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

[Pete Mack]

You need to dump some junk. The only weapons you *might* use at this point are Totila for speed, stealth, and rConf; and Hurin for CON. But Haradekket is just about end-game strong, so you aren't likely to make even those changes. The other weapons are strictly worse, especially if you replace ring of ice with Damage. (Warrior will almost always use one ring slot for damage and one for speed. In your case, STR is a source of damage, and with such terrible CON, you might even use a ring)
If you want double resistance, you may find carrying potions more convenient than elemental rings. It isn't a bad idea for a low-HP warrior. There are some worthwhile targets you couldn't take without.

Also: amrod is strictly better than xbow of accuracy; amulet of rAcid, ring of lightning, shield of resistance, and Paurhach are now worthless. You'll need Amrod for some time to come.

[wizard44]

Thanks for all of the input guys. I actually changed my goal to get to D:50 since I felt that was doable with the equipment that I had. And I was able to achieve just that, but I ran out of detect evil charges while doing so.

Complete N00b'€™s Journey: Part 3-9

After reading your input, so I dropped Nimthanc, Narthanc, Forasgil, Elvagil, and Paurhach, as wells as my Ring of Ice, Ring of Lightning, and Amulet of Resist Acid. I bought 7 potions of Resist Cold and a better-charged staff of Detect Evil and then Recalled back to D:40. I dispatched a 7-headed hydra, a group of nagas and a Nether Wraith, the last monster who dropped a potion of Strength, which I quaffed immediately. A group of black puddings dropped TWO potions of Dexterity, which I happily quaff to gain more blows. I run into and kill Mim, Betrayer of Turin, who drops the Metal Brigandine Armour of the Rohirrim [50, +15] <+2 Str. +2 Dex> and Glamdring (2d5) (+10, +15) <+1 light>. I also kill Ibun, son of Mim with ease, who drops a Small Metal Shield of Elvenkind. After sifting through the treasures from the naga/snake vault that the group of nagas came from, I descend to D:41, where gravity hounds really make things difficult for me and force me to use my staff of teleportation to evade these guys. I end up encountering and killing Brodda, the Easterling, and the Queen Ant, who destroys my staff of teleportation before I can finish her off. I shortly end up getting to level 32 by dispatching her kin. I luckily find a spare one and head to D:42, where the only things I find that are notable are 2 Potions of Speed to replace my depleted stack. D:43 saw me encountering an asleep Vargo, Tyrant of Fire, but I manage to avoid it and descend to D:44. Upon arriving, I get put smack dab in the middle of an ancient gold dragon, which I manage to kill. A beholder, though, wreaks havoc on my staves and my HP and forces me to descend to avoid it. I arrive at D:45, where I detect a nearby emperor wight and no treasures. Seeing a nearby downstairs staircase, I descend to D:46, where I kill a berserker to get to level 33 with the help of a Potion of Speed. I also find two potions of Intelligence (one of which I quaffed) and the halberd Osondir (3d5) (+16, +12) <+3 STR, +3 WIS> on that level. I decide to teleport to avoid a sorcerer vault, and find and quaff 2 Potions of Wisdom and a Potion of Dexterity after clearing algroth and forest troll groups. After clearing another group of ice trolls, I also pick up a Potion of *Healing* and read-id a scroll of Protection From Evil. I then descend to D:47, where I pick up a ring of Damage (+0,+9) to replace my ring of Ice, and a wand of lightning balls, and read-id a Scroll of Dispel Undead and a Scroll of Banishment. I then descend to D:48 and detect the presence of Scatha the Worm. Having learned my lesson from my last character's death, I stay VERY far away from the guy. I do run into Gorlim, Betrayer of Barahir and barely manage to melee him to death after going though my regular potions of Cure X Wounds as well as my stacks of Potions of Healing. An elder arnea again forces me to descend to D:49, where I find one more Potion of strength to boost my strength stat up. It was at that point that I ran out Detect Evil charges, which was an indication that I should recall back to town to get my spare staff of Detect evil and maybe some recharging scrolls. I descended to D:50 and invoked my rod of Recall. Once back at the town, I got my Staff of Detect Evil, bought 5 potions of Cure Critical Wounds, 6 potions of Resist Heat, 3 scrolls of Recharging, and 5 potions of Speed (from the black market) to finish off the level.

I'€™m considering getting to D:53 as my next goal. Are there any monsters that I should watch out on my journey there?

I'€™d appreciate a fresh take on whether I should keep my current weapon/armor or switch them for better ones.

Is a staff of earthquakes any good? I found one in this dive, but ditched it for other stuff.

Do I store the potions of *Healing* for later? Or keep them on me since I don’t have enough of the other curative potions?

I've updated the ladder with Anwe's status/equipment. Any tips and answers would be appreciated!

[Pete Mack]

Scatha is just the target you should have used those potions of res cold on. With double resist, he does something like 100 damage max. And those lovely slay dragon arrows would take him down in very little time. Gorlim is a lot more dangerous, especially if you don't have pConf. (Rohirrim will give you that.)

[Estie]

I'm considering getting to D:53 as my next goal. Are there any monsters that I should watch out on my journey there?

Generaly speaking, non evil monsters are the most dangerous for you now, in particular, the Phoenix should start making appearances soonish. He is always awake, fast and breathes plasma and fire.

I'd appreciate a fresh take on whether I should keep my current weapon/armor or switch them for better ones.

Youre good; stash Rohirrim, it would be an upgrade except that you cant lose rpoison and its too heavy to carry as switch.

Now looking at the weapons, their damage is listed neatly in their descriptions, and damage is the overwhelming consideration when choosing a weapon as a warrior. The second look should go to the amount of blows you get with each; its roughly 4, and 6 for the scimitar which has +2 as property. As you gain in str and dex, those numbers will go up to 6 and 8, respectively, so Haradekket´s relative value will be boosted by plain damage adders like rings of damage while Osondir and Totila will get ahead with their fire damage, as it gets multiplied by 6/4 as opposed to Haradekket´s slay evil at 8/6.

With current fire damage being about the same as evil damage and given above numbers you can see that the fire damge increase of halberd/flail wont be significant over evil damage of the scimitar, and given that evil affects more things than fire, Haradekket will remain your best weapon. Upgrades exist out there, but nothing you have is one, which is why I had suggested to ditch them before.

You could use Totila as a pconf switch, but the targets that this would enable you to kill - Gorlim and Cat Lord, for example - are still too tough. Not saying you cant kill them, but its a dice roll, Gorlim can be a pushover or require multiple full heals depending on what he casts. I wouldnt bother at this time.

Is a staff of earthquakes any good? I found one in this dive, but ditched it for other stuff.

It allows you to change vault layout from outside; other than that, I can see no use. It is not worth an inventory slot.

Do I store the potions of *Healing* for later? Or keep them on me since I dont have enough of the other curative potions?

You want to store !*healing* and !life for the endfights, but you also want the option to full heal in the dungeon; if you are in possession of !heal, store the !*heal*, otherwise carry one for emergencies till you find !heal again.

[Adam]

One thing about breath attacks: as you damage the monster, its breath becomes less powerful. I can't give you the exact formula but I think in most cases you'll get linear damage based on the HP of the monster.
Gorlim is quite dangerous, nice that you could kill him. He has very damaging spells which you can not resist, mana and water bolts (and water bolts also stun).

[Nick]

Originally Posted by Adam

One thing about breath attacks: as you damage the monster, its breath becomes less powerful. I can't give you the exact formula but I think in most cases you'll get linear damage based on the HP of the monster.

Basic (acid, fire, cold, lightning) and poison breaths have base damage 1/3 the monster's HP, other elements 1/6 (and it gets less if you're at a distance from the monster). The different types also have a cap for total damage - 1600 for basics, 800 for poison, 4-600 for other resistables and less for things like time and inertia.

[wizard44]

Thanks for the input guys. Well, this run was sort of successful, thought with its share of close calls.

Complete N00b's Journey: Part 3-10

Stashed my potions of *Healing* at home, as well as the plate armor. Also ditched Glamdring and bought 27 standard arrows. Upon arrival back to D:50, I slay a pack of wolves and a crow to clear a path to the downstairs. Before decending, however, I take on a vault of animals, where a mystic gives me trouble by summoning gravity hounds, forcing me to Phase Door out to deal with the crowd of animals. Clearing the vault yields the hammer 'Turmil'€™ (2d5) (+10, +11) [+8] <+4 WIS, +4 infravision, +1 light> and a Potion of Wisdom. Descending to D:51 nearly caused me to get killed since an ancient ethereal dragon and a summoned lesser Balrog got me down to <100 HP multiple times, with teleportation putting me between the two. I was able to make it to the downstairs, though, after quaffing almost all of my Cure Critical Wounds and my sole Healing potion. The next level was host to a dreadmaster, which compelled me to reload the level. The new D:52 had a host of black puddings where I found a potion of Dexterity and a fresh supply of scrolls of recharging. I also kill two vampire lords and encounter Lorgan chief of the Easterlings, where I teleported for safety after he summoned a demonic quylthulg. Other parts of the level gave me 5 potions of Cure Serious Wounds and a couple of Scrolls of Teleport Level. D:53 put me next to a dragonic qwylthulg, who summoned an ancient red dragon, again forcing me to reload the level. In the reloaded level, I find scrolls of *Remove Curse* and Mithril Arrows, which allowed me to dump my supply of standard arrows. I also dispatch a group of araneas, and attempt clear a kobold vault, but Akhorahil the Blind suddenly shows up and forces me to teleport away after summoning a host of creatures to surround me, including an ethereal dragon. After some quick reloadings, I clear a hydra and naga vault, which yields a Steel Helm of Telepathy and a scroll of enchant weapon To-Dam. I also run into Quaker, Master of Earth, prompting me to reload the level again, where I clear an Easterling group (while teleporting away Lorgan yet again) to get to level 34. This rendition give me a potion of *Healing*, a staff of *Destruction* (which I use-id and destroy a potion of speed lying on the ground ) and allows me to kill Beorn, the Shape-Changer. Descending down to D:54 gives me another staff of *Destruction* and a run in with Ji Indur Dawndeath, which I teleport away and head to the downstairs. After reloading D:54, I take out Draebor, the Imp and quaffed a dropped potion of intelligence. I then exterminate Bert the Stone Troll, who dropped nothing of note, and Tom the Stone Troll, who dropped a useless Small Metal Shield. Bill the Stone Troll similarly falls to Melee, although I had to use Phase Door to recover from a few of his lucky hits. He drops 40 Mithril Arrows upon dying, which I enchant from read-id'€™ing a Scroll of *Enchant Weapon*. Killing a mature multi-hued dragon yields a Potion of Wisdom and a Potion of Augementation, both of which I happily quaff. A run-in with Ren the Unclean prompts another reload of the level though, where I kill an Ancient Red Dragon and find yet another Potion of Strength! Finally at D:55, I decide to Recall my character again and drop off excess items at my home. I stash the potion of *Healing*, some Mithril Arrows, and Turmil at my home, buy 5 potions of Cure Critical Wounds and 13 potions of Cure Serious Wounds from the Temple, 2 more potions of Speed from the Black Market, and 20 arrows of Wounding from the Weaponsmith.

So the next goal is to find a staircase when I Recall back to the dungeon, get at least ONE potion of Healing by stair-dancing, and get to D:58 and hopefully be strong enough to find some better end-game gear.

I'm still missing blindness and confusion resistance … what are the items that could help me the most in covering these weaknesses?

Things I really need are potions of Healing and a Staff of Speed. Where are the best levels to get them?

I plan to ditch Turmil unless I am convinced otherwise. Do the staves of *Destruction* stay at home, or should I take them with me?

Any tips and answers to the above questions are appreciated. I've updated Anwe's status on the ladder.

[wobbly]

Morgoth and greater undead drain charges in melee. Your best of storing scrolls of destruction for the endgame and using the staff when your not always fighting charge drainers.

[Mondkalb]

I wouldn't bother with animal pits. They can be rather dangerous and most of the time don't yield any worthy loot.

[Sphara]

Turmil has cold immunity, which means zero damage from cold and 100% inventory protection from any cold damage (potions). I would not ditch it but carry it and kill white dragons, cold hounds, ice trolls etc. with it. Outside cold immunity, it's not a very good weapon but does enough damage to be temporarily useful. Also keep in mind you'll lose SInv when not wielding Haradekket.

Totila has rConf. Could be useful when dealing with night mares. Another nasty confusing monster, Ethereal dragon, I would not fight even with rConf as long as I had no rDark.

Out of those two artifacts I'd probably carry Turmil around.