Historically I've got with the stock artefacts, but over the last few months I've racked up at a guess 150m XP while playing with randarts and that's the first proper cursed item I've found.

Now CL31/DL33 and I've found one more...

The Broad Sword of Bormeneng (2d5) (+10,+14) <+2>
+2 wisdom.
+10% to searching.
Cannot be harmed by acid, electricity, fire, cold.
Sustains wisdom.
Blessed by the gods.

That bad boy would dish out 67.4 pts a round at my current STR/DEX.

Looking at a few of my obituaries it appears that randart acquisition doesn't really kick in until CL31/32 and approaching DL40, so I'm not actually that far behind but I haven't got the means to survive encounters with anything significant. Given my current vulnerability I'm reduced to mugging trolls and the occasional ancient dragon until something useful turns up.

Ah well.

The probability of finding an artifact depends on DL only and not on CL. So if you wish to find artifacts soon you should probably dive faster. Just watch out for out-of-depth Drolems and you'll be fine (famous last words).

The problem was that I had (and still have) such huge resistance holes that getting down to 'randart levels' was a real problem. Found randart ethereal slippers +9 speed, which compensates for the holes and the lack of decent weaponry.

Have found four other artefacts between DL34-38, all of them very average, but have now broken the magic DL40 barrier and am stat-gaining nicely. Just *destroyed* Scatha thanks to some nice anti-dragon arrows, my biggest scalp so far.

But it's been a struggle: has taken me 1.5m turns to get to CL34, which is half my usual speed. Dave the Conjurer better be worth the effort!

Dave the Mage was struggling with those pesky unique angels until he retrained as an archer, allowing him to drop *everything* as far down as Lungorthin before they got within 50' of him...

http://img585.imageshack.us/img585/7...30313at023.jpg

Which is just as well, because he still melees like a girl.

Angband mages are a bit counterintuitive for many people, since they are a lot better at melee and ranged combat than most fantasy mages, and comparatively worse at using magic to blast things. Of course, they're still the worst melee/ranged class in the game (and one of the two best blaster classes); the main point is that that doesn't make melee or ranged combat completely unviable.

Hell, back in the day mages primarily did their damage through melee/ranged combat, because a) their attack spells were much more expensive (and Raal's was the last dungeon spellbook instead of the first), and b) they had Globe of Invulnerability in the late game.

It's the fortuitous pairing of...

Don't have any Holy Mights to hand, but a 3d4 +17 Slay Evil = 937.2 v evil, 669.3 v others. Dave still has to hit the target, of course, which doesn't come naturally to him. Keeping him in arrows is also a problem, as he can fire off a hundred of them (with a 35% loss rate) in *very* short time.

Also has the following, which is the fastest randart I've ever seen and has a tasty heal too. Guinosse is good for you?

The to hit / to dam values can be jazzed up a bit but it obviously doesn't do enough damage for the end game, although nothing else I've currently got goes higher than 230ish v evil.

This is the first time I've really played mages and priests consecutively, and I have to say I rarely use magely magic in combat: not enough damage to monsters and too much damage to pick-ups. There's certainly nothing in the orb of draining class. I do appreciate the selective banishment and stone to mud, though.

EDIT: where did that colour come from?

+2 shooting speed on a shield sounds silly... this is still possible in 3.4?

IMO shots/blows should be only with jewelry and weapon and just maybe gloves, might only with weapon (might is kinda like extra dice in melee-weapons, nothing affects that). Anything else having those feels wrong.

Off-weapon bonuses to blows/shots are considered very powerful in 3.4 and thus shouldn't happen at all often. I'm curious what standart that shield is based on and how likely to be generated it was. I wouldn't be surprised if the game considers it to be on a similar tier as Ringil.

*duplicates savefile and commits suicide*

*pokes around other randarts*

Hmmm, my 'Ringil' is an as yet unfound armour that looks rather underwhelming. There doesn't appear to be a melee superweapon, but this crossbow should be fun. Looks like I might be pincushioning Morgy...

What does that '-1' at the end refer to?