The 'Questions too small to need their own thread' thread

[Keemossi]

Yeah, I've been carrying spare weapons as jelly-fodder. It's mostly the corroding armor that's annoying. Early game only, though. I've almost lost a few characters for trying to avoid/kite slimes in dangerous areas :P

Guess I'll need to start carrying a sling around.

[Leliana]

Hello folks, just a quick question, how do you survive dungeon levels as an Artificer before getting to an altar of Nemelex? I've tried running a SpAr (because they can Evoke just as well ad DDs, but are better at spellcasting, and Invocation doesn't seem to have a huge effect on Nemelex's effectiveness.) but once I get to the second or third floor the enemies cease to take any damage from my Rod whatsoever, I have no usable magic, and I get thrashed in melee. It seems that my only chance taking down enemies is if I find Poisoned Darts that I can use to take things down relatively quickly, but those are consumed quickly as well.

[KoboldLord]

Don't start with the rod of smiting. It's terrible. It's not all that different damage-wise from picking up several clubs or spears to throw and then retrieving them after combat, which is something you should probably do because artificers are currently a challenge background. The wands may have finite charges, but they'll actually deal enough damage to matter against ogres and uniques for those first few floors. Enslavement is a useful effect, too, letting you break up dangerous packs of gnolls or orcs.

Anyway, evocations as a primary damage source is not sustainable. You are a fighter who starts with a junk wand rather than a shield, so start getting those weapon skills up.

[joellercoaster]

OK, so it's not normally worth training Unarmed for off-hand attacks. But if my Demonspawn mutations have given me Hooves 3 and Horns 2 (also claws, annoyingly), does that change the game much? I seem to be dishing out a fair amount of punishment in kicks and headbutts...

I think it's worth training it at least a bit, the question is: "up to which level?". Also, if you have decent slaying this is gonna be even more fun.

That character is now in Zot, and the joke isn't so funny any more. With no gloves, no helmet and no boots, he's hurting badly for resistances (and AC, since he's heavy armour guy from the get-go - maybe not such a brilliant plan to stick with, once I'd seen how the slots fell out). The offhand attacks are still pretty cool with UC, but it's a struggle.

(The total lack of mutation resistance is making him sad, too: the first cure mutation potion got rid of the Berserkitis and Slowness, but left Deterioration 2 and Teleportitis. Wearing an amulet of stasis in the meantime and hanging onto the last one for a real emergency... we shall see.)

[edit: It's a sign of how dire his equipment situation is (having cleared Slime just to see if it could get better) that he ditched the stasis for warding - for its rN. Got drained so much he's still only XL26. No source of rC, but that's no biggie. Only one source of rElec (and it has a STR penalty). Weapons are a +8 demon blade of draining and a +4 anti-magic scimitar for the liches. At least the mutations are gone, and there's a spare Cure Mutation potion on D:27 if he gets anything really appalling from the remaining Orbs of Fire. Now gearing up for the sketchiest Orb run ever. If he still had fingers, they would be crossed.]

[edit 2: The Abyss could be a source of XP I guess. Maybe that's an idea - Yred piety is basically worthless at this point anyway. But also a source of mutations, which would suck hard.]

[Grimm]

Man that is a sad tale of misfortune.

[eharper256]

Hello folks, just a quick question, how do you survive dungeon levels as an Artificer before getting to an altar of Nemelex? I've tried running a SpAr (because they can Evoke just as well ad DDs, but are better at spellcasting, and Invocation doesn't seem to have a huge effect on Nemelex's effectiveness.) but once I get to the second or third floor the enemies cease to take any damage from my Rod whatsoever, I have no usable magic, and I get thrashed in melee. It seems that my only chance taking down enemies is if I find Poisoned Darts that I can use to take things down relatively quickly, but those are consumed quickly as well.

You should mix and match your Rod of Striking with thrown weapons you find, and mix in some melee combat as early as possible to get your skills up. Keep in mind that the Rod of Striking is only basically a rechargable Magic Dart Pistol, so its not a battle staple for very long; as it can and will have a good chance to do nothing to something that more than 1 AC. It doesn't even guarantee a hit unlike a real Magic Dart, which is already a poor spell IMHO.

Ideally, you need to get lucky with wands; and get a couple of Wands of Cold/Fire as your main side weapons to use with your decks of summoning (remember, never P over Weapons! As decks of destruction are often more hazardous to you!), but don't be afraid to be a jack of all trades.

In my experience, Kobolds have the best chances as an Artificer; since they're good with Short Blades and these are by far the most common initial weapon; and they have a good aptitude for Evocating too. Invocation does nothing for Nemelex, BTW.

[Silk]

I like Feline Fighters as Pseudo-Artificiers. Their unarmed prowess gives them some survivability until you can reliably draw from decks. I haven't managed to bring one to Zot yet, though this is probably more my fault rather than the cats.

[sanka]

Does Animate skeleton produce hides, or you have to butcher dragons?

[galehar]

Does Animate skeleton produce hides, or you have to butcher dragons?

No, you have to butcher them to get hides.

[Happy Corner]

Okay, so you have a diety where you lose piety every X turns. Is that turn count affected by your character's speed? In other words, would a Spriggan lose piety more slowly than, say, a Naga? Or is it every X of YOUR turns, period, no matter how fast you are?

[DivineHammer]

What's shatter's range? In-game it's listed as "N/A". Is it equivalent to LoS?

[absolutego]

What's shatter's range? In-game it's listed as "N/A". Is it equivalent to LoS?

3 + earth/5.

[Jeremiah]

Do zombies (or other minions/allies) make noise? My DSNe got the "attuned to the shadows" mutation, and I'm wondering if having a horde of undead following me around will wreck my stealth.

[OdiumTheologicum]

I just picked up a Wyrmbane on D5. Playing a deep elf air elementalist. > .> Would it be worth it to train up polearms just to use this? I'm thinking no considering I'd have to have it at 12 just to get the best speed out of it, and I already have a staff of wizardry. And the -3 aptitude makes me cringe.

[OdiumTheologicum]

Yeah. I was just really excited to find an unrandart on D5. And a few squares away I found a randart as well. Though it was a pathetic thing. A cursed -2 chainmail with +3 to int. Boltatia... o .o I found an armor shop and bought a -1 cloak with a bonus to strength, poison resistance and enhances my eyesight, so I may only need it for the cold res and ac. But I haven't let myself be put in a situation where I needed AC yet... Rolling with meph cloud and the beginning spell for AE. There's a book shop, but I can't afford anything there yet. Even the crap books are at least 400.

[brgmahiko]

was trog changed? gift wise?

I had 12 skill in M&F and the very first gift i got was a Broad Axe, followed by a demon trident.

i had no other skill in any weapon...

[Nexodas]

What race would be a good start if I wanted to use Summoning magic backed by a bow/crossbow?

I noticed that all of my characters thus far have been either a melee powerhouse (Be/Fi) or a conjurations-based Spellcaster. I want to try something different.

I was thinking HE, but they have -2 in Summonings. I'd much rather begin the game with summoning, and then later on kill a centaur with Canine Familiar or something to get the bow and start using that.

So, what race would work decently with that? Deep Elf? Sludge Elf? Something I have not considered?

[Shade]

What race would be a good start if I wanted to use Summoning magic backed by a bow/crossbow?

I noticed that all of my characters thus far have been either a melee powerhouse (Be/Fi) or a conjurations-based Spellcaster. I want to try something different.

I was thinking HE, but they have -2 in Summonings. I'd much rather begin the game with summoning, and then later on kill a centaur with Canine Familiar or something to get the bow and start using that.

So, what race would work decently with that? Deep Elf? Sludge Elf? Something I have not considered?

I'd try Kenku. +2 Summoning, +1 Crossbow, with a side of flight and +3 Conj and generally good aptitudes.

[Confidence Interval]

This seems like a good ring - apart from one thing...

"The ring or Reimbursement {MUT+ rC+ rN+ Acc+4 Dam+4}

This ring provides protection from cold.

It affects your accuracy (+4).
It affects your damage-dealing abilities (+4).
It protects you from negative energy.
It glows with mutagenic radiation."

Is there anything I can do to make this wearable? How mutagenic is something like this - for example, would an amulet of resist mutation's 90% stop rate be any good or will I still end up horribly mutated?

[Confidence Interval]

You can wear it safely for 10 turns or so (assuming you don't already have magic contamination from something else), but too long and it will give you yellow glow, which means potentially destroying your character with mutations.

Thank you. Ten turns doesn't seem like very long. Does this mean that anything with MUT+ is effectively useless (unless perhaps it's something that you can just pop on, invoke an effect, and remove immediately)?

[Zicher]

was trog changed? gift wise?

I had 12 skill in M&F and the very first gift i got was a Broad Axe, followed by a demon trident.

i had no other skill in any weapon...

Trog, Oka and weapon acquirements are the same. The chance for a weapon which trains a particular skill is (1 + weapon skill) / (8 + sum of all weapon skills).

In your case, this would mean 13/20 chance of getting a M&F weapon. The chance of not receiving M&F twice in a row is then 49/400, or about 12% - not that low to occur.

[GNFR]

Hey there, can somone tell me which attacks does accuracy influence? Im a conjurer, does a ring with "Acc-3" affect my spellcasting and wands? Tks a lot!

[dassem]

Have minotaurs been buffed in 0.10 or lately?
I just got to the end of a labyrinth and was a little surprised to go from about 60 Hp to -2 Hp in a single turn to a minotaur who was able to ignore mephitic clouds.
I had the rather nice +3,+6 long sword "Hydrabane" (weapon) {drain, rF++} and only lvl 5 in long blades (playing a DsWz), so maybe I was just slow?
But a minotaur with no weapon listed doing that much damage was a bit of a shock! I could have taken it from a distance with wands, but just didn't expect that.

Maybe my question is about turn randomization too: Is that explained somewhere?
The last few decent characters that I lost were all in the same way: Face a single nasty monster or unique, get ~10 damage in a single turn, ok, no problem. Maybe repeat. Become confident and decide not to blink out of range. Do something for a turn. During that one move, get hit 3 times for about 20 HP each time. Die.

Sigh. I'd found lots of nice stuff, but just couldn't get Vehumet to give me decent books.
My best spell was probably still summon imp for a level 12 wizard.

[srulz]

About Statue Form,

from trunk changelogs:

Nerf dragon form damage, nerf statue unarmed but boost all melee.

from Knowledge Bot:

In 0.9, no special unarmed damage bonus, but multiplies all melee damage by 1.5, and gives 40% GDR. Also halves damage from torment and gives rotting resistance.


Does this mean my str no longer matters in calculating Statue Form damage? The answer will play a HUGE role in which God I choose for my current Earth Elementalist - either Chei, or someone else.

Thanks!

[dassem]

What should I buy?
I got a "flickering" bazaar entrance, which I think meant that I had to get to it quick, before it left.
So, with the princely sum of $609 to spend, what would you get?

I am a DSVM with no more deadly spells than mephitic cloud + sting.
However, my mutations include +3 evasion, cold resistance, freeze attackers, and conserve items; and I've picked up a nice scimitar of flaming from a passing non-poison-resistant unique. So I've been doing ok.
I'm worshipping Vehumet, so if I can stay alive long enough I'll get spellbooks eventually.
I guess it has to be cTele? - Although that means I cannot take the amulet with {Gourm Int+1 Dam+4}. - Actually I already have rMut (for once) and warding; so maybe it's not definite that I'd wear it, and I'm doing really well with food for a mage...

I think I have a cursed ring of teleport back in my cache, but did not id it yet; also no way to blink yet.

  Code:

a bazaar
[Shop] Douz's Jewellery Boutique
  an uncursed ring of fire (220 gold)
  an uncursed amulet of inaccuracy (22 gold)
  a +4 ring of protection (396 gold)
  an uncursed ring of protection from cold (275 gold)
  an uncursed ring of sustenance (192 gold)
  the amulet "Gigiulea" {Gourm Int+1 Dam+4} (545 gold)
    [amulet of the gourmand]
   
    It affects your intelligence (+1).
    It affects your damage-dealing abilities (+4).
  a +4 ring of strength (297 gold)
  the amulet of Nukhlemia {+Rage Str+1 Int+2} (655 gold)
    [amulet of rage]
   
    It affects your strength (+1).
    It affects your intelligence (+2).
  an uncursed ring of poison resistance (220 gold)
  an uncursed ring of protection from magic (275 gold)
  an uncursed amulet of inaccuracy (22 gold)
  a +4 ring of intelligence (297 gold)
  an uncursed ring of levitation (192 gold)
  an uncursed ring of teleport control (550 gold)
[Shop] Cakhlae's Antique Weapon Emporium
  a twisted dagger (133 gold)
  a runed elven short sword (72 gold)
  a runed mace (57 gold)
  a runed sabre (76 gold)
  a great mace (123 gold)
  a runed orcish short sword (47 gold)
  an ankus (76 gold)
  a runed long sword (85 gold)
  a glowing triple sword (475 gold)
  a war axe (76 gold)
[Shop] Qulojaum's Book Boutique
  Xengam's Disquisition on Helpful Necromancy (433 gold)
    Spells                             Type                      Level
    Animate Skeleton                   Necromancy                   1
    Regeneration                       Charms/Necromancy            3
    Vampiric Draining                  Necromancy                   3
    Excruciating Wounds                Charms/Necromancy            5
  a book of the Warp (900 gold)
  a book of Wizardry (300 gold)
  a book of Hinderance (200 gold)
  a book of War Chants (400 gold)
  Sif Muna's Disquisition on Mutagenic Displacement (700 gold)
    Spells                             Type                      Level
    Blink                              Translocation                2
    Portal Projectile                  Translocation                2
    Sticks to Snakes                   Transmutation                2
    Dispersal                          Translocation                6
    Dragon Form                        Fire/Transmutation           8
  a book of Party Tricks (500 gold)
  a book of Fire (650 gold)
  a book of Summonings (1050 gold)
[Shop] Smenat's Antique Armour Shoppe
  a shiny chain mail (165 gold)
  a leather armour (30 gold)
  a shiny orcish banded mail (180 gold)
  a glowing banded mail (225 gold)
  a shiny banded mail (225 gold)
  an orcish robe (7 gold)
  a glowing ring mail (60 gold)
  a robe (10 gold)


[hxy]

I'd get the amulet with Dam+4
The amulet gives an immediate boost to your damage output, while having no cTele is probably just an inconvenience.

[KoboldLord]

The question of what to buy is certainly a difficult question, and you'll undoubtedly find another copy of whatever you choose to buy on the next level you explore. The answer will vary depending on your current character.

Did you get a message regarding the Bazaar when you entered the level the portal was in? If you get a timer-related message like you would for a Labyrinth, then you have to get to the portal as soon as possible. If you don't get a timer-related message, you can put it off as long as you want.

Gourmand is a powerful and useful amulet, essentially shutting off a caster's food clock. +4 damage is normally useful, but as a caster you have no business going into any challenging melee if you can avoid it, so if you get that it's mostly for the food issues.

The ring of teleport control is probably the best vanilla ring in the game, but you really need Blink to make proper use of it. Random teleports from a ring are not the same as a 1-turn 2-mp near-guaranteed escape from anything. It's also a pretty rare ring, so there's no guarantee you'll find another one. It is not very useful until you find Blink, though.

The Book of Party Tricks contains several useful staples, most of which will be immediately useful and some of which are difficult to replace. Too bad you can't buy both Party Tricks and the ring of teleport control! It's definitely the best book to buy if you decide to get a book, since it is almost entirely useful and doesn't overlap with Vehumet's gifts.

So, yeah. I'd go Party Tricks if I was worried about immediate survival, and teleport control if I thought I could easily survive until I found a source of Blink. The amulet of gourmand would break my heart, but as a primary caster I'd probably leave it.

[dpeg]

Nice to see players agonise over bazaar purchases. Need more portal vaults like that

[dassem]

Thanks for the advice! I am leaning towards cTele still, but I'm thinking.
Oh, I should add that I have a vampiric sabre stashed too. If I could be satiated from gourmand, then that might be entertaining.
Given that my main strategy is still confuse/poison things and running, if my stashed ring really is teleport, then cTele adds a whole new dimension to my game.

-I think I did get the timed version of the bazaar, as I had messages about bells in the distance.

Nice to see players agonise over bazaar purchases. Need more portal vaults like that

Yup. This is fantastic:
There is a choice of good jewelery, the books I need, and some interesting un-id-ed weapons. But I can only take one...

I also think that some of the other portals are getting really good: For example ice-caves with lots of loot, but a good chance of getting frozen to death if you get too greedy...

Another nice dilema was the amulet "Titan" {Clar -CAST rF+ Int+3 SInv}, which would have been great for a melee character.
(I actually think that there should be more kick-ass items with -cast!)

[dolphin]

Perhaps some form of this choice (Limited number of chances to make a choice between ~3 good items) could be given to the currently badly gifting gods, Trog, Oka, and Sif?

[speciesxx]

Somwhere i've read that see invis on weapon / armour does increase hunger rate. But i aint sure, is it true?

And also, do 2 items make my hunger rate even bigger?

Thanks in advance

[OdiumTheologicum]

Nice to see players agonise over bazaar purchases. Need more portal vaults like that

Indeed. The concepts of shops in this game are fairly well balanced considering you have to have gold to get things, and the only way to get gold is to traverse the dungeon.

[nicooo]

Hello folks, just a quick question, how do you survive dungeon levels as an Artificer before getting to an altar of Nemelex?

If you choose the wand of confusion you also get a dagger. It does a lot of damage when hitting confused monsters.

[jejorda2]

My current game has a Xom altar beside an enclosure of unnaturally hard rock walls. Some of those walls are translucent, and I can see three artefacts in the enclosure.

I'm pretty sure LCS, disintegration and dig won't get rid of unnaturally hard walls. I'm not likely to cast shatter with this merfolk.

Will passwall get through them?

Is controlled teleport my only option? Blink scrolls won't get through there, will they?

[absolutego]

i think you're not supposed to get into that vault. there was a commit message recently specifying that some people managed to do so and everything inside was replaced by mimics. but i've only ever seen one of those overflow altars and it had about 8 items instead, so i don't know for sure.

[jejorda2]

So it sounds like I need to drop a freezing cloud in there before I waste wand of teleport charges trying to get in.

There may have been 8 items, but three of them were artefact armours or weapons and the others were scrolls or potions.

[absolutego]

yes, i misread, sorry. :)
it's the same one i've seen then.

the commit message, in case you want to check versions.

[Stormfox]

Okay, that explains why my attempt to cTele into that vault last time I saw it did the telebounce every time.

[dassem]

Ah, I've seen one of those and wondered if there was a way to get all the loot... I think I died too soon to try though.

On a related note, I did manage to cTele into the very similar 1 square vault that had a sword on a teleport trap. (I think you'll find my question earlier in this thread). I might have had to do something like try to teleport 1 square away and rely on the control inaccuracy to land me there. (IIRC?) But I got into that one after about 10 attempts.

This game, I did just get a ring of cTele (see shop question above!). Sadly my cursed un-id-ed ring was regeneration, so it's not much use yet.
I have found the same vault I mentioned above, so if I get a cheap way to blink or teleport (I cannot really use a 2-hander with this character, so it's not urgent), I'll see if it still works.

[Un67]

On my current character, a TrWz, I just found an elven shield on D3. I understand that this is an extremely fortunate find, since Trolls happen to be great with shields, but wearing the shield gives me extreme penalties to my already abysmal spellcasting. When would be a good time for me to start training with it? After I've gotten my Spellcasting a bit higher, perhaps?

[MyOtheHedgeFox]

Well, anytime you do not need to obliterate something immediately to save your precious hide. If you see a rat or a hobgoblin and you have some spare experience, let it pounce against your shield for a few scores of turns (turn off Evasion beforehand). But do not hold the "wait" button to accelerate the process.

[Un67]

With the new system, though, wouldn't it be better if I just pull it out to get some initial experience into the skill and then let the experience filter in slowly and automatically until I can use it without penalty?

[MonorailCat]

With the new system, though, wouldn't it be better if I just pull it out to get some initial experience into the skill and then let the experience filter in slowly and automatically until I can use it without penalty?

yes, with the new system it's better to raise your skill first and then wear it.
You need 9 skill to erase the penalty.