Which weapon to use? Help!

[Maha]

Making a thread for this seems like overkill, but here goes: I'm playing 3.0.9b and I have the choice between a few good weapons, namely:
- a +10,+10 scythe of slicing of venom
- the short sword Dagmor (assume I'd enchant it to +10,+10)
- the +12,+15 beaked axe of Hurin.

Here's my dump: http://pastebin.com/1tBQF8PF
I'm a lvl 42 Dwarf Paladin, currently scumming around dlvl 50, looking for chaos resistance so I can go further down. I can get 5 attacks with any of these weapons. Do I pick the extra attacks from Dagmor, the extra crits from the scythe, or what?
Any help would be much appreciated!

[bebo]

none of the above. you use theoden for the esp.

[fph]

Seconded. Keep one of the others as a swap in case you need the extra damage for a big fight, but use Theoden to tag along.
As for the swap weapon, if I am doing my math correctly it's Ulmo that does the higher damage, besides having an interesting immunity.
Also, I'd bring along Wrath of God (nice find, at dlvl 50...) for the occasional Word of Destruction.

[Maha]

Is ESP really that important? I cast Detection very liberally.
And fph - I considered bringing the book too, but Word of Destruction is at a 30% chance of failure, meaning whenever I'd want to cast it, I couldn't count on it.

[Sirridan]

ESP covers your butt in case you forget to cast detection, or if you're fighting and don't want to blow all your mana on it. It's basically a constant "detect the most dangerous monsters except drolems and Q's"

[Derakon]

And Word of Destruction has many uses outside of an emergency. Let's say you're being chased by Time Hounds. You don't really want to deal with them, and as a paladin you can't banish them. Duck around a corner and destruct those hounds away.

Heck, even in emergencies, phase + Destruct is often safer than teleporting. Though you should also have good healing available.

Word of Destruction is one of the most powerful spells in the game. If you have unlimited access to it and you aren't afraid to abuse it, it can break things wide open.

[nullfame]

Originally Posted by Maha

Is ESP really that important?

Yes. It means you don't have to do this:

Originally Posted by Maha

I'm a lvl 42 Dwarf Paladin, currently scumming around dlvl 50, looking for chaos resistance so I can go further down.

Instead you can just go down and avoid chaos monsters. You are more likely to find chaos resistance deeper.

[Maha]

Well, of course I just got another source of ESP - the hard leather cap of Thranduil - from a scroll of acquirement. Which weapon now, gents?

edit: one more question - does chaos resistance still cover confusion resistance as well?

[cinereaste]

I'd probably go with Ulmo for the immunity. I don't believe chaos also covers confusion.

[nullfame]

Chaos does not cover confusion.

I am too lazy to do the math. My guess is Hurin for the CON, maybe Ulmo.

After this game you should upgrade to the most recent so-called beta. It shows the damage output in the character dump. E.g.,
http://angband.oook.cz/ladder-show.php?id=10425

3.1.2v2 is actually quite stable. I don't know why they label it beta. The nighties, on the other hand, can have bugs or imbalance. Upgrading will mean starting a new save file. Common advice if you want good monster memory is to download a save file from a recent competition and start from that. Maybe someone can suggest a good save file that doesn't have bizarre settings. Or just download any and double-check birth options are to your liking.