Dungeon Crawl Stone Soup questions/thread

[BLOBERT]

BRO WILL DO

I HAD A GOOD RUN FOR A WHILE BUT THEN I BRANCHED OUT TO MOUNTAIN DWARF FIGHTERS AND DEMONSPAWN CHAOS KNIGHTS AND I COULD NOT MAKE IT PAST EARLY GAME

TROLL BERSERKER AND HILL ORC PRIEST ARE MY ONLY SUCCESS STORIES

OH YEAH ALSO HAD A GOOD SPRIGGAN ASASSIN ONCE

BROS AM I UNLUCKY I NEVER SEEM TO GET POISON RESISTANCE FOR HIVE OR LAIR

 

[Zomg]

It's not that unlucky and you don't really need them there. You only really need poison resistance for the snake pit branch, and either poison resist or clarity for swamp. If bees or spiny frogs or black mambas are able to hit you and penetrate your armor such that they can poison you enough to matter, they are going to kill you with plain damage and you need to either kill them quicker or buff your defenses.

I think playing trolls as a newb is a bad idea, because they can pass the early game easily even if you play with kinda dumb habits yet the midgame is hard for them, so you will get bored easily shitripping to lair every time with them, then ultimately learn very little by getting your dick torn off by an elephant pack.

You can probably get your first win with a direct damage caster most easily (or at least learn the most on each attempt). They're so versatile you don't need to have much game foreknowledge or a lot of threat-assessment data in your head - just blow anything scary the fuck up, or buff up with swift and haste, throw out a bunch of summons or blink and run away at will. You can learn to plow through the game with bare minimum characters like berserkers later on.

 

[MisterStone]

BRObert an easy class is sludge elf transmuter. Just be sure you learn the distillation spell (which turns corpses into potions), and the evaporate spell (which makes potions hurl towards an enemy and explode into a cloud). Beyond that, work on transmutations skill so you can get blade hands. Once you have blade hands, it's best to just fight everything unarmed.

Beyond that, you can choose just about any school of magic for ranged damage, depending on what books you find.

It takes a couple of tries to learn it, but I think this class is easy to get you through the mid game at the very least.


Another easy class is minotaur gladiator, that race is good at every kind of weapon skill, so if you find something badass early on just start using it...

 

[TripJack]

Some dumbshit just zapped my first character on D2 with a wand of fire, which raped me even harder apparently because I unknowingly equipped a ring of ice.




Made even sadder by the fact that I unequipped an identified ring of fire 2 rooms prior.

 

[MisterStone]

ID scrolls MF, can you read them??

 

[TripJack]

I was out of them and I'm an idiot.

I'm doing way better with a wizard so far than the 4 damn trolls that all died. I pulled off a miracle on D2, had to fight 2 (thankfully non wanded) uniques at once and sigmund a few rooms later.


Summary: trolls are terrible, much like Zomg said

 

[Malakal]

Trolls are excellent starters, then they get terrible, then they shine again with dragon armors (that fit them). Not exactly Hell/Pandemonium material but easily winnable. And have excellent stat focus (only STR) so no random fuck ups there. Worship TSO and bless some fucking great clubs for insane damage, great god and skills and superior resistances.

For starter mages fire elementalists of Vehumet rock. Other casters are rather difficult in my opinion... At least in the start.

I love demonspawns but they are too random to be good. Sometimes you get incredible mutations (demonic guardian = pet pit lord or executioner, +12 AC scales or +9 with resists or +5 EV with missile deflections etc etc) sometimes they suck with hooves, talons and all that shit decreasing their AC and item slots.

Such is life in crawl. Random.

 

[Zomg]

I like trolls and I think a good player can win like 90% of the time with a troll wanderer, which is not something you can say about more than 1-2 other races, but they suck for a new player because you are going to die in the midgame a lot and they make the midgame harder. So better to play with something you have to play sharp early that you can be slightly experimental about in the more defensive midgame.

 

[TripJack]

Hmm I guess I'm just terrible with trolls. I couldn't get a single one past D2.

 

[Malakal]

Do a berserker then. Seriously, trolls berserks should reach level 10-12 every time. Unless some really annoying stuff happens.

I myself have been experimenting with ogres. Can use clubs too and have less severe penalties than trolls. However I find them even harder to properly execute...

 

[MisterStone]

Yeah ogres seem kind of like a cool idea, but it seems like they just have too many penalties (no body armor, eat too much, only good at one weapon type) right now to be much fun.

I really tried hard to play with Ogres several times, but I think they need a little tweaking. The idea that they are good at spellcasting in general, but suck at magic schools is really fun though. I just wish they could have some gloves, boots and helmets to wear or sth.

 

[Malakal]

Fortunately great clubs are the ultimate two handed weapons of mass destruction. Ogres could also work well as summoners and crusaders (useful spells are low level in the enchantments school).

But the initial lack of AC/EV is not compensated by their slightly bigger hp. They SHOULD become better in the long run with better robes/dragon armors/caps/hats etc but I cant live long enough for that...

 

[MisterStone]

Yes, they simply don't have enough defensive ability for the extra HP to be helpful.


I've played them as crusaders, necros (p. good fit because you mainly use just one magic school), summoners (ditto) and fighters that join up with the Shining One.

 

[TripJack]

Ouch! You are engulfed in noxious fumes!
* * * LOW HITPOINT WARNING * * *
You choke on the stench!
You are more confused.
The toadstool is engulfed in noxious gasses!
The swamp drake bites you!
You die...

FUCK

 

[MisterStone]

That's why poison resist is necessary for the Swamp- not because of poison but to avoid confusion.

Also unless it has changed a bit in the last couple of releases the rune vault in the Swamp is extra nasty- you have to fight death drakes and so on which release that nasty rotting fume... I don't think poison resist affects that at all.

 

[TripJack]

Unfortunately I met that thing on D6 and had no poison resistance items. If I was smarter I would've read a scroll of teleport as soon as it became apparent I was doomed. Forgot I had six of them.

A shame roguelikes are so addictive.

 

[Zomg]

There are quite a few distinct versions of the swamp branch end, I can think of four I've seen and I might be forgetting some. One of them is the one with the 27-headed Lernaean hydra unique.

 

[BLOBERT]

BROS I AM VERY THANKFUL FOR YOUR ADVICE BUT GODDAMMIT I SUCK SHIT SO BAD AT THIS GAME

I SUCK SO BAD AT SO MANY OF THE CLASSES AND SHIT

ANYWAYS I GUESS I HAVE TO STUCK THROUGH WITH MY FAGGOT TROLL BERSERKERS

I AM LEARNING THOUGH GOT A FEW LEVELS THROUGH LAIR AND FARTHER THAN EVER BUT GOT FUCKED UP BY THE ANACONDAS SHIT I DIDNT KNOW THEY WERE BAD ASSES

THANKS AGAIN GUYS I MIGHT JUST BE SPOILED BY MY EARLY POPAMOLE TROLL STUFF

 

[TripJack]

How painful is it to renounce your god?

I'm thinking of dropping kiku when (if?) he ever gifts me the necronomicon.

 

[MisterStone]

He's one of the ones you don't want to piss off...

You can find spoilers for this and other stuff at the crawl wiki. Scroll down the page and you will see what Kiku's punishments are.

http://crawl.chaosforge.org/index.php?t ... ubaaqudgha

 

[Zomg]

Kiku is one of the easier ones actually. He ports in zombies (which unlike the usual punishments for other gods are not summons and you can't abjuration them away), surrounds you with miasma and/or torments you. Since you were a Kiku follower you have dispel undead so the zombies are not much and you can blink out of miasma. Only really bad thing is a torment when you are already in deep shit.

Edit - also hard-hitting necromancy miscasts, which is stuff like more torment, a draining attack, stat drains, rotting.

 

[TripJack]

Interesting. Thanks for the wiki link too, though it is hard not to read all the spoilers. Not that it matters, the poor necromancer got raped by electric eels on lair 1.

 

[MisterStone]

Edit - also hard-hitting necromancy miscasts, which is stuff like more torment, a draining attack, stat drains, rotting.

This is pretty nasty shit already

 

[Zomg]

Well I'm comparing it to dudes like Trog (paralysis, uses Brothers in Arms against you, meaning you might get a nice berserked stone giant or iron troll dropped on you at any time) or Vehumet/Makhleb (can drop fiends or executioners on you, or abyss you at any time). Kiku is in the tier with Okawaru, i.e. may fuck you up in a worst case scenario but generally harmless and easy to escape if you are in the late midgame. The stat draining can be cured with restore ability potions and if you take a healing potion when you get hit with a rot effect it's gone with no harm done.

 

[Ashery]

Instead of hijacking 7hm's LP thread, I'll drag this thread up for advice.

Just finished clearing Elf:4 with my drac (red) wizard (focused on fire and conjuration, working on enchantment for haste and some protective spells) and I'm looking at this selection for potential jewelry:

c - an uncursed amulet of conservation
i - an uncursed ring of fire
x - an amulet of clarity (around neck)
I - a ring of protection from magic (right hand)
K - a +5 ring of intelligence
L - an uncursed ring of poison resistance
W - an uncursed ring of magical power
q - the ring of Shadows (left hand) {+Inv rN+ EV+4 Acc-3 SInv Stlth++}
(You bought it in a shop on level 15 of the Dungeon)
[ring of invisibility]
It affects your evasion (+4).
It affects your accuracy (-3).
It protects you from negative energy.
It enhances your eyesight.
It makes you much more stealthy.

Evocation's a bit low to use the ring reliably (But I took some time to train it up a bit on some dirt cheap magic dart wands that were for sale, so it's not terrible), but even without that element, the other stats make it highly appealing for general exploring (Note: All content I'm experiencing is new to me, furthest I've gotten before this is clearing the orc mines and six or so levels of the lair), but I'm wondering what to use for that second slot. Leaning towards the ring of fire for general use, but if I encounter a situation where I need to have the protection equipped, I doubt I'll have the turn to spare to swap (Or I'll be dead before I even can).