Nest without summons or a good blast spell. We'll get back to you on whether a staff of death is a valid primary instrument of murder given the fringe benefits of Evocations, the not-fringe benefits of Necromancy, and only getting a shield for See Invisible.

[Matanui3]

If that artifact Gold Dragon armor you find in a Bazaar that only costs most of your money looks too good to be true, it is.
Your LOBe does not appreciate a -8, +INT, rF+ when he already has orcish plate.
What a ripoff.

[Matanui3]

After you grab the rune from the Vaults, don't stick around and fight the rest of the enemies. Eventually a Tentacled Monstrosity will grab you and prevent you from stairdancing at the worst time.

Seriously, do the monsters in that level EVER run out??

[Silk]

After you grab the rune from the Vaults, don't stick around and fight the rest of the enemies. Eventually a Tentacled Monstrosity will grab you and prevent you from stairdancing at the worst time.

Seriously, do the monsters in that level EVER run out??

On a related note...

Even if your MiFi is able to cakewalk his way through the Vault 5 entry party you should still NOT underestimate the danger a single tentacled monstrosity can pose. It is amazingly easy to forget how much damage they can get past armor.

[ajon]

Apparently on games where you dont find a single piece of equipment with SInv, there's 2 unseen horrors on every level... and they will eventually get you. True story.

[Petro]

You do know that Mu can instantly clear all rot and statloss for the cost of perma-MP, right?

Give me a little credit. I had 3 stars on me, each conferring multiple mutations almost every turn. In the end I simply couldn't restore myself faster than they could wither me. A star can easily drain 3-7 stat points per turn. If you didn't invest a lot of points in any given stat, well, good game. They're like orange statues that can chase and cast Iske-blast.

Something else I learned today: Djinni artificers are the new mummy artificers. Similar (and arguably superior) resistances with none of the horrible consequences. At least until I reach cocytus.

[SchwaWarrior]

After you grab the rune from the Vaults, don't stick around and fight the rest of the enemies. Eventually a Tentacled Monstrosity will grab you and prevent you from stairdancing at the worst time.

Seriously, do the monsters in that level EVER run out??

Yeah, your problem wasn't that you tried to do a Vaults:5 sweep, it was fighting that Tentacle monster in the first place. If you were by the stairs, you had to have seen it coming, and if there were other enemies around so that you had to stair-dance it, you shouldn't have been fighting it. Those things will kill even high-powered, fully-buffed-up melee characters sometimes, that early in the game; they're a regular foe in Zot:1-5 because by that point is when players can reasonably handle them. *shivers* I feel your pain though.

If it were me I might have tried to stair-dance it upward when no enemies were around (blinking away if it grappled me and trying again), then parked it on Vaults:4 and came back to it later. That plan isn't the easiest thing, but it's better than fighting it if I'm sorely in over my head. Oh yes.

Oh, can you imagine what it'd be like to have Orbs of Fire in Vaults:5?? Bahahaha, delicious...

[siprus]

Crawl really likes to fuck with you. Promising start, but I go into a long corridor (which turns out to be a dead end, and bolder beetle appears behind me).

Always start identifying scrolls when you have enough of them!

[MoogleDan]

Highest score ever wins on experimental branch games don't count toward your online play stats. Grumble grumble...

[Sandman25]

Crawl really likes to fuck with you. Promising start, but I go into a long corridor (which turns out to be a dead end, and bolder beetle appears behind me).

Always start identifying scrolls when you have enough of them!

Always retreat toward known territory. Yes, sometimes it is impossible because the path is blocked by a new monster. The best approach is to explore in a spiral way (a bit in every direction around stairs, then increase radius and explore every direction again and so on but it is very time consuming).

[joellercoaster]

Song of Slaying-related hubris is a really effective killer of my low-level Skalds.

[siprus]

Crawl really likes to fuck with you. Promising start, but I go into a long corridor (which turns out to be a dead end, and bolder beetle appears behind me).

Always start identifying scrolls when you have enough of them!

Always retreat toward known territory. Yes, sometimes it is impossible because the path is blocked by a new monster. The best approach is to explore in a spiral way (a bit in every direction around stairs, then increase radius and explore every direction again and so on but it is very time consuming).

I was exploring new territory and the bug appeared right behind me! My guess it was coded trap cause it was only corridor in otherwise open level. (it also was last place i explored on that level.)

[Sandman25]

I was exploring new territory and the bug appeared right behind me! My guess it was coded trap cause it was only corridor in otherwise open level. (it also was last place i explored on that level.)

See http://crawl.chaosforge.org/Monster_generation for explanation

[rebthor]

If you ever are thinking, "Hmm should I use that scroll of blinking or just teleport?" the answer is always use the scroll of blinking.

[le_nerd]

Zot:5 can have the secret door vault.

[Hurkyl]

No matter how much I want some nice cold-branded loot in the ice cavern in Lair:2, that Frost Giant is still capable of blasting me for 49 damage through a polar bear, just like the last time I tried pushing my luck, and I should turn around and go back home.

(Okay, I don't actually remember being blasted from behind an enemy before, but the point still stands; don't mess with Frost Giants in the early/mid game!)

[siprus]

I was exploring new territory and the bug appeared right behind me! My guess it was coded trap cause it was only corridor in otherwise open level. (it also was last place i explored on that level.)

See http://crawl.chaosforge.org/Monster_generation for explanation

Hmm... I was sure Sure it was trap vault 'cause it fitted so perfectly it fitted the situation so perfectly.

[BlackSheep]

There is a whole set of vaults with triggers that spawn one or more boulder beetles.
(/dat/des/traps/boulders.des)

[rebthor]

There is a whole set of vaults with triggers that spawn one or more boulder beetles.
(/dat/des/traps/boulders.des)

It belongs in a museum.

[siprus]

I'm learning more and more monster who can banish you into the **** abyss.

[Hurkyl]

An enslaved deep troll earth mage is still a deadly threat, despite being on your side.

  Code:

Your deep troll earth mage casts a spell.
The metal wall shatters!
The blast of metal metal fragments hits the deep troll.
The deep troll dies!
The blast of metal metal fragments hits the ironheart preserver.
The blast of metal fragments hits you!
* * * LOW HITPOINT WARNING * * *
The yaktaur captain shoots a bolt. The bolt hits you!
You die...


[jejorda2]

autoinscribe += rod:!a

This is not the first promising character I've lost by attacking while wielding the wrong weapon, but it was the first one who had two rods of inaccuracy, rods of fiery and freezing destruction, and a lightning rod. None of them are better melee weapons than an executioner's axe when you have 26 axe skill.

[siprus]

Orc warlord with Greatsword of holywrath can hit A LOT with 1 strike if you are a demonspawn.

Last messages are quite telling. I'm at full hit point at this point.
You hit orc warlord.
the orc warlord is severely wounded.
You hit the orc warlord. There is sudden explosion of spark.
The orc warlord is almost dead.
The orc warlord hits you with a great sword of holy wrath!
You focus on the pain.
You feel more agile all of a sudden.
* * * LOW HIT POINT WARNING * * *
You hit the orc warlord but do no damage.
You kick the orc warlord.
You kill the orc warlord.
Your evocation skill gains 2 levels and is now at level 5.
The orc warrior hits you from afar with a trident!
* * * LOW HIT POINT WARNING * * *
As you read scroll of teleportation, it crumbles to dust.
You feel strangely unstable.
The orc warrior hits you from afar with trident!
You die...

I really love that last kick to kill the orc warlord.
I hit him for multiple turn without taking any damage from him or the orc with trident. Which made those 2 last hits that bit more annoying :/