We're in a tight spot!

[odsbodkins]

Long-time troller (stalker?) first time poster.

So, a funny thing happened on the way to the Elven Halls[5] the other day...

ohnooooo.png (283.4 KiB) Viewed 2800 times

Now I'm trying to think of the best move to make here. I think there's a good chance I'm hosed no matter what, but darn it if I won't make the most of the situation. My three ideas:

1) Wand of healing/heal wounds potion - just hoping that it gives me enough hp to survive one more turn and maybe catch a break. same problem next turn, most likely (if I would even live)
2) Step from Time - unfortunatley, my success with this is just 'Fair.' It would be an ideal move, but, if I fail, I'm dead.
3) uncontrolled blink - because of all of the occupied tiles, this gives me a pretty good chance at moving into that long hallway to my right. of course, that sun demon would still have LOS on me if im not pretty far down. then, i could use some healing, and try getting some distance

sorry my first post is one that begs for help, but i thought i would try a new strategy- thoughtful inquiry.

[Tiber]

Don't go based on my word alone, but I'd personally go for step from time.
Trying to outheal something rarely works out well past the early game.
Maybe if blink took you to the farthest square, you'd have time to use a tele scroll, but since you worship chei you can't really run to buy that extra time if you end up closer. And that spot is unexplored, so there's a chance there's something around that corner.
According to the knowledge base, you have a 50-70% chance for Step to work. Pretty much every option at this point requires luck.

[whelen]

Heal once with your wand, and then you have two choices: if all squares are occupied to your east, uncontrolled blink. If not all the squares are occupied, take a step northwest, then blink.

I argue you should heal because you only have 3 enemies capable of attacking you at this point, unless I'm mistaken. The smoke demon, the balrog, and the sun demon. With your ac and ev, the sun demon probably won't be able to bring you down, if it even gets a hit in. The sun demon's smite might take you down by 10 hp or so, but it's statistically unlikely. The balrog might hellfire you, but again, probably not enough for the 30+ that you're going to be healing. Good lucks!

[hxy]

and please tell us how it worked out

[joellercoaster]

Grr, sun demons. They can sneak up on you damage wise, for sure.

I'd echo the other advice here - you really need to Step From Time, but Fair is not good odds. To be honest I'd want it trained higher before trying Elf (unless I had Abjuration) - this situation is exactly the one that makes Chei worship hard.

Personally I'd try the uncontrolled blink followed by repeated attempts to SfT... there's a small chance you'll end up in the middle if the pack but the odds aren't bad - at least you have a corner to vanish around? That way the smoke demon hopefully won't smite you to death while you're doing it.

Let us know how it turns out...

[Kate]

I have no idea what all those tiles monsters are, but Balrugs don't have hellfire. It could smite you, though. I'd suggest healing too, anyway.

Assuming you're wearing fully ponderous gear, don't take a step anywhere if there are still monsters on screen, unless you fancy getting hit 5 times in a single move. Stick to blinking, healing and step-from-time-ing (Fair success is really bad though).

[odsbodkins]

first of all, thanks to everyone for the help- its great hearing some advice from more experienced crawlers.

now the bad news.

i went with a 'blink/SfT' strategy, which worked great. i blinked once and ended up a few squares up the hallway to my left, then, blinked again, which placed me in a nice empty room with a sun demon about 8-10 tiles away. pretty ideal, really. this next part was my mistake, however. i could have used a turn or two to heal real fast, and then started trying SfT. instead, i used SfT right away (what's scarier than a demon coming after you, right?). it worked on the first try (also a nice surprise) but as soon as it finished, i woke up and had a deep elf fighter pop me right in the kisser. he must have wandered in while i was contemplating my timeless existence. yasd.

again, thanks for the help. this was one of my better chars so far, and someday i'll just learn to bypass elf 5 until much much later.

[gb]

next time make sure you learn abjuration

[mageykun]

Next time take some time to train invocations.

[pratamawirya]

next time make sure you learn abjuration

Next time make sure you follow this guy's advice.

(My 2nd win made me learn how good Abjuration is. So damn good. )