Confessions of a former savescummer + Redemption!

[Booster]

Just killed Keriax - it was something that needed to be done and I felt confident enough in my abilities. Started by equipping Orb of +10 Wis, coupled with two boost wisdom potions. Threw a potion of invis at him which I guess made him invis (I could still see though - thought it was supposed to confuse him?), followed by throwing potion of blindness at him. I then proceeded to melee him and it took 4 or 5 turns - he got some hits on me while staggering around, but he dropped very nicely to my sword.

As for the wish I agree it seems unnecessary - I have concentration so it's likely I'll choose PoGA a bit later.

[anon123]

(by the way; I've read you can collapse a dungeon by mining too much; does this apply to them too?)

You can't collapse a level by mining, and neither can ants. Only kicking stairs too much will do that (and the St training it provides is not worth the risk).

Threw a potion of invis at him which I guess made him invis (I could still see though - thought it was supposed to confuse him?)

You probably threw an uncursed potion at him. It's cursed potions of invisibility that double as potions of blindness.

As for the wish I agree it seems unnecessary - I have concentration so it's likely I'll choose PoGA a bit later.

Wishing for PoGAs is a waste, you'd only get one. You're born under the Book sign, and have Concentration at 100, so I would ask for spellbooks of Rain of Sorrow. Get the crown of science from Darkforge. Bless those crystals of knowledge. Go to the HMV and kill the oracle under darkness, then employ starvation training to 'u'se the crystals and eat her corpse. Go to the wilderness, wear the CoS, and that ring of mental stability you have. This should put your Learning around 47. Bless the books you wished for, and read them all. This will give you a ton of castings of the most powerful ball spell in the game, extending your flexibility. Don't forget to remove the crown and get to the closest lawful altar as quickly as possible, to sacrifice 1gp and get rid of the dooming.

I wouldn't dual-wield weapons, your melee damage with Justifier is more than great, and losing your shield will result in a significant DV drop. Although I'm surprised you're past the Casino and only have a [+9, +4] one. Perhaps eternium tower shields would be another good wish.

Alternatively, you could get a replacement for your lost girdle of giant strength. At St+12 in average, that will add several points of damage, which count twice, again thanks to Justifier.

Good luck

[Booster]

Sound advice - didn't realize wishing for PoGA would only net me 1.. indeed a waste. I actually just now switched to an eternium large shield [+13, +6] which good enough, but I've been trying the dual wielding. I already ate the oracle earlier on in the game but she didn't add any learning to me (I was at 18 learning +8 from the blathering mouth corruption (the one that negates stealth) - could be a bug but don't know what the reason could be.

I'm considering the girdle of giant strength - we'll see how I fare in the next two temples

I also saved Keriax's corpse at Terinyo's food store - I'd consider eating him if I knew that the stats would actually get added as I have plenty of cure-corruption items.

[anon123]

Unless your stats are low, you pretty much have to use starvation training to get the most from corpses - the oracle's barely adds anything if your Le is above 15. That's why I think that after prerelease 7 (where potentials were made "harder"), certain corpses should ignore the new mechanics and always grant full stat increases. That way, whether to eat them or not is an actual choice.