[PosChengband] Where do I go from here?

[riftor_77]

I decided to run an Archon paladin and go after King Arthur and his knights (See dump at: http://angband.oook.cz/ladder-show.php?id=16330. After hitting dungeon level 25, not seeing any knights, and realizing that I was in grave danger of becoming a blood splatter, I decided to do something else. Where is the best place I can go now that will be deep enough to increase my skills but shallow enough to give me a decent chance of living?

Thanks.

[Arjen]

Originally Posted by riftor_77

I decided to run an Archon paladin and go after King Arthur and his knights (See dump at: http://angband.oook.cz/ladder-show.php?id=16330. After hitting dungeon level 25, not seeing any knights, and realizing that I was in grave danger of becoming a blood splatter, I decided to do something else. Where is the best place I can go now that will be deep enough to increase my skills but shallow enough to give me a decent chance of living?

Thanks.

Some great early dungeons are:

Orc Caves
Labyrint

After that, try some town quests, you might find some nice ego gear.

[chris]

I agree with Arjen. Also, you can consider The Icky Caves as well.

My typical start is approximately:
Thieves' Hideout
Camelot 5 for the Wargs
Angband for L6 quest
Orc Caves for Azog
Angband for L12 quest
Labyrinth for The Minotaur
Icky Caves for Stat potions and eventually, Ubbo-sathla.
Stat Gain in The Lonely Mountain (I spend a lot of time parked at DL39).

I also work in town quests when I feel ready:
Orc Camp
Doom Quest I
Sewer
Tengu and Death Swords
Mimic's Treasure

[debo]

Originally Posted by chris

Stat Gain in The Lonely Mountain (I spend a lot of time parked at DL39).

Is this the "mathematically optimal" place to stat gain? I usually grind Castle:50 but I don't know how the drop formula works in poscheng.

[HugoVirtuoso]

You can also fight some monsters in Telmora's Arena too. If you're doing quests, consider taking on Outpost's Old Man Willow and Dark Elven Lords quests if you're ready.

[wobbly]

Originally Posted by HugoTheGreat2011

You can also fight some monsters in Telmora's Arena too. If you're doing quests, consider taking on Outpost's Old Man Willow and Dark Elven Lords quests if you're ready.

The quest's danger level is something I'm yet to get to a good feel for. Does someone mind given a rough guide to how it correlates to character level? I know it'll depend on race/class, so for something solid-ish like a half-troll rogue?

[Derakon]

Originally Posted by wobbly

The quest's danger level is something I'm yet to get to a good feel for. Does someone mind given a rough guide to how it correlates to character level? I know it'll depend on race/class, so for something solid-ish like a half-troll rogue?

If I recall correctly (it's been awhile since I played this quest), the main caveats are:

* Old Man Willow himself can paralyze with his melee, and hits decently hard. I think he can cast Teleport To, and he can certainly Phase Door (though he's otherwise sessile). The fight area is not lit up either.
* You'll get swarmed with Vorpal Rabbits pretty much as soon as you enter the quest.

If you can handle the Vorpal Rabbits, have Free action, and have pretty decent melee ability, then you should be able to tackle the quest. The Huorns are mostly just there to catch you off-guard.

[HugoVirtuoso]

Originally Posted by wobbly

The quest's danger level is something I'm yet to get to a good feel for. Does someone mind given a rough guide to how it correlates to character level? I know it'll depend on race/class, so for something solid-ish like a half-troll rogue?

The danger level roughly estimates difficulty. I would post a character dump and tell us what quest you're attempting. And then, you'll get feedback.

[Derakon]

Oh, the danger levels of quests. Right. Those theoretically should be read as "if you can handle a dungeon at this depth, then you can handle this quest" but in practice since quests often have extremely player-unfriendly layouts (e.g. large open spaces, inability to set up antisummoning corridors, restrictions on certain player escape methods), you can't rely on them. Some quests have random monsters (e.g. the "go steal Sting" one) which can make the difficulty highly variable even ignoring the terrain.

Personally I don't see any particular harm in savescumming your first attempt at a quest, or at least in looking up the quest details in the edit files. It's not remotely fair to have to judge whether you're ready for a quest when you only get one shot at it, it could easily be lethal out the gate, and you have absolutely no idea what situations you'll have to cope with.

Savescumming after that first attempt is not so great though.

[krazyhades]

Remember, you CAN leave quests early usually, but it ruins your ability to accomplish other quests and it ruins your fame, which means that if you have a real desire to enjoy a good lategame with the character, you'd best just start over.

Pretty much every time I try a new or barely-remembered quest with a promising character, I die.

Quest rewards rewards can be good, especially when they are fixed, but the random ones can be awful (e.g. recently got Ring of Protection [+2] from the Tengu and Death Swords quest, which is basically as good as a pair of nonmagical Leather Boots).

Similar to quests, the Arena is fun, but you have no real good way to know the danger level of the upcoming enemy monster if you don't just know it already, and you won't know at what stages in the Arena you get the fixed rewards (various potions, staves, and scrolls of high utility, generally). And by this, I mean the Telmora arena, not the Arena dungeon near Zul.