What to do

[Adley]

hello all, it's been a long time since i played angband. my current try is a Dunadan warrior named Lacir, version 3.0.9, level 23, a war hammer (defender) in hand, the phial of galadriel, a current AC of 80, hp : 275, lots of food, WoR ect. My main question is that i have 32k gold and that there keeps being NOTHING interesting in stock at the black market (or anywhere else). how can there be something worth buying appearing?
Also, my max depth is 1000 feet. should i try to get deeper or train on earlier levels?

[Derakon]

General advice is that it's better to dive past your comfort zone than to stick around where you're "safe". Reason being that no dungeon level can both be safe and capable of generating useful loot -- so if you stick around at the "safest" level that can still get you items you can use, you're too likely to get bored and then be unable to cope when the level suddenly becomes unsafe. Whereas if you're "deeper than you should be", then you'll be constantly on your toes. Just keep escapes handy -- Teleport (in staff form until you get resistance to blindness/confusion, at which point scrolls are better), and Teleport Level / Deep Descent.

As for the stores, don't worry about it. It's more fun to earn your loot in the dungeon than it is to buy it in the town. Check back in the BM when you return to town, but if there's nothing good there, oh well, no biggie.

Now, if the other stores were out of vital goods like Word of Recall, Cure Critical Wounds, Restore Stat, etc. then that'd be a different matter. You can force the store to refresh its stock by buying out all of its items, though that's not usually practical for the Black Market.

[Adley]

wow. having fun now, i've met my first darkness hounds, first earth hounds (cuts stack!) and am trying to work a way to beat the three uniques on the level.....
(superb level feeling)

[s0be]

Originally Posted by Adley

wow. having fun now, i've met my first darkness hounds, first earth hounds (cuts stack!) and am trying to work a way to beat the three uniques on the level.....
(superb level feeling)

I don't chime in much... sometimes multiple uniques in a level gets bad fast. If you're having problems with one of them, just when you're about to kill it, another one WILL show up.

[fyonn]

I'm currently playing a hobbit mage and although I played cautiously to begin with (when snaga's were a serious risk), once I got past that I started diving more than I have before. he's now at clvl 38, but dlvl 62. he's got more SP than HP (284 vs 271), he avoids almost all uniques, unless they are way deeper than they should be. he's not got a permanent source of rPoison yet (well, a ring of RPois at home, and scarabtrices), nor can he see invisble yet (though he does have ESP which mostly covers it). his 2 rods of teleport away are highly useful for getting rid of the large number of monsters he just can't even think about coping with. he's avoided scatha three times already, and any sign's of greater undead is an instant sign to walk the other way. teleport level has been a friend.

that said, it's exciting and he's getting well kitted up. only got his first dungeon book recently, but three different ones in a single trip to the dungeon.

not played this fast and loose before...

dave

[Timo Pietilä]

Originally Posted by fyonn

I'm currently playing a hobbit mage and although I played cautiously to begin with (when snaga's were a serious risk), once I got past that I started diving more than I have before. he's now at clvl 38, but dlvl 62. he's got more SP than HP (284 vs 271),

not played this fast and loose before...

You might want to slow down and get as much CON as you can ASAP. That HP isn't enough even with resistances against some monsters. Something like Ethereal Dragon can probably kill you in one round, and it has PASS_WALL which makes it even more dangerous.

Avoiding everything is not fun, and running away from everything doesn't develop your char either.

[fyonn]

Timo: Oh, I'm well aware of what danger I'm in having lost multiple good characters to Ethereal Dragons before. I've been using TO quite a lot with lots of different monsters. I'm primarily on the lookout for stat potions as I'm still a fair way from maximising them. but that said, I could easily hang around the 60's for a while and kit up a bit.

[Fendell Orcbane]

Originally Posted by Timo Pietilä

You might want to slow down and get as much CON as you can ASAP. That HP isn't enough even with resistances against some monsters. Something like Ethereal Dragon can probably kill you in one round, and it has PASS_WALL which makes it even more dangerous.

Avoiding everything is not fun, and running away from everything doesn't develop your char either.

I found that Mages are really hard until the end game when yoouu have all the spell books, I feel like with Mages you have to take a risk and dive at some point even if you can get insta killed. THe trick is finding a balance between acceptable risk and just asking to be killed risk.

[Timo Pietilä]

Originally Posted by Fendell Orcbane

I found that Mages are really hard until the end game when yoouu have all the spell books, I feel like with Mages you have to take a risk and dive at some point even if you can get insta killed. THe trick is finding a balance between acceptable risk and just asking to be killed risk.

He is also playing Hobbit, so that is real challenge class. Hobbit mages have so low HP even at clvl 50 and maxed CON that just one hard blow from top predators makes them wanting to have potions of healing, CCW just isn't enough. Last fight will be difficult one. Definitely doable, but difficult.

[fyonn]

my first winner was a hobbit mage, so I thought I'd try it again. I've got 4 of the dungeon books now, just missing keleks. as you say though, HP is a real problem. right now, I don't even want to think about uniques like gabriel, of kavlax, never mind the big boys.