Blades Runner
Posts: 616
Joined: Thursday, 25th October 2012, 03:19
Annoyed
I came down stairs, everything was asleep, so I thought I'd try to start stabbing some stuff and not wake up the whole level at once. This took me several paces away from the stairs. Monsters woke up before I got a stab in, and made a ton of noise, so now half the level all started closing in on me (although I couldn't see immediately just how badly.) I took a swing or two before I realized, I should just get out. I headed back for the stairs.
I made it to the stairs, but, wounded, mana drained from a ghost moth, deflect stripped from a quicksilver, and constricted .
I considered my options:
Climb out of the level -> failed, due to constriction
Use Zin sanctuary -> I was stripped of all mana by a ghost moth
Kill stuff -> Incoming damage was too high to last because I was wearing artefact +2 fire dragon armour (lower AC than usual) and constriction was messing with my evasion
Blink scroll -> would be uncontrolled, likely landing me in just as much trouble but then away from the stairs
Teleport scroll -> Incoming damage was too fast to even have a turn to use it, let alone survive it going off
Invisibility -> Too much could still see me, plus I was constricted
Heal Potions -> pray that I don't receive too much damage and buy at least one more extra turn, but no, incoming damage is too fast
Maybe if I had quaffed a brilliance potion and had tornado and probably also Mahkleb or TSO, I might have survived. Short of that, I would have needed to not have ventured away from the stairs.
Here are the lessons not learned, but reinforced:
1) Don't be fooled, there is no substitute for super high AC combined with resists from gear
2) Stealth sucks, in fact it is dangerous. Had this been an extremely loud character of TSO with lots more AC, it would have been perfectly viable to start killing stuff from the stairs and stair-dance in the worst of case scenarios. I got lulled in by gnoll's multiple aptitudes.
3) The game throws so many disabling effects and damage at you, while you can pull off most strategies most of the time, in the final equation, high AC, resists, MR, lots of strength, an axe and a god with life on kill are the only things you can consistently rely upon. Had the character retreated up the stairs sooner, that wouldn't have cleared the mess waiting below. A character needs to be able to stand and fight for real consistency.
4) While there are some powerful spells that could have made a difference, like tornado or firestorm, ignition, etc. even those options could have been fouled by silence potentially, and.. oh right, I had all my mana stripped away anyhow. Having those things and being able to have high AC is also difficult. So, pretty much the game balance overall is shot to hell.
Gargoyle in gold dragon armour with a broad axe worshipping TSO. YAWN, there's where this game is at for consistency. I wish it weren't true, I wish the tactics and races could be more varied and more equivalent, but they aren't. Only corrosion poses a danger to AC, and disarm to melee (but it was yanked out.)
I don't see anything changing soon, because, nothing is wrong... and I'm totally clueless...… ….. I may need suggestions for some new games.