DeFe Shoals4 Situation

[delarado]

Hey Guys...

How do I get out of this one then?

Its been a long time since I played, I've done a couple of 15 rune wins offline and a couple online too. But that was 0.16 I think (It was a long time ago)

https://crawl.xtahua.com/crawl/morgue/d ... larado.txt
https://imgur.com/a/G7TjKmM

I have manticore shooting spikes at me from a few spaces away, two water nymphs right next to me, and a water nymph and a merfolk siren a few squares away. Some stuff is protected by plants so I cannot kill it.

I'm worried that the two water nymphs and the manticore can wipe me out in the next turn, but I'm also wondering if my AC and EV will be enough to save me. I don't understand the EV page on the wiki, it seems to imply that a monsters "to hit" dice is always 18. Which means with my EV of 20, I'm basically never going to dodge anything. So I'm going to take anything up to 67 damage just from the manticore and 2 nymphs on the next turn (Before reductions)

My thought was to go invisible and try and go back upstairs (I am on stairs) but I think they are now covered in water (Does this matter?) and the nymphs also see invisible anyway.

I could quaff a heal wounds and blow up the two nymphs, but I'd still be mesmerised. Although I could break this with invisibility or maybe even confusion afterwards.

Any thoughts on how I get out of this? And also general tips on my build and tactics. Its been a while since I played!

Thanks!

[delarado]

I also don't know if scroll of fear works. The wiki seems to imply it only works on "natural" monsters, but to me, it looks like nymphs and merfolk are not natural...so no effect?

[VeryAngryFelid]

Water nymph is listed as natural, scroll of fear entry on wiki has a link to list of natural monsters.

Personally I would use scroll of blinking to retreat to the left above the wall so manticore would have a plant in line of fire.
Shoals is the hardest branch, most characters get rune from Spider instead and then explore Vaults.

[delarado]

Thanks for the info. I Tried spider though, met Jorgrun and I cannot kill him. Even with brilliance and haste I get him to around 50% HP Before I run out of mana...I tried four or five times going between two staircases to stop him getting next to me. Every time I Went down with full HP and mana I got nowhere near killing him. So gave up and went somewhere else.

[VeryAngryFelid]

You can skip the level and dive to next floor.

[delarado]

That is very true.... but right now, I cannot!

I take it being behind the wall will also break the LOS, and so no more mesmerise?

I'm thinking blink, then fireball the nymphs and iskenderuns the manticore. Maybe then I can blink back to the stairs and retreat... Maybe even CBOE and quaff magic if it fails.

[VeryAngryFelid]

Don't think "I must kill", think "I must survive". First you should blink (everything else is worse IMHO), then you check if you are still mesmerised or not.

Oh, I have just noticed you have 0 Fighting. It explains the problems. Normally I am trying to escape when I have just 76 HP with those monsters in view, they deal that amount of damage in one turn.

[delarado]

Don't think "I must kill", think "I must survive". First you should blink (everything else is worse IMHO), then you check if you are still mesmerised or not.

Oh, I have just noticed you have 0 Fighting. It explains the problems. Normally I am trying to escape when I have just 76 HP with those monsters in view, they deal that amount of damage in one turn.

I don't remember ever training much, if any fighting on blaster conj chars. But Maybe I've always done it wrong!

My first thought Is always "kill everything as quickly as possible" which usually ensures survival. Its that mesmerise that has screwed me up here...

You are right though. More HP would serve me well.

How much damage would I take from three water strikes and whats the range on it? I Can't find the info, but I know it has smite targeting, so even if I can block the manticore beam by blinking as you say, theres still 3x monsters that can do 3d17 to me right after I blink. I don't really know how the damage reduction would work on that though...

Wiki mentions mephitic cloud for water nymphs.

Mephitic Cloud or Silence disables their magic nicely, though killing them at range solves the problem even more effectively. Flight or playing a large species will protect you from the risk of stumbling due to their water aura, but their Waterstrike spell can still affect you.

What do you make of trying that? Could give me enough time to negate 2 water strikes, kill them, quaff magic/healing if needed, kill the manticore and re-assess...

[VeryAngryFelid]

Forget about killing them.
After blinking you can fog (or spend another blink to move further if you want to play it safe), then heal wounds, then teleport.
Probably bolt of fire can create some fog too.

I think smiting attack means it is full view range.
Damage reduction for ranged attacks is linear i.e. it is a random number between 0 and your AC with equal chance for each number, it will save you about 5 damage on average. 3d17 has average damage about 25, 3 nymphs have 75 average damage so your expected damage from them after AC application is about 60.

[delarado]

I made it out...had to burn all of my scrolls of blinking, but I made it anyway. Phew! Thanks.

[delarado]

Spider:4 done now. On to Vaults!