Complete N00b's Journey Character #3: Anwe, the Hobbit Warrior

[wizard44]

Introduction: This is the third character in progress in the series called the "Complete N00b's Journey", where I attempt to see how far I get each time despite my n00bish mistakes. This character, whose name is Anwe and is a Hobbit Warrior, has made it back to the town after his first dive after running out of Scrolls of Phase Door, so I am now starting a thread for this character as a celebration and to track his further progress. As a reminder for this series, the number before the hyphen signifies the attempt that I am playing, and the number after the hyphen signifies the goal that I have finished. With that, I bring you:

Complete N00b's Journey: Part 3-1

Anyway, this character starts off by killing off some clear icky things in D:1 and getting a Set of Leather Gloves. Killing a jackal pack and small kobold quickly gets me to Level 2, at the expense of 6 of my arrows. I descend to D:2 as soon as I find a staircase, where I find the downstairs immediately right next to me. Upon reaching D:3, I kill a metallic red centipede and get to Level 3. I also find a sling and kill a salamander, which causes me to reach Level 4. On my journey towards the stairs to D:4, I kill a white jelly with arrows, and find a better whip (+2, +1). The next room contained a scruffy looking hobbit, who stole some 27 coins, and a whip of Slay Animal (+3, +6), which was really useful in dealing with spiders. I get to level 5 after dealing with an apprentice. In a treasure room, I find 21 Iron Shots (+1, +5), which allows me to continue my diving quest, since I ran out of arrows shortly after finding the shots. After killing a yellow snake and a giant white louse, I find the downstairs and begin my read-id regime, which allows me to know the Scrolls of Blessing and Light. I also quaff-id a potion of True Seeing, leaving me with one spare potion to detect invisible monsters. On D:4, I land smack dab into Grip, Farmer Maggot'€™s dog, forcing me to throw my potions of Oil at it to kill it while dealing with a group of soldiers at the same time. After using 2 Scrolls of Phase door and a potion of cure light wounds, I was able to use my sling to deal with the soldier group and get to level 6. I then find 29 Arrows (+5, +5) and get to the downstairs in short order. In D:5, I find a wand which turned out to be one of Hold Monster when zap-id'€™d, and quickly find the stairs to D:6. D:6 saw me getting overtaken by a pack of wild cats which forced me to use another Scroll of Phase door to get to a safe spot and deal with them. Dealing with them got me to level 7, though. The stairs to D:7 also was rather quick to find, and I descended to that level to find 2200 gold pieces of adamantite that made up the bulk of my budget and a small kobold to kill. I also ran into Mugash, the Kobold Lord up close, who proceeded to whale on me for 19 HP each. Having used my last scroll of phase door to escape, and with Mugash on my tail, I proceeded to get the hell out of this dungeon and conclude this part. Having returned to town, I buy the 25 Scrolls of Phase Door, 3 Scrolls of Word of Recall, 3 potions of Cure Serious Wounds, 1 Potion of Cure Critical Wounds (for Id purposes), and 4 potions of Heroism (so I can ditch the boldness potions) to cover the essential basics. There still weren't any better melee weapons for sale from the weaponsmith or the temple from the cash that I had left over, so I headed over to the weaponsmith to buy a Long Bow (x3) (+3, +2). On my way to get it though, I killed Farmer Maggot, who dropped a Main Gauche (1d5) (+6, +5), which sort of solved my dagger problem and allowed me to drop the (+2, +1) whip. After buying the Long bow, 2 Rations of Food, and 51 standard arrows for the Long Bow, I bought Leather Scale Mail (-1) [20, +0] and a Small Metal Shield [5, +0] to round of my armor weakness.

So the next goal for this guy is to get to D:18, which I feel is doable given the way I've set Anwe up. I will however, be prepared to Recall Anwe out of here if I run out of Scrolls of Phase Door, potions of cure X wounds, or arrows (and flasks of oil). I'€™m still doing heavy diving, so I theoretically should be able to accomplish this goal if I am smart about this.

The below link is the current status of Anwe, which will be updated as I post future parts of this character'€™s progress:

http://angband.oook.cz/ladder-show.php?id=22382

Any tips to improve this character'€™s survival in his goal to reach D:18 is appreciated.

[Estie]

As others have mentioned, random starting stats tends to make for a very weak character in the early game. 13 str is a pain for the low carrying capacity alone, never mind the melee damage. With that character I wouldnt equip armor for weight reasons.

Now the usual advice for melee toons is to get a light dagger early on, but that assumes high str. There is an anomaly in the Angband melee mechanics in that high str boosts attack speed with light weapons (much more so than dex), but with low str and high dex, a heavy weapon might end up doing more damage for you - if you can get hold of a good one.

[Derakon]

Just so we're clear on this: in the long run, it's pretty much expected that every character will find enough stat-boosting potions to max out every stat. Random starting stats just means you don't have as much control over which stats take longer to max out, and more pertinently, that the period of the game before you start finding stat potions becomes considerably harder. Every class has one specific stat that they want to allocate the majority of their stat points to, which makes a huge difference in their viability. For mages it's INT, for priests it's WIS, for everyone else it's STR. (EDIT: I guess half-trolls usually want to make up their DEX penalty instead of boosting their already colossal STR...)

It's fine if you want to artificially challenge yourself...just recognize that that's what you're doing.

Otherwise, your gear looks more than adequate for where you are in the game. Warriors have a fairly simple early game: just bash things on the head and try not to get overwhelmed. You'll want to pick up a Staff of Detect Evil soonish as it's your only means of monster detection for quite some time. Staff of Teleport is of course also very useful.

[wobbly]

Warriors are the 2nd best archers in the game. Hobbits(& High-elfs) the best archery races. I can see on the dump that a plain arrow does the same damage as your melee weapon with better accuracy. So really with enough arrows + phase doors you shouldn't have any major problems. Except for running out of hps, I suggest not doing that.

[Pete Mack]

Yes. Random stats are a huge drag on a starting player, especially for a class like hobbit warrior. Dwarf or Half-troll warrior would be much more powerful, since they have guaranteed early strength. The other trouble is that it takes w looong time to get to 18 base STR, where increases go much faster

[wizard44]

Thanks for the input everyone. So I was *barely* able to accomplish this goal after using almost all of his light sources to do this, as well as his entire stock of arrows.

Complete N00b's Journey: Part 3-2

I Recalled back to D:7, where I killed a couple of apprentices and a giant red frog to get to level 8. A group of gallants on the same level fell to arrows and dropped a Wand of Slow Monster. I also found a Wand of Confuse Monster and killed various molds and a snaga to get to level 9. After killing a Cave Lizard and Night lizard, I found the down stairs and read-id'€™d Scrolls of Identify Rune and Magic Mapping that I found on the same level. Upon descent to D:8, I found the down stairs using my remaining scroll of Magic Mapping and went to D:9 after getting to level 10 by killing a grey mold and a wild cat. D:9 was where I quaff-id'd a Potion of Neutralize Poison, and use-id'€™d a wand of light that I found on D:7. I also read-id'€™d a Scroll of Monster Confusion when I found the down-stairs to D:10. D:10 had 1250 gold pieces worth of rubies, which was a huge boon for my future budget, and the downstairs relatively close by. D:11 had absolutely no items or monsters for me to deal with before I found the stairs to D:12, which was rather strange. D:12 had the same occurrence, although the downstairs was even closer. D:13 had a large kobold and a ragtag group of apprentices of solders for me to kill, and a scroll that turned out to be Door Destruction upon read-id on the downstairs. D:14 had a group of giant fleas that took me to level 11. Killing an Easterling warrior, a disenchanter mold, a wild cat, a shrieker mushroom patch, flesh golem, a silver jelly, and two crows, put me to level 12. A group of snagas there forces me to quaff my Potion of light wounds and one of my potions of cure critical wounds. After death, they drop a potion which was one of Infravision upon quaffing. Soon, I run smack dab into a spotted jelly, which proceeds to damage my shield, Hard Leather Cap, and small metal shield, with a vengeance, forcing me to use a scroll of phase door to retreat. Upon an attempt to escape using the period speed walking, the spotted jelly somehow runs into me again, furthering damage to my Leather scale mail. I ended up taking off my hard leather cap since it was no longer providing me with any AC. Killing a green naga and a pack of white wolves takes me to level 13. Dispatching a dark elven priest on the same level as well as some black harpies and animals got me to level 14. I found a ring of Resist fire and Cold and a potion that turned out to be Berserk Strength when quaff-id’d. Upon further exploration, I found a Battle Axe (2d8) (+4, +4) that was generally better than the whip of slay animal that I had been using. A group of lemurs do a number on my hit points, as well as another spotted jelly that I run smack dab into, forcing me to use a Scroll of Phase door and quaff another potion of Cure Serious Wounds. I read-id’ some scrolls of Treasure Detection on that level, pick up and read-id scrolls of satisfy hunger (allowing me to drop my rations of Food) and descend to D:15. Another gang of White Wolves as well as a dark elven mage cause me to use scrolls of Phase Door and quaff potions of Cure Serious wounds to stabilize and turn aside the threat. Luckily, I find a fresh supply of Cure Serious Wounds in another room in the level, which were soon needed to deal with a pack of wolves and a dark elven priest. Things were made worse when a staff of summoning summoned spiders that poisoned me. When the dust settles, I am at level 16 and find myself in possession of an amulet of resist lightning. ANOTHER spotted jelly that I run into without warning, however damages my leather gloves and shield, and a group of manes and snagas nearly end my life and reduce me to my sole potion of cure serious wounds. As if I didn’t have enough spotted jelly problems in my lifetime to deal with, YET ANOTHER one ambushes me and corrodes my shield and armor to pieces. I find a more powerful whip (+13, +7) that gives more damage than my slay animal whip, but not my battle axe. After read-id’ing a scroll of enchant armor and quaff-id’ing a Potion of Speed, I descend to D:16, where I ran into an out-of depth giant fire tick and a killer stag beetle. Fortunately, after killing an icky white thing in my escape, I find the downstairs and descend to avoid a game ending death. D:17 gets me in a fight with a priest and an orc shaman, the latter of which drops a much-appreciated Ring of Protection [+9]. I run into Smeagol, but do not choose to fight him due to my mediocre damage output at this point. Instead I run to dispatch a group of jackals, and find a Lead-filled Mace of Frost (4d3) (+6, +6), which was a very valued find for me. Further exploration of the room leads me to find 4 potions of Cure Serious Wounds before I find the down stairs.

Upon reaching D:18, I run smack dab into Orfac, Son of Boldor, which went down to the last of my arrows and dropped a heavy Crossbow of Accuracy (x4) (+15, 11). Battling the yeek ensemble that he left behind got me to level 17 and a second ring of protection [+8], which I equipped, and a pine staff. With only 100 turns of light left, I decided to Recall back to town and test my staff on a mean-looking mercenary, which turned out to be one of sleep monsters. I stow away my long bow and main gauche and proceed to buy 2 torches, 5 potions of Cure Serious Wounds, 7 scrolls of phase door, 1 more scroll of Word of Recall, 20 Bolts (1d5) (+3, +5), 60 standard Bolts, a scroll of Identify Rune (from the black market) to identify the hallucination curse in addition to the siren curse that the heavy crossbow of accuracy had (didn’t know that there could be more than one curse on it, lol), 2 scrolls of Remove Curse to remove the siren and hallucination curses that the Heavy Crossbow of Accuracy had, and a Potion of Brawn (again from the black market) to desperately boost up my strength at the expense of my dexterity. These purchases did not leave me with enough gold to purchase a staff of teleportation, so I had to make do with some lesser purchases to cover my weakness such as a Soft Leather Armor of Resist Fire [8,+4], a metal Cap [3, +5], a set of Leather Gloves [1, +6] to replace our old ones, a Small Metal Shield [5, +0], a Pair of Leather Sandals [1, +5], a staff of Mapping, a staff of Detect Invisible, and 3 potions of cure Light Wounds. I then proceeded to buy a scroll of Recharging, a Potion of Resist Fire, and a Potion of Resist Cold for id purposes, and finish the part.

So the next goal for the character will depend on the input on your answers to the below questions:

Is it safe to proceed past D:19 without an item of Free action? I still don’t have an item of free action, making this part rather problematic for me at this point.

I also am rather wary about proceeding past D:24 without the basic four resistances, as I'm not sure that the character can survive any powerful acid attacks beyond that level.

If you guys think that I can power dive to D:29 without these attributes, then my goal is to get to that level through quick diving, or get as far as possible before running out of Scrolls of Phase Door, potions of cure X wounds, or Bolts.

Otherwise, I'm going to set the goal to try to get these resistances, Free action, and See Invisible while restricting myself to D:19 (for free action), or D:24 for the other attributes.

I plan to quaff resist Fire and Resist Cold potions as soon as the next run starts, in case you guys are wondering why I'm carrying these on me.

I have updated the ladder with my current character's stats, and any tips towards properly re-orienting my character is appreciated.

[Adam]

Since you do not know the monsters and I guess you are meleeing them quite often it is risky to proceed to DL29 in my opinion. Btw I don't see why you let jellies damage your equipment, shoot them or leave them alone, I think with 1 exception they don't move.
Your low strength means you get overburdened but unfortunately I don't see what you could easily throw away. I think you would reach the -1 speed at +15 lbs burden and you are quite far from it. But this means that some of the uniques will already double move you even if you drink haste (Bolg, Azog)
As Derakon said detect evil would be useful to better plan where to fight big packs (or avoid them).
For my taste you carry to few Cure X potions as well (but this is play style dependent so you may be correct not to carry more weight).
Your unknown amulet can be rAcid, you can use-id it if you find a baby black dragon or giant black dragon fly and let them spit on you once (in general this works for all the elements).

[wobbly]

I think no FA is fine when you know what can paralyze you. You do have an issue though in that you've got no way to detect carrion crawlers other then light. You'd also have to be careful about ghouls, you can't allow them LOS.

[wizard44]

The reason why I get ambushed by jellies is that the torches only have 1 radius of light, so when I auto-move, I don't detect the enemy in time before the jellies get a jump on me. Really peeved that I still haven't found a lantern yet.

The weight problem is a serious concern, so I actually switched back to the long bow and got 80 arrows to lighten the load. But, I will still be 6.2 pounds overweight after quaffing the potions of resist heat and resist cold. I agree the amount of potions is a bit low, but I really do need to watch my weight here.

I think a tentative plan is to fully explore D:18 and D:19 to try to get items that grant acid resistance, see invisible, and free action, as well as a lantern. If I'm out of luck there, then I honestly don't know how to proceed, as I'm really not sure how deep I should dive for this one. Inputs on what I should do before doing another recall back to the town would be nice.

[fph]

My suggestion: don't worry about holes in your kit, just be careful and dive until stat potion depth anyway (DL30-35). With warriors it's more difficult since you have no detection, but you have lots of HP to compensate that.
In terms of risk-reward ratio, I think DL20-29 are the worst levels you can spend your time in.

To save weight, cut down on the bolts (you can kill most non-dangerous monsters in melee), and on the ?phase door (25 is on the conservative side). Also you don't need more than one ?sathunger at a time (and you can also simply eat till full while in town).

Watch out for rods and rings; a lot of things are better than protection, at this point.