[crawl] YACD, my best character ever

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Archived from groups: rec.games.roguelike.misc (More info?)

So here he is. Yea, I know the name isn't very creative, but
at least I don't forget who to log in as (very often). I've been
down as far as level 13 in the main dungeon, and both the mines
and the lair didn't have connected down stairs. The big problem
is I'm too deep, but I can't dig at all or teleport very much, so
I'm not sure how to progress. I found all my artifacts generated
on the ground on the same level, and there's better randart
necklaces as well as some rings among the 5 or so jewlery shops
that have come up so far (add to that 2 weapon shops, 2 armor,
3 distillers, and 1 general store). But I've already spent most
my money on heal wounds potions (which I burned through before I
realised level 13 was too deep for me) and such, so I couldn't
afford a teleport ring if there was one (there isn't). Am I screwed?
Should I try to build stealth, change my kit (for stealth), and
sneak around lower levels looking for good items/teleport wands/
etc? I'm cutting a lot of the blank lines out of the dump to
make the post smaller; not sure of the etiquette on this group.

Dungeon Crawl version 4.0.0 beta 26 character file.

Sean the Cutter (Demonspawn)
(Level 12 Crusader)

Play time: 02:50:00 Number of turns: 16069

Experience : 12/28808
Strength 16 Dexterity 17 Intelligence 12
Hit Points : 94/96 Magic Points : 20
AC : 10 Evasion : 8 Shield : 5
GP : 395

You are on level 12.
You worship Okawaru.
Okawaru is extremely pleased with you.
You are not hungry.

Inventory:

Hand weapons

a - the +0,+2 sabre "Ihmnareamyhih" (weapon)
It is especially effective against all of orcish descent.
It affects your dexterity (+1).
It makes you susceptible to cold.
It protects you from poison.
It makes you much less stealthy.

b - a +2,-2 short sword
>For the red jellies because I'm not sure if artifacts can lose plusses
u - a dwarven dagger
w - an uncursed runed falchion of orc slaying
D - an elven dagger
F - a short sword
H - a glowing bow
Q - a war axe
>2 detect curse scrolls all game. I've got piles of weapons to check.

Missiles
g - 13 darts
A - 11 dwarven darts
L - 28 darts
>Still finding these useful; I finished off a hydra with them

Armour
k - a +0 dwarven shield (worn)
o - a +0 pair of gloves (worn)
s - a -1 cloak of poison resistance (worn)
>I hate red jellies
z - a +0 pair of boots (worn)
K - a +0 chain mail of positive energy (worn)

Magical devices
i - a wand of fire
>This one is empty; I wish crawl tagged empty wands like Angband does
n - a wand of random effects
>Should I just ditch this? I don't ever use it, but desperation happens.
p - a wand of fire
y - a wand of flame
I - a wand of frost
J - a wand of slowing (8)
M - a wand of polymorph other
O - a silver wand {tried}
>Not dig or teleport; might be healing?
P - a wand of random effects (19)

Comestibles
d - 4 meat rations
>Have more on the ground right next to me

Scrolls
q - 2 scrolls of teleportation
B - a scroll of remove curse
C - a scroll labeled M TIKYQU {tried}
>I think it's random uselessness, but could be recharging I guess

Jewellery
e - a glowing bone amulet
h - a bone ring
r - a ring of fire
v - a glowing brass ring
x - a brass ring
E - an uncursed ring of fire
G - a ring of levitation
N - the necklace of Bloodlust (around neck)
This amulet enables its wearer to attempt to enter a state of berserk rage,
and increases their chance of successfully doing so. It also partially
protects the user from passing out when coming out of that rage.
It affects your strength (+2).
It affects your intelligence (-2).
It affects your damage-dealing abilities (+3).
It protects you from magic.
It makes you less stealthy.
It makes you angry.
>The bread-and-butter of my character. Allows me to go berserk without
>using magic, so I get to wear heavy armor.

Potions
c - 2 potions of levitation
f - a potion of speed
l - 6 potions of might
m - a potion of invisibility
t - 2 potions of restore abilities
>Identified all these by buying them

Miscellaneous
j - a small ebony casket
>Seems to summon hostile monsters, which is just what I want when I'm
>wielding a casket. Kind of like going berserk with a deck of cards
>in your hand, but not as bad.


You have 2603 experience left.


Skills:
+ Level 9 Fighting
+ Level 13 Short Blades
+ Level 6 Darts
+ Level 3 Throwing
+ Level 5 Armour
+ Level 4 Dodging
+ Level 2 Stealth
+ Level 2 Shields
+ Level 1 Traps & Doors
+ Level 6 Unarmed Combat
+ Level 2 Spellcasting
+ Level 3 Enchantments
+ Level 5 Invocations
+ Level 2 Evocations
>Is there a reason to turn any of these off?

You have 4 spell levels left.

You know the following spells:


Your Spells Type Success Level
a - Fire Brand Fire/Enchantment Cruddy 2
b - Berserker Rage Enchantment Cruddy 3
c - Haste Enchantment Useless 6
>Needless to say I'm all about activations now

Mutations & Other Weirdness

* Your flesh is cold resistant.
* You cover the ground quickly.
* You have a pair of large horns on your head.
>Thought I was pretty lucky until I got the horns; at least they're the
>big ones.

Thanks in advance for any advice,

Sean

 

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Archived from groups: rec.games.roguelike.misc (More info?)

Sean P Lester <s_p_lester@yahoo.com> growled:

> So here he is. Yea, I know the name isn't very creative, but at
> least I don't forget who to log in as (very often).

<g>

It's a nice name.

[Xl:12 DSCr]
> I've been down as far as level 13 in the main dungeon, and both
> the mines and the lair didn't have connected down stairs. The big
> problem is I'm too deep, but I can't dig at all or teleport very
> much, so I'm not sure how to progress.

Small chance: Do you have or can you get any scroll of magic
mapping? If yes, I'd read it in the Lair (more misc items, unless
you prefer cash - Orcish Mines) and then zap the wands of random
effects in hope of a digging effect along the best route. (Warning,
if the random effect is lightning it'll bounce, so if at all
possible stand so it doesn't hit you on the return.)

Alternately, if you can get your hands on a wand of desintegration
(plus the scroll of magic mapping to find the best route), that'll
remove one square per zap.

2nd alternately, any means to summon earth elementals (stone or
spell) digs one square at at time. That will get you hostile ones
due to lack of the appropriate skill, but they're slow and vanish
after a while, so you can run away (or even fight them if you're
tough enough).

With only two scrolls to get back out, I'd not search around for a
teleport trap in either branch cave.

Another (very tiny) chance is to hope for one of those beetles that
dig around the dungeon in pursuit of you; they'd make a path from
wherever they are. (You can hear them when they dig somewhere on the
level.) They're more likely in the Lair, I think.

> Am I screwed? Should I try to build stealth, change my kit (for
> stealth), and sneak around lower levels looking for good
> items/teleport wands/ etc?

If none of the above helps, you don't have much choice than to sneak
around, though I don't know if stealth helps all that much. Dancing
around the stairs and letting the monsters come to you, instead of
rushing into the unknown, is a somewhat safer approach.

> I'm cutting a lot of the blank lines out of the dump to make the
> post smaller; not sure of the etiquette on this group.

I don't think the blank lines are meant to be there (it's nice that
you took them out), I think it's an error in creating the file;
something to do with the <line feed> and <carriage return>. (I can
see the character with an editor that doesn't execute the <carriage
return> character.) Darshan corrected that in his patch, at least
for the character dump (the item dump still has them in the item
descriptions).

> a - the +0,+2 sabre "Ihmnareamyhih" (weapon)
> b - a +2,-2 short sword
>> For the red jellies because I'm not sure if artifacts can lose
>> plusses

Artifacts are the one thing that can't lose (or gain) plusses.

Don't you have any better weapon? This might be part of the problem,
after all... You take too long to cut the buggers up.

> O - a silver wand {tried}
>> Not dig or teleport; might be healing?

What about enslavement? (Invisibility or haste would be apparent,
no?) Did you get any message at all (it resisted) or no message?

> Jewellery
> e - a glowing bone amulet
> h - a bone ring
> r - a ring of fire
> v - a glowing brass ring
> x - a brass ring

One of them might be teleport. I know you only have one scroll of
remove curse, but if you put on two rings each time, check whether
you can suddenly 'a'pply teleportation and switch the uncursed ones
until both fingers are blocked, it might turn up something useful.

_If_ you are going to try this, you might as well try some armour
and weapons while you're about to burn your only scroll of remove
curse. It's the first thing I'd try in your situation (but I'm
impatient)... And I'd forget about checking any other stuff. (Or
find the only weapon of distortion in the entire game this way;
dropped into the Abyss half-dressed with cursed junk. Hey, didn't
say there's no risk. <g>)

> N - the necklace of Bloodlust (around neck)
>> The bread-and-butter of my character. Allows me to go berserk
>> without using magic, so I get to wear heavy armor.

No more spellcasting at all? Your Short Blades won't do you much
good in the long run...

> Miscellaneous
> j - a small ebony casket
>> Seems to summon hostile monsters, which is just what I want when
>> I'm wielding a casket. Kind of like going berserk with a deck of
>> cards in your hand, but not as bad.

The monsters are not that big, are they? I usually have friendly
monsters pop out of them.

> Skills:
> + Level 9 Fighting
> + Level 13 Short Blades
> + Level 6 Darts
> + Level 3 Throwing
> + Level 5 Armour
> + Level 4 Dodging
> + Level 2 Stealth
> + Level 2 Shields
> + Level 1 Traps & Doors
> + Level 6 Unarmed Combat
> + Level 2 Spellcasting
> + Level 3 Enchantments
> + Level 5 Invocations
> + Level 2 Evocations
>> Is there a reason to turn any of these off?

Depends on what you want (and some might not be trained, anyway).

Some alternatives as I don't know what your plan is (apart from
winning, I hope ).

Heavy armour will hinder Spellcasting, no Dodging and Stealth,
either, but if you go that way you need a weapon that does _damage_,
so no Short Blades (toothpicks are for whimps like spellcasters and
thieves).

If you want to concentrate on Short Blades by trying to train
Stabbing as well, and discard the heavy armour, don't think that and
Stealth will get you through. Didn't help my Thief much in the
endgame, either (went through screaming, with eyes closed, and only
survived by pure luck). The endgame is where you ultimately have to
prepare for. So for your Short Blades you'd need assisting spells,
which in turn is better without heavy armour (and Dodging and
Stealth will just help with that). A lot of Dodging helps evade
missiles (and spells) too.

Mixed (magic/fighter) characters are rather hard, though, in my
experience. So you might be better off finding a big long sword
(which will at least draw on your Short Blades skill to advance
faster) and forget about spells, Dodging and Stealth.

I'd turn off the darts in any case. Either find some other missile
weapon with more punch, or get some good spells. A rod would help
too, of course, but that'd mean no shield (they're two-handed, and
switching is awkward and time-consuming).

>> Needless to say I'm all about activations now

Activations?

> Mutations & Other Weirdness

> * Your flesh is cold resistant.
> * You cover the ground quickly.
> * You have a pair of large horns on your head.
>> Thought I was pretty lucky until I got the horns; at least
>> they're the big ones.

Hrmpf. I wish they were all plain positive, too.

--
Tina the Grave Robber - a High Priest of the Raucous Neanderthal Groan