A Few New Player Questions

[Derakon]

Originally Posted by marlowe221

So far, char level = dungeon level has not been working out for me.

This is not really surprising, as there are 100 dungeon levels and the max character level is 50.

Warriors, rogues, and paladins should all put most if not all of their stat points into STR and DEX, and then buy a dagger or whip. High STR/DEX gives you multiple blows/round with lightweight weapons, which is significantly more effective than a single blow with a heavy weapon.

[Ingwe Ingweron]

Originally Posted by marlowe221

Which file is it and what should it be called?

To obtain full monster knowledge from the get-go, show package contents of the Angband.app and duplicate monster.txt from the contents/resources/lib/gamedata directory. Move the duplicate file to the Documents/Angband directory and replace the lore.txt file there with the duplicate file (renamed as lore.txt). These instructions are for Mac OSX. Windows will have a little different directory structure, but the process is the same.

[marlowe221]

Originally Posted by Derakon

This is not really surprising, as there are 100 dungeon levels and the max character level is 50.

Warriors, rogues, and paladins should all put most if not all of their stat points into STR and DEX, and then buy a dagger or whip. High STR/DEX gives you multiple blows/round with lightweight weapons, which is significantly more effective than a single blow with a heavy weapon.

Oh, that is good to know. I have read some of the manual for game but I didn't see that - I clearly need to read the rest of it.

Originally Posted by Ingwe Ingweron

To obtain full monster knowledge from the get-go, show package contents of the Angband.app and duplicate monster.txt from the contents/resources/lib/gamedata directory. Move the duplicate file to the Documents/Angband directory and replace the lore.txt file there with the duplicate file (renamed as lore.txt). These instructions are for Mac OSX. Windows will have a little different directory structure, but the process is the same.

Thanks!

[marlowe221]

Just thought I would post an update. After taking the great advice I got here, I took a Dwarf Fighter to Character Level 26 and Dungeon Level 29.

I realize, of course, that there is a LOT more to this game but I feel pretty good about making it nearly 30 levels in the dungeon on only my third character.

I had a lot of close calls in this run but managed to think my way through them pretty well. In the end, a Word of Recall scroll teleported me to a location on floor 29 that was only a few spaces away from a 5-headed Hydra. I had no fear resist, add in a few more mobs for good measure and that was all she wrote.

I have learned:

1. Sometimes Phase Door loves me, sometimes it hates me.

2. Fear resist is important!

3. Always run away from a Hydra

4. A Word of Recall scroll will not hesitate to teleport you into the middle of a group of terrible monsters.

Another question: Another resists I should be keeping an eye out for?

[tumbleweed]

Originally Posted by marlowe221

3. Always run away from a Hydra

The more heads she has, the faster you run!

[fph]

What killed you isn't lack of rFear, but lack of ways to escape.

Especially at higher levels, Angband is all about being prepared and having the ability to GTFO as fast as possible when things go wrong. Always carry with you a few scrolls of teleportation, teleport level and/or deep descent, as soon as you find them. Potions of CCW and phase door are also handy to remove temporary status effects and get out of melee range from a monster.

Later on, there is another useful addition: staves of teleportation. They have a failure rate, though, so use them only when you can survive one more turn in case of a failure. Word of destruction falls in the same category.

Scrolls of word of destruction, genocide and mass genocide are so good that people usually stock them for the final battles.

Another important addition is a means of detecting which dangerous enemies are around you. As a Warrior, this will be one of the most difficult things to come by. Keep your eyes open for staves and rods of detect monsters / detection.

[Carnivean]

Originally Posted by marlowe221

Another question: Another resists I should be keeping an eye out for?

Resists are a complicated area, in that they don't all provide the same level of protection.

Must cover:
Fire, Frost, Acid, Electricity, Poison. These can be breathed for up to 1600hp damage unresisted. Items with resists reduce damage to 1/3. Temporary resists, such as potions or spells, reduce to 1/3. Stacking a item/permanent resist with a temporary resist combine to reduce to 1/9.

Will save pain:
Nexus, Chaos. These have weird side effect that the resist blocks. Damage reduction is all over the place, but they aren't usually outright dangerous.

Nice to have:
Disenchantment. Stops them bastards ruining your items.
Light, Dark. Can blind you.

There are various items that protect you from status ailments(as opposed to resist). Fear you already know of. Stun and Blind are really good to have too.

[Derakon]

There are also a lot of enemies much deeper in the dungeon (past level 60, more or less) that sling around high-powered nether attacks. Nether resistance isn't especially reliable -- it has a wide variance in how much damage it actually mitigates. But on average it'll save you a decent chunk of damage, reducing the amount of times you'll have to run away or heal. I wouldn't prioritize it above nexus/chaos, but above light/dark, sure. Light and dark are both pretty rare anyway; nether is common.

[d_m]

Originally Posted by marlowe221

1. Sometimes Phase Door loves me, sometimes it hates me.

This is a great thing to learn! I usually try to carry 20-30 ?phase just so that in desperate situations I can just read and re-read over and over until I get away (or out of LOS, or to a non-connected area, etc).

In other situations, when you're on a really dangerous level and you just need to get out of there, I've read ?recall and just ran around (using ?phase as needed) to try to stall for time until it kicks in.

Every monster has a ratio of danger to reward. You've also learned that hydras are relatively high danger for very low reward, and best avoided.

Good luck!

[marlowe221]

Originally Posted by d_m

This is a great thing to learn! I usually try to carry 20-30 ?phase just so that in desperate situations I can just read and re-read over and over until I get away (or out of LOS, or to a non-connected area, etc).

In other situations, when you're on a really dangerous level and you just need to get out of there, I've read ?recall and just ran around (using ?phase as needed) to try to stall for time until it kicks in.

Every monster has a ratio of danger to reward. You've also learned that hydras are relatively high danger for very low reward, and best avoided.

Good luck!

Yep, Phase Door has quickly become my most coveted scroll. I buy every one I can afford and apply liberally when in danger.

I think ultimately, from a big picture perspective, what killed me on this run was being a few levels too deep in the dungeon relative to my CH/HP. I really didn't spend much time on DLs 25-29 compared to say, the 15-20 range and so I am sure that my character's power level had fallen behind the curve that I had been on before.

Re: Staffs/staves - my WIS score was so low (6 or 8) that I was never able to activate one successfully. Eventually, I stopped even picking them up. That was probably a mistake. I also had a lot of trouble using rods with any reliability at all.

Meanwhile, I am interested in branching out a little when it comes to characters. Priest, Paladin, and Rogue all sound like interesting classes to me, though I am sure they will be more painful ones.