JellySlayer
07-08-2009, 05:32 AM
After a string of disappointing losses (or crashes) of characters that I would normally consider pretty easy, I decided to try something a little more out there. Thieves aren't a class I've really played much, and this game certainly impressed on me that they don't suck quite so much as I thought they did. Almost, not but quite.
Pippin (yay for unoriginal hobbit names) was a Candle born hurthling thief with Heir as his starting talent. My heir gift was a 1d4+5 adamantium dagger of penetration, which ended up being the second-best weapon I found the entire game. I used this exclusively until I found something better on D45. Since I was Candle-born, I decided to skip Healing in favour of Herbalism, and then went straight to the ID to level to 6. First kill was a large bat. I spend a lot of time working on thrown rocks, which ended up being my primary missile weapon for the entire game. Once I was level 6, I did the druid quest and puppy cave, in which I found a steel amulet, which I assumed, correctly, was an AoLS, and thus started planning my ultra. This meant poking my head into the now somewhat dangerous SMC in hopes of finding the stairs (I didn't). Proceeded to dwarftown, pyramid, griffyard, saved Khelly, Darkforge without too much excitement. I found an RoDS somewhere around DT which I used on 7lbs. By this point I had managed to collect all of the necessary components to do Gaab'Baay's quest (I probably found 15 scrolls of danger this game...), so I fed the ratling and got the chaos piece. Got back up to neutral and got crowned with Whirlwind and =Fire. Whirlwind is a pretty useless crowning gift for a thrown rock specialist, but all thief crowning gifts are pretty... horrible. With =Fire though, I was able to clear the ToEF before even getting the Water Orb. ACW dropped to a sustained barrage of rocks and attacks from the dagger. I think I might have stunned him, but I can't remember off the top of my head.
Cleared the Hall of High Kings, and found a helm of water breathing. Visited mother dragon and found that she had an RoDS and a glowing wand in her stash! Looted these for a 4 charge wand + a ring. I took find weakness immediately; later I added concentration and a GoGS, and saved the rest for Andor. Before even getting to the casino, I was pretty sure this would be a winner. Nothing spectacular in the casino... the quarrel artifact was there, so I bought it for 20k even though I never used it. Got the kitty ring, then decided I'd try the maze. I haven't done the maze in years, but as a thief, it is surprisingly easy. With automatic search, 100 detect traps and 100 alertness (and teleportitis + control), I was able to move through the maze without any equipment worries. The minotaurs were no match for me in melee, and I have enough stun ray to kill the odd mage. I then ran down to D48 to check for vaults, and found a greater giant vault on D45 with two generic gray weapons in it: Executor and Purifier. I had been hoping for Serpent's Bite to play a dagger-only game, but Executor was a great alternative.
I made a huge mistake in the Air Temple by allowing the summoner to leave the room he's trapped in (he summoned ghost kings, so I wanted to retreat to kill them from a distance), and he started summoning, among other things, about a half-dozen balors. To my surprise, these dropped in a few hits from Executor, and the real power of the thief became clear to me: the level 25 class power that gives stunning criticals, combined with Find Weakness and RoTMC, basically made it so that I would stun a monster on every single hit... very nice. Cleared the remaining temples, visited the Rift, cleared the Stone Circle. Buffed my speed up to nearly 200 from quickling tree and my level 40 class power, then cleared the BDC. Dove to I52 to find Filk, killed the emperor moloch with my penetrating dagger, assembled all my corruption removal stuff (10 SoCR + 4 pots) and went for the final dive. Got black tome from uselessness. I should have kept the potion.
D50 was a breeze. Wished for speed and some extra SoCR with my remaining wishes (actually forgot to wrench one I found in review) and dove in the portal. Andor was actually pretty hard. While the stunning had proved very useful for most battles, stunning Andor Drakon causes him to wander through the walls of the Chaos Plane, and it's hard for you to follow. Eventually I got him partially surrounded with summons, beat him to critical with Executor, then poked him with the trident for the win.
Pippin (yay for unoriginal hobbit names) was a Candle born hurthling thief with Heir as his starting talent. My heir gift was a 1d4+5 adamantium dagger of penetration, which ended up being the second-best weapon I found the entire game. I used this exclusively until I found something better on D45. Since I was Candle-born, I decided to skip Healing in favour of Herbalism, and then went straight to the ID to level to 6. First kill was a large bat. I spend a lot of time working on thrown rocks, which ended up being my primary missile weapon for the entire game. Once I was level 6, I did the druid quest and puppy cave, in which I found a steel amulet, which I assumed, correctly, was an AoLS, and thus started planning my ultra. This meant poking my head into the now somewhat dangerous SMC in hopes of finding the stairs (I didn't). Proceeded to dwarftown, pyramid, griffyard, saved Khelly, Darkforge without too much excitement. I found an RoDS somewhere around DT which I used on 7lbs. By this point I had managed to collect all of the necessary components to do Gaab'Baay's quest (I probably found 15 scrolls of danger this game...), so I fed the ratling and got the chaos piece. Got back up to neutral and got crowned with Whirlwind and =Fire. Whirlwind is a pretty useless crowning gift for a thrown rock specialist, but all thief crowning gifts are pretty... horrible. With =Fire though, I was able to clear the ToEF before even getting the Water Orb. ACW dropped to a sustained barrage of rocks and attacks from the dagger. I think I might have stunned him, but I can't remember off the top of my head.
Cleared the Hall of High Kings, and found a helm of water breathing. Visited mother dragon and found that she had an RoDS and a glowing wand in her stash! Looted these for a 4 charge wand + a ring. I took find weakness immediately; later I added concentration and a GoGS, and saved the rest for Andor. Before even getting to the casino, I was pretty sure this would be a winner. Nothing spectacular in the casino... the quarrel artifact was there, so I bought it for 20k even though I never used it. Got the kitty ring, then decided I'd try the maze. I haven't done the maze in years, but as a thief, it is surprisingly easy. With automatic search, 100 detect traps and 100 alertness (and teleportitis + control), I was able to move through the maze without any equipment worries. The minotaurs were no match for me in melee, and I have enough stun ray to kill the odd mage. I then ran down to D48 to check for vaults, and found a greater giant vault on D45 with two generic gray weapons in it: Executor and Purifier. I had been hoping for Serpent's Bite to play a dagger-only game, but Executor was a great alternative.
I made a huge mistake in the Air Temple by allowing the summoner to leave the room he's trapped in (he summoned ghost kings, so I wanted to retreat to kill them from a distance), and he started summoning, among other things, about a half-dozen balors. To my surprise, these dropped in a few hits from Executor, and the real power of the thief became clear to me: the level 25 class power that gives stunning criticals, combined with Find Weakness and RoTMC, basically made it so that I would stun a monster on every single hit... very nice. Cleared the remaining temples, visited the Rift, cleared the Stone Circle. Buffed my speed up to nearly 200 from quickling tree and my level 40 class power, then cleared the BDC. Dove to I52 to find Filk, killed the emperor moloch with my penetrating dagger, assembled all my corruption removal stuff (10 SoCR + 4 pots) and went for the final dive. Got black tome from uselessness. I should have kept the potion.
D50 was a breeze. Wished for speed and some extra SoCR with my remaining wishes (actually forgot to wrench one I found in review) and dove in the portal. Andor was actually pretty hard. While the stunning had proved very useful for most battles, stunning Andor Drakon causes him to wander through the walls of the Chaos Plane, and it's hard for you to follow. Eventually I got him partially surrounded with summons, beat him to critical with Executor, then poked him with the trident for the win.