Ziggurat Figurine is effectively an escape mechanism

[Piginabag]

Ziggurat Figurine takes 1 turn to create a portal, 1 more turn to enter it, and takes all adjacent monsters with you (I think) and then pits you against floor 1 of a Ziggurat which is most likely less fatal than whatever you were running from - after which the player is able to heal to full and pre-emptively buff before exiting. Of course, the figurine is a 1 time use (unless you actually clear the 27 floors) and requires you to have gotten the figurine from Tomb or cleared a Zig prior. There are several builds which have a relatively easy time clearing tomb (I hear whispers of people doing tomb as their third rune sometimes.. crazy kids) which makes the Zig Fig a reasonable escape option in Pan and Hell, or even Zot 5.

Just last night I used it to escape from Anteus stabbing me in the eye with a trident, and then emerged to kill him and take the rune:

105631 | Coc:7 | Noticed Antaeus
105689 | Coc:7 | HP: 6/211 [Antaeus/trident of venom (12)]
105690 | Zig:1 | Entered Level 1 of a ziggurat
106209 | Coc:7 | Killed Antaeus
106214 | Coc:7 | Got an icy rune of Zot

I don't know if this is an intended use of this item, and I haven't seen any discussion about it. The "Dive/Clear Tomb" requirement is pretty hefty for the utility it provides but it's debatable that characters need another escape option. A simple "solution" if zig fig escapes are deemed unwanted is to restrict the items usage to the dungeon - Gozag's shop summon already works similarly.

[Sar]

So it's much worse than a scroll of blinking that you can find in early Dungeon?

[Malevolent]

So it's much worse than a scroll of blinking that you can find in early Dungeon?

Not if you've run out of those already...

[Piginabag]

So it's much worse than a scroll of blinking that you can find in early Dungeon?

I would take a zig fig over a blink scroll if I was playing a Formicid!

[dowan]

The blink scroll doesn't let you heal up to full health after fighting some easy monsters, I'd say in the OP's case a blink scroll wouldn't have done him much good, as he'd still be in antaeus realm, possibly to be killed on the next turn from a hell effect.

Same thing in Zot, a blink scroll will buy you a couple turns if an OOF is threatening you, but you're certainly not going to be able to heal up fully if you weren't right next to a staircase.

[Tiktacy]

This thread seems like it belongs in advice forum, nothing really wrong here to my knowledge. You need to do some hella work to get a zig figurine, nothing wrong with giving it a little extra bonus as a bad escape method.

[Piginabag]

This thread seems like it belongs in advice forum, nothing really wrong here to my knowledge. You need to do some hella work to get a zig figurine, nothing wrong with giving it a little extra bonus as a bad escape method.

Would not be averse to a move to that forum.

[Croases]

I think the figurine is a very amusing escape option because it puts you into a ziggurat, which sometimes means that you forget about whatever you were trying to escape from and try to clear it. Which in turn means that, if you hit a mummy floor or angel floor or something and have to bail out, you find yourself face to face with the thing you were escaping from, possibly with even lower health than you escaped it with.

I had that happen with the Dis Serpent of Hell, and it was fun times.