Confessions of a former savescummer + Redemption!

[Stingray1]

I think everyone dies the 1st time against Keriax. I think it took me about 4 tries before I killed him and that was in 1.1.1

He is a bit more resistant in the latest releases. You have balls meleeing him.

What happened to the Staves/unarmed restriction?

[_Ln_]

I think everyone dies the 1st time against Keriax. I think it took me about 4 tries before I killed him and that was in 1.1.1

He is a bit more resistant in the latest releases. You have balls meleeing him.

What happened to the Staves/unarmed restriction?

Surprisingly I killed him with ease the first time and died disastrously the second time. Must be a factor of confusion resistance & Willpower.

[Stingray1]

I think so many of my PCs died, because I didn't know anything about him and had to learn a bit more each try.

Even after knowing pretty much everything about him, a few still died. Mostly as you say because of confusion and haste( day 30 ).

[gut]

Behold, the power of being spoiled stupid (which I prolly was by the time I got to Keriax).

[Stingray1]

I think everyone many players' PCs dies the 1st time against Keriax.

[Booster]

I was actually confused for a few turns before putting on the relevant orb, but I just wasn't able to ht and do damage to him fast enough. I was also corrupted severely and drained from 27 to 17 To which wasn't adding to my morale .

I sadly neglected missiles and spellbooks were few and far between, so melee was my only option. It was that damn ancient red wyrm that ate just about all my healing potions - if I had a few more I could have taken him out.

I still don't have a good answer as to why I switched to wyrmlance for him; I think the !Drag is what stubbornly had me convinced it was superior, but I was sorely missing the +35 DV from the staves (I was rank 14). Still, it was a good run and I'm glad I got that far on a real game and not a scummed game. Hopefully my human assassin will fare better against him next time.

[plllizzz9]

I was too spoiled to die on the first time, I think I only died to Keriax once or twice. Either I send 'ready' characters there [as in, bonzos who are ready to win the game regardless] or just don't go there, since I don't do ultra and I'm not gonna aligment juggle and sacrifice valuable artifacts for a quite measly crown, some eternium equipment and a PoCC

[GordonOverkill]

Had a few more deaths, including a very promising char that seems to have been by a bug; For some reason Waldenbrook (sp?) went hostile on me on one of my trips to town (didn't have unholy aura corruption).

Maybe you equipped an armor inside the shop (in order to identify it) which had the suffix "of hate"? That happened to me once. It has the same effect as unholy aura.

[Booster]

Started a new character I haven't played yet and am enjoying it immensely. While generating new characters I got a long lost brother under Book sign and thought I'd try out a Paladin. Things are going very well with him right now (about to exact my vengeance on Keriax before going to Air Temple) and thought I'd ask for advice on what to wish for (have a 0 charge wand stashed away). Here is how this game is going so far:


Started doing the Druid quest; spawned Keethrax; went to Puppy Cave. On bottom level surge of power. Crap I thought, there goes my precrowning. Eye of Destruction ate my armor but found an elven scale mail in the next room. Got whirlwind and thought what the hell, I'll give it a whirl this game. Ended up being an amazing missile weapon. In PC I also got a blessed ring of invis which let me get through SMC with ease grabbing the blanket. Got through there and went to CoC which not far in gave me an eternium scimitar. Did the dwarf quests and when he gave me gear for portal quest he gave me a Mithril long sword of penetration! Score! Switched off between that and my eternium scimitar for a long while. My stats are nothing special (haven't been focusing on herbs at all), and on top of that when I tried to get the greater Daemon to kill Glod but he preferred to keep draining my stats so I had to kill him. Almost died in the animated forest (DH2 had a tension room of Ghost Kings so I never went back) but then remembered that trees probably can't see invis and used my ring. Problem solved!

Drank every pool in DF and got absolutely nothing aside from intrinsic invis. At first I though this would be a bummer but turned out to be a lot of fun! In DF Long glaive and wyrmlance spawned (both rat fodder). Before heading into ToEF I had everything I needed and to keep my health steady I wore a blessed necklace of rapid healing and blessed ring of regen. Took out the ACW with no problem at ~300 speed. Got to Casino and there were a few interesting items (scorched spear, SLB, eternium warhammer of devastation). Found a lawful altar and tried to convert (I had jumped between N and C so often they both hated me) and had my entire inventory cursed! After uncursing, one level above the catlord level was a greater Karmic Dragon Vault! The funny thing was I had found an ant holes a few levels above and let them trash the dungeon so I had something like 300 rocks that I had left there after choosing the best (by the way; I've read you can collapse a dungeon by mining too much; does this apply to them too?); they ignored me because I was invis. After acid breath destroyed a newly acquired girdle of giant str (+15) and one of my SoCR, I tunneled a side room and dumped all my gear there and created a door to continue my karmic dragon hunt relatively worry free. This was on D:32 so I figured belatedly that I'd go get the cat ring first; on that level was another surge of power giving me Ironfist, which was nice. After a lot of ranged attacks I cleared the vault (mostly) and got Nature's Companion, Boots of Divine Messenger, Aylas Holy scarf. Not too shabby. Did get a RoDS out of this too, as well as 4 or so levels, and wished for Find Weakness so that alone made it worth it.

At this point I was L+ from my amulet of order but was putting off crowning for some illogical reason (I had stone circle access and the amulet from Gaab'Baay was stashed away for awhile), so went to do it and hope to get Justifier. The RNG was kind to me and Justifier was mine along with Acid Immunity!

After crowning I just hopped back to the casino to pickup SLB and eternium warhammer of devastation. I am considering ditching the shield and dual wielding justifier and my new warhammer, as Aylas scarf will provide enough protection for me. I also found a wand of wishing with (1 charge) and used the first on alchemy (I have a stash of potions in Hole in the Wall). I still can get one more wish out of it, but stashed it away for now - wouldn't mind advice on what to use it on.

[Stingray1]

Sounds like you have very good game going. Also the wish almost sounds unnecesary. Concentration? For learning spells and PP regen?

There are not many good reasons to kill Keriax now, but for revenge vengeance? and experience for future games.

Edit - which aren't very good reasons either. Pa-la-din