Ironman priest tips?

[Thraalbee]

Hi,

I'm playing dwarf priest ironman now. Survived longer than any previous attempt but never played priest or ironman before.

Anyone care to give ironman/priest specific tips? I've already taken a warrior all the way past Morgoth before, so I am not looking for general knowledge.

http://angband.oook.cz/ladder-show.php?id=10898

/Mathias

[EDIT] I found the search function in the forum and through that "joshhimself"'s nice input on this topic.

I've been playing exclusively ironman priests recently, so I think I can help. I haven't had an ironman winner yet, but I consistently make it to somewhere between dlvl 50 and 90.

(1) You absolutely MUST buy pb3 in the town. It is the key to your survival, and it's not "in depth" until dlvl 20, and it may be a lot deeper than that before you find it. To afford it, you need to leave between 3 and 5 stat points unassigned to get extra starting cash.

(2) If you're having trouble keeping the half-troll alive, consider playing a dwarf. The extra spell points, resist blindness, and better infravision will aid your survival more than the regeneration and a bit of extra strength and hit points.

With my dwarves, I assign 8 points to wis and 6 each to str and con. When I was just learning ironman, I put 12 into wis and 8 into str, since con is not so important until you make it deep into the dungeon.

I sell the ?recall and one of the !CSW, and spend the cash on one each of pb2 and pb3, one ?phase, and the rest on oil and torches. I might buy one food if my starting quota is low, but food should never be a problem with pb2 (half-trolls eat more, though, because of their regeneration). If you're willing to endure a lot of early deaths in favor of a better late game, you can assign your full allotment of stat points, sell your mace, and go barehanded until you find a weapon in the dungeon.

(3) I suggest you take the obj-desc.spo and reconfigure it to sort each item type by native depth. You can then compare your list to your object knowledge from the ~ menu to see what an unIDed item is likely to be, so that you can test it in the right situation. You can even check them off as you find them if you want to be extra careful.

(4) As you already know, be very paranoid of fire breathers and melee burners. In situations where you must fight them, consider stashing your spell books and other precious flammable items in a safe place. You can use the same trick with cold and electrical attacks, although these are less of a threat than fire. There are tricks for dealing with hounds when necessary. My favorite is standing two steps into a hallway, waiting for the hounds to enter the room through a different hallway entrance, then using orb to dispose of them. You may have to manually aim the orb into spots you can't see. The way the angband targeting works, a missile can travel one space horizontally/vertically then as many as you want diagonally. The hounds can't see you if you set it up correctly, and they won't enter your hallway unless you're below 50% of your hit points.

(5) I'm not a big fan of rings of teleportation (a ring of strength can often help your speed just as much), but 2 rings of escaping (+8 speed!) is worth considering - for the dwarf with high wisdom more than the half-troll. Sometimes I use this as my basic configuration, sometimes not. Amulet of infravision is your best early amulet (better than acid or lightning, which don't protect your equipment) before amulets of wisdom start appearing.

(6) Knowing what to keep and what to pitch can be tough in ironman. Don't weigh yourself down by hoarding a bunch of consumable stuff you never end up using. On the other hand, having the right weapon and equipment swaps available is critical. I'll often wield a +wisdom weapon as my default and then switch to another one for higher damage (or free action or see invisible, etc). I even swap rings a lot.

(7) The main things you need to survive through the middle levels of the dungeon are pb5 and either pb6 or ESP. Also, wisdom and stealth are more important than most of the resistances.

I hope that at least some of that helps.

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Last edited by joshhimself; August 6, 2010 at 19:02.

[fph]

Good luck. As you read in the other thread, the hints were very helpful for me. If I may add my 2 cents: from where you are, dive fast to dlvl30. The 20's are home to basic elemental hounds, you usually end up losing lots of consumables if you clear them. Much better to clear the previous levels (1-20) for useful scrolls and potions, and then dive straight on to dlvl30. (btw, your reserve of utility potions and scrolls look rather small to me --- just unlucky, or you did not look for them at all?)

[LostTemplar]

Just one tip: never use alter reality.

[Thraalbee]

Originally Posted by fph

(btw, your reserve of utility potions and scrolls look rather small to me --- just unlucky, or you did not look for them at all?)

Oh I looked, didn't find much and nearly only used them against confusion when I'd be dead otherwise. Must learn to stay away not only from sources of fire but also of confusion. It drains scarce resources.

The only luck I had was finding the Robe of Permanency, very nice for Ironman. Otherwise not much to brag of.

Anyway I just lost this game after having PB2 burnt to cinders in a fight with a unique and his helpers - I don't use macros so the normal m... combination did not give me portal - I lost a few rounds before realizing I was not failing but casting the wrong spell, then I failed using the wand of teleport. Then goodbye. But in the newly started game I have PB3 from start :-)

/M

[PowerDiver]

Originally Posted by Thraalbeast

Anyway I just lost this game after having PB2 burnt to cinders in a fight with a unique and his helpers - I don't use macros so the normal m... combination did not give me portal

I was going to make some minor disagreement with advice above, but ten times more important is that you autoinscribe your books and cast spells using numbers. This has nothing to do with macros. I suggest you switch to casting priest spells with 'p' rather than 'm' at the same time. I'd guess it will help you make the shift more easily.

This is really important. Especially in ironman, at some point it will be right to throw away your PB1s. You will not be able to survive the misspells after that, unless you convert to p2b format for casting portal.

[robbiodobbio]

RIP Father Iron. F***ing hummerhorns.

[Pete Mack]

In the average game I don't see even 1 hummerhorn. That death suggests too much time between lev 20 and 30. And if you see one, Portal immediately and leave the level

[Ingwe Ingweron]

Originally Posted by Pete Mack

In the average game I don't see even 1 hummerhorn. That death suggests too much time between lev 20 and 30. And if you see one, Portal immediately and leave the level

Or, know that you must kill that sleeping Hummerhorn very quickly or you will soon be overwhelmed.

[Pete Mack]

Originally Posted by Ingwe Ingweron

Or, know that you must kill that sleeping Hummerhorn very quickly or you will soon be overwhelmed.

Not a chance for a dwarf priest.

[robbiodobbio]

Yeah, it was on level 20 I think, but I'd only just got to the level. Opened the door saw the hummerhorns (there were already 3) and thought "I can pick these guys off before they breed" famous last words. It's such a frustrating death too because it takes so long. My amulet of teleportation was completely useless, I must have had it on for about 50-60 turns burning through all my healing potions and now once did it decide to activate.

After the first Father Iron made it to cl17 dl20 the next three all lasted about 10 minutes each! I've scrapped that idea and gone for a half-troll warrior for the next ironman attempt.