I think we learned an important lesson today.

[joellercoaster]

Trunk has scrolls of Silence!

Oooh.

(I think it also has Basilisks too, or at least their zombies, which makes me a little worried )

[galehar]

Trunk has scrolls of Silence!

Oooh.

(I think it also has Basilisks too, or at least their zombies, which makes me a little worried )

Trunk? Scrolls of silence have been in the game for a very long time. But they are very rare.
Basilisks are a trunk addition, yes.

[Happy Corner]

Reading a scroll of teleport is not always a foolproof means of escaping death on a mostly-unexplored level.

Especially if you're slowed from berserking when you do it.

[Shade]

If you have a high level character that dies there's a good chance you'll splat your next few low level characters just because you're still partially assessing danger based on the strength of the previous character.

[Yet Another Stupid Noob]

A pack of death yaks in the lair can easily be cleared by using dig on a nearby wall, standing in the back of the tunnel, filling it with conjure fire, and daring them to attack you.

The things are fearless. They charge down the tunnel (getting crispy), perhaps get an attack or two on you, and then try to run away, back through the flames. Death Yaks, hydra, elephants (or slimes) this really works well on any brave or mindless creature

[Tiber]

Orc warlords, while normally a major threat, have relatively weak MR and can't see invisible. So if you happen to be an enchanter, have fun getting your sweet, sweet revenge for all the headaches they've caused you.

[joellercoaster]

I know this is really obvious, but I learned a valuable lesson today anyway:

Octopodes can swim

[Happy Corner]

Shafts are not a poor man's emergency hatch. (They're a dead man's emergency hatch.)

[amic]

Monsters can drink potions of berserk rage.

[Happy Corner]

Always ID manuals before reading them. Always.

Because gaining 11 levels in Air Magic is poor form when you're a Berserker of Trog.

[slowcar]

Always ID manuals before reading them. Always.

Because gaining 11 levels in Air Magic is poor form when you're a Berserker of Trog.

You can safely read them when you have no free XP in your pool, can't you?

[Happy Corner]

You can safely read them when you have no free XP in your pool, can't you?

That noise you may have heard just now was me facepalming.

Why on earth can't I think of these things?

Ah well, lesson learned for next time.

[galehar]

I'd rather waste an id scroll than a charge from a good manual. Especially if I have a lot of XP in the pool, I might want to dump it in the manual's skill. If you victory dance all of it and then use-id your manual of fighting to save an id scroll, you're gonna eat your keyboard.

[Stormfox]

I'd rather waste an id scroll than a charge from a good manual. Especially if I have a lot of XP in the pool, I might want to dump it in the manual's skill. If you victory dance all of it and then use-id your manual of fighting to save an id scroll, you're gonna eat your keyboard.

Indeed. By the time that manuals are generating, you should have plenty of ID scrolls, or at least you'll have good odds of more coming.

[jejorda2]

The next time I encounter a labyrinth entrance while wearing a cursed ring of teleportation, I'm going to stay out of the labyrinth.

[Jeremiah]

Sometimes taking your chances against Sigmund is preferable to the alternative.

[Jeremiah]

But frequently the only choice is between taking one of several different chances - and some are more survivable than others.

[Happy Corner]

Never go into a Bailey portal without a good ranged attack.

[Happy Corner]

Not near enough, this time.

It was one of those baileys that's a giant room with buildings in the center. I appeared in a corner of the level, but the exit was nowhere in sight. I died being pincushioned by orcs (on the other side of deep water, of course) looking for it.

[Grimm]

Never go into a Bailey portal without a good ranged attack.

There are other tricks you can do in baileys: you can for example teleport orcs who are carrying a reaching weapon until one lands on your side, kill him and take his weapon, then use it to kill the rest of the orcs across the water.

Another trick is to dodge in and out of range of the crossbow orcs until they have exhausted all their ammo. Then you can do what thou wilt with them. Grab all the bolts on the floor so you are ready for when one drops a crossbow.

With spells I'm sure even more fun is possible.

I really enjoy the bailey challenges. Respect to whomever designed them.

Also the portal exit is always right near the entrance; you never have to fight to get out of one. You must have missed it.

[KoboldLord]

That particular bailey sounds like the Donjon map. The exit portal is in one of the other corners. Once you recognize the water pillboxes, you can retreat and hug the wall around the edge of the map. Then you only have to worry about orcs that blunder into a teleport trap and then work their way back over to your location. Honestly the pillboxes aren't too hard to take out for anybody who has a reusable ranged attack, because you can approach in such a way that no more than one target has a line of fire to you.

More aggravating to me is Surrounded, where you get dropped directly between two pillboxes with archers. There are four steps to the exit portal, and every step along the way at least six of the archers will have a clear line of fire. If you rush one group, there are knights behind the pillboxes, and they have a clear walking path to you. The threat is trivial if you can spam Mephitic Cloud or Evaporate, brutal otherwise.

[mattlistener]

Spellbooks can be distinguished from manuals without using an identify scroll, and without the risk of use-id. Just do a Shift-M to memorize available spells. If the new book is a readable spellbook, it will become identified. If it's a too-high-level spellbook, the memorize pane will have new text about it. If neither of the above, it's a manual.

[thevogonpoet]

Honestly, I don't know why I have to relearn this lesson, it stood me well during my ADOM wins, but anyway:

If you have just pulled off a brilliant and daring escape from a deadly situation which you found yourself in due to severely underestimating a monster you have never seen before, DO NOT just recharge your HP and MP and tiptoe back into that deadly situation. Seriously, stay away, and come back at least 3 levels later, when you have more tools to deal with it.

/Two weeks ago, I lost my best KoBe to date in Orc 4. I attacked the orc high priests (or something like that, they summoned lots of demons), barely escaped, regenned, returned to the high priests, barely escaped again, regenned, and then went back and died. I mean really, WTF?
//So today, I lost my best DESu to date in Lair 7. I attacked a lindwurm, got my ass kicked, barely escaped, regenned my HP and MP, and guess what I did next?
///*headdesk*

[Ququman]

DON'T claw Hydras. just don't. unless you are very very strong that is

[Grimm]

Lindwurms are awful. So are spiny worms.

[Grimm]

There is a spider vault that is not insanely difficult.

[Happy Corner]

Despite their name and experience-draining attacks, shadow dragons are not, in fact, undead.

[XuaXua]

Despite their name and experience-draining attacks, shadow dragons are not, in fact, undead.

Neither are Orange Rats.

[joellercoaster]

The combination of Necromutation and Sif Muna's channeling is so delicious as to perhaps require a health warning.

(Added Sif bonus: subsequently forgetting Sublimation of Blood is made easy )

[MyOtheHedgeFox]

Let me quote the game called "Immortal Defense":

Aren't you happy that the loss was only virtual?

[Ququman]

When you switch from playing Felid to an other specie, remember.
Do NOT die. There is no second chance.

[jejorda2]

Even if you're 95% of the way to the level of spellcasting that will let you memorize firestorm, that vault in Z5 next to the orb is a poor place to victory dance. At any rate, don't turn your mp bar red even if you can melee those wimpy orb guardians. And when you're slicing them up, don't let your hp drop from 200 to 50. When you run away, something like a storm dragon will zap you.

But on the bright side, I got that special level of spellcasting while activating buffs to fight my way out!

http://crawl.akrasiac.org/rawdata/jejor ... 134006.txt

[galehar]

Even if you're 95% of the way to the level of spellcasting that will let you memorize firestorm, that vault in Z5 next to the orb is a poor place to victory dance. At any rate, don't turn your mp bar red even if you can melee those wimpy orb guardians. And when you're slicing them up, don't let your hp drop from 200 to 50. When you run away, something like a storm dragon will zap you.

But on the bright side, I got that special level of spellcasting while activating buffs to fight my way out!

http://crawl.akrasiac.org/rawdata/jejor ... 134006.txt

Nice tri-zap from the dragon. Maybe you should have switched to the hammer with rElec.

[Happy Corner]

Even if all your gear is corrosion proof, two levels of acid resistance aren't enough for the Slime Pit. You need the full three.

Also, if you find yourself thinking "Wow! The Royal Jelly proved no match for a berserk spanking with my +9 demon whip of electrocution!", don't pat yourself on the back yet. Its children might avenge it. Especially if you commit the boner of fighting it in the open, rather than a narrow corridor.

But on the upside, this particular game taught me that Kobold Berserkers don't have to commit to short blades. Maces/flails might actually be better for them!

[galehar]

Even if all your gear is corrosion proof, two levels of acid resistance aren't enough for the Slime Pit. You need the full three.

Acid resistance protects against acid damage, corrosion resistance protects your gear, so it's just not related. Besides, the only way to reach rAcid+++ is to have the yellow scales mutation. And one level is enough for Slime, you just have to be careful, as usual.

[Happy Corner]

I was wondering how on Earth I could get the third level of rAcid, since Ive never seen that on any gear I've found. But yes, being more careful might have saved that particular character... ugh.

[lordfrikk]

Honestly, I don't know why I have to relearn this lesson, it stood me well during my ADOM wins, but anyway:

If you have just pulled off a brilliant and daring escape from a deadly situation which you found yourself in due to severely underestimating a monster you have never seen before, DO NOT just recharge your HP and MP and tiptoe back into that deadly situation. Seriously, stay away, and come back at least 3 levels later, when you have more tools to deal with it.

/Two weeks ago, I lost my best KoBe to date in Orc 4. I attacked the orc high priests (or something like that, they summoned lots of demons), barely escaped, regenned, returned to the high priests, barely escaped again, regenned, and then went back and died. I mean really, WTF?
//So today, I lost my best DESu to date in Lair 7. I attacked a lindwurm, got my ass kicked, barely escaped, regenned my HP and MP, and guess what I did next?
///*headdesk*

Yeah, and if you JUST escaped from a fight with 2 HP and used all your escape scrolls and potions, don't go into another fight TWICE and expect to live. My most promising character, entirely my own fault...

http://crawl.develz.org/morgues/0.8/lor ... 183419.txt

[XuaXua]

Artefact Blowgun with relec and tons of poison will work great against Nikola!

[Denniz]

Electric Brand + BIA + Shoals = YASD

203684 Denniz the Warrior (level 18, -14/182 HPs)
Began as a Minotaur Berserker on June 20, 2011.
Was a High Priest of Trog.
Demolished by a rock troll (32 damage)
... summoned by the player character
... on Level 4 of the Shoals on June 21, 2011.
The game lasted 06:55:45 (71180 turns).

[joellercoaster]

Wands of Polymorph Other, while mostly useless or worse, are an excellent way to (carefully ) clear Eel-infested levels when you haven't found rElec yet.

[slowcar]

Electric Brand + BIA + Shoals = YASD

203684 Denniz the Warrior (level 18, -14/182 HPs)
Began as a Minotaur Berserker on June 20, 2011.
Was a High Priest of Trog.
Demolished by a rock troll (32 damage)
... summoned by the player character
... on Level 4 of the Shoals on June 21, 2011.
The game lasted 06:55:45 (71180 turns).

Hehe, i did that as well. Killed Mennas and was killed by my raging Giant...

[mumra]

In open areas, Tornado makes you practically invincible.

In narrow corridors on Zot:1, surrounding by Draconians and berzerking Stone Giants, you might as well be trying to hug them.

[Yet Another Stupid Noob]

Your transmuter ghost can (and will) spam endless mephitic clouds. No, you cannot defeat that without resist poison and a wand.

[RFHolloway]

1) player ghost summoners will not only summon imps, but also the other low level demons.

2) when faced with a player ghost or unique and down to half your HP is a good time to check for a wand that you didn't realise that you picked up during auto explore. It could be a strong fire wand with 9 charges left. (much better than finding it in the death screen)

[joellercoaster]

Along with Hydras, your glass cannon OcTm should also keep his Blade Tentacles really far away from Alligators.

Goddammit. Absolutely massacred... next time, they get the Greater Servant treatment.

[robotdinosaur]

drinking one of 5 potions because you think it is a healing pot in a fight and having it be a potion of paralasis sucks.
that is all.