Underestimated Hotzy...

[Blasphemous]

Let me say this at the very beginning: this was the luckiest streak I've EVER had in this game. For a multitude of reasons, up until my untimely and completely unexpected death.

Started as candle born grey elven assassin. Talents: alert, good learner, miser.

I went to terinyo, bought some food, took the quests and went straight for SMC.
Once inside I began looking for the downstairs, which I found after passing two summoning wererats, lots of orcs, kobolds and gooblins and a werejackal also summoning. Along the way I've found a mithril ring but couldnt identify by equip and had no scrolls. Barely made it down the stairs with lvl 6 and 5 hp, bleeding. Then I see green ". Herbs! Nice. Collected some, went down. You hear someone cursing shoplifters. Hmmm nice. Scroll shop. Most basic scrolls and one blessed ID, but too expensive at this point. One more staircase - You feel excited. You sense a surge of power. Getting interesting. Turned out to be an undead vault. 3 zombies later - 30s worn boots! Holy sh**! 7LB. Went on, in the mean time grabbing treasure hunter. Undead dropped lots of stuff and I got to strained. Then I see a named Griffon. Took some time to kill - guarded skullcrusher! Well this just got much more interesting. St bonus allowed me to carry a bit more. I go down - you sense a pious aura. Nice, I've found an L altar, sacced 500 gold twice - converted but became N+. Anyway I dropped 2 pots of water, then blessed my 7LB. Went back to the shop since I had the money now. Bought the scroll and just as I was about to exit - a red V. Ooook, I had 70 hp so it wasnt much. Tried to outrun it, fearing the loss of my brand new 7LB, but it exploded anyway - your equipment is protected by a thin layer of ice. Damn that mithril ring was a ring of ice. Talk about lucky. I went on, eventually reaching HMV - nothing special. Went through the long tunnel and back to PC to finish the quest. 3rd day so the cute dog should still be alive. On the last level of PC - orc vault. So I started bashing the orcs with my skullcrusher - poof, a green ) dropped. Picked it up - it weigths 13s ! Now that's when I should have become much more vigilant of the RNG's evil plans. I equipped the serpent's bite in the other hand. Now I dual wielded serpent's bite and skullcrusher, with blessed 7LB, and blessed amulet of rapid healing I've found along the way. Lvl 13, 111 hp. What can go wrong? Let's bash some criminals in holeinthewall... the rest of the story should be clearly visible in the flg. I made a fatal mistake and took hotzy and his goonies on in melee without sufficient -pois and it didn't end well. What's worst is doing the L quests then stabbing Munge, I changed my alignment between N+ LN and NL. Obviously prayer didn't work. One turn before death, I was surrounded, poisoned, bleeding and at 2HP, with no means to heal (not counting that potion of healing which would do pretty much nothing.

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Nox Nocturna  St:19  Le:16  Wi:16  Dx:20  To:18  Ch: 6  Ap:22  Ma:23  Pe:23 N+
DV/PV: 9/10    H: -14(111)    P: 57(57)      Exp: 13/79637      BVL   Sp: 101
Strained Berserk

Name: Nox Nocturna        Race: female Gray Elf     Class: Assassin
Eye color: light blue     Hair color: silver        Complexion: pale
Height: 5'10"             Weight: 119 pounds
Age: 333 (grown-up, 34 years of unnatural aging added in)
Star sign: Candle         Birthday: 19/Candle (day 289 of the year)

        You decided to become an Assassin.


Total weight: 2385 stones                Carrying capacity: 2100 stones

He: uncursed hood [+0, +0]                                             [3s]
Ne: blessed necklace of rapid healing                                  [2s]
Bo: uncursed elven chain mail [+0, +4]                                [10s]
Gi: uncursed adamantium girdle [+0, +3]                               [18s]
Cl: uncursed cloak of protection [+0, +2]                             [20s]
RH: uncursed rune-covered club "Skullcrusher" (+12, 3d6+2) [-3, +0] {St+4}
LH: uncursed emerald dagger "Serpent's Bite" (+3, 3d4+3) [+3, +1]     [13s]
RR: uncursed ring of ice                                               [1s]
LR: -
Br: -
Ga: uncursed gloves [+3, +0]                                           [6s]
Bo: blessed seven league boots [+1, +0]                               [30s]
MW: cursed short bow (+1, +3)                                         [20s]
Mi: bundle of 19 cursed arrows (-2, 1d6)                              [38s]
Tl: -




Daggers & knives         7    +6    +3   +1   skilled              220
Clubs & hammers          5    +3    +2   +1   skilled              36
Swords                   3    +2    +1   +0   basic                65
Bows                     1    +2    +1   +0   basic                12
Thrown daggers           4    +8    +6   +1   skilled              52

Damage caused with your melee weapons:
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Right hand: +29 bonus to hit, 3d6+12 damage
Left hand: +7 bonus to hit, 3d4+14 damage


Damage caused with your missile weapons:
----------------------------------------
Ammunition: 19, base range: 4, +16 bonus to hit, 1d6+13 damage


  Alchemy .................. 10    (poor)         [+3d4]
  Alertness ................ 70    (good)         [+1d5]
  Archery .................. 41    (fair)         [+3d3]
  Backstabbing .............100    (superb)       [+2d4]
  Climbing ................. 53    (good)         [+4d5]
  Detect traps ............. 77    (great)        [+3d3]
  Dodge .................... 74    (great)        [+1d5]
  Find weakness ............100    (superb)       [+2d4]
  First aid ................ 32    (fair)         [+3d3]
  Haggling ................. 18    (mediocre)     [+3d5]
  Listening ................ 47    (fair)         [+4d5]
  Literacy ................. 51    (good)         [+3d3]
  Pick locks ............... 44    (fair)         [+4d5]
  Stealth .................. 49    (fair)         [+4d4]
  Two weapon combat ........ 82    (great)        [+1d5]


Nox Nocturna, the gray elven assassin, was killed by Hotzenplotz.
She scored 17078 points and advanced to level 13.
She survived for 0 years, 3 days, 23 hours, 4 minutes and 58 seconds (5454
turns).
Nox Nocturna visited 19 places.
Her willpower score was modified by +2 during her career.
Her toughness score was modified by +4 during her career.
Her mana score was modified by +1 during her career.
Her perception score was modified by +1 during her career.
She was unnaturally aged by 34 years.
She brought back joy into the life of a tiny girl.
She ended her adventuring life in the outlaw village "Lawenilothehl".
486 monsters perished under her attacks.
The following two artifacts were generated during her adventure:
  the rune-covered club "Skullcrusher"
  the emerald dagger "Serpent's Bite"
She possessed the following intrinsics:
  She was poison resistant (gained through an item).
  She was stun resistant (gained through an item).
  She was able to resist confusion attacks (gained through an item).
She had the following talents: Alert, Good Learner, Greased Lightning,
Miser, Quick, Treasure Hunter, Very Quick.
She had a final speed score of 101 (final base speed: 111).
She was not very pious.
She asked for 3 divine interventions.
She was neutrally aligned.
She was slightly tainted by Chaos.

The following monsters were vanquished:
      2 bandits
      1 barbarian leader
      1 beggar
      2 berserkers
      1 black hurthling
      1 cave fisher
      1 caveman
      1 chaos lizard
      1 chaos rat
      1 chaos sister
      3 claw bugs
      1 crystal statue
      2 cutpurses
      1 dark sage
      1 displacer beast
      1 doppleganger
      1 dwarf
      2 fire beetles
      2 gargoyles
      5 gelatinous cubes
      2 ghosts
     17 ghuls
      1 giant bat
      1 giant centipede
      1 giant lizard
     41 giant rats
      1 giant spider
      1 gibbering mouther
      5 goblins
      1 goblin berserker
      1 goblin chieftain
      8 goblin rockthrowers
      9 gray oozes
     43 green slimes
      1 griffon
      1 half-orc bouncer
      1 harpy
     11 hill orcs
      1 hill orc sergeant
      1 hobgoblin
      2 homunculi
      1 hyena
     27 jackals
      2 jackalweres
      2 kobolds
      3 kobold chieftains
     10 large bats
      1 large jackal
      5 large kobolds
     11 large orcs
      4 lizard men
      1 mimic
      1 ogre
     28 orcs
      2 orc chieftains
     25 orc scorchers
      2 owlbears
      1 pixie
      1 quasit
      1 rabid dog
      1 raider
     72 rats
      1 ratling thief
      1 ratling warrior
     23 shadows
     18 skeletons
      2 staring eyes
      2 trolls
      2 wererats
      1 wight
      1 yellow ooze
     53 zombies

[Deg]

The great and powerful RNG giveth and then taketh away.

Ouch.

[Silfir]

Now I dual wielded serpent's bite and skullcrusher, with blessed 7LB, and blessed amulet of rapid healing I've found along the way. Lvl 13, 111 hp. What can go wrong?

That's sadistic. Seven league boots are the perfect utensil for ranged combat, but the RNG threw not one but two hardcore melee weapons at you, tempting you to not only needlessly use melee, but to dual-wield at the same time, even though that's a horrible strategic choice for anyone not a ranger (and merely a bad one if you are a ranger). Wily, wily RNG.

[JellySlayer]

Yeah, with that shortbow and arrows, you could have made short work of them. Hotzy is actually ridiculously dangerous in melee. He always penetrates PV, gets multiple high damage attacks, poisons. With dual wield slowing your attack rate and only 9 DV? I'm not surprised he killed you.

[Blasphemous]

Again, I didn't know he was that dangerous. Thought that since my lvl 8 wizard had no problems bolting him to death along with his friends, then I shouldn't have any problems on this char. And that bow was untrained, I tried it earier and I missed a LOT on weak monsters. Still if I'd known how dangerous hotzy is, I would have postponed his execution indefinitely. Should have just gone to CoC and farm some herbs or hope for rods random drop. Also I had no idea that dual wield is such a bad idea. Always thought that 2 slaying weapons swinging in one turn give double the chance to hit and kill.

PS. If i wanted to play ranged attacks, I'd have picked an archer, not assassin.

[rami]

Always thought that 2 slaying weapons swinging in one turn give double the chance to hit and kill.

The main problem with dual-wielding is that it increases your energy points per attack. So, basically you attack the enemy twice in one turn, but then enemies get two turns in a row. TWC skill helps but not that much. In addition, to-hit with both weapons decreases. Also no DV from shield.

PS. If i wanted to play ranged attacks, I'd have picked an archer, not assassin.

Well I wouldn't say that assassins are kings of melee either. They get increased missile range, increased crit chance and also get the Archery skill. So, they are actually pretty good archers, especially with SLB.

[JellySlayer]

PS. If i wanted to play ranged attacks, I'd have picked an archer, not assassin.

Are you Dudley in disguise?

Unless you have a really specific reason not to, all PCs should be at least proficient in either missiles or spells. There are a large number of monsters that are just too dangerous to melee, even for a really powerful character.

[Blasphemous]

Maybe you guys are right :P

I just thought that since my previous chars eventually reached a point when all that mattered was acid ball at range 3, then I'd play something that does not rely on ranged attacks that much, be it archery or wizardry. Indeed, assassins may be good at archery but it seems to be a viable option only once you get some decent skill with ranged weapons, more than average items and some slaying arrows.

Anyway I'm playing an archer now, and it's fun. If I manage to complete the game with this archer, I might try assassin next.

[Grey]

Give beastfighters a go if you want raw melee fun.

[_Ln_]

Are you Dudley in disguise?

Unless you have a really specific reason not to, all PCs should be at least proficient in either missiles or spells. There are a large number of monsters that are just too dangerous to melee, even for a really powerful character.

Give beastfighters a go if you want raw melee fun.

They are everywhere, EVERYWHERE!!