Armor and Spellcasting

[styrix]

Hi all,

I think I know that a lower evasion rating correlates with armor that is harder to cast spells in. How much? Should I worry about it?

Here is my situation:
I'm a level 15 SpEn (Enchantments 17), and I just finished a labyrinth.
I can choose to wear the following armor:
+1 Ice Dragon Armor AC+9, EV-3, rIce+, rFire-
+2 Robe of the Archmagi, greatly increases enchantments, 1/4 to xp gain.
+0 Troll Armor, AC+4, EV-1, slow regen.

Right now, I'm inclined to wear the troll armor, but does that increase metabolism? Should I just go with the much better AC Ice Dragon armor (I have a buckler of resistance to offset the rFire-) and not worry about the -3 evasion's effect on spellcasting? I'll stash the Archmagi robe, but at what point should I start wearing it, if ever?

[Kate]

Don't wear Archmagi unless you're playing trunk, where the XP penalty is removed. As SpEn I'd just look for some ego robe (try on every glowing/runed robe, fun times) or maybe the troll leather, although it does increase your metabolism. I've never bothered with dragon armour on a Spriggan (you'd want to increase your strength to 9 in order to use it without extra penalties) but you could always try it on and see how your spell success changes.

[styrix]

Don't wear Archmagi unless you're playing trunk, where the XP penalty is removed. As SpEn I'd just look for some ego robe (try on every glowing/runed robe, fun times) or maybe the troll leather, although it does increase your metabolism. I've never bothered with dragon armour on a Spriggan (you'd want to increase your strength to 9 in order to use it without extra penalties) but you could always try it on and see how your spell success changes.

What's an ego robe?
My strength hovers between 10 and 13, depending on the whim of Jiyva, and I hadn't noticed the Icedragon Armor making it too much worse.

[KoboldLord]

First, dump the Robe of the Archmagi. It won't be useful for you until post-endgame content.

Ice dragon armor is rC++, not rC+. It's two levels of cold resistance in one, so if you have some good jewelry to counter out the rF- it also provides it's worth using. It might be a little heavy, though -- if any of your spells drop below excellent while wearing it you don't want it. You also never want to remove whatever you're using to counter the rF-. Strength must stay at 9 or better while you're wearing it, or you'll lose a LOT of casting ability, so make sure you carry around a couple spare royal jellies if you go anywhere you can get hit by Hell effects or Zot traps.

The troll armor will only increase your metabolism when you're actually injured, so it isn't nearly as bad as it sounds. As a spriggan, though, I have to imagine that you can easily escape to a safe spot to regen normally whenever you want to, so troll leather probably isn't as useful as it would be for other characters.

There's also the previously-mentioned option of some ego robes. An item ego is the term for when a piece of armor has a special quality attached. For instance, instead of a regular Robe +1, you have a Robe of Cold Resistance +1. The cold resistance is the ego. Robes will rarely have the very rare Resistance ego, which provides rF+ AND rC+, more resistance than is provided by any other non-artifact armor. Robes also come in rF+, rC+, or MR versions, which are all also pretty good. Orc and Elf are the best places to find these, but they can be found almost anywhere intelligent monsters spawn.

You also might consider hunting down a Swamp Dragon and fashioning its hide into armor. It's basically similar to the Ice Dragon armor, but provides rPois rather than rC++ and rF-.

[casmith789]

If this is 0.7 -- throw that robe of the archmagi in the bin.

If this 0.8 -- use it

Now that's out of the way none of the armours are very good. Out of those the troll leather is best (hunger doesn't matter) but that's not helpful anyway. As you want to cast it's going to have to be a robe. You want a rF+ robe (or more ideally a robe of resistance), and failing that a robe of MR. Finally if none of those a rC+ robe. Enchant it up as high as you can because the extra AC is very useful on a spriggan. You can find these robes rarely in Orc, or more commonly in Snake. Searching for "robe" with ctrl+f should do it adequately if you are reasonably well through the game, as you probably are at xl15.

PS: turn enchantments off. It's too high - you can cast haste so you don't need it anymore.

[styrix]

PS: turn enchantments off. It's too high - you can cast haste so you don't need it anymore.

Is there a way I can bring the food cost of Haste and Invis down? Would raising Enchantments help at all?

[szanth]

Casmith! <3

How the crap does hunger not matter as a spriggan? Granted, they have the slowest metabolisms in the entire game, but they also have to worry about running out of permafood.

[szanth]

PS: turn enchantments off. It's too high - you can cast haste so you don't need it anymore.

Is there a way I can bring the food cost of Haste and Invis down? Would raising Enchantments help at all?

Raising Int and Spellcasting lowers hunger, I think. Raising the skill itself, enchantments, doesn't do much, if anything for it.

[casmith789]

PS: turn enchantments off. It's too high - you can cast haste so you don't need it anymore.

Is there a way I can bring the food cost of Haste and Invis down? Would raising Enchantments help at all?

As szanth said, increasing spellcasting would do that, as would raising int.

So would wielding a staff of energy, using necromutation.

Enchantments only boost spell power and success so you're better off raising spellcasting once you get haste at excellent.

[casmith789]

Casmith! <3

How the crap does hunger not matter as a spriggan? Granted, they have the slowest metabolisms in the entire game, but they also have to worry about running out of permafood.

xl15 = done hive

ergo, food doesn't matter.

I did a kenku recently that waited 35000 turns without doing anything without a ring of sustenance (trog wrath) and he didn't come close to running out of food