Wish Question about aging

[Harwin]

I seem on track to get my first win with a melee character (I've got 2 wins with Wizards, regular and ULE, but never a melee character) but I've got a problem. Aging. My hurthling farmer got hit a couple of times by ghosts earlier and then got 2 ghost lord hits in the same round (I got surprised by some while trying to avoid a greater undead vault), so I'm sitting at 43/93 and "very old" Other than using some more moss, I've already used up all the stat boosts I can from having my stats suppressed by age(hello ogre/giant greater vault!). I've done Fire and Water and been crowned, just looking to get the other 3 temples out of the way and do a wand of destruction ending (I've got the wand already from a random drop)

I've got 2 wishes left and although I hate to use them for this, I know that a single ghost lord lucky hit can probably kill me now, so I need to do something. I believe I've got enough food to finish the game, so in theory I don't need to pass the vault again, but I've got no on-demand teleportation and no teleport control so I'll probably have to deal with ghost lords on D:50.

I know I can wish for "potions of youth" but can I safely wish for "youth"? And if so, is that better?

Any advice is appreciated.

[Soirana]

you can't wish for youth directly. That wouldn't give anything.

[Grey]

Ghost lords on D50 are best avoided use an invisibility source - no ghosts can see invis. You can also complete ignore them by never waking them up - clear both arms leading to the levers, close them, and then keep backing up to lure the balors out and kill them. If you do this and don't use the wand of destruction you can avoid ever going near the central chamber.

[Harwin]

Ghost lords on D50 are best avoided use an invisibility source - no ghosts can see invis. You can also complete ignore them by never waking them up - clear both arms leading to the levers, close them, and then keep backing up to lure the balors out and kill them. If you do this and don't use the wand of destruction you can avoid ever going near the central chamber.

Thanks for that reminder. With wizards I'm always invis anyway so I've been forgetting about it here.

[JellySlayer]

I think there's a couple of things you could try:

If you have a lot of potions kicking around, you could risk wishing for alchemy. Eventually, this will allow you to make potions of youth and longevity. Potions of youth often require somewhat rare potions (extra healing, strength, cure corruption...), but the components for longevity are usually not that uncommon. Blessed youth only reduces age by something like 10 years, whereas longevity increases your lifespan by ~20 if I remember correctly (can someone confirm?). So if you don't want to wish for alchemy, you may be better off wishing for potions of longevity rather than youth, as these may increase your lifespan more than youth will reduce. I don't know if longevity with reverse the "old"/"very old" effects... it seems reasonable that it would if you drink enough of them. I don't know how many of these potions you get with a wish, which is another consideration.

Remember that you will likely have to pass the vault on the way up from your final dive, if nothing else. Ghost lords cannot see invisible, which may help you get through some of these tricky areas.

[Soirana]

with spare scrol of danger you could try exchanging pots of booze....

[Grey]

Potions of youth often require somewhat rare potions (extra healing, strength, cure corruption...), but the components for longevity are usually not that uncommon. Blessed youth only reduces age by something like 10 years, whereas longevity increases your lifespan by ~20 if I remember correctly (can someone confirm?).

Blessed youth normally removes around 24 years in my experience. 3 of them from a wish would likely remove all his aging, thus solving the problem entirely. I tried alchemy on a very old drakeling once only to regret it because the ingredients turned out to be so rare - can be nice for other reasons though.

[Ars]

Consider the stat gains from using a wish on that too.

[Harwin]

Consider the stat gains from using a wish on that too.

Oh I expect to be quite buff afterwards, since I've used morgia, corpses, and mareilon on my old decrepit self. I'm quite looking forward to it

[vogonpoet]

Just go for the potions - training wished for Alchemy can be pain in the ass sometimes, the recipes will make you cry, and offensive alchemy is for pussies. Thats my not very humble opinion.