Temple Termagant
Posts: 8
Joined: Friday, 18th March 2011, 23:12
A Dastardly Dilemma of Martial Specialization
I am pretty green at this game and not all that experienced with Roguelikes in general either but I got hooked up on DCSS and am having great fun. Learning pretty fast too, since I've been playin em' cRPG's since the early 90ies, if not Roguelikes in particular. DCSS is mos def the most addictive of all the RL's I've tried my hands and brains on.
Without further ado, here's the Dastardly Dilemma™...
Currently playing the latest dev. build, 0.8.0 5780. My level 13th High Elf Crusader casts buffing and disrupting Charms/Hexes/Air/Ice spells, uses Bows to pelt enemies at range and STABS things which are prone to confusion under the cover of Mephitic Cloud while wearing his Amulet of Clarity. The character has been tremendously successful so far, have cleansed eleven levels of the Dungeon, purged the entire Lair and most importantly, utterly destroyed all 4 levels of the new and improved Orcish Mines as his latest achievement. Killing Orcish High Priests, Sorcerers and Knights while genociding ridiculous amounts of Ogres of two-headed and magi varieties accompanied by two uniques was damn satisfying.
The dilemma that occurred was the only thing distracting enough to take a break from my glorious game.
The a**hole that is Okawaru whom I happen to be worshiping, has just gifted me a +10,+5 VORPAL Triple Sword which protects from Negative Energy on top of THAT, and has the "downside" of having a -1 Dex Penalty. Are f***ing kidding me, Okawaru? Just as I have taken up on the path to stabbing things with great success and was hoping for a Quick Blade or an unrandart short blade in the LONG run, you give me THIS in the very beginning of the game? F**ck.
I am currently lvl 14 at short blades. As a High Elf, I'll get a great +4 aptitude bonus in total from cross-training for improving long blades. It'll train up fast for relatively fewer XP, but it'll still eat up precious SP's needed for other things. I am already split between Bows and Blades as a High Elven Hybrid Fighter/Mage type. The sacrifice sure seems great. On the other hand, I won't be able get everyone confused or sneaked up upon to stab the shit out of them and this monster of a blade even comes with a N+ for fighting UNDEAD to tempt me further. There's no guarantees I'll get a really kick-ass short blade mercifully earlier in the game, and this baby is available to me right at the beginning at Lvl 13.
So, what say you, should I "stick" with the Short Blades and dump this monstrosity of a Long Blade? I have a +5, +0 sabre of Venom, +4,+2 Short Blade and an Elven Short Blade of Distortion in my inventory at the moment. My best bow is the one I have taken from Nessos after effortlessly stabbing him to death under noxious clouds, a +2 Bow of Flame. Will poison immunes, Clarity intrinsics and High HD baddies kick my ass pretty bad if I go this way? I'll have much more skill points to spend on my spellcasting skills if I forget about training long blades which just seems right.
Or, should I start training long blades by whacking things with my new toy, alternating between short blades and long blades as befits the situation at hand in the future?
Should I stab AND slash or should I just stab things to death? Is this a sign from Okawaru to lead me to embark on a new martial art and become stronger or a test to see if I will resist the temptation and not be swayed from my chosen path which I have already invested in and seems to be working pretty well for me so far?
He IS going to give me a Vorpal Quick Blade of DOOM just when I've taken long blades to lvl15, isn't he? I really expect that from him at this point...