I'm sorry it took me so long to respond. Work has been . . . YI, lately. :p
Also, I want to REALLY stress: I am NOT trying to start a "flame war." TPV is being as respectful as TPV can be. I just feel I have a few things to say, and this like, IS a forum, 'n stuff.
I think I screwed up some of the formatting, too---sorry. :p
Turukano wrote:
>Just for easier reading of the morgue
>(I cut the notes, too many chars):
Wow. Thanks. I'll keep that in mind---my chars (well, the "non-splat ones," anyway :p
) tend to run long. . . .
XuaXua wrote:
>In console mode too. Heh.
>Now do it online. In .15.
TPV is in semi-retirement [of this game]. Also, I've NEVER played online. I WILL think about it, though.
Sprucery wrote:
>Should be easier with wands.
Amen to that, brother! --Just to be able to use a wand of _healing_, on rot, etc. damage. . . .
Siegurt wrote:
>trailer_park_vixen wrote:
>>-venom mage is the only really viable option (I had a berserker clear the >>vaults, once---but no magic, as a felid, means NO distance attacks. . . . >>Think about that. (!))
>felids can now use wands, and elemental evokers, so berserkers now have >ranged attacks with evocation, also felids also now get a jump attack, >which lets them move into melee combat quickly, most conjuration branches >are probably equally viable to venom mage, there's nothing particular to >poison magic that is specifically better for a felid than the other book >backgrounds
I disagree. Felids, with their extra speed, do VERY well with the "stick and move" style of poison magic (and just about everything in the early is susceptible to poison). Hypothetically, say, you've got 5 mana. One felid has magic dart---the other has sting. Go kill an ogre.
>trailer_park_vixen wrote:
>>-A "*" on training for fighting, unarmed combat, and dodging. (Did a LOT >>better, once I started training dodging (Makes sense---as they're a >>"dodging character. . . .")---first one fifteenth level, second on >>splatted spectacularly (seriously---by a BAT (!!!!) I mean, a hobgoblin >>did most of the work, but still. . . .), the third one made it to Cocytus >>7.
>Dodging is useful for just about everyone
Yes. But MORE valuable to "small"/(even) "tiny" species. Kobolds, spriggans, and felids, get a bonus from being, well . . . small. Also, they get something like a +3 for training this skill. Large blokes, get a malus, for being, well . . . big---and trolls get a training penalty for dodging.
I just had a 15 runer, with a troll. She had something like a 52 armor class---dodging did not avail her a whole lot. My felids, kobolds, and octopuses, however---keeps 'em alive.
>trailer_park_vixen wrote:
>>-Later, move on to transfigurations. Felids have good offensive combat >>abilities---it's just SUICIDAL, to try and use them. With statue form and >>haste, though--and a LOT of care (!!)--one can clear vaults, though.
>Fragility means melee combat is something that you have to pay a lot of >attention to, it's only suicidal if you stay in melee combat longer than >you should, fortunately Felids are fast and can disengage from most melee >combat if things get hairy.
So a fifth level felid walks up to a ogre (sounds like the opening line of a joke
)---bye-bye felid. One SHOT. A fifth level troll walks up to an ogre; "kiting" the ogre is fully viable.
Early game melee combat with a felid is not so much a strategy, but a thinly veiled death wish. I dutifully run away from anything that could give me experience points---'til after I'm through Lair. (That's a bit of an exaggeration---but not a whole lot. (!)
)
>trailer_park_vixen wrote:
>>-Next, necromutation.
>>-Then alternate between cruising in lich-form, then a hasted statue form >>for the big battles---and deaths door, when they go south. (I honestly >>wasn't sure if I was going to be able to do this at ALL---until I took >>out my second pandemonium lord. . . .)
>I'm not sure why necromutation is particularly helpful,
One word: Tomb.
Necromutation is all about the DEFENSIVE---and is so many, some subtle, ways. . . . To quote the crawl wiki:
"Having this spell is a game-changer. No hunger means that you can play like a mummy (but with the aptitudes and stats of your race), as long as you recast the spell once in awhile. Spam your big spells, wear rings of regeneration and abuse Sif Muna's channeling; the hunger won't affect your living form as long as you do it all as a lich. Unlike a real mummy, you can just stop recasting this spell and heal your stats and rot as a living person. You can also go back to the world of the living to kill pesky creatures that use Dispel Undead."
>being a transmuter (as you advise, and specializing in transmutation-type >combat is certainly a reasonable option for a felid) you don't spam large >spells,
Yeah. But I DID spam a lot of small spells---pretty much constantly. Every defensive spell in the book, I believe _literally_---and ALL the time. Felids are such wimps. :p
>rarely need rTorment (and torment does less damage to a Felid than to say, >an Ogre since they have less max hps)
What you said is absolutely true. However, felids are such p******, that they can't take ANY damage---or at least, not like say, an ogre. Knock an ogre HP's in half, he's down to the anemic HP's of an octopode. Knock a felid's HP's in half---and odds are, they'll be spawning somewhere else on the level.
>it does provide you with some resistances which are harder to obtain for a >Felid (you have less equipment slots) but most of these advantages are >also advantages of statue form which you also advise using. Lich form >can't drink (so you cut off your supply of consumables, which constitute a >major portion of your power) is slower than Felid's natural form, and less >stealthy, and even the drain-branded unarmed combat isn't really a step up >from your native-form's claws.
All true. Again, it's all about the DEFENSE (and so many different KINDS of defense). . . .
>trailer_park_vixen wrote:
>>-Finally, conjurations, and for Gehanna (I always save for last.), dragon >>form.
>>For the first time, I didn't empty Cerebov's vaults, whilst there (no >>shatter). I also left all the vaults in Tartarus (TOO dangerous (!!))--->>and I didn't map out all of Gehanna 7 (also a first).
>LRD and shatter have specific power breakpoints for breaking certain >materials, it sounds like you didn't have enough power to break through >the walls when you were trying to do so with LRD
Yeah---that's what _I_ thought; however, the wiki said I should've had enough bars. . . . (Note: felids---no staff of earth, no robe of the archmagi. I.e. Yet more felid sulkiness.)
>trailer_park_vixen wrote:
>>Well, there you have it.
>>Oh. I found an exploitable bug. Drink from a fountain of blood, move off->>screen, and forget level ("X" "cntrl-F" confirm). When ya' come back, it >>will be refilled. A carnivore can build up infinite nutrition this way, >>say in Pandemonium. . . .
>Fountains (both of blood and not) can no longer be drunk from, so this bug >is no longer present.
Yup.
>trailer_park_vixen wrote:
>>--TPV
tasonir wrote:
>trailer_park_vixen wrote:
>>Oh. I found an exploitable bug. Drink from a fountain of blood, move off->>screen, and forget level ("X" "cntrl-F" confirm). When ya' come back, it >>will be refilled. A carnivore can build up infinite nutrition this way, >>say in Pandemonium. . . .
>Infinite in this case meaning 12000, or engorged, as after that, you won't >keep any further gains
Yes. I misspoke. --I should've said "as much nutrition as one could want," or something. This is no longer an issue in v15, anyway. I think Seigurt mentioned this. . . .
Hand of Zin wrote:
>wow
>Aule wrote:
>Hand of Zin wrote:
>>wow
>So many meanings to that simple phrase.
>Also, astonishing.
Thanks guys.
TPV signing off---looks like I've gotta' drive over 250 miles this evening, and am NOT looking forward to it. :p
Party down, Dudes and Dudettes!!