Any tips for a newbie?

[MattB]

Originally Posted by robbiodobbio

As a kobold am I already poison resistant?

I seem to remember monsters that breathe gas or shards killing off some of my characters back in the day, is there a resistance to that?

gas=poison (at least in Vanilla).
And yes there is a shard resistance. But there aren't many massive shard breathers (Great Crystal Drake, Gelugon, Great Wyrms of Law and Balance are the only ones that spring to mind - no doubt there are some others).

[Pete Mack]

If you are lacking fire or cold resistance from a different source, wear the ring. With such a good melee weapon, I'd say wear accuracy, and replace with Damage ASAP. You can use Acid as a swap to soften tough enemies. RoCON(+2) is junk.
Kobold is safe vs poison, mostly

[robbiodobbio]

Originally Posted by Pete Mack

If you are lacking fire or cold resistance from a different source, wear the ring. With such a good melee weapon, I'd say wear accuracy, and replace with Damage ASAP. You can use Acid as a swap to soften tough enemies. RoCON(+2) is junk.
Kobold is safe vs poison, mostly

Cheers for the advice, duly noted.

I keep getting stat drained, very annoying, especially when the drain strength so then I keep getting (slow -2) from carry weight.

[Mondkalb]

Originally Posted by robbiodobbio

As a kobold am I already poison resistant?

I seem to remember monsters that breathe gas or shards killing off some of my characters back in the day, is there a resistance to that?

Oh, well, didn't remember you were playing a kobold.

Shard resistance is nice to have, considering crystal drakes and such.

[Pete Mack]

Shard protection is nice to have, but it is not nearly as useful as some others. There just aren't that many big shards breathers, and the only relatively early one is the Great Crystal Drake. That's not nearly as dangerous as Ethereal Dragon or Death Drake...which can pass through walls.

[Derakon]

Originally Posted by robbiodobbio

I keep getting stat drained, very annoying, especially when the drain strength so then I keep getting (slow -2) from carry weight.

There aren't that many different enemies that can drain stats, and they can only do it in melee range, with the notable exception of Time Hounds and Time Vortices. And almost all stat drainers have very poor health. Have a halfway-decent ranged combat option. A decently-enchanted Heavy Crossbow will do the trick even if it's not an ego-item. For single targets, you could also use wands or rods.

STR sustain is probably the most important one to get, mostly because of Dreads, which are ghosts that appear in groups, move quickly, and hit to drain STR. It's hard to avoid melee with the entire group. Though, being a rogue will help in that respect since you'll be more able to avoid waking up the entire group at once.

[Bogatyr]

Originally Posted by robbiodobbio

As a kobold am I already poison resistant?

I seem to remember monsters that breathe gas or shards killing off some of my characters back in the day, is there a resistance to that?

Yes but innate resistance only limits damage to 1/3 of original. You need temporary poison resist (from potion or spell) to reduce damage to 1/9 of original. A single drolem breath can easily kill any kobold without additional temporary poison resist before he gets enough HP (my last kobold rogue died exactly that way).

[Pete Mack]

Originally Posted by Derakon

There aren't that many different enemies that can drain stats, and they can only do it in melee range, with the notable exception of Time Hounds and Time Vortices. And almost all stat drainers have very poor health. Have a halfway-decent ranged combat option. A decently-enchanted Heavy Crossbow will do the trick even if it's not an ego-item. For single targets, you could also use wands or rods.

STR sustain is probably the most important one to get, mostly because of Dreads, which are ghosts that appear in groups, move quickly, and hit to drain STR. It's hard to avoid melee with the entire group. Though, being a rogue will help in that respect since you'll be more able to avoid waking up the entire group at once.

And if you don't have ESP at dread depth, make sure to carry some way to detect them and other (evil) invisible monsters. Detect evil is enough, or detect invisible, until you can reliably cast reveal monsters. If you are regularly getting stat drained, it's a sign you are not detecting enough. The only really unavoidable stat drainers are death quasits and to a dreads.

[Derakon]

Originally Posted by Bogatyr

Yes but innate resistance only limits damage to 1/3 of original. You need temporary poison resist (from potion or spell) to reduce damage to 1/9 of original. A single drolem breath can easily kill any kobold without additional temporary poison resist before he gets enough HP (my last kobold rogue died exactly that way).

Damage cap for basic 4 elements (fire/cold/acid/elec) is 1600, or 533 if single-resisted, 177 if double-resisted (which requires a permanent and a temporary source of the resist). Damage cap for poison is 800/266/88. Why are you anywhere near drolems when you have fewer than 300 HP?

[robbiodobbio]

I got stat drained by a unique, think it was one of Mim's boys. Now stuck on 14 health until I level up next.