Bay 12 Games Forum

Hmm... mummy ice conjurors really are pretty good.  My favourite bit is the way that when you're surrounded on all sides, you can simply cast Mephitic Cloud on yourself.

Then again, I had a stroke of luck in this game - finding a Staff of Power in the sewers.  It's massively increased my ability to spam Mephitic Cloud and Frost.

Y'know, I say all that, yet I'm still only on D:7... ah well, you get a warped feeling for game length when you forget every level several times to redo it.

Also, while I'm with Sif Muna atm (slow piety loss and free channeling FTW) I was thinking that Chei could also be an interesting option, since he patches some of the mummy's weak spots (weak to fire, poor stats, no escape spells) and as far as I can tell his piety doesn't decay.

Is it possible to wield a bow or a shield with Blade Hands active?

Quote from: Toaster on October 12, 2010, 02:00:36 pm

Quote from: Akigagak on October 10, 2010, 10:22:05 pm

Crawl is up to something.

D:1, and I just found, >200-ish tunrs in, a Randart with no drawbacks, and everything about it directly helps this Deep Elf Wizard.

Res Cold
+2 Int
+3 Dex

EDIT: And, hey, a potion of Int on D:2.

EDITEDIT: Fuck you, crawl. Sigmund + Fuckton of orcs waiting right next to the stairs in D:4

The RNG giveth, the RNG taketh away.  Blessed be the will of the RNG.

RNG=Xom

Seriously?

I mean... how good are they?

Ok, thanks for the advice; actually I wasn't necessarily thinking of changing back to TSO, but maybe staying with Trog; I am unlikely to make it as far as the branches where TSO is the strongest, and even if I do, I'd rather get a basic win before I start tackling the extra-hard branches like Hell.

Anyway, next questions: Do throwing nets remain useful into the mid - late game, or do high level monsters break free very quickly?

And how does Orb of Destruction compare with Yehudib's Crystal Spear in terms of damage?

Is there any way to resist banishment and does standard magic resistance help?

I really need to learn that if I go to the elven halls I'm likely to end up in the Abyss.

I think an amulet of stasis will hold you in place, but the inability to blink is going to kill you.

Anyone has experience with player version of the draining effects ?
Neither wiki or bot are giving any formula on the exact hit dice/abilities reduction on a monster.

I know from 1st hand experience that the monster version is plain awesome at crippling my characters (going through most of Elven Halls floors while wearing a ring of life protection got my XP (if i trust the 0.52 tables) from 494000 points down to  291500  (level 23 down to level 20), that's 200000 XP drained despite a protection against it.)
but the player version is a big unknown.

Many necromancer spells say that Kiku appreciates their use, but I don't see any piety gains when I'm nuking things with, for example, bolt of draining - unless I or my minions kill them, anyway. Is the text flavor that was removed/bugged, or does it indirectly increase the piety from kills, if the spell lands the killing blow?

Do enemies dying indirectly (e.g. from traps, falling into deep water, but most especially killing each other or themselves when confused by Mephetic Cloud) provide experience, or is it only if you're directly responsible, e.g. your own attacks, minions, or poison?

What sort of spells should I be planning for down deep? I don't imagine my poison and draining spells would be particularly useful against demons.

I imagine Bone Shards is physical damage, will it be sufficient late game? Does the size (weight?) of the skeleton you wield make a difference in its damage?

Sometimes I feel Crawl is just way to random. Maybe if shops would buy stuff, and there was a town... I dont know, its probably a design goal that makes sense one way or another, but you gotta admit, sometimes you just dont have a chance against the dice.

Yes, it's too random. I'd like to see many of the overpowered monsters in the first few levels either weakened or moved deeper; eg if orc priests did about 1/3 as much damage with their smiting attack, they'd still be a significant threat, especially against low HP characters, but you would at least have some chance of surviving.

Quote from: Moron on October 03, 2010, 10:33:52 am

I'd also like to see Mephitic Cloud become less of a 'free pass' through the early game; maybe the duration of confusion should be much lower, and being confused should not make monsters suicidal (they should not be jumping into deep water or lava or attacking themselves.) Then there might be a bit more balance between backgrounds with this spell (currently absurdly easy) and those without (currently absurdly hard.)

I'd rather see it go the other way. Mephitic Cloud is good, but its almost the ONLY way to consistently hit the temple. I'm not saying the other backgrounds are bad, but I think they should be brought up to MC's level, not have MC be nerfed.

Problem:

Your vision is a little blurry.
Your body is slowly deteriorating.

Advice?

wearing that amulet of "resist mutation"? Does the prevent ALL mutations or only negative ones? Because... I could wear that when drinking moar potions of mutation.

I can't be arsed to figure out the formulae on the wiki, so could someone just tell me if shields on a caster are a good idea? My last two characters (wizard and necromancer) used bucklers, and it seemed to increase my survivability, though it could just be RNG playing tricks on my mind.