Potion of Experience question

[diviton]

Does a potion of experience give you a set amount of experience, or does it give you an amount proportional to your current level?

Basically, what I'm wondering is if there is an ideal level to use it. If it's guaranteed to give you a full level, I'd think using it later would be better, but I could be overthinking.

[diviton]

Wow....just....wow.

So I ID the experience potion and press ctrl+G to go to the Temple and store it. Sure enough, I see an Ice Beast, I kill it, but it froze my EXP potion. I should have just gone to the stupid temple. I'm severely pissed right now.

Dungeon Crawl, ladies and gentlemen. -_-

[KoboldLord]

Proportional to your level. If you're at 50% of the way to the next level, you gain a level and end up at 50% of the way to the level after that.

The best time to use it would be immediately. You might get a larger amount of xp in absolute numbers later if you put it off, but getting an extra level now means that your character is better able to harvest more xp immediately from more difficult concentrations of enemies. Getting that level now means you don't have to walk away from that dangerous portal vault or whatever, you can crack it open and get the xp and loot it was trying to keep away from you.

Putting the potion off is taking the risk of losing it entirely, either because some monster hits you with a cold-based attack and it pops, or because you died because you didn't have the xp needed to keep up with the increasing threat presented by your enemies.

[savageorange]

source/potion.cc:359 indicates that you get enough exp to boost you to the next level if your current exp completion were 0*, and (750 * your_new_experience_level) skill points.

* ie. if your current level is 20, you receive enough experience to get you to 21 if you had only just reached 20 and had no spare exp.

That said, like KoboldLord mentions, it's foolish to keep potions or scrolls around beyond the time you can make good use of them. Conservatism will get you killed in crawl, you need to be judicious instead. Use the item when it will make a difference, not before or after. For things like experience or stat gain, that time is 'as soon as you have a spare turn'.

[BlackSheep]

The skill boost is quite substantial early on. It can put you way ahead of the curve if you pour all the XP into one or two key skills.

[diviton]

Lesson learned.

I was aware of the risk involved with carrying it around and I was literally on my way to stash it. I just forgot Ice Beasts melee attacks had freezing properties. I'm still upset about it. ;_;

I have Conservation right now. Go figure.

[diviton]

source/potion.cc:359 indicates that you get enough exp to boost you to the next level if your current exp completion were 0*, and (750 * your_new_experience_level) skill points.

* ie. if your current level is 20, you receive enough experience to get you to 21 if you had only just reached 20 and had no spare exp.

Sounds like it's "best" to quaff it immediately after reaching a new experience level, then (just like in NetHack!)

*immediately

[byrel]

*immediately

Indeed. Tho most noticable effects of xp potions aren't the additional levels, but the additional skills. 3-6 free levels of your damage or defense skill will really help early game.

[TwilightPhoenix]

For things like experience or stat gain, that time is 'as soon as you have a spare turn'.

Minor correction here. This is true for experience, but not gain stat. It's an edge case, but not a wholly uncommon one. If you have bad mutations you're looking to cure (say berserkitis) or you plan on playing mutation roulette very soon, drinking gain stat potions would be a bad idea until after you've done those activities. You don't want to risk Cure Mut (or Zin) erasing your gain stat instead of Berserkitis and the mutation roulette may erase them as well.

But again, edge cases. Most of the time, if you see em, chug em.

[Hix]

The only reason I would ever hold onto a ! of Experience is if I am still looking for Sif Muna's altar.

[Lasty]

If you do decide that holding off on one of the very good but rare potions is the right choice, just drop it immediately. It's much safer on a random floor tile than it is in your inventory. Exceptions: don't drop it in Slime, in front of a jelly, or in a freezing cloud. :p

[savageorange]

Oddly, I cannot seem to get monsters to quaff potions of experience, despite being of types (eg orcs) that normally will use potions. So the principle you mention, Lasty, seems to be particularly reliable for exp potions.

[Blade]

Your mistake, honestly, was being "on your way" to stash it, instead of dropping it on the floor where you stood (or, of course, just quaffing it immediately). When you have consumables that you don't want to lose, I find that it's best (and least annoying) to get them out of your inventory as soon as possible.

[byrel]

For something as valuable as experience potions, I might go up a flight of stairs and drop it on the top against the random jelly marauder. If I had a good reason not to drink it immediately, like Sif conversion.

[KoboldLord]

For something as valuable as experience potions, I might go up a flight of stairs and drop it on the top against the random jelly marauder. If I had a good reason not to drink it immediately, like Sif conversion.

Orc wizards with Throw Frost are more common than jellies, and they are harder to kill before they can destroy your potion because they are fast, have Haste and Invisibility, and can destroy your potion at range. Trying to protect your potion from hypothetical jellies seems like a good idea, but it actually puts your potion at more risk than the hypothetical jellies do.

[byrel]

That depends a lot. You often have a cleared path to a set of stairs, that won't take you anywhere close to the black. The chances of running into an orc wiz are fairly small, and if you happen to find one, you should adopt tactics optimized for preserving your valuables. It's good to know that monster won't use !experience, as that allows you to simply drop it and get out of sight.

The chances of a jelly showing up depends on the length of time you spend on the level. For a hungerless undead, for instance, I think there's a decent payoff to dropping it up a level. (VpEn, for instance, often can rely on waiting till monsters fall back asleep.)