Katak wrote:It's really tough to have freezing cloud workable by the Hive on anything other than a Deep Elf who never touched a weapon.
Try leaving conjurations and ice magic skills on. Throw Icicle won't be hitting the damage cap with the minimum possible skill investment anyway, so it isn't like the xp invested is wasted. Later on, Ice Storm will be much more accessible if you've already got Freezing Cloud running.
As near as I can tell, fiddly recommendations on exactly when to turn skills on and off are almost always bunk. If there isn't a spell you want to victory dance RIGHT NOW, there's no harm in letting your xp rack up those diminishing returns in your main damage skills. If you save it in your pool, you'll just lose it to a drain attack.
ieattime20 wrote:I have FC in the book, the problem is that I don't always have A. rC+(+) to survive casting it in the honeycombs without freezing the very healing potions I have to keep me from dying of poison, and B. it castable to the point where I don't have to scarf the very food I lack and went to the Hive to get.
Don't cast it where it will catch you in its area. Stick to the middle of large rooms, and be careful about casting it near walls. Or cast it close enough to the edge of your line-of-sight so it still doesn't envelop you. Use the shout command to get the bees to come out of the narrow passages around the queen.
ieattime20 wrote:If I get lucky (some rC, some extra XP, don't find any spells with more lasting benefit than FCloud), then I will use it. I admit the hunger benefit is probably specious with the slow rate Icicle and waiting has of clearing it, but the added advantage is that it's quite a bit safer.
Not taking a caster deity, then? Vehumet guarantees several perfect anti-bee spells, and while Sif Muna is more random there are so many ways to trivialize bees you have to have gotten some by this point.
It's fairly unusual to get to Hive after clearing Lair and Orc without having found a single useful spellbook. Unusual games require unusual choices.
ieattime20 wrote:I'll admit I am a noob, and I've asked before if I have just done skills wrong, but I'm doing Hive *after* Orc3 and Lair8. If there's some glaring errors I'm not catching, lemme know.
What race are you playing that's having hunger problems so early on, anyway? Spriggan or something?