newbie who just got wrecked by wraiths

[Angriath]

Playing Sil-Q 1.4.1 Beta and having a lot of fun, it's my first roguelike (aside from trying Sil 1.3.1 first for a few hours). Though it's so brutal, I am on my best run yet and just attacked a grave wraith and killed it not realising that they destroy your strength. Now I am at -1 strength and can't carry anything anymore lol.

Don't have to spoil me with exactly how but is there a way somewhere later on to get my strength back or am I just doomed? Also tips on dealing with enemies like this in the future would be appreciated.

Really cool game so far I'm glad that Quirk made this fork.

[Quirk]

Originally Posted by Angriath

Playing Sil-Q 1.4.1 Beta and having a lot of fun, it's my first roguelike (aside from trying Sil 1.3.1 first for a few hours). Though it's so brutal, I am on my best run yet and just attacked a grave wraith and killed it not realising that they destroy your strength. Now I am at -1 strength and can't carry anything anymore lol.

Don't have to spoil me with exactly how but is there a way somewhere later on to get my strength back or am I just doomed? Also tips on dealing with enemies like this in the future would be appreciated.

Really cool game so far I'm glad that Quirk made this fork.

Both a herb and a potion exist that can recover you from this situation.

In terms of dealing with them, there are several approaches:
1) Don't get hit - engage at range or not at all
2) Have a high Will so you resist their attacks
3) Wear some item that protects against draining (staff of Self Knowledge will help you know if you are safe from this)

Also, I'm glad you're enjoying the game!

[wobbly]

A big bonus to dealing with wraiths is understanding their teritorial AI (this'll match spiders & dragons). They do not pursue you if you can break LOS. Note they are a weird AI case, a lone monster with group_ai. If you see a wraith break it's usual AI pattern then odds on it has spawned close to another wraith.

[Angriath]

Well I ended up getting destroyed there, not much hope when you're surrounded and can't even do damage to anyone lol. I hate to turn this into a newbie questions thread but I was wondering some things I haven't been able to figure out from the manual and what I've tried so far.

1. Is there a way to fire arrows from your second quiver instead of the first without shuffling your equipment around?
2. Can you use bad potions for anything? I've tried throwing them at enemies and objects and nothing happens.
3. What does inscribing do?

thanks for the help!

[wobbly]

Originally Posted by Angriath

1. Is there a way to fire arrows from your second quiver instead of the first without shuffling your equipment around?

'F' instead of 'f'. This is presumably under the help '?', so maybe look at that again.

Originally Posted by Angriath

2. Can you use bad potions for anything? I've tried throwing them at enemies and objects and nothing happens.

I think it used to work on enemies? However it was never meant to be in the game, it just inherited it from NPP. Just ignore bad potions.

Originally Posted by Angriath

3. What does inscribing do?

Well you can write stuff on an item to remind yourself of stuff if you are test id-ing.

I think #foo will name an item if you are into that.

The main one is stuff like @w1 (you can use any of the numbers & any item commands: 'r'emove, 'w'ield, 'u'se). When you pickup stuff the letters change when things move in the inventory. However if you say inscribe a longsword of doriath @w1 & a longsword of gondolin @w2 then those weapons will always stay at 1 & 2 so you can switch without checking where it moved to. With only 1 swap weapon you can call them both @w1 & just press w 1 to swap, but I sometimes get up to 4 or 5 swap weapons in Sil so I use w1, w2, w3 etc.

Note: you can use !slow to id free action or !poison for venom's end