CIP Sol swims again

[Jenchy]

Well, that didn't take long. He's back and feeling fairly spry....which might be a bad trait. Just found an artifact mace "of the Middle" {drain, rF+, MR} ... so I'm torn if I should start to train maces and use this or not. I also found a book of wizardry. So as not to invite abyssal terror on myself, how best can he train up my spell skill to use tele self?

I've found Orc as well, should I start going there or keep looking for Lair?

As always, thanks.

  Code:

Sol the Spear-Bearer (Merfolk Crusader)                                                                                                                             Turns: 7264, Time: 00:56:12

HP  65/65        AC 11     Str 12      Exp: 9/3789 (78), need: 902
MP  13/13        EV 18     Int 14      God: Okawaru [*.....]
Gold 217         SH 12     Dex 14      Spells:  4 memorised,  3 levels left

Res.Fire  : . . .   See Invis. : .    n - +0 spear
Res.Cold  : + . .   Warding    : . .  g - +1 robe {rC+}
Life Prot.: . . .   Conserve   : .    s - +0 buckler
Res.Acid. : . . .   Res.Corr.  : .    A - +2 horned helmet
Res.Poison: .       Clarity    : .    j - +0 dwarf cloak
Res.Elec. : .       Spirit.Shd : .    z - +0 pair of gloves
Sust.Abil.: . .     Stasis     : .    e - +2 pair of dwarf boots
Res.Mut.  : .       Ctrl.Telep.: .    (no amulet)
Res.Rott. : .       Levitation : .    (no ring)
Saprovore : . . .   Ctrl.Flight: .    v - +3 ring of evasion

@: slightly resistant to hostile enchantments, fairly stealthy
A: change form in water
a: Heroism, Renounce Religion


You are in the Ecumenical Temple.
You worship Okawaru.
Okawaru is most pleased with you.
You are not hungry.

You have visited 2 branches of the dungeon, and seen 7 of its levels.

You have collected 344 gold pieces.
You have spent 147 gold pieces at shops.

Inventory:

Hand weapons
 k - a +1,+1 bow
 n - a +0,+0 spear (weapon)
 o - an uncursed knife
 y - a +0,+2 dagger of venom
 C - a glowing orcish dagger
 D - the +3,+5 mace of the Middle {drain, rF+ MR}
   (You found it on level 6 of the Dungeon)   
   
   A truly terrible weapon, it drains the life of those it strikes.
   
   
   It protects you from fire.
   It increases your resistance to enchantments.
 E - an uncursed whip of electrocution
 F - a +2,+3 elven sabre of protection
Missiles
 f - 24 stones
 l - 18 poisoned arrows
 m - 21 runed bolts
 p - 14 runed arrows
 q - 54 poisoned needles
 w - 33 darts (quivered)
Armour
 e - a +2 pair of dwarven boots (worn)
 g - a +1 robe of cold resistance (worn)
 j - a +0 dwarven cloak (worn)
 s - a +0 buckler (worn)
 z - a +0 pair of gloves (worn)
 A - a +2 horned helmet (worn)
Comestibles
 d - a bread ration
 x - a pear
Scrolls
 a - 2 scrolls of teleportation
 b - a scroll of fear
 i - 4 scrolls of remove curse
 t - 3 scrolls of identify
 u - a scroll of blinking
Jewellery
 v - a +3 ring of evasion (left hand)
Potions
 r - a slimy yellow potion {tried by monster}
 B - a potion of restore abilities
Books
 c - a book of War Chants   
   
   Spells                             Type                      Level
   *Fire Brand                        Charms/Fire                  2
   *Freezing Aura                     Charms/Ice                   2
   *Repel Missiles                    Charms/Air                   2
   *Berserker Rage                    Charms                       3
   Regeneration                       Charms/Necromancy            3
   Silence                            Charms/Air                   5
 h - a book of Wizardry   
   
   Spells                             Type                      Level
   Summon Elemental                   Summoning                    4
   Teleport Self                      Translocation                5
   Agony                              Necromancy                   5
   Lightning Bolt                     Conjuration/Air              5
   Fireball                           Conjuration/Fire             6
   Haste                              Charms                       6
   Invisibility                       Hexes                        6


 You have 78 experience left.

   Skills:
 + Level 4 Fighting
 + Level 4 Short Blades
 + Level 9 Polearms
 - Level 2 Bows
 - Level 1 Throwing
 + Level 7 Dodging
 + Level 2 Stealth
 + Level 2 Shields
 + Level 2 Spellcasting
 + Level 5 Charms
 - Level 2 Ice Magic


You have 3 spell levels left.
You know the following spells:

 Your Spells              Type           Power        Success   Level  Hunger
a - Freezing Aura         Ice/Chrm       ###.......   Great       2    Choko
b - Berserker Rage        Chrm           N/A          Great       3    Honeycomb
c - Repel Missiles        Air/Chrm       ##........   Very Good   2    Choko
d - Fire Brand            Fire/Chrm      ##........   Very Good   2    Choko


Dungeon Overview and Level Annotations

Branches:
Dungeon (6/27)             Temple (1/1) D:6             Orc (0/4) D:6



[Galefury]

Always (at least 99% of games) go for Lair. Use a polearm with Merfolk (not a halberd). Don't learn tele self, scrolls, ring and wand are usually enough ways to teleport. That's why it's gone in 0.9. Book of Wizardry is a mid level book, so wait until you find one that lets you more easily access new schools.

[Jenchy]

My biggest issue, in any game, seems to always be food. Currently Sol is out of food and getting very close to starving....

[mrbobbyg]

Are you eating chunks? Carrying around chunks with you at all times you can?

Permafood should not be crippling for you, unless you are beszerking too much. Are you saving zerk for big monsters?

[Jenchy]

I try to keep chunks, and I do eat them. I don't have gourmand, so I can't eat the brown chunks right now. Just not getting alot of corpses to chunk and I've burned through my permafood. I had to beszerk a couple of times for the twin unqiues and a couple others, otherwise I've not. I've got access to Heroism now too, so I'm using that.

Somehow I'm trying to invoke the power of the boards to influence the RNG to provide food.

[Kate]

Lesson 1 of Crawl: you can eat the brown chunks.

[Jenchy]

Hmm...seemed like I was got "sick" and didn't see a change in hunger.

[Jenchy]

Lesson learned.

Thanks.

I'll learn to read more.

[MyOtheHedgeFox]

If they make you sick, erm, eat more of them. Sickness just negates your regeneration and may reduce your Strength, Intelligence or Dexterity for a point or two, but it does not prevent you from getting some nutrition from the other brown chunks.
Eat, but be careful with this.

Also remember that if you have poison resistance, you can even eat poisonous meat.

Why, Minmay? In some way it resembles a thing of real life: you *can* do something you would usually refrain from, but you need to have enough will or recklessness to do it.

[KoboldLord]

Why, Minmay? In some way it resembles a thing of real life: you *can* do something you would usually refrain from, but you need to have enough will or recklessness to do it.

It is absolutely essential that you eat the brown chunks, because you absolutely will not have enough white chunks to make the permafood last, at least with most characters.

You learn by doing, and when you make mistakes and bad things happen you try not to repeat those mistakes with the next character.

Getting sick from brown chunks looks very much like a mistake to unspoiled players. You have a bad thing happen, and you don't get any compensatory benefit. It's also fairly intuitive that you might be discouraged from eating filthy cockroaches or other sentient beings, so you learn and follow a rule that is actually dead wrong.

It would be better if brown chunks made you sick every time, and gave 2/3 or 1/2 nutrition compared to a normal clean chunk. Even though this is statistically strictly inferior to the current system, you'd at least have a meaningful choice to work with rather than just rolling the dice every time and waiting it out whenever you get a bad roll.

[Jeremiah]

Something I've often wondered about brown chunks: how much nutrition do you actually waste waiting out the sickness (on average?)

[MyOtheHedgeFox]

It wears out after a few dozens of turns and, unless I'm mistaken, may last as long as poison from a kobold's blowdart.

[moekitten]

Don't learn tele self, scrolls, ring and wand are usually enough ways to teleport. That's why it's gone in 0.9.

huh, sorry, what's gone in 0.9, the ring, wand or scrolls?

added: or teleport self?

[pratamawirya]

Scrolls can get destroyed, and the wand is kind of rare, so yes, the Teleport Self spell is useful.

I guess you can use the ring, but it's more convenient to just cast the spell.