Angband Help and Advice Thread

[Thomkal]

Originally Posted by Abe Sargent

I don;t think you have enough Rods of Trap Location.

what can I say I'm a packrat...er packPaladin. I think five is probably enough now though heh. Just picked up that Rod of Disarming in the Black Market. The Black Market really is your friend in this version-a lot of the stuff on my character came from there.

[path12]

Originally Posted by Thomkal

Nice start there Path with Sir Boris. Some general comments/opinions:

-need to raise that INT and especially CHR since that's a Paladin basic stat. Otherwise your stats are looking good for your level.
-use those enchant to hit scrolls on your nice main gauche there-3 attacks is sweet. Unless you've decided to hold on to them until you get a better weapon. Enchant Armor scrolls can be hard to find in thie store in this version, but be on the lookout for them.
-good start on your resistances. Have the four basic ones covered so should slowly make your way to 1000'. I think you have stealth well covered.
-love that telepathy cap. Hope to find some telepathy item for my paladin soon.
-should probably carry those Iron Shots of Frost with you rather than keep them at home. I have some arrows of acid on my guy that I save for potentially nasty mobs-like spellcasters like Illusionists, Druids, and Priests. Either takes them out in one shot or very close to it.
-looks like you have a good handle on the "utility" items you need-rods, potions. Can probably drop that stone to mud wand though if you need space, don't really need it with the shovels.

Hopefully you will find some artifacts/better ego items soon. Need to find a weapon that does more damage eventually, and better shoes, gloves, cloak, armor, and amulet too but good for where you are at now. Good luck!

CHR and INT is basic for Paladin? I thought WIS was the key for a priest/paladin so hadn't worried about it. Has that changed in this version?

I might end up using the to hit scrolls on my Main Gauche, but for now just saw some in the store and thought I'd stock.

I'm really happy with how my sling and enchanted to damage iron shots go -- took out Grishnakh in three shots before he even got to me. Baby dragons go down easily at distance as well. Good point about the Frost shots.

Just got the telepathy cap and used some additional enchant armor scrolls on it. Telepathy rocks.

I am now starting to make my way towards 1000'. Would really like to get some poison resistance before I get there. Saw my first hounds just before shutting it down for the night.

[Thomkal]

couple more general help tips:

-for you spellcasters, start carrying multiple copies of your spellbooks starting where the dreaded Z's (hounds) begin to appear-1000' or so. Nothing is worse than going to cast a spell on those pesky Z's only to find they corroded/burned/frosted/etc your only copy of the spellbook with the spell you needed.

-monster memory. A handy thing to look at for newbies especially is the monster memory. Your character will begin to "remember" things about the various monsters he faces, and the more you fight the more you will learn about your foes. Two main ways of accessing your memory. When you want to look up something you might face on a level but don't have one in front of you to look at, hit the ~ key and look at current monster knowledge. You will also find many other handy "knowledges" with that key. The other way to access your memory is when you have a mob in front of you, or you can see through magic/telepathy/etc. hit the letter x, then hit the arrow keys till it gets over the mob you want. hit r to "recall" what you know about a creature.

-you might consider keeping doors closed once you've explored around them. Why? Well you will get a message if someone opens a door, but you will also see the door being opened so you can track where something might be coming your way. You get the open door message if there's a door nearby that you haven't run across yet, so you'll know if its a door you've found already or not. Can be a bit risky if you need to get away from something chasing you and have to stop and open the door though.

[Thomkal]

Originally Posted by path12

CHR and INT is basic for Paladin? I thought WIS was the key for a priest/paladin so hadn't worried about it. Has that changed in this version?

I might end up using the to hit scrolls on my Main Gauche, but for now just saw some in the store and thought I'd stock.

I'm really happy with how my sling and enchanted to damage iron shots go -- took out Grishnakh in three shots before he even got to me. Baby dragons go down easily at distance as well. Good point about the Frost shots.

Just got the telepathy cap and used some additional enchant armor scrolls on it. Telepathy rocks.

I am now starting to make my way towards 1000'. Would really like to get some poison resistance before I get there. Saw my first hounds just before shutting it down for the night.

sorry for the confusion. CHR is a basic stat for Paladins, INT is just too low period. STR is a basic one, and WIS helps with spells. And yeah those elemental missiles can be good for uniques too. Another very very helpful thing for Paladins is the spell Protection From Evil, especially against uniques.

[path12]

Yeah, Boris is wise but stupid.

[Abe Sargent]

If its deadly enough that you would get seriously damaged from running into a closed door, then its deadly enough to go MBF on my keyboard (teleport).

I arrived on a floor and there was Ibun, Son of Khim two rooms away. Instead of even bothering him, I MBFed, cleared out some baddies, healed up, and approached Ibun with care. You have to watch out for the disenchanters. Then I was able to MDC (Haste Self) and MCH (Acid Bolt) until he almost died, and I MAA (Magic Missile) him to death.

[Thomkal]

Special level at 1150'. Find my first *shudder* weapon of Morgul. These weapons are heavily cursed, drain experience, and aggravate nearby creatures amongst other abilities. You don't want anything to do with them.

And just lying on the floor guarded by a couple Mirkwood Spiders, I find the reason for the special message, The Spear of Barwe (+20, +15) +4 to CON and CHR, Sustains STR, and resistance to acid. The damage it does is acid based, and does extra damage (though not as much) against many of the same creatures my current weapon (Holy Avenger) does. Perhaps more importanly it gives me two attacks/round and does .5 more damage than my Avenger. I also lose see invis and resist fear with the switch in weapons, but have spells that cover both if need be so the swap may be worth it. And the CON bonus gives me about 30 more hp, while the Avenger had a nice wisdom bonus with it which means I lose spell points and increase spell failure chances.

I'm doing better against Hounds with the new weapon, sometimes taking them out in one round of attacks, so that's my gauge of which weapon I should stick with.

Decisions like these are part of the fun and challenge of roguelikes, but I wish I could wield them both heh.

[Abe Sargent]

Heh, just found a Mushroom of Emergency. New item. 200 HP, resist fire and cold when ingensted, and you start hallucinating madly.

[Abe Sargent]

Originally Posted by Thomkal

I wish I could wield them both heh.

Dual Wield RAR

[Thomkal]

Is there anything more annoying in this game where you forget to or just don't notice that you are out of direct trap range, and hit a trap door and fall through? Just had this happen twice-once on a level where I had a small vault waiting for me when I cleared the rest of the level. Thought I was being careful and making sure I had detected for traps, but took one step out of the detect trap range and hit the trap. Then did it again the next level, but was annoyed at that point so really didn't pay attention.

[Abe Sargent]

So I am playing through Zangband TK for fun. Delved to 26 feet down with a Beastman Mage, level 27. I've only found three artifacts, and that includes the Phial. I come across my first vault and find, laying the ground...RINGIL. Level 26? RINGIL!?!?!? We'll I think fucking won this game....

[Abe Sargent]

I've only found Ringil once before, so I looked it up just now, and it's normally at this depth, so that's crazy. It's a brokenly awesome sword. Good bye Holy Avenger, hello broken artifact.

[Abe Sargent]

Oh, and I find the Metal Cap of Thengel too. Same vault. That's crazy

[JAG]

Originally Posted by Abe Sargent

We'll I think fucking won this game....

Ha, aren't you a long-time *band player? This is usually the time I would find a unique way to die.

Kind of coincidental timing for a thread bump as I started up a game of Tome 2.3.5 about a week ago or so, first rougelike I've played in over a year. Nothing that serious really, just goofing around with a semi-clone of a character I had great success with in an old thread on here.

[thesloppy]

I've never even come close to winning any of the band variants, despite whatever awesome stuff I find. No artifacts can overcome my fractured focus, and leaden keyboard fingers!

[Abe Sargent]

Originally Posted by JAG

Ha, aren't you a long-time *band player? This is usually the time I would find a unique way to die.

Kind of coincidental timing for a thread bump as I started up a game of Tome 2.3.5 about a week ago or so, first rougelike I've played in over a year. Nothing that serious really, just goofing around with a semi-clone of a character I had great success with in an old thread on here.

Yup. I'm straying around here to get the + stat pots for a bit. I had all of the things needed with Holy Avenger, Boots of Free Action and Mail of Resist, so I had the basic stuff (See invis, free action, 4 base resists). Now I've got to recalibrate my stuff around Ringil. No sense wearing Amulet of Slow Digest, boots of Free Action, etc,

The good thing about Ringil is that I was at -2 speed for a long time to a mutation that made me fat, and gave me +2 con and =2 speed. Now I'm at +8,

[Thomkal]

woohoo for Ringil! My roguelike of choice right now is CRAWL, which just came out with a new version a couple days ago.

Dungeon Crawl Stone Soup

[CrimsonFox]

Wow neat thread. I used to play a ton of games like this. Rogue, Moria, LARN, hack...

I can't remember which is which really. I like the one that let's you choose class/race. I think that's hack.

It gives you a pet as well.

My favorite thing in those games: going into a shop, digging a hole in the wall, picking up everything and then leaving. Of course the shopowner chases after you but if you're high enough level you can kill him. Also the keystone cops ring an alarm and chase you.

I may be mixing up games again but there's also one where you can eat killed monsters. (As the whole game requires you to eat). And different monsters give you different abilities. Loved these games.

I'm still sad that I didn't find this site until like right after the Dungeon Werewolf game was over.

[CrimsonFox]

It is very bad that I found this site: Rogue Life - Rogue like games portal | Rogue like games, news, community

[thesloppy]

Originally Posted by Thomkal

woohoo for Ringil! My roguelike of choice right now is CRAWL, which just came out with a new version a couple days ago.

Dungeon Crawl Stone Soup

Awesome! I love crawl, since it fits my short attention span, and I wouldn'ta known there was a new version for another few months, without some help. Thx Thomkal!

[Abe Sargent]

Aren't you guys glad I necro'd this thread?

[thesloppy]

I always love the roguelike threads! As usual, the bump will likely inspire me to fire a couple up again, tonight.

[CrimsonFox]

ADOM (ancient domains of mystery), that's the other one I was trying to remember. Love the class/racees. Plenty to choose but limited too. YOu get a pet and it has the RP questions at the beginning which choose things about you just like Ultima IV did.

[CrimsonFox]

Originally Posted by Abe Sargent

Aren't you guys glad I necro'd this thread?

Damn you Abe!/Thank you Abe!
It's all the same.

Playing ADOM now...the best one for role-playing like story I've played.
Will check out zangband sometime though.

[thesloppy]

I played ADOM to death for literally a decade. Wonderful game. Only roguelike I could beat.

[Abe Sargent]

Well, since we are talking about it and all, who wants a Char Dump???

 [ZAngbandTk 2.4.0 Character Dump]

 Name     Carnil          Age        19          Self  RB  CB  EB   Best
 Sex      Male            Height     71   STR:  18/59  +2  -5  +0  18/29
 Race     Beastman        Weight    163   INT:  18/41  -2  +3  +7 18/121
 Class    Mage            Status      4   WIS:  18/14  -1  +0  +0  18/04
 Title    Conjurer        HP    240/240   DEX:     16  -1  +1  +0     16
 Realm 1  Sorcery         SP    127/127   CON:  18/20  +2  -2  +0  18/40
 Realm 2  Chaos           Maximize    Y   CHR:     18  -4  +1  +0     15
 Patron   Nurgle          Preserve    Y

 Level           28       Fighting               Saving Throw     Superb
 Cur Exp      70454       + to Skill      37     Stealth            Poor
 Max Exp      70454       Deadliness    196%     Fighting           Good
 Adv Exp      85000       Blows/Round    2+1     Shooting           Fair
                                                 Disarming     Excellent
 Gold        102590       Shooting               Magic Device     Superb
                          + to Skill      15     Perception         Fair
 Armor     [27,+42]       Deadliness    118%     Searching          Poor
 Burden    74.3 lbs       Shots/Round    1.0     Infravision       30 ft

     In your childhood, you were stupid enough to stick your
     head in raw Logrus.  You have green reptilian eyes, dirty
     gray fur, and canine feet.




  [Virtues]

You are the living embodiment of Knowledge.
You are a great champion of Mysticism.
You are virtuous in Chance.
You have sinned against Valour.
You are virtuous in Individualism.
You are an enemy of Diligence.
You are an enemy of Honour.
You are virtuous in Patience.


  [Mutations]

 You can emit hard radiation at will (dam lvl * 2).
 You can switch locations with another being.
 You can polymorph yourself at will.
 You can bring down the dungeon around your ears.
 You can send evil creatures directly to Hell.
 You can freeze things with a touch (dam 3 * lvl).
 You are teleporting randomly.
 You have a scorpion tail (poison, 3d7).
 Chaos deities give you gifts.
 You are extremely fat (+2 CON, -2 speed).
 Your body is enveloped in flames.


  [Character Equipment]

a) The Long Sword 'Ringil' (4d5) (+22,+25) (+10 to speed)
b) (nothing)
c) a Ring of Skill (+18)
d) a Plain Ring of Intelligence (+5)
e) an Amber Amulet of Slow Digestion
f) The Incandescent Light of Edison (+3 to infravision)
g) Rusty Chain Mail of Resistance (-5) [14,+11]
h) a Cloak [1,+5] {uncursed}
i) a Small Leather Shield [3,+7]
j) a Metal Cap of Intelligence [3,+11] (+2)
k) (nothing)
l) a Pair of Metal Shod Boots of Free Action [6,+7]


  [Character Inventory]

a) a Sorcery Spellbook [Beginner's Handbook]
b) 2 Sorcery Spellbooks [Master Sorcerer's Handbook] {25% off}
c) 2 Chaos Spellbooks [Sign of Chaos] {25% off}
d) 2 Chaos Spellbooks [Chaos Mastery]
e) an Oily Yellow Potion of Healing
f) a Purple Potion of Restore Strength
g) 2 Dark Red Potions of Curing
h) a Brass Rod of Recall


  [Home Inventory - Outpost]

a) a Sorcery Spellbook [Beginner's Handbook]
b) a Sorcery Spellbook [Master Sorcerer's Handbook] {25% off}
c) a Potion of Restore Life Levels {25% off}
d) 2 Scrolls titled "ple bek gregan" of Teleportation
e) 2 Scrolls titled "nepbit binrok" of Word of Recall
f) 2 Scrolls of Remove Curse
g) 4 Brass Wands of Magic Missile (51 charges)
h) a Ring of Combat (+14) {75% off}
i) The Phial of Galadriel (+1 to searching)
j) The Chain Mail of Arvedui (-2) [14,+15] (+2)
k) The Leather Scale Mail 'Thalkettoth' (-1) [11,+25] (+3)
l) The Metal Cap of Thengel [3,+12] (+3)
m) a Khopesh of Burning (2d4) (+5,+5)
n) The Tulwar 'Elfrist' (2d4) (+15,+10) (+3)
o) a Broad Sword (Holy Avenger) (2d5) (+12,+15) [+4] (+1 attack)
p) a Mace (Defender) (2d4) (+5,+5) [+6] (+1 to stealth)

[CrimsonFox]

bleh....i poisoned myself eating a kobold. (BAD KOBOLD!)

went down to 9 hp but managed to get upstairs and healed by the healer...then two dungeon levels later I starved to death. Now I remember what I dislike about these.

Starving is lame...

[Abe Sargent]

Originally Posted by CrimsonFox

bleh....i poisoned myself eating a kobold. (BAD KOBOLD!)

went down to 9 hp but managed to get upstairs and healed by the healer...then two dungeon levels later I starved to death. Now I remember what I dislike about these.

Starving is lame...

Are you a Vampire?

[CrimsonFox]

heh no. A bard. I answered the questions and let the game choose for me.

The game lets you eat the corpses you kill if it drops a corpse. But since you can go from normal to starving just walking across the length of the dungeon you sometimes have to eat the monsters to survive. I even have a cooking kit but i couldn't use it cause I don't have cooking skill.

[Thomkal]

Originally Posted by thesloppy

Awesome! I love crawl, since it fits my short attention span, and I wouldn'ta known there was a new version for another few months, without some help. Thx Thomkal!

Glad I could help.

[Abe Sargent]

I just got THREE mutations on level 31 - all of them cool. Nurgle gave me two, and I got one as a Beastman. I now have an Electric Aura, +4 Con, and I am resistant to Magic.

[Thomkal]

Praise Nurgle! (till he (it?) gives you bad mutations)

I just started a character on the new version of CRAWL. I highly recommend playing through the tutorials, then playing in hints mode-you get to select from three characters that are highly optimized to do well in the early game-which will help newbies out tremendously-cause you die a lot in this game. I picked a Centaur Hunter, who starts with level 5 in Bow skill already and some +1 arrows.

Found some +3 arrows early on the first level and a spear of reaching-that allows me to attack anything that comes within 2 or 3 squares of me with it-with a normal spear or other hand to hand weapon-I could only attack when it was next to me. So now I can conserve arrows which can be hard to find at times. I've also found a bumch of food which is great as centaurs need to eat frequently due to their metabolism.

So things are looking great right now...which in CRAWL usually means an Ogre, Gnoll, or unique is going to show up soon and kill me.

[Thomkal]

Have reached Level 4 with my Hunter-successfully, though scarily fought off a couple orc packs-always dangerous because of their wizards and priests-and found a defended temple of one of the evil gods-had to fight iron imps, a monster I've never seen before to get to the altar.

Speaking of temples-I've reached the first place in the game where you can feel a sense of accomplishment-the Ecumenical Temple-its randomly placed on level 4 or after and usually contains several altars there-choosing a god is often a smart way to go but can change how you play depending on the god so might not be the best thing for a newbie. One of the three options when you play in hints mode is a character with a god to start out with, so I would use that character once you get your bearings with the basic game.

I chose to worship Okawaru, the god of combat. A pretty easy one to worship-not a lot of restrictions on what you can kill or do to piss him off. But more importantly, once you get your piety up, he starts granting god gifts-many of which will be much needed ammo. So hail Okawaru!

[Abe Sargent]

Originally Posted by Thomkal

Praise Nurgle! (till he (it?) gives you bad mutations)

I got a -4 wisdom/intelligence one at level 33 - OUCH! I so hit the Chaos Tower to remove mutations and I had to lose the one that gave me a Chaos Patron before it was randomly selected. I still have a few negative mutations though, I randomly get afraid every so often, for example.

[Abe Sargent]

Originally Posted by Thomkal

Have reached Level 4 with my Hunter-successfully, though scarily fought off a couple orc packs-always dangerous because of their wizards and priests-and found a defended temple of one of the evil gods-had to fight iron imps, a monster I've never seen before to get to the altar.

Speaking of temples-I've reached the first place in the game where you can feel a sense of accomplishment-the Ecumenical Temple-its randomly placed on level 4 or after and usually contains several altars there-choosing a god is often a smart way to go but can change how you play depending on the god so might not be the best thing for a newbie. One of the three options when you play in hints mode is a character with a god to start out with, so I would use that character once you get your bearings with the basic game.

I chose to worship Okawaru, the god of combat. A pretty easy one to worship-not a lot of restrictions on what you can kill or do to piss him off. But more importantly, once you get your piety up, he starts granting god gifts-many of which will be much needed ammo. So hail Okawaru!

Sounds busy!

[CrimsonFox]

Which game is this??

[Abe Sargent]

Originally Posted by CrimsonFox

Which game is this??

Thommy's playing Crawl, and I'm playing the TK version of Zangband?

[CrimsonFox]

Trying out TOME now. A middle earth themed game. Pretty extensive character creation. Am trying an Ent. It has tutorial scrolls too. Big bonus there as I've mostly forgotten all the commands of these things.

[CrimsonFox]

TOME is the only one I've played so far that has scrolling. You can scroll off the screen and the map keep going and scrolls with you. There is also animation as you move. The water "shimmers" Each spot changes between ' and ~ in various colors of blue. Pretty nifty.

[Thomkal]

Correct on CRAWL Abe-I started another thread on it not too long ago. the older versions of TOME, I liked very much. This one starts out in Wilderness, and I never found anywhere else to go and then I died and haven't played since.

[CrimsonFox]

LOL same here. I'm not that exctied by the gameaplay and lack of stuff to immeditaely do. It really need to club you over the head with where to go.

I don't see CRAWL in the site i pointed to. Closest thing is Dungeon Crawl Stone Soup.

[Abe Sargent]

Originally Posted by CrimsonFox

TOME is the only one I've played so far that has scrolling. You can scroll off the screen and the map keep going and scrolls with you. There is also animation as you move. The water "shimmers" Each spot changes between ' and ~ in various colors of blue. Pretty nifty.

There are lots that are centered on you and move the screen as you move, if that's what you mean?

[Thomkal]

Originally Posted by CrimsonFox

LOL same here. I'm not that exctied by the gameaplay and lack of stuff to immeditaely do. It really need to club you over the head with where to go.

I don't see CRAWL in the site i pointed to. Closest thing is Dungeon Crawl Stone Soup.

that would be it-it was just called CRAWL to begin with-new people took over developing it and added the Stone Soup part. People just call it CRAWL anyway

[CrimsonFox]

Figured. And yeah Abe that's what I meant. Never seen it before as the handfull I've played don't do that. Their use of color and "animation" is neat too. Too bad their gameplay and content is lacking.

[Abe Sargent]

Heck, Zangband Tk from 8 years ago does that. I think it's an option you set.

[CrimsonFox]

Okay, CRAWL is DEFINITELY frickin cool!

[CrimsonFox]

Bleh died already. THat was fun . :P

[CrimsonFox]

But CRAWL is definitely intuitive! I barely had to look up anything to get into it. And when I did the help actually told me exactly what I needed to do. Helpful help! What a concept

[Thomkal]

heh another convert. Here's the other thread I started on it-some helpful advice for newbies as well as (many) embarassing misadventures on my part, where misadventure=death.

Anybody want to CRAWL? - Front Office Football Central

[Thomkal]

Originally Posted by CrimsonFox

Bleh died already. THat was fun . :P

The first of many, many, and then some more many. Makes it worth it when you finally learn how to keep yourself alive early on.