New Game for the 50th time

[Jered]

I guess I am starting again for the 50th time in 1 month.

Up until now I have succeeded about 5 times to get the carpenter to be healed (he even killed me once!). Only 1 out of 10 times I found a neutral altar. I go in being a human male fighter. Someone told me be satiated in the shop and then go down. I try to take as many large rations as possible with me. 1 out of 2 times I starve to death. After rarely finding and getting the carpenter, I always try to find the tiny girl and start going after the dog, but never found it before being killed. I tried to get Haggling as high as possible, but the guy in the shop never gives good prices for the things I am trying to sell. Up until now, I only succeeded in identifying items by trying to use or wield them, which was the cause for quite some cursed consequences. I succeeded in killing almost every monster I met (with the exception of the last one killing me . I keep specializing myself to use a Crossbow, but so far I have only found a few in all those games. I don't dare wielding them, because the might be cursed. I cannot identify them because I don't find an altar most of the time. I also only rarely find quarrels.

I actually have no idea how I should get past this situation of keep getting killed in the first quest and (if successful in the first getting killed in the second).

The problem seems to be that I cannot get things identified, the consequence is that I cannot get good prices in the shop, the consequence of that is that I cannot buy enough food either. I often keep running down into the dungeon, using up all my food and running back to get to the shop for food and arriving with not enough money to buy it.

[fooziex]

My strategy is typically to buy as many large rations as possible from Munxip, and go to the Village Dungeon to rescue the carpenter if I don't have Healing. Skills I'd recommend training are Find Weakness, Dodge, Archery, Alertness, Food Preservation, Concentration, First Aid (if you use it, I don't generally). Healing would be at the top with Find Weakness if you have it. When I am leading the carpenter up to Jharod, I stay in Coward tactics (F7) unless I get stuck with a monster in blocking me in a corridor. Try to remember the room Jharod is in so you don't get stuck looking for him with the carpenter poking you. Remember to ask Jharod about [l]earning once you have him heal the carpenter.
Spend as little time in the wilderness as possible. If you have the Survival skill, you can use that in the wilderness to produce food. You can go to the wilderness when you're level 4 or so and try to find the raider if you've gotten that quest from the sheriff, but only if you have enough food to wander the wilderness until you find him or he finds you. If you do complete this quest, you will have enough money to buy enough food for your whole game.
When you're in the village dungeon, pay attention to monster corpses. Typical food monsters for me are goblins, bats, orcs, jackals and dogs. Giant and larger rats also work, but do not eat normal rats. I try to survive on monster corpses (getting up to satiated on those) and avoid eating rations until I am hungry. I wouldn't recommend stuffing yourself to satiated in town unless you are planning to spend a lot of time in the wilderness or you have a surplus of money/food.
Once you complete the carpenter quest, talking to the village elder will lower the prices for food in Munxip's shop. I don't ever bother with haggling, even for characters than can only afford one large ration at the start.
If you pay attention to the prices in Munxip's shop, there are usually a lot of large rations at the same price. These are uncursed large rations and are likely to be your mainstay until you can afford iron rations and eventually move on. Avoid the cheapest large rations unless you absolutely cannot afford anything more; they are cursed and less effective. If you find the more expensive large rations and can afford it, I would buy those. They are blessed and are the most effective. I don't usually start buying iron rations until I have around 500 gold.
Another possible way to get money, which is more difficult, is going to the outlaw town to the south east and killing the criminals (bandits, outlaws, muggers, cutpurses, assassins). If you grab one of their corpses and [g]ive it to the sheriff, he will reward you. This also works with the corpses of any outlaws, bandits and raiders you might meet in the wilderness.
Hopefully this helps a bit; I've only recently started being able to get past the carpenter quest with any regularity myself so I feel your pain. Once you finish the carpenter's quest, I would not feel obligated to do the tiny girl quest at all. The puppy cave can be a dangerous place even for lv8+ characters with Healing. I would recommend going either to the main dungeon (way to the west) or the infinite dungeon (south east of town), but only stay in the infinite dungeon for (I'd say about) 10 floors.

Edit to add item advice:
For a fighter character your starting weapon should generally last you through the village dungeon. I would only worry about equipping a new melee weapon if you find something that looks especially interesting or has an unusual weight (you'll eventually get a feel for this on your own). Items I tend to equip without identifying first include: bracers, girdles, rings and amulets, medium or larger shields, hats, boots and gloves unless the ones I have are giving any bonus. For missile weapons, unless I am playing the Archer class, I tend to use bows. Arrows are the 2nd easiest missile to acquire (after rocks) and a kobold will usually drop a bow by the time you get to the carpenter. Again, unless I'm an Archer, I'm not too worried about equipping a cursed bow. You can always use the cursed bow until you get some method of removing curses.
Selling things in the outlaw shop is not something I tend to do except in emergencies. The prices there are very unfair. If it is an emergency, you can take him some rocks in quantity; he will give you 1gp each. You can usually get enough rocks, or arrows, or something else to get enough money not to starve. I've used ore from the ants digging out level 2 puppy cave for this purpose before. However, as I said above, you really should try to survive on corpses you find.
One more thing: if you take the talent "Alert" when you create a character, that opens a tree that next leads to "Miser" (finds more gold) and then the generally agreed to be desirable "Treasure Hunter" (finds more items). While veteran players find Miser to be near useless in their advanced games, if you are running out of money early on, it could be of assistance, and as a prerequisite for Treasure Hunter, it's still a very popular talent to take.

[Jered]

Thank you for these very usefull hints.
Is it really safe to put on cursed items?
Just one more question.
In the past I ate all corpses, until I got sick or poisoned. So I started keeping track of those with bad effects. That's why besides all kinds of rats I also stopped eating Kobold, Goblin, Hobgoblin, rabid dogs, lizard men, centipede, gnoll and firebeetles. One keeps getting warnings after eating them: 'sick, poison, rotten, hot.'

[aerol]

Keep in mind that certain messages just have to do with how things feel in your tummy. Just because something has an unpleasant taste or gives an unpleasant sensation doesn't mean it's bad for you (medicine, anyone?). So don't just look at the message, but at the effects (vomiting, "Poisoned", "Sick"). You are correct about kobolds and rabid dogs making you sick, of course. And about centipedes poisoning you - however, in that last case you might find that eating the corpse of some poisonous animals, while poisoning you, might make it easier for you to withstand poison the next time around (kind of like a vaccine). Watch out for the message displayed sometimes when you eat a giant centipede or a spider. You might find that the effects of poison last a shorter time afterwards. Experiment with monster corpses - as a general rule, "They say if you eat the heart of a dragon you will share in its strength" - i.e. eating certain monsters might make you gain some of their properties. Which is why I advise you to keep eating fire beetles. And keep in mind that goblins, hobgoblins and gnolls might taste awful and go down hard, but they will still keep you satiated in a pinch.

Oh, and do try the giant rat. It's not as bad as regular rat, I promise.

[Jered]

those hints are very valuable, thank you. I will be able to eat a lot more now.

[grobblewobble]

There is a source of near unlimited food that can be reached relatively easily. Once you find that out, you'll start surviving a lot longer. Ignoring the cute dog quest will probably get you further, too. It is a difficult side quest without any reward.

Hint about the food source:

To start your search, pay attention to what the village elder tells you after you saved the healer.

[fooziex]

Putting on (potentially) cursed items is a tradeoff that you have to get the feel for. The items I listed are ones that you generally don't start with or start with weak versions of, so it's about as likely that you'll find a good one as it is that you'll find a cursed (but still not harmful) one. Even if you get stuck with a cursed [+0,+0] hat, you'll not incur any harm from it. It only prevents you from switching to a better headgear until you can get it uncursed. The tradeoff/decision you're looking at each time is: can I see wearing this item (cursed) until I lose it through destruction / uncurse it? Being cursed doesn't diminish its armor value, although for magical items being cursed can alter their effects.

aerol explained the food situation quite well. Pay attention to the messages that you get when you eat corpses, but generally unless you vomit or get "Sick" the corpse isn't actually bad. Like he said, even Poisoned corpses can have benefits.

[Jered]

Yes, I am starting to get the grip of the food, since I can now eat almost anything - I was indeed too restrictive: my mum told me to learn to eat things even if I didn't like them, so that's what I am doing now