Starting a felid.. >.>

[Celestirr]

I LOVE dungeon crawlers.. Rogue-likes are awesome and epic on every level.. I love/need/desire a good challenge from games and these are a great way to get them..
Unfortionately.. Due to how I tend to play games.. I'm naturally attracted to the toughest style of play within the game.. which brought me to the felids..
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Celestirr the Ducker (level 3, -2/18 HPs)
Began as a Felid Fighter on June 16, 2012.
Killed by divine providence
... invoked by an orc priest
(17 damage)
... on Level 3 of the Dungeon.
The game lasted 00:12:53 (3257 turns).
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I am however having an extremely difficult time trying to figure out how to do nothing more than keep them alive for the first few floors. Getting killed by a gang of rats/roaches/dogs, goblins/kobolds with weapons, and the RNG introduced ranged weapons and spells that feel to be the bane of early felid existence that seemly cannot be dodged..? I just like, need a few tips or something to help me get started.. I'm sure I can take it from there afterwards..

[crate]

Pick a class that starts with a decent book.

[BlackSheep]

Or start as a berserker and go tasmanian devil on things that are threatening.

[TwilightPhoenix]

Felids can outrun most threats, use that to your advantage.

[Blade]

Or don't play felids.

[eeviac]

FeDK guide: find +6 protection on d1, faith on d3 -> storm zot5 with 6 bone dragons and 7 servitors.

Or you could play to Felid's strengths (natural swiftness, near-gourmand) and pick a magic starting background.

[bobross419]

Or don't play felids.

All sarcasm aside, you might want to try something other than Felids to get your feet wet. When I started playing I wanted nothing more than to play Octopodes, but they have a fairly difficult time getting off the ground - Especially for a noob. Still haven't ascended with one (Although I did have a 15-runer that died while playing in Zigs),

Give a TrBe a try. They cream just about everything and the experience you learn from them will go a long way towards your Felids.

[crate]

I'm naturally attracted to the toughest style of play within the game.. which brought me to the felids.

I have some very bad news for you.

Well felid of chei sounds pretty bad....

[Celestirr]

M'kay.. So variety is the key to learning the game.. I'll start looking at other races/classes to mess around with. And.. playing felids just made some monsters harder.. like a 5-headed hydra I fought as a Fe/zerk not long ago.. it died with 13 heads.. >.> I think I'll move onto humans, elves, and minotaurs..something that can defend itself.. for now...

~~Chei is a TERRIBLE god for a felid~~ >.<

[cerebovssquire]

M'kay.. So variety is the key to learning the game.. I'll start looking at other races/classes to mess around with. And.. playing felids just made some monsters harder.. like a 5-headed hydra I fought as a Fe/zerk not long ago.. it died with 13 heads.. >.> I think I'll move onto humans, elves, and minotaurs..something that can defend itself.. for now...

~~Chei is a TERRIBLE god for a felid~~ >.<

1) In the new version(s)? or only Trunk? Fe claws don't rip off hydra heads. Also, hydrae are not a threat to felids at all. They're speed 10 pure melee. If anything, they are a lot easier than they are for humans or whatever (they don't really threaten humans, either, though). Your hydra only seemed hard because you made the big tactical mistake of berserking it while playing an old version.
2) harder =/= the toughest choice. If you feel naturally attracted to the toughest choice in the game play a MuCK.

While we're at it, FeHe is really good.

[Blade]

M'kay.. So variety is the key to learning the game.. I'll start looking at other races/classes to mess around with. And.. playing felids just made some monsters harder.. like a 5-headed hydra I fought as a Fe/zerk not long ago.. it died with 13 heads.. >.> I think I'll move onto humans, elves, and minotaurs..something that can defend itself.. for now...

~~Chei is a TERRIBLE god for a felid~~ >.<

1) In the new version(s)? or only Trunk? Fe claws don't rip off hydra heads. Also, hydrae are not a threat to felids at all. They're speed 10 pure melee. If anything, they are a lot easier than they are for humans or whatever (they don't really threaten humans, either, though). Your hydra only seemed hard because you made the big tactical mistake of berserking it while playing an old version.
2) harder =/= the toughest choice. If you feel naturally attracted to the toughest choice in the game play a MuCK.

While we're at it, FeHe is really good.

interesting bit of trivia: FeHe has the lowest average score upon victory of any current combination.

[KoboldLord]

interesting bit of trivia: FeHe has the lowest average score upon victory of any current combination.

I would speculate that this is because FeHe is one of the most boring possible combinations.

Felid Healer Guide:
Invocations to 27.
Kite most things with Lesser Healing; spam Greater Healing against things that are ranged or faster than you.
Collect Runes, then grab the Orb of Zot and win.

What do you think, guys? Too wordy?

[cerebovssquire]

While boredom would certainly make a lot of people quit games (I could never play a FeHe), I don't think it would affect the average winning score (because obviously, if you won, you didn't quit). However, FeHe will usually not have a lot of experience, and in addition it will usually involve a lot of kiting and/or stairdancing.
Also, 15-runing is uuuuuuugggggh, I don't have a better adjective for it.

Also: that's worth putting on chaosforge, it's better than most guides

[crate]

FeHe has the lowest average winning score because it has exactly two wins. One was a while ago and was a 3-rune win in 133k turns, and the other is my FeHe win which was about 40k turns faster but lost so much xp to pacification and dying that I still got fewer points.

FeHe is imo kind of bad compared to the felids that have a good starting book.

[danharaj]

After crate recommended FeVM to me I found it not only tolerable, but quite pleasant. FeVM++ Would play again.

[Blade]

Yeah, I mentioned the bit of trivia only because it amused me, not because of any particular relevance to anything.

[XuaXua]

Why isn't Enchanter a recommended starting combination for Felid?

[Blade]

Why isn't Enchanter a recommended starting combination for Felid?

Felids can't stab properly. FeEn is terrible.

[XuaXua]

Why isn't Enchanter a recommended starting combination for Felid?

Felids can't stab properly..

Then why do they get a +3 to the skill?

[crate]

FeAM would probably be decent except you are not allowed to pick it.

[Blade]

Why isn't Enchanter a recommended starting combination for Felid?

Felids can't stab properly..

Then why do they get a +3 to the skill?

Because screw logic.

[danharaj]

i don't think you fully appreciate the level of thought that went into designing felids

KITTEHHHHHHH

[tasonir]

technically you can stab with unarmed (think of stabbing more as "surprise attack"), it just isn't as big a bonus as with short blades. I guess having +3 means you can get to higher ranks of bad weapon type and be sort of like lower ranks of short blades? Level 10 on a kitten should be around level 4 with a dagger, totally viable!

No, I wouldn't recommend it.

[Herode2]

I seldom tried felids because they are sooooooooooooo hard, and I'm sooooooooooooooo terrible. Nevertheless, I had some fun (all right, short fun...) with Felid Warpers. Just don't run out of MP. Or don't cross downstairs just to find an ogre waiting there and crushing you in a single blow

[Stormfox]

Yes, but when you get flattened like that with a giant club, Xom can attach a rotor and an engine to you and turn you into a helicopter.

[XuaXua]

Was the idea (since back during design, claw mutation severed hydra heads) that claws were supposed to be treated like Short Blades, but using Unarmed skill?