I think we learned an important lesson today.

[crate]

My favourite Pikel "tech" is quaffing a potion of flight/levitation before you fight him.

[Pereza0]

My favourite Pikel "tech" is quaffing a potion of flight/levitation before you fight him.

Yeah, getting electrocuted really sucks.

Im going to try hitting the humans with the wand of enslavement next time, seeing his own buddies maiming him to death must be pretty fun

[Stormfox]

Don't waste the wand charges. Just zap Pikel, and the freed humans will still rip him to shreds when the enslavement wears off.

[hxy]

Fighting a pair of shedu - alternate between the two of them until both are almost dead before finishing them off.. otherwise you tend to find that the first gets brought back to life before you're done with the second.

[SchwaWarrior]

Fighting a pair of shedu - alternate between the two of them until both are almost dead before finishing them off.. otherwise you tend to find that the first gets brought back to life before you're done with the second.

If you slay it quick enough, you will be fine, and honestly by the time you're encountering Shedus it'd be alarming if you can't finish off all but the meatiest foes in under a dozen turns one-on-one, especially if they're not hitting you back (Shedus have to pause to perform a ressurection).

The only time I have ever had Shedus ressurect each other successfully was when there were other baddies getting in the way. When I see three Daevas on the screen at once, all from a different direction, and I am playing a Demonspawn which takes like triple damage from their already-powerful smiting attacks, you better believe my attention will be a little dominated by that.

Alternatively, raising Shedu and Phoenix corpses as zombies will stop them from ressurecting each-other/themselves. Animate Dead is such a handy spell for any character ever (and before you TSO players get on my case, let me say that I almost never play TSO, Zin or Ely, because I am not a fan of snooty gods with no childhood )

[BlackSheep]

I don't think you can get a holy level if you're worshipping a good god.

[Psieye]

You can't raise Shedu corpses as zombies, unless something changed some a few versions ago. I had a necromancer die to a holy mini-vault on D:18 because I thought I could get Shedu undead to help me kill an Ophanim. "It is holy, you cannot do that desecration move".

[hxy]

If you slay it quick enough, you will be fine, and honestly by the time you're encountering Shedus it'd be alarming if you can't finish off all but the meatiest foes in under a dozen turns one-on-one, especially if they're not hitting you back (Shedus have to pause to perform a ressurection).

Yup I figured something's not quite right with my build.. GhMo with UC at 25 and I'm seeing attack delays vary between 0.5 and 0.7 un-hasted, and he's taking way too many turns to take down monsters.
Chardump is here in case you have time to take a look.

[SchwaWarrior]

Mmmm... I have little knowledge about UC characters. Usually I'm going in with an elemental Demon Blade/Whip as a Demonspawn, 20 of my weapon skill, and about 16 to 18 STR and 25 to 30 INT with some Lv6 Conjurations (a Bolt spell of some kind, or Iron Shot). Even then, my weapon attacks usually take apart one Shedu in five to ten hits, without buffs.

I won't say your character build is bad, I just can't judge because I play a much different style than your Ghoul here from the looks of it. It could just be that Ghoul Monks have a harder time with Shedus than Demonspawn hybrids?

[Jabberwocky]

Neqoxec drain int as well as mutating. I'm going to treat them with more respect now.

[PostmodernBrony]

No matter how close to the stairs you are, don't try to JUST run away from a pack of centaur warriors if you can blink/teleport away from them instead.

Don't drink out of sparkling fountains unless you didn't want those potions of curing, anyway.

Not all demonspawn mutations are equal. there's no shame in restarting if your mutations are useless.

[Xhaan]

Don't berzerk Duvessa just to have it run out on a half dead Dowan (it makes a full dead you)

[PostmodernBrony]

Don't berzerk Duvessa just to have it run out on a half dead Dowan (it makes a full dead you)

Kill Dowan First. No matter how scary a berserking elf may seem, it's nothing compared to a hasted caster with an icicle gatling gun.

[TwilightPhoenix]

In fact, if you can, try enslaving Duvessa and having her kill Dowan. It can be hard to pull off, but it's hilariously mean and very safe. Duvessa will berserk, but will usually calm down before enslave wears off, making her an easy kill.

[PostmodernBrony]

Don't take it personally when Erolcha casts you into the abyss as her first action.
(actually, this is just one thing on a rather extensive list of "don't take it personally"-s)

[Grimm]

Actually you would be well advised to take it personally:

Everytime a player dies, the devteam celebrates.

[PostmodernBrony]

Actually you would be well advised to take it personally:

Everytime a player dies, the devteam celebrates.

FFFFFFF I KNEW IT

[KoboldLord]

He meant to say, "Every time a player character dies, the devteam celebrates."

I think…

[newideas]

With confuse you don't even have to stab!

  Code:

An iguana skeleton comes into view.
Aiming: Confuse
Press: ? - help, Shift-Dir - straight line, f - iguana skeleton
Aim: an iguana skeleton (hasn't noticed you)
The iguana skeleton appears confused. The iguana skeleton bites itself!
The iguana skeleton is destroyed!

[byrel]

Never, ever try to clear Orc:4 using the Sword of Zonguldrok as an Oka worshipper...

[retchdog]

In the time it takes to climb stairs, Nikola can wake up and cast chain lightning. Moral: if you don't have rElec or a ton of HP, and you come down the stairs into a confined area and find a sleeping Nikola, burn a ?blink to get away if possible. Even without being adjacent, it's more than enough to one-shot a caster.

[noppa354]

A single miscast fireball can and will kill your level five deep elf fire elementalist. Ouch.

[Grimm]

Roxanne can now teleport you back near her. Also she has no compunctions about shooting an orb of energy at melee range.

[TwilightPhoenix]

I thought she always could? Or do you mean teleport teleport and not just blink you to her?

[Grimm]

I don't know. All I know is I got a few squares inside the Roxzone and when I tried to leave I was suddenly back inside. This occurred three times in a row, the last time dropping me right next to her, where I perished. This had never happened to me before.

Promising character taken from us too soon, etc.

[nicolae]

A recent commit made her "blink other close" irresistible.

[Grimm]

Yeah that's just great, thanks devs.

[njvack]

A tactical use for stasis!

[Grimm]

And I had it on hand but wasn't thinking correctly. I was all "this is not supposed to happen". That is not the sort of thinking that brings victory.

[Psieye]

My gosh, I hadn't realised what that one change would mean when I read it in the commit logs. Roxanne is now a quick-sand trap. Would be hilarious if she also casted Leda's Liquefaction now.

[byrel]

...You realize Roxanne still doesn't move, right?

Which is ever so much comfort to me when all my frantic motion boils down to staying in one place as well. The point is that she also has an immobilizing effect on the player.

[Grimm]

In other words Roxanne now actually puts on the red light.

[Psieye]

...You realize Roxanne still doesn't move, right?

Which is ever so much comfort to me when all my frantic motion boils down to staying in one place as well. The point is that she also has an immobilizing effect on the player.

Like I said: quicksand trap. You panic and try to frantically run away, you die. You stay calm and just read a tele scroll (or maybe fog scroll), you live.

[Schwer-Muta]

Don't use Enslave Soul on Nikola.

[MyOtheHedgeFox]

Don't use Enslave Soul on Nikola.

Or you will take damage every time he shocks somebody?

[joellercoaster]

If Sonja spawns with a potion of speed, you're gonna regret burning that one scroll of blinking earlier.

Rarely have I been so thoroughly pwn3d in two turns of Crawl.

[Gianozzolo]

No, ice form is not a sufficient answer to 4-headed hydras if you are a XL 12 DrTm.

By the way, how the hell am I supposed to deal with hydras as Tm? So far my only option has been Spider form and run...burn through all the offensive wands I found?

[Psieye]

No, ice form is not a sufficient answer to 4-headed hydras if you are a XL 12 DrTm.

By the way, how the hell am I supposed to deal with hydras as Tm? So far my only option has been Spider form and run...burn through all the offensive wands I found?

Run and then come back when you have bigger spells like Ignite Poison or maybe Statue Form. Not the only way but it's more reliable than trying to fight hydras with low-ish AC with any of the Tm start book forms.

[njvack]

By the way, how the hell am I supposed to deal with hydras as Tm? So far my only option has been Spider form and run...

This is an underrated option. You don't even generally need spider form, as they aren't any faster than you. Just walk away. Kill them when you're stronger.

[Jabberwocky]

If Sonja spawns with a potion of speed, you're gonna regret burning that one scroll of blinking earlier.

Rarely have I been so thoroughly pwn3d in two turns of Crawl.

You're back!
Also, /poly and /paralyze works wonders on Sonja.

[joellercoaster]

I am! A little bit.

And I had an identified /poly too... d'oh.

Today's Important (non-fatal but close) Lesson(tm): Manticores can open doors.

[joellercoaster]

By the way, how the hell am I supposed to deal with hydras as Tm? So far my only option has been Spider form and run

As people have said, running away is a perfectly reasonable thing to do. Spider Form in general is a great panic button! (As with most things in Crawl, the key is knowing early enough to hit it.)

I have also found Greater Servants of Makhleb do pretty well, and they seem to come online at about the right time.

(My first Tm win was with Chei, and Hydrae were a big problem until Statue Form.)

[Sandman25]

Do not forget Repel Missiles via book destruction to clear spell slots for Deflect Missiles. Check success rate for Deflect Missiles first, spell with 45% failure rate is useless and you still have to fight cyclops, yaktaurs and centaurs.

[Sandman25]

Don't throw away Wand of Fire when you have XL 27 DrWz with Fire Storm. You will need that wand to shoot through allied Fire Vortexes at Geryon who is almost dead after 4 Fire Storms.

Edited: Replaced "Wand of Flame" with "Wand of Fire"

[Psieye]

Don't you mean wand of fire? Wand of flame gets blocked by units in the way.

[Sandman25]

Don't you mean wand of fire? Wand of flame gets blocked by units in the way.

Yes, wand of fire. I always confuse the names since it is the same as flame in my native language

I will edit my post above.

Edit: I realize Wand of Flame uses "Throw Flame" spell and Wand of Fire uses "Bolt of Fire" spell but still it is hard to remember. The same with Wands of Ice/Cold, I always spend some time recalling which is better.

[khalil]

I learned that Shatter [kills] the shit out of PC mummies.
On a lighter note, I learned that while converting away from Kiku turns your undead hostile, it does not do so for abominations created via twisted resurrection. Assuming you have max Peity before you leave, we're looking at about fifty abominations that will follow you down stairs and be loyal forever.

[Sandman25]

You do not need Wucad Mu that much when you have Evocation 25.8, Necromancy 18, Crystal Ball of Energy, Sublimation of Blood and Staff of Channeling.
You can spend about 38 mp before using CBoE provided you have 50mp. If it fails, you can use Staff of Channeling (2MP on average) followed by Sublimation of Blood (more than 12 on average) and then try CBoE again. Yes, you lose 2 extra actions (and possible swap for Staff of Channeling) yet you have safe channeling option of Sublimation of Blood for monsters with Suppression who make you unable to use any magical staves.

[Pereza0]

Hoping repeating it to myself will make it stop eventually.
Do not wield unidentified weapons (especially if you know you wont use them due to your skills or weapon class/type) out of curiosity.

Curiosity killed the cat, sent the minotaur to the abyss and made a human a vegan. - Popular Saying