DSVM of Kiku - Strategy advice

[Waywinkle]

I've had some luck, looted a whip of pain from the body of Pikel, already had some skill in m&f so didn't look back. Doing some pretty nice damage with it.

Only using sting and meph cloud from my original book and pain, dis undead and agony from my necro gifts from Kiku. Also I have a book of power and some hex book that looked useless so I dropped it. There is a book of spatial translocations in a shop somewhere that I couldn't afford when I went past but I can now.

The main (game play dictating) mutation I have is demonic gaurdian, so I'm looking for some advice about my strats from here on in. Feeling reasonably threatened by hard hitting monsters (hydra and packs of elephants) which is why I got agony.

  Code:

Dungeon Crawl Stone Soup version 0.8.0-a0-4618-g341728a character file.

Gareth the Reanimator (Demonspawn Venom Mage)                                                                      Turns: 27383, Time: 00:39:23

HP  94/94        AC 17     Str 10      Exp: 13/55026 (39), need: 22573
MP  27/27        EV 19     Int 22      God: Kikubaaqudgha [******]
Gold 1558        SH  0     Dex 14      Spells:  5 memorised, 12 levels left

Res.Fire  : . . .   See Invis. : .   H - +2 whip (pain)
Res.Cold  : . . .   Warding    : .   D - +2 leather armour of Qaogif {Int+2 Dam+1}
Life Prot.: . . .   Conserve   : .   (no shield)
Res.Acid. : . . .   Res.Corr.  : .   k - +0 orc helmet
Res.Poison: .       Clarity    : .   j - +2 dwarf cloak
Res.Elec. : .       Spirit.Shd : .   (gloves unavailable)
Sust.Abil.: . .     Stasis     : .   (no boots)
Res.Mut.  : .       Ctrl.Telep.: .   J - amulet of rage
Res.Rott. : .       Levitation : .   I - +6 ring of protection
Saprovore : . . .   Ctrl.Flight: .   N - +3 ring of evasion

@: somewhat resistant to hostile enchantments, stealthy
A: claws 3, demonic guardian 1, sense surroundings 1, spit poison 1, AC +2
a: Spit Poison, Receive Corpses, Renounce Religion, Evoke Berserk Rage


You are on level 1 of the Lair of Beasts.
You worship Kikubaaqudgha.
Kikubaaqudgha is exalted by your worship.
You are not hungry.

You have visited 4 branches of the dungeon, and seen 20 of its levels.
You have visited 1 portal chamber: bailey.

You have collected 1587 gold pieces.
You have spent 49 gold pieces at shops.

Inventory:

Hand weapons
 H - a +2,+2 whip of pain (weapon)
Armour
 j - a +2 dwarven cloak (worn)
 k - a +0 orcish helmet (worn)
 D - the +2 leather armour of Qaogif (worn) {Int+2 Dam+1}
   (You found it on level 12 of the Dungeon)   
   It affects your intelligence (+2).
   It affects your damage-dealing abilities (+1).
Magical devices
 f - a worn iron wand {zapped: 1} {tried}
 o - a gold wand {zapped: 2} {tried by monster}
 v - a worn iron wand {tried}
 A - a wand of digging {zapped: 1}
 O - a wand of fire {zapped: 3}
 P - a wand of disintegration
Comestibles
 c - 8 bread rations
 d - a choko
 n - a meat ration
 B - a chunk of giant frog flesh
Scrolls
 h - 7 scrolls of teleportation
 y - a scroll labeled ZEYSSEL OFREKH {tried}
 z - 8 scrolls of identify
 F - 7 scrolls of remove curse
 M - 2 scrolls of detect curse
Jewellery
 p - an uncursed ring of life protection
 q - an uncursed amulet of resist mutation
 t - an uncursed amulet of stasis
 I - a +6 ring of protection (right hand)
 J - an amulet of rage (around neck)
 N - a +3 ring of evasion (left hand)
Potions
 a - a potion of restore abilities
 e - 5 potions of healing
 g - 2 potions of heal wounds
 i - an emulsified red potion
 m - 2 potions of speed
 r - a potion of might
Books
 b - a book of Power   
   Spells                             Type                      Level
   Teleport Other                     Translocation                3
   Animate Dead                       Necromancy                   4
   Iskenderun's Mystic Blast          Conjuration                  4
   Venom Bolt                         Conjuration/Poison           5
   Poisonous Cloud                    Conjuration/Poison/Air       5
   Iron Shot                          Conjuration/Earth            6
   Invisibility                       Hexes/Charms                 6
   Mass Confusion                     Hexes                        6
   
 w - a book of Necromancy {god gift}   
   Spells                             Type                      Level
   *Pain                              Necromancy                   1
   Animate Skeleton                   Necromancy                   1
   Lethal Infusion                    Charms/Necromancy            2
   Vampiric Draining                  Necromancy                   3
   Regeneration                       Charms/Necromancy            3
   *Dispel Undead                     Necromancy                   4
   Animate Dead                       Necromancy                   4
   
 G - a book of Death {god gift}   
   Spells                             Type                      Level
   Corpse Rot                         Necromancy                   2
   Sublimation of Blood               Necromancy                   2
   *Agony                             Necromancy                   5
   Excruciating Wounds                Charms/Necromancy            5
   Bolt of Draining                   Conjuration/Necromancy       6
   
 K - a book of Unlife {god gift}   
   Spells                             Type                      Level
   Recall                             Summoning/Translocation      3
   Animate Dead                       Necromancy                   4
   Twisted Resurrection               Necromancy                   5
   Control Undead                     Hexes/Necromancy             5
   Simulacrum                         Ice/Necromancy               6
   Death Channel                      Necromancy                   8
   


 You have 39 experience left.

   Skills:
 + Level 7 Fighting
 + Level 11 Maces & Flails
 + Level 3 Armour
 + Level 9 Dodging
 - Level 5 Stealth
 - Level 2 Stabbing
 + Level 1 Traps & Doors
 + Level 4 Unarmed Combat
 + Level 7 Spellcasting
 + Level 9 Conjurations
 + Level 13 Necromancy
 - Level 2 Air Magic
 - Level 5 Poison Magic
 + Level 2 Evocations


You have 12 spell levels left.
You know the following spells:

 Your Spells              Type           Power        Success   Level  Hunger
a - Sting                 Pois/Conj      #####        Excellent   1    None
b - Mephitic Cloud        Pois/Air/Conj  #####.....   Excellent   3    Sultana
c - Pain                  Necr           #####        Excellent   1    None
d - Dispel Undead         Necr           #######..    Excellent   4    Choko
e - Agony                 Necr           #######..    Excellent   5    Honeycomb


Dungeon Overview and Level Annotations

Branches:
Dungeon (13/27)            Temple (1/1) D:4             Orc (2/4) D:6
   Lair (4/8) D:13          Swamp (0/5) Lair:2       Shoals (0/5) Lair:3
   Hive (0/2) D:13       


Not shown is the ring of ice adn sheild of reflection in my stash. I can't remember what else I left in there (posting from work) but nothing really useful I don't think.

Thanks.

[gb]

you're going to have to upgrade that whip, it's base damage is low despite the nice brand

i'd say keep going up in necromancy and conjurations, get mystic blast, bolt of draining, poison arrow -- these will probably be more useful than agony
twisted resurrection would work well with bolt of draining, and then you can use recall to help herd your abominations around, maybe learn haunt eventually

turn off maces and flails, this is a waste of your XP, same with unarmed combat
turn off armour, focus on dodging

[Waywinkle]

The whip is pretty godly against anything not resistant (2-3 shots per hydra). I'd imagine I'll keep it as my main weapon against non-resistant unless I come across a deamon whip. I'm planning on turning off m&f at 12 as that is enough for minimum delay but turning it off now probably wouldn't make much difference, I'll get there fast enough either way.

Whether I can find a spell of poison arrow or not is another question. So I'm thinking now that I'll learn IMB, twisted res, recall and blink. With these I'll maybe work towards haunt.

[Kate]

If you're investing in Twisted Resurrection then Bolt of Draining is a perfectly good option, since you can blast things with it through your undead allies.

[Waywinkle]

Ater learning all those other spells I've got no spell levels left for bolt of draining anyway. With my whip and a couple of abom allies I've cleared the lair including taking on massive packs of elephants and death yaks in the open. Having some back-up really negates the effects of getting pushed around, before I was struggling with not being able to use choke points on the elephants.

Also found a ring of resist poison which is nice. Hive and swamp here I come.

[asdu]

I'm not sure if the version you're playing is affected, but there was a recent bug that caused the demonic guardian power to summon the wrong demons (you'd get smoke demons and chaos spawns instead of balrugs and executioners at lvl 3). I ran into it on a game I was playing and so backed up my save and waited for a new release that fixed it. I'm playing on 4687 which is (I think) the first trunk build that had it fixed, so maybe your 4618 is affected (or maybe the bug was introduced later). Just thought I'd warn you.

[gb]

If you're investing in Twisted Resurrection then Bolt of Draining is a perfectly good option, since you can blast things with it through your undead allies.

yeah that's what i was thinking when i suggested it. it's true that both pure conjurers and pure necromancers have better options, but i still think a character like this (has equal conjurations & necromancy and who worships kiku (as opposed to sif, where you can wait around for the spells you want)) would find it more useful than agony.

[Waywinkle]

I feel like I've already got non-rN+ monster covered pretty well at this stage. I need a back-up for those monster who I can't deal with already.

[Jenx]

I'm actually about to try out a combo like this, except with a Kenku instead of a Demonspawn. First character died due to being paralyzed, but he was doing pretty well. I have a question though - barring a really great artifact weapon, should I just stick to unarmed combat? The beak+talons combo seemed to work pretty well.

[Waywinkle]

The key for me has been the pain branded weapon. The beak and talons will still give aux attacks if you use a one handed weapon.