Tell us about your latest death.

[Jeremiah]

My last death was a level 18 hurtling merchant who was lucky enough to find Kinslayer but dumb enough to think she could toe to toe with lich kings. Digging around in some graves for great treasure she unearthed and killed two lich kings but when she unearthed the third it hit her and chained its paralyzing attack on her until she was dead.

[mimhoff]

"I have had this great cloak of invisibility since the puppy cave. I'm sure I can just take a peek at the Dwarven Halls and get out before anything too bad happens..."

[mewmew]

One of the most amusing of my yesterday ones it was when I experimented with dark elven rangers, so my DE Ranger with like the worst possible roll for To went to SMC, found there an orcish spear and a tower shield which I didn't pick because I wanted to play like a real follower of Drizzt Do'Urden (except I probably couldn't tame an analogue of Guenhwyvar unless I spent a wish for Music... actually it's an idea for some future character) dual-wielding swords, several minutes and levels later my ranger picked the blanket and rushed to the downstairs (I usually play safer and don't dive UD ASAP... it seems too risky for rather little benefits except several saved days), so 10 hp... 3 hp... some nasty monster follows me and hit again... 1 hp... two more rooms to pass.. I manage to outrun it 1 tile eventually.. saved! UD went fine till some of the later floors, right next to the stairs room there was a huge tension room of ghosts. Man, that was a fight. No shield, low PV, low HP, dual-wield, semi-crowded, you are aging, you are aging, you are aging, you are aging, you are healed by the black light, you are aging, you are aging... I killed them all at the cost of losing 250(!) years of my youth. SMC had yet another monster which I couldn't win, a ratling warlord IIRC, I fled past him and went to CoC. Some of early floors had an ogre magi... At that moment I realized that with that kind of luck my character won't last long. I killed the ogre somehow and soon after I met a lightning vortex. I had like ~80 max hp so I thought I was already dead but it took just like 40 and here yet another ghost appeared (probably wanting to revenge his slaughtered brethren from UD) and my ranger died a typical death of ranger - you miss you miss a ghost critically hits you a ghost hits you you die...

[Blasphemous]

I had a DE paladin precrowned with Vanquisher. I'm all cocky and attacking things I normally would not simply because vanq is a one-hitter at this stage of the game.
Enter TotHK to get the platinum ring - skeletal king crits me twice through meager 18 PV and 5 DV (berserking with a two-hander will do that to you), I'm bleeding and stunned, 5 HP left and then realize that converting an altar two levels back has brought me down from L to N+ and I have no prayers...

[Yinghei]

Somehow a mist elf was dumb enough to go scrounging about a small, dark cave in search of a simple blanket, and got mauled by the local wildlife, ending a 15,000 year existence.

[Sardaukar]

Trying to pass Dwarven Halls with lvl 18 DE Barbarian. DH"...*THUMP* *THUMP*.... Choosing wrong corridor and met titan....

[divij]

Closed the gate...tried to experiment with library....doppelganger king killed a drakeling barbarian with 1000 hp in 1 go from full hp....ok 850 hp

[divij]

somehow that seems sad....live 15000 years to be killed by some lowlife wildlife!!

[melphen]

I had a great Dwarf Pally going. More spells and useful artifacts than I have ever had on a character and had already received two wished. Just a masterful character and all this before the water temple. Probably two levels north of the temple I ran into a king doppelganger and he peeled my in a single blow. I don't know that I have ever had a run in with one before, but I'll certainly remember this in the future.

[Sardaukar]

Had great GE Barbarian going, lvl 16, with ankh, AMV, Cats Claw ( :P ), Protector (!) and Vanquisher (found altar in PC:5, that's why).

Somehow switching place with citizen of Dwarftown made him and then town hostile. Was killed by Waldenbrok who managed to get in one-hit-critical-kill.

Really hate this new "feature" that auto-swap-position can make neutral hostile.

[SirTheta]

It's not a new feature. Swapping with neutrals has always (by which I mean definitely since 1.1.1) had a small chance to make them hostile - if people paid attention to messages rather than tabbing through it wouldn't be an issue. [I don't and have paid the price, but I'm not complaining because that's what happens when you don't pay attention].

My suggestion to avoid such is to use the w# commands to traverse through most of DT, only switching manually (or going around). Holding down 4 or 6 is a recipe for disaster. I did not anger anyone in the 7 games I won in p20, so I'm of the opinion that it's a pretty good method.

[Sardaukar]

It's not a new feature. Swapping with neutrals has always (by which I mean definitely since 1.1.1) had a small chance to make them hostile - if people paid attention to messages rather than tabbing through it wouldn't be an issue. [I don't and have paid the price, but I'm not complaining because that's what happens when you don't pay attention].

My suggestion to avoid such is to use the w# commands to traverse through most of DT, only switching manually (or going around). Holding down 4 or 6 is a recipe for disaster. I did not anger anyone in the 7 games I won in p20, so I'm of the opinion that it's a pretty good method.

I never ever managed to anger anyone in Dwarftown in 1.1.1., ever. Ever in few hundred games. So I consider this something new, especially since it seems I am not the only one seeing it happening. I am not liking it at all and I think it's bit sly and underhanded "feature".

But, just my opinion.

[Carter]

Gnome Weaponsmith with an orcish spear of devastation, goes to the TToHK and walks out onto the ice. He forgets he is easily confused due to low WI and as soon as the door opens he moves backwards, not realizing he is confused... bah, i swear that place is covering more than 50% of my deaths lately!

[Jeremiah]

I am still killing hurtling merchants. Merchants are my current project, I did framer and now I want a merchant win. Last one everything was going fine, got some good gear with her starting gold: a spear, a medium shield, boots and some nice gloves with +3 pv. Very nice set up for a starting merchant. I get my blanket and kill the raider than head off to find the carpenter. Wandering around in VD I set on a trap, a stone block hits me on the head knocks me down to 8 HPs. But at least I get a pile of rocks, a good trade off for a low level hurtling. I take a two more steps and stone blocks hits me on the head, again! This time she did not live and I am back to stating out with a new merchant to kill.

This new one is born under the sign of the candle and while did not get as nice gear still was able to pull out a shield and a spear with her starting gold. Should be a sturdy starting set up.

[Kahran042]

I was playing a dwarf paladin who I really thought had a lot of potential, and I encountered an ogre magus (AKA the most overpowered monsters in the early-to-midgame) in the big room.

[BoloDigby]

Rolled a Heir Gnome Thief this weekend with the highest PV I've every been spotted at the beginning of the game. [0,+3] leather hat, [0, +3] leather armor, [0 , +3] gloves, and [0, +3] for a total PV of 12. My previous highest starting PV was 8, and I had the penetrating thief heir weapon on top of that. Went to SMC to get the blanket, confident that--compared to other SMC runs--it would be a breeze with this PV/weapon combo. But, alas, I ran immediately into the special foe Huckree the Goblin, and his SMC boost meant I could not scratch him once, whereas he easily defeated my PV and my promising gnome was no more, embarrassingly too soon.:(

[SirTheta]

Rolled a Heir Gnome Thief this weekend with the highest PV I've every been spotted at the beginning of the game. [0,+3] leather hat, [0, +3] leather armor, [0 , +3] gloves, and [0, +3] for a total PV of 12. My previous highest starting PV was 8, and I had the penetrating thief heir weapon on top of that. Went to SMC to get the blanket, confident that--compared to other SMC runs--it would be a breeze with this PV/weapon combo. But, alas, I ran immediately into the special foe Huckree the Goblin, and his SMC boost meant I could not scratch him once, whereas he easily defeated my PV and my promising gnome was no more, embarrassingly too soon.:(There are a number of class combos with quite higher PV - all chaos knights, some dwarf/orc combos (paladin, etc). Give 'em a shot ;)

Didn't you have an adamantium dagger of penetration? I'm surprised that didn't make short work of Huckree.

[BoloDigby]

There are a number of class combos with quite higher PV - all chaos knights, some dwarf/orc combos (paladin, etc). Give 'em a shot ;)

Didn't you have an adamantium dagger of penetration? I'm surprised that didn't make short work of Huckree.

Yes, I have observed the high PVs of other R/C combos, yet I always end up playing the GnTh after a few days of experimenting with the others.

Yes, I had the ADoP and was actively using it, but could not scratch him. I think it had to do more with the encounter occurring within the SMC rather than being Huckree, as I've killed him with mundane weapons without good prefix/suffixes a number of times.

[Mobius]

Eh, I'm on a roll now, but my drakeling priest has an extremely experienced killer bug pet. It takes down Ancient Karmic Dragons in two or three rounds. I'm very afraid of it now.

How do I go about ditching it safely? Or can I set it to attack the casino shopkeeper?

[Blasphemous]

Order it to wait somewhere, like the pyramid.
You can always return for it if need arises and of course you can use it against mentioned shopkeeper.
I'm not sure if it can handle that, it can go either way.
Extremely experienced killer bug is a mighty thing in melee but the shopkeeper, especially one in casino, is no slouch either.
High speed, nice HP, multiple attacks that often ignore PV.
The bug has high DV but not much HP so once it's hit, it will be damaged significantly.

[Eol]

An altar at PC:1 and corruption trap. Some luckless buddy transformed to WMoPC and instead of trying to lure purple j to altar I stepped into melee range. With speed of 117 I was surely able to outrun the jelly, but after my stupid mistake it slowed me to 58 and I had no chances.

[mimhoff]

I was wracked by feverish fits after gaining +Sick from a pool, taking me from 20/40 (I must have healed up to above half HP to cause the fit) to -14/40.

That came as a surprise. It was definitely not the final fever attack, I didn't think the regular one did that much damage.

[GordonOverkill]

My extreeeeeemely overpowered level 35 Gray Elf Archer got killed by Nuurag Vaarn. Lost all my light sources from the traps... some really bad luck. When I tried to retreat, the Archmage teleported behind me and blocked the way back. In darkness I was just not able to shoot him. Guess that was the very only way that this char could be killed...

[YourMum]

Sodding Dorn beats, sodding, 'w'alk command, sodding AoFA in backpack... mutter mutter mutter...

[anon123]

Tell us about your latest death.

"He executed himself with a lightning bolt in the caves of Darkforge."

[GordonOverkill]

Haha, fuck, lost to Nuurag Vaarn again! This time he teleported out of the temple and insta-killed me in the very same turn while I was still in the trap corridor north of the entrance. I still had my necklace of the eye equipped, so sadly no death ray resistance x-) Well, learned something new for the next try! And now I am REALLY angry at good old Nuurag!

[Joe]

Lol. Pretty epic performance by the twisted old granny!

[SinsI]

My 12th level gnome necromancer, ~200 health, 60+ DV /20+ PV, together with his 127th level ghul servant walked into a shop full of mimics on 16 level of caverns of chaos. Made a couple steps - all the mimics were easy XP for my servant. Made one more step - and got instant death screen (without even displaying the messages of what killed me). Insta-killed by master mimic.

[boat]

beastfighter died in a greater vault of giants. Was ambushed by a dopple king and tried to fight it out, lost. There was a mixed tension room on the level which contributed to me getting frustrated as it had very experienced monster in it. I think I will wait for the next pre release to start things up again :)

[BoloDigby]

Rarefied air of level 22 GnTh (for me, at least). I have yet to make it off of the water temple level. At least this time I killed the Snake... I was doing a final clean-up of the level, ready to move down the stairs, and I went looking for the creature that stole my +13 / +5 Crystal Shield. I was running, not really watching where I was going, and ran smack into an Ancient Minotaur, and despite have decent HPs, he crit hit me twice down to zero.

[YourMum]

Lightning vortex in the square next to the stairs of a new dungeon level. Just... fuck :-(

[JellySlayer]

Most recent was a gorgon petrification in the Pyramid. The gorgon was on the far side of the level so I thought I was safe, but then Rahetep panicked while I was fighting him and when I tried to chase him down the gorgon caught up to me.

[LexyBoy]

Level 14ish drakish healer, had nice armour and stats. Passing the time waiting for monsters to sac by whipping myself in preparation for crowning. Got a bit carried away and kept whipping myself whilst a mimic was stood on the altar hitting me.

[Blasphemous]

Level 18 GE Mindcrafter. Went to the tower equipped with rune-covered trident in missile slot and... knife of endurance in my right hand.
Didn't get a decent melee weapon the whole game, including DFG loot so I just decided to lure the wyrm out of the temple and slay it with the trident.
10 elementals and 5 demons later, the trident chose to NOT return when thrown, got picked up by a demon and I died trying to retrieve it while being pummeled by the wyrm, elementals and other demons with no way out and 1d4+7 weapon against them.

[divij]

sacrificed by a muscular dwarf to his gods on level 11 of the caverns of chaos...
poor orchish barbarian. it looked like my 1st victory with a random rolled character but alas the ogres from the ogre caves i was bringing to the altar for saccing decided to figth ruun which is alright but the final hp loss for ruun came from blood loss and hence the whole level got mad at me....except the shopkeeper thundy and garth...neways i lured them to the top bottom ogre levels and slaughtered them causing my piety to drop to C- and then in a hurry i made a mistake of killing a female dwarf....now the alarm bell is rung.hmmm i decide to tp to the altar convert back and loose cursed b4 luring the shokeeper to orge cave and tping back up but alas i didnt know that muscular dwarfs can sacrifice you:mad:..RIP

[mjkittredge]

sacrificed by a muscular dwarf to his gods on level 11 of the caverns of chaos...
poor orchish barbarian. it looked like my 1st victory with a random rolled character but alas the ogres from the ogre caves i was bringing to the altar for saccing decided to figth ruun which is alright but the final hp loss for ruun came from blood loss and hence the whole level got mad at me....except the shopkeeper thundy and garth...neways i lured them to the top bottom ogre levels and slaughtered them causing my piety to drop to C- and then in a hurry i made a mistake of killing a female dwarf....now the alarm bell is rung.hmmm i decide to tp to the altar convert back and loose cursed b4 luring the shokeeper to orge cave and tping back up but alas i didnt know that muscular dwarfs can sacrifice you:mad:..RIP

Monster makes Ruun bleed to death and the town goes hostile towards you??? Sounds more like a bug than a feature. I'd report this.

[divij]

hmmm...truth b told this has happened not once but 2 times. i even loose alignment for some reason....i went from n= to n-...the one other time it happened i was crowned neutral champion. i tried using amulet of balance while killing the townfolks and even used drakeling spit but i went CN and got doomed cursed => shift+q
as for your suggestion..i think this is a feature because if ogres throw rocks at people in dwarftown who are panicing from them, even then the alarm is rung. which is why i use (pro-tip) kicking to take back aggro if some1 is fleeing from them! it always works but alas there is no way to save ruun if s/he is bleeding at low hp..hence checkmate

[LexyBoy]

Well, Thrundarr did ask you to kill the Ogre tribe, not to lure them all out into his town so they could bludgeon his kin to death...

[mjkittredge]

hmmm...truth b told this has happened not once but 2 times. i even loose alignment for some reason....i went from n= to n-...the one other time it happened i was crowned neutral champion. i tried using amulet of balance while killing the townfolks and even used drakeling spit but i went CN and got doomed cursed => shift+q
as for your suggestion..i think this is a feature because if ogres throw rocks at people in dwarftown who are panicing from them, even then the alarm is rung. which is why i use (pro-tip) kicking to take back aggro if some1 is fleeing from them! it always works but alas there is no way to save ruun if s/he is bleeding at low hp..hence checkmate

You can't cast a heal on him or throw a healing potion at him? I wonder if AoLS works on NPCs besides Khelevaster...

[FnrrfYgmSchnish]

Most recent death... a drakeling beastfighter (which seems to be a combination I do pretty well with--one of my first characters to ever get past the water temple was the same race/class) named Hemipenis, who was at level 24 and ended up in a big room around dungeon level 45 of the Caverns of Chaos.

Wasn't having a hard time with anything up to that point (the Ancient Chaos Wyrm, who I named "Big Purple W," was so slow next to my 300+ speed that it couldn't do much of anything while I punched it, moved away, slung a rock, and repeat every time it got close... was honestly surprised how easy it was after worrying so much over the tower! and I'd only killed one cat so the Cat Lord was actually slower than me by the time I found him... I just walked over and punched him to death while occasionally drinking a potion of extra healing if my HP got too low), though I had skipped over the air and earth temples for now and was looking for that shortcut to the surface that I remember existing in the past... but can't remember where it is, and I have no idea if I was even looking in the right place by going further and further down like I was.

And then I ended up in a situation where I just could not manage to hit a Quickling King hard enough to kill him without him bouncing off to regenerate, and the recently-gained poison hands corruption kept me from healing with potions. Probably should've just prayed to heal and teleported away from him (rather than trying to fight more) after the first time my HP got way too low, but... for some reason I thought I could just swat the little guy like the other two I'd come across previously. Didn't work as well this time, unfortunately.

[Eol]

Drakeling monk, lucky one, found orcish spear of devastation and large mithril shield early in game, done puppy and druid quests. At some point he decided to read-identify a scroll in HMV near shop and it's turned to be darkness scroll. Not giving a darn about it he continued his journey. Later he came back to Leggot's shop - some oil of rust removal there should be used to rustproof his wicked spear. Of course he remembered about scroll incident after attacking someone in darkness and this someone was no one but Leggot.
So it goes. Note to myself: be careful with unid-ed stuff in towns, some common sense is always useful too.

[LexyBoy]

Surrounded by hostile trees on my first attempt to cross the forest with a level 10 trollish healer (my first troll in years) with ~70/15 DV/PV, 140 HP and ~105 speed. Used 3 blessed !oEH and then ran out of options...

Is it just me or has the forest got a lot harder recently - it used to be tedious but fairly safe for the first couple of crossings. Now the trees either multiply faster or the hostiles are better at tracking you. I'll not be attempting it again without having scummed for invisibility or teleportation (ditto DH obviously).

[Blasphemous]

Yeah, I thought that DH was a good choice versus tedious forest run.
"What could go wrong?"
"The stair rooms will be close to each other."
"101 HP and 19 PV is enough."
Enter DH2, quickling queen shows up. Goes to wand of fireball. Enter One room before the stairs - Ancient Black Dragon. Breathes acid in my face as soon as I spotted it.
33 ants killed some days ago from two anthills and no corpse. I'm wearing ring of mental stability and fire resistance. -12 HP.

Another time I went through the forest and it was easy mode. Just having source of invisibility is good enough but dual wielding shields on coward works wonders too.
I had no choice back then however, there was a tension room of Ghost Kings on the only path to down staircase in DH2 and I was a troll.
My only luck was that it's an open tension room and I had 32 perception from carrot rooms so I spotted them first.

[BoloDigby]

Ran down the stairs at SMC to escape a Wererat storm. Killed a few straggler rats then saw a statue. "It resembles an oil lamp" Guess I should have 'H'andled it, instead I kicked it. Three rounds later, dead due to a hostile Djinni. Must have rubbed him the wrong way.

[boat]

Ran down the stairs at SMC to escape a Wererat storm. Killed a few straggler rats then saw a statue. "It resembles an oil lamp" Guess I should have 'H'andled it, instead I kicked it. Three rounds later, dead due to a hostile Djinni. Must have rubbed him the wrong way.

That's rough. I usually avoid the statues for that reason, unless it's really early game or my character is struggling and I'm about to shift q. I think those walk on activate ones are a joke because you have no idea what will happen.

[Dazed]

Level 17 female mist elven elementalist. Was going pretty well until she was shafted in the crowning artifact division (Nature's Friend really sucks. Really.) and lack of spellbook spawns. Wasn't strong enough to take on the Ice Queen's Domain as her spells were either fire or frost (was my first time entering there!) and after being chased by ice statues, decided to take on the ACW and got zapped to death.

Wasn't really sure how to play this character to be honest, was my first time with a potentially successful mist elf - you really miss wearing those impure metals (ie I want my elemental gauntlets back!).

[Phoobnahr]

I've just posted this over in the YASD forum, but seeing as there is a thread for it here, I don't think this is inappropriate...

Latisha was an orcish ranger of great repute
Crowned as a champion of Balance by the one who Kills, She saved the dying sage Khelavaster from certain death, as well as having brought an infamous raider lord to justice and having brought back joy to the life of a tiny girl.
She reached the farthest Depths of the Caverns of Chaos, where, nearly overwhelmed by the Demons who guarded the obscene gate, she wished for scrolls of Corruption Removal, barely staving off the forces of Chaos from consuming her body. But her heroism was no match for the one foe who claims all mortals, the grim reaper HERself.
What follows are the last messa
ges before her death

The ghost lord misses you. The ghost lord critically hits you. You suddenly age! You feel very old. The balor hits you. You feel corrupted! The balor misses you. You dip the uncursed potion of youth into the potion of holy water. You age...
Suddenly you can see the Grim Reaper directly in front of you. She speaks "Thou hast tarried too long. Now thy time hath come. I hereby demand thy life!" Her scythe moves like lightning and runs through your body as if through warm butter. Your life drains away... You die...

Note that the deadly aging came one turn after she was struck by a ghost lord, just after blessing a potion of youth, and just as she brought it to her lips, her life was extinguished, and the hopes for this iteration of the Drakalor Chain with it.

(this would have been my fourth win, the first in 1.2.0, and the first in several years, having taken a long hiatus from ADOM.)

[BoloDigby]

Puny level 13 thief (yeah, I know) ran into a vault of jellies. Did okay until one (1!) yellow jelly of which I could not hit hard enough to overcome its regeneration. I was going through my entire inventory of quarrels and arrows, looking for a jelly-slaying one. In the meantime, the jelly criticalled me. Sure enough, upon death, I saw that I had at least two arrows of jelly slaying. Oh well, learning experience number 875.

[Mobius]

MFn' crash.

r49, just killed the ToEF big baddy, and went to look at monster memory on a &.

Boom, gave me an noteye crash, and I tried safe mode. Hung the game, never recovered, never got the save backup. Was going to be a winner too.

[ThatWhovianDude]

Last game I was hungry with nothing to eat, Hungry!, and eventually staving. I finally gave in and ate the rotten corpse I had, and got sick. I had no potions, and eventually died. Anyone know where I can find something to cure sickness in the early game? Really screws me up if I contract it in one of the first dungeons.

[Manu]

Human archer. Died in melee to the first random surge of power I ever ran into. I learnt they are a serious matter.

[blunk]

Last game I was hungry with nothing to eat, Hungry!, and eventually staving. I finally gave in and ate the rotten corpse I had, and got sick. I had no potions, and eventually died. Anyone know where I can find something to cure sickness in the early game? Really screws me up if I contract it in one of the first dungeons.

Sickness is extremely newbie unfriendly in the early game.
Don't catch it, if you do and have very high toughness you may survive.

[Blasphemous]

Lvl 29 Dark Elven Farmer.
Went to bug temple to get the scrolls of magic mapping before the maze.
Couldn't find seven league boots anywhere so I went in without them.
20 greater claw bugs and 6 killer bugs later, I misstepped with 75 hp and a killer bug landed 7 crits.
In the post-mortem log, I discovered that not only Sun's Messenger has been generated (which I've found) but also True Aim (which I haven't found) was on the list.
Too bad with such a nice char.

[wheals]

L29 Drakeling Priest.
Crowned with Aylas, found a wand of wishing on the level before Khelly, saved him and got Find Weakness, got Oman, got the AotME and crazy stats, wished for a GoGS, got four orbs.
D:45 had a GUV, but first I decided to do the threat room of lich kings. Was mostly annoying, since apparently -conf doesn't really help against them, and then one summoned ghost kings.


Only one of them hit, and only once. I'd had no unnatural aging before. No potions of youth or longevity.

[sekalainen]

The missile bounces as it hits the wall beast!
You are hit by the magic missile!
The missile bounces!
You die...

Why were my fat fingers so fast with the spell ?! :(

[moonshine]

I was at D:50 fighting balors. They had me surrounded and I was using +33 Acid Ball against them. I had lots of teleport spells as well. Then several balors did critical hits and I was instakilled. Not to mention, I had an amulet of life saving as well, but not worn.

[pjsb1]

What were you wearing in your necklace slot?

[moonshine]

^ I don't remember, this death was quite a while ago. I actually rolled some characters that died in early game after that, but I don't remember anything about those. Now I'm playing a level 30 Hurthling Wizard and I believe I'll get to the D:50 this time as well, because I know the way there pretty well now. I try to be more careful with balors this time :) It was so close to my first win on recent versions , and in 1.1.1 I utilized some bugs to get a walking tank so I don't count those as honest wins, really. Balors were no match to those tanks I used to play.

[Musicman12369]

Wow, Blasphemous, that really sucks. To me, it is not worth it to go inside the bug temple for those scrolls. I find that nearly every game I play, I skip bug temple. It it just too dangerous if you don't have wide ball spell range. Moonshine, I was wondering, did you make sure to go into Coward mode before whaling on them with Acid Ball? +33 is pretty darn powerful and would have taken them quickly, and usually end game characters have enough DV, especially in coward mode, to dodge balors.

[moonshine]

Sickness is extremely newbie unfriendly in the early game.
Don't catch it, if you do and have very high toughness you may survive.

I have survived sickness once in 1.1.1, and it really trained Toughness big time. I don't know about current versions, though.

Why several balors succeeded to hit me critically is really still a mystery to me, as I was in coward mode. Nuurag-Vaarn fell quickly to my Acid Balls, for instance, and I didn't even had to heal myself much, I only read some scrolls of power between casts. I'm now playing a level 30 hurthling wizard that killed several lich kings and 20+ master liches in GUV, I hope she'll finally pass the balor test. For sure I'll be careful as hell with them this time :D Though this time I have only found Acid Ball spellbook from the Library and I got about 400 castings, so no +33 efficiency this time (I'll try scumming ID for more Acid Balls in any case). I have 1400 Ice Balls reserved for raiding ToEF, though. And 3000 Magic Missiles with +32 efficiency at this point. Every game is different and that's fun.

[H.G.Scout]

wandered into the bug temple with a level 13 dark elf elementaist with spear and shield.
those things hit through my panic invincibility, leaving me at -1 health at my chance to escape.