I think the RNG wants me to play a stabber... Should I?

[Zazen]

My DsWr of Mahkleb just did the Labyrinth and came out with:

A Manual of Stealth
A +6 Quickblade
A Potion of Experience
Wand of invisibility

Additionally the character already had:

Nightstalker Mutation
Ring of stealth

The character has just cleared Lair:1, has Staffs at 14 (using Crazy Yiufs +3 chaos staff) and is EV based in MDA. Only other book found so far is a high level conjurations one. Have not yet seen a scroll of brand weapon (as it would have been used on the Chaos staff).

It seems I could quaff the potion of Experience and instantly have a good chunk of Short Blades and Stealth, that said I have never played a stabber (and have never got past 1 rune), so am wondering if this is a good idea or not?

[mopl]

Do you have some Hexes Books ?

As a stabber you want to rely both on Hexes and "infinite" Invisibility (other option is needle-stabbing, but I wouldn't recommend it without Trog), and Stealth of course.

[1010011010]

Do manuals effect !Exp ?

I would use the Quick blade and invis against hard susceptible things.
Some stealth is always nice. But I wouldn't fully commit to stabbing.

[Zazen]

Do you have some Hexes Books ?

As a stabber you want to rely both on Hexes and "infinite" Invisibility (other option is needle-stabbing, but I wouldn't recommend it without Trog), and Stealth of course.

No other books at this point other than the Book of Annihilations, so no source of infinite invisibility yet.

I take it stealth is itself not sufficient to build a stabber around?

[xentronium]

Stealth is nice, but on its own it's not reliable enough. Especially since sneaking up on a sleeping monster usually means venturing into unexplored territory. You need to have a way to kill things even if they wake up.

[Zazen]

Stealth is nice, but on its own it's not reliable enough. Especially since sneaking up on a sleeping monster usually means venturing into unexplored territory. You need to have a way to kill things even if they wake up.

I'm thinking that if the monster wakes I up I just whack it with my min delay quarterstaff

[Berder]

A wand of invisibility has limited charges. To really do invis-stabbing you would want a ring of invisibility.

The main thing to know about stabbing is: it doesn't work all the time even if you use hexes, and you need some way to deal with the enemies it doesn't work on.

That +6 quickblade is a potentially good find. But 14 skill is a lot of investment to throw away. And quickblades aren't really that good unless they have a good flat-damage brand. (For instance, if you can cast warp weapon, or have kiku to pain-brand it or lugonu to distortion-brand it). Quickblades aren't as good for stabbing as daggers are.

If I were you I would not train short blades. But you need a better staff. Yiuf's staff first of all is just a quarterstaff, and second the chaos brand is dangerous to use. Ideally you want a lajatang, or at least a quarterstaff with a different brand. If you don't find a better staff soon you might check if there are any good maces or flails lying around the dungeon - maces & flails cross-train with staves, so you might have like 10 skill already in them.

Do use the manual of stealth, though. Everybody in light armor can use a little stealth.

[Zazen]

If I were you I would not train short blades. But you need a better staff. Yiuf's staff first of all is just a quarterstaff, and second the chaos brand is dangerous to use. Ideally you want a lajatang, or at least a quarterstaff with a different brand. If you don't find a better staff soon you might check if there are any good maces or flails lying around the dungeon - maces & flails cross-train with staves, so you might have like 10 skill already in them.

Do use the manual of stealth, though. Everybody in light armor can use a little stealth.

M & F is 9.5 with cross-training. There is a +2 Morningstar of Freezing floating around the dungeon somewhere but prior to this find I'd been hoping to just find a better staff. Given the aptitudes of DS I like the minimal XP investment that they have. Fully recognize that Chaos is a dangerous brand, but it is a lot of fun, and really quite powerful early on.

[XuaXua]

Hold the manual and quaff the XP. See how high your Stealth can get if nothing else is trained and make a judgement call.

[Zazen]

Do manuals effect !Exp ?

The answer appears to be yes. I ended up splitting the Potion of Experience across Stealth/Evocation/Armor and got a greater increase on Stealth vs Evocation which were both at 0 prior (and Evoc is natively a +1 aptitude)

[daggaz]

I run stabbers all the time without hexes or invisiblity, its perfectly viable (save that wand for the most dangerous fights). The quickblade will do fine if you can brand it (ice is nice, elec is a godsend) and you can easily melee your way into extended with one.

[XuaXua]

Do manuals effect !Exp ?

The answer appears to be yes. I ended up splitting the Potion of Experience across Stealth/Evocation/Armor and got a greater increase on Stealth vs Evocation which were both at 0 prior (and Evoc is natively a +1 aptitude)

Right; keep in mind, I believe the manual will expire quicker.

[Siegurt]

Also a +6 quickblade is better than nearly any quarterstaff. And only takes 8 skill to hit min delay.
Also most ds have an aux attack, (at some point) which is effectively a built in flat brand for all weapons, which also gets slaying, stat, and fighting bonuses (even a couple points of slaying help a ton with a quickblade paired with aux attacks)

[Pereza0]

My DsWr of Mahkleb just did the Labyrinth and came out with:

A Manual of Stealth
A +6 Quickblade
A Potion of Experience
Wand of invisibility

Additionally the character already had:

Nightstalker Mutation
Ring of stealth

The character has just cleared Lair:1, has Staffs at 14 (using Crazy Yiufs +3 chaos staff) and is EV based in MDA. Only other book found so far is a high level conjurations one. Have not yet seen a scroll of brand weapon (as it would have been used on the Chaos staff).

It seems I could quaff the potion of Experience and instantly have a good chunk of Short Blades and Stealth, that said I have never played a stabber (and have never got past 1 rune), so am wondering if this is a good idea or not?

Stealth benefits any character, with that equipment you could just keep doing whatever you are doing, but with stealth. It will help.

My first 15 runer was a Demonspawn with the Nighstalker mutation, I played him as a regular fighter all the way through and he was very good at stealth while wearing FDA. I had some swap rings I used when I wanted a bit of extra stealth (Abyss for instance) and I could reach uncannily stealthy quite easily. And yes, definitely use that manual

Neither staves nor short blades demand much experience to get them to mindelay, and with Ds being a generalist race you could train both.

[1010011010]

I ended up splitting the Potion of Experience across Stealth/Evocation/Armor

Evocation won't particularly help with the wand of invisibility, other than perhaps saving you a scroll of identify.

[Zazen]

I ended up splitting the Potion of Experience across Stealth/Evocation/Armor

Evocation won't particularly help with the wand of invisibility, other than perhaps saving you a scroll of identify.

The (unmentioned) Scales mutation on this character is the rElec one (though hasn't hit 3rd rank yet) and I found of a Disc of Storms so figure getting Evoc up will be worthwhile.