Be wary...!

[mjz15]

Look out when creating new characters today! It is, after all, Friday the 13th New characters get the "You feel unlucky" message upon starting, and I was just puund to a pulp by a hostile stone giant in HMV.
Crap.

[mjz15]

Awwww.... Just found a spear of devestation (5d8+6) in UCa, only to have it destroyed by an acid trap in the Keethrax cave, next room I find: pit vipers, poison, RIP. Maybe I should go do something else today, have a walk, read a book, something like that...

[divij]

currently playing a character....my fav drak barb. a real powerhouse. i made a blunder of not going to smc to spawn low lvl monsters and instead headed to the early dungeon. instantly an imminent danger = tikbuz who i discpatched with my acid breathe...he dropped a LOT of stuff. i did the dungeon and got to lvl 4. then puppy cave. pc2 had the ant farm right next to the downstairs in a room i went to the last!!! however they were not hostile descended...one of the ants decided to follow me. i killed it and it dropped a corpse which gave me acid resistance! did the entire pc..in the cavernous lvl, again the downstairs were in my last few tiles i discovered. the vault was undead...cleared the ghuls and the lone shadow with acid spit..got paralysed once but i was coward with 32 dv so wasnt chained paralyzed (PHEEEEEEEEEEEEW). i think i reached lvl 8 or so there. next the carpenter dungeon. got the chaotic quest too. saved the mad carpenter, save the cute dog and got to N+, so i thot killing jarrod with get me n- or max nc...nopes straight C talked to the village elder and got to nc, carpenter and got the woodcraft. next collected my reward from the mad doctor trying out all my helmets...one of them was a cursed metal helmet = helm of tp (luckily i remembered to chk it cause the doctor removed it for me...else uncontrolled tp = misery^oo) next i headed to CoC where i got a tension room on D1 which i emptied with relative ease (20 odd pv, lvl 10 drake barbarian with 28 St, 24 To). next came the best moment in the game...a chaotic altar right next to and ant farm....got to spiritually invincible with the ant queen and 4-5 live sacs later to very close....thus removing the curse now i am playing an 'ordinary game' i hope to win. i will ofc not get crowned C...thats stupid! also, no wp blanket means stash making which i utterly hate. on the flipside i manage to identify a scroll of identify which will save me a lot of trouble when i get literacy. no shops or herbs generated but all my relevant skills are already in theirs 80s, some in their 90s! happy friday the 13th!!

[mjz15]

I gave it another shot with a gnomish healer... Found an altar on 1st Keethrax level, decided to grind a bit, sacced some monsters and got rid of the curse, and I thought: well while I'm at it, might as well get precrowned... So now I'm pre-crown-of-Havlored

[Dlightfull]

I just found a murderous mithril spear of devastation. First time in my life i have a weapon with both those affixes together and it's even mithril (not eternium, but still better than iron :P). Speak about Friday the thirteenth.

Edit: I wonder what are the chances of such a weapon to be generated? I usually find some of devastation stuff every game, with minor exceptions, but murderous weapons i tend to find only once in a couple of games. Never again had i a murderous one of devastation, especially on a spear.

[BenMathiesen]

Having good luck so far with a HE Necromancer--a two-headed dog was born the same night! Kranach's band dropped a spellbook of Lightning Ball, and He managed to find an altar in PC and precrown with Pelior's armor. There's also a ring shop in there. But I've played VERY cautiously till now.

[divij]

update:victory! crowned with V, did all important caves (including icequeen challenges). got 4 wishes in the end! got archery from education. wished for AoLS, GoGS, spellbooks of slow monster and emperor moloch. ended up lvl 50. however killing the white unicorn made me C- even though i had AoBalance equipped. couldnt convert C altars since i made good with C god to get rid of cursing. neways, easy game easy life.

[mjz15]

Congrats! Very nice!

Update: Gnomish healer well on its way.
Pre-Crown oF Havlor made the early game a formality, as no enemy could even come close to harming me. Found large numbers of herbs for stat training. Big Punch + 2 rings of slaying are making very short work of everything hostile in the vicinity, including GGV in FGJC (nothing remarkable in terms of artifacts). ACW fell soon afterwards. Crowning gift Shezestiblablabla got a one-way ticket to Waldenbrook. Found 2 RoDS, spent on RDSMs and SLB. And lookie what I find on the Banshee level? The corpse of a blink dog! Had a scary encounter with a gorgon, but he was zapped to death soon enough.

In short:
Big Punch + rings of slaying = offensive powerhouse.
DV/PV 62/55 on normal mode = walking tank.
Healer class powers = 100% HP all the time.
Offensive powerhouse + walking tank + permanent 100% HP = one sweet walking pile of awesomeness! Playing this character almost feels like cheating...

Nuurag Vaarn, of course, is very competent in transforming a sweet walking pile of awesomeness into a sour steaming pile of deadness, but we'll see.

[divij]

nice....Shezestiblablabla is an EXCELLENT artifact btw! with havlor and Shezestriakis, you will have (-21, -21) [+27, +15] stats which is pure awesomeness. if you have scrolls of uncursing, all the better!

[mjz15]

nice....Shezestiblablabla is an EXCELLENT artifact btw! with havlor and Shezestriakis, you will have (-21, -21) [+27, +15] stats which is pure awesomeness. if you have scrolls of uncursing, all the better!

The (-15, -15) penalty is a bit too severe for my taste. I have scrolls of uncursing but I don't want to use one every time I want to change rings.