Creator's Day Death Lessons

[BenMathiesen]

One of the things I love about this game is the way a lack of attention or a dumb decision can really mess up your character.

Creator's Day character no. 1: Troll Chaos Knight, illiterate.
This character was brutally effective, was finding lots of food, and even managed to get to "very close" with Andor Drakon. Upon reaching dwarftown, armed with my crude axe of mayhem that I found in a hill orc sergeant tension room, I made the worst possible decision:

"Hmm, this character isn't going to become literate for a very long time, if ever. I guess I'd better start taste-testing these potions."

Of course, one of them was a potion of exchange. My strength dropped to 1.

I would rise to the challenge! Dropping most of my stuff, below dwarftown I found a level full of herb bushes and began harvesting stomacafilla while my Str slowly trained up. It would take a while, since one of my corruptions gives -6 to Str, but I could do it!

Then spiders did me in--because with a Str of 1, I could not break out of their webs.

I had no idea webs were so deadly--at least for weak characters.

Thanks for the great game, Thomas, and happy birthday!

[rmcin329]

haha, probably should have wall kicked for a few str before you went after the herbs.

[Stingray1]

And Troll CKs don't even need herbs, potions or literacy. Well, maybe some stoma.

[sytar6]

I tried a Dark Elf Beastfighter today. The first one was doing amazingly well until I accidentally cursed myself via hitting a karmic lizard. Thought it was a chaos lizard. When I got to the top of the Village Dungeon, I got surrounded by two cats while in a very short hallway. Bad luck - I suspect I was cursed by that point. I waited twenty turns to see if a monster would displace them or if they would buzz off. A monster eventually came to the hallway, but it was...a third cat. I looked through my inventory to evaluate my options. Then I spotted it: five pieces of raw meat. I handed it off to one of the cats, one piece at a time. I don't think it stopped attacking me for even a turn. It certainly didn't walk away. I waited out another fifty turns before I realized it was hopeless. Shift+Q.

The second iteration of this character is almost definitely going to be a winner. Just finished the last Thrundarr quest. Found a Wand of Wishing (3 charges). Found a ring shop on D:12 which I bet will have a RoDS soon. Crowned with =Light and Oman's Cloak. Got literacy from a Dark Sage before finishing the first quest, so my literacy was at 50 after the Sulphuric Potion. I had a Wand of Monster Creation (8 charges) early on. I used those charges and some extra ones I generated using a Scroll of Charging and a blessed Potion of Booze to get a good portion of my piety. The wand happened to generate two Giant Slugs. I killed both of them with an Adamantium Quarrel of Hunting. The second one yielded a corpse, giving my PC =Acid. Finished Pyramid. Got Wand of Teleportation from the VDDL. About to save Khelly with an AoLS after Dwarven Graveyard and the TotHK. Dwarven Mystic gave me 4 SoCR. Have a stomafilla/morgia/mareilon/spenseweed farm set up and lots of seeds. Got 2 Potions of Potential Toughness and two PoGA in my napsack. Found a Girdle of Strength {St+4}. Been cruising through with an Amulet of Protection +5 but wondering if I should wear the Ankh instead.

Getting ready to power through the game. Nearly every PC I get to this point ends up winning.

[Stingray1]

Quitting in order to not kill a cat, that's very noble of you.

[anon123]

haha, probably should have wall kicked for a few str before you went after the herbs.

Does that actually train the stat? I thought only kicking staircases did, with the risks we're all aware of. Also, having very low Strength also makes it harder to kick doors down, if I remember correctly...

Anyway, I rolled 40 PCs yesterday, 20 chaos knights and 20 wizards, all dark elves. Played the first CK and he's doing pretty well so far, made it below DT and am thinking of a head-on Darkforge raid once I get Moon Sickle. The continuous message spam when you convert from chaotic alignment is so damn annoying and cumbersome, that until something gets done about it (maybe have the stomachache be removed entirely if you possess ToEF-level fire resistance?), I'm not converting again with a CK. Will have to make do without all the quest rewards and settle for the "most stupid follower of ChAoS" ending if he gets that far. And if instead I die in a particularly noteworthy way, I'll document it here

When I got to the top of the Village Dungeon, I got surrounded by two cats while in a very short hallway. ... I waited out another fifty turns before I realized it was hopeless. Shift+Q.

You shouldn't have, the RotMC is good, but not worth quitting a promising character for just because he got surrounded by cats. Your current one seems to be doing great though, congratulations on the WoWi and best of luck!

[Stingray1]

A CK converting, that's just bizarre. ToEF is so easy with the Sickle and spiked armour. Hope you get the body armour. That's just an awesome crowning gift.

[Al-Khwarizmi]

Quitting in order to not kill a cat, that's very noble of you.

At least I would have slaughtered the damn buggers before quitting.

[sytar6]

Oh, I did. I slaughtered the hell out of them. Take my meat and still attack me? Death to you.

I know the RotMC isn't worth losing a promising character over, but it's more of a completeness thing than a "that item is great" thing. If I don't get the RotMC I just feel like I didn't properly win with that character and then I have to beat the game with that character again.

[Stingray1]

In the latest versions I've notices a lot of fighting between hostile monsters, so these situations might solve themselves if one is a little more patient.

I don't know whether to report it as a bug, it sort of makes sense that hostiles would also be hostile towards one another on occasion, so liking it as is.