Ironman Attempts...

[Fenrir]

Dwarf Warrior

Got a special feeling and found that lightning-elemental 2d4 dagger lying on the ground, unfortunately, my character was so bad that he could only manage one blow per round with it. After much debating if I should waste one of my valuable ?ID I went for it and its lightning bolt activation got be for half the game. There was a big mess with a single fruit fly trapped in a large room and awakened by my horrible stealth-- with my awful single attack per round I could barely manage to get away from the two fruit fly-infested corridors outside of that room just to get the game generate the kobold lord and his pals... right besides me. The rest was mostly uneventful, *except* for a certain dark green 'p' sitting at the end of a very long corridor leading into a wide hall somewhere in dungeon 14. He summoned a huge pack of wolves, then he summoned an invisible, non-moving monster that I couldn't identify (but now I am sure it was a trapper), then a fire elemental, a pack of dark hounds, some uruks, and finally, a pack of fire hounds that promptly proceeded to tear apart my equipment. I had to waste some of my ice brand arrows on the elemental and melee the hounds as they breathed and breathed and breathed some more. Used Dethanc's activation to wipe out the rest.

Walked a few steps... and then the game decided to create a rather large pack of ogres right next to me. I was clevel 18 at dlevel 14.


Heh. At least it wasn't a druid!

Gnomish Rogue

Fang, Farmer Maggot's dog in dlevel 1 in a corridor right in front of the stairs. No amount of oil flasks could save him.


I am terrible with rogues. I like playing the reckless warrior but really miss the detect stairs spell and my rogues don't seem to live enough to learn it anyway.


Half-Orc Warrior

Half the game I kept running into cave and hill orcs. Not pretty, but fortunately, they appear to stop pursuing after a while. A baby multihued was tearing down door after door from half the level to get me. He proceeded to breath acid and fire to destroy my ?phase and armor (and hps). Used a wand of sleep monster and fled into a nearby lit room then finished him off with bolts. At clevel 12 and dlevel 11, I appeared in a room with Bullroarer and some orc unique and his friends... killed Bullroarer, but didn't stand a chance against all the hill orcs.


Orcs appear to be my number one cause of death in Ironman. I might have to take with me a wand of light next time...

[Donald Jonker]

Originally Posted by Fenrir

Dwarf Warrior

Got a special feeling and found that lightning-elemental 2d4 dagger lying on the ground, unfortunately, my character was so bad that he could only manage one blow per round with it.

A dwarf warrior only gets 1 blow w/ a dagger??

Please tell me you're not using the standard roller. On ironman. Life's too short.

[Fenrir]

Originally Posted by Donald Jonker

A dwarf warrior only gets 1 blow w/ a dagger??

Please tell me you're not using the standard roller. On ironman. Life's too short.

Point-based. But hardly using any points to get more money...

[Donald Jonker]

Originally Posted by Fenrir

Point-based. But hardly using any points to get more money...

Interesting. That kind of trade-off would never have occurred to me. I ought to make some serious ironman attempts.

[Nick]

Originally Posted by Donald Jonker

Please tell me you're not using the standard roller. On ironman. Life's too short.

I know someone who was (for a while) playing random class, random race, standard roller, no shops ironmen. Some people are just like that.

[saarn]

uh-oh, I feel responsible. I think the not spending all the points was my suggestion based on 3.0.8, but 3.10 jacks up the starting gold to about 200 + you've got WoR worth 170 =370 starting gold minimum-- enough to get food/light/launcher.

I'm impressed you made it to clvl 18 with 1 blow / round -- what did you buy at the start? I agree that rogues seem very difficult in Ironman-- if tough things block you from the stairs, you're hosed. I got a few (high elf and half-orc) to Clvl 11/Dlvl 10 and then died-- possibly I should have dived slower to get a few more levels?

[Magnate]

Originally Posted by saarn

uh-oh, I feel responsible. I think the not spending all the points was my suggestion based on 3.0.8, but 3.10 jacks up the starting gold to about 200 + you've got WoR worth 170 =370 starting gold minimum-- enough to get food/light/launcher.

Under the new pricing system you can't afford a launcher with your initial 200gp, so it really is a tradeoff, and an interesting one too. I usually spend all the points and hope to find a launcher *and* matching ammo in the dungeon. Works about half the time.

[Fenrir]

Originally Posted by saarn

uh-oh, I feel responsible. I think the not spending all the points was my suggestion based on 3.0.8, but 3.10 jacks up the starting gold to about 200 + you've got WoR worth 170 =370 starting gold minimum-- enough to get food/light/launcher.

I'm impressed you made it to clvl 18 with 1 blow / round -- what did you buy at the start? I agree that rogues seem very difficult in Ironman-- if tough things block you from the stairs, you're hosed. I got a few (high elf and half-orc) to Clvl 11/Dlvl 10 and then died-- possibly I should have dived slower to get a few more levels?

It was a lot more effective in 3.0.8, but in 3.1.0 you can still get 1000+ gold with a pretty bad character. My 'shopping list' is as follows: 10 ?ID, 1 !CLW, 1 !CSW, 1 !CCW, some ?phase, 10 food rations, a couple torches, and the rest in oil flasks. Oil flasks have been incredibly useful for me in Ironman, especially against the Farmer dogs. If I don't get enough $ I sell my starting sword. I rarely bother with a launcher at all and instead equip the first sling/shortbow I come across and then forget about it anyway and melee everything...

I'd never explore the level unless I know there's something good in it. Non-preserve mode is a life-saver-- I wouldn't have lasted long if it weren't for Dethanc, I didn't believe it strong enough to wipe out uruks but it was. The levels were also mostly gained in the "fruit fly incident" (and thankfully the downstairs weren't in that room).

[Fenrir]

My current half-orc warrior isn't doing so badly.

But then that red ant bit me for one point of strength and got me to only two blows with my main gauche. Ouch. I think I'm going to have to swap to that {magical} flail Brodda dropped after a somewhat epic fight. That sling and that rod of light were rather lucky finds -- no more deaths by snaga! Since I found those two wands of wonder, Wormtongue and Smeagol seem to be hiding from me, I haven't seen them a single time in this game.

Edit: Nevermind. Dead. Killed by an Illusionist/Moaning spirit combo at dlevel 13 clevel 13. One drained all my dexterity while the other paralyzed me... that felt unfair.

[Fenrir]

Just grave-digging this old thread.

Tried a hobbit rogue who lived long enough to detect stairs... but then Bullroarer fixed the living long enough part -- he was sitting by the stairs.

Haven't played since last version... knocking some rust off with half-troll warrior. A pity you can't sacrifice points for money anymore...

CL 14 DL 12, at least I got my armor clas out of the negative numbers now, Brodda dropped a nice ego weapon. Found a Lantern of Brightness, still dragging my torches around, just in case... the usual " of Slow Digestion is a life saver in Ironman.