Keeping Xom Amused

[Petro]

So I've been fooling around with Chaos Knights, trying to see if there's any way to make them reliable characters. While the answer is still an emphatic "OH GOD NO" I have found a few strategies for keeping Xom reliably happy, some obvious, some less so. What about you guys. Have you found any really good? I'll keep a running list.

* Xom likes it when you drink random potions in high tension situations, especially if they're harmful.
* Same goes for wands.
* And spellbooks. He loves watching recoil from high level books.
* Xom has a special place in his heart for demonspawn and their constant mutations. It should buy you some time before he gets BORED.
* Xom loves shields of reflection, it only takes a couple hundred turns before he wants to see people shoot themselves in the face again. Virtually maxes his disposition!
* Xom seems to find teleportation funny, but only if it was harmful to you.
* Xom finds banishment hilarious (unless he did it). Good thing too since you're going to need him to be in a happy place for a few thousand turns.

[greepish]

Well you can find all that stuff on the wiki if you like, if you don't mind spoilers

Personally I've found "pure" CK are easier with certain species. Demonspawn won't really have to worry about interest for a while since they constantly mutate, which xom loves.

[Petro]

The wiki has a lot of things but there's other ones that I think are new for .9 and 1.0. The shields thing for instance. Anybody else find any? For reference here is the wiki's stuff.

[TwilightPhoenix]

Xom loves it when you die. Felids can take advantage of that. He also sometimes likes you using trap doors, eating bad chunks, and lots of other things you can't really control.

[tormodpwns]

And the only good thing about him cracking up after you die is when he says... "Don't play with my toy!" and revives you... with 2 HP. Happened to me next to some gnolls on D:4 or so.

[Eaki Godsbane]

Heh, Xom.

It's fun going with a build with Fulsome Distillation, Xom likes it when you cause nasty effects on monsters/and or yourself(more so on dangerous situations). Make Xom happy by evaporating potions at your own face.

If you don't have evaporate, you can always quaff the bad potions.

[TehDruid]

My best run with a Xom character was a Mummy Wizard. Didn't make it through the lair, but oh well. Mephitic cloud confusing monsters and making them attack each other is a good way to keep him amused.

[Stormfox]

The meta-knowledge here is to play like you don't care. You tend to do stuff that you wouldn't normally do if you had an interest in staying alive, and those are the things that keep Xom the most amused.

[Zelkelion]

I've been trying to use a DSCK (read: Desk) for awhile now, just for fun. Seems like Xom >WILL< at some point in your early levels summon several hostile demons and you will die. It has always happened to me while he was in no particular mood. I could understand if he was BORED, but it's just random. Might just be my bad luck but there is just no surviving 5+ demons surrounding you.

[mageykun]

There are few ways I've found around the nearly inevitable demon drop death. The first, like people have suggested, is to play a Troll so you can just muscle though. Another option is to start as a warper. A warper of Xom is an insetting combo, since warpers kinda start off hurting for a way to kill things- so you trust that Xom will provide, and at the same time you start with blink to get you out of trouble when He's feeling capricious. The weaknesses almost compensate for each other, with a hefty helping of luck, of course!

Or you could always just wear a ring of teleportation. That'll amuse Xom, for sure, and get you into as many scrapes as it gets you out from. But you will have evocable teleportation when Xom decides to have some fun!