Stood up and Befriended, the Nagas of Crawl (a lil NSFW)

[GarfunkeL]

Man, I love you Yeesh, NO HOMO.
It's awful when they can't suck cock at all.

 

[Yeesh]

And she gave me a fucking hickey. A FUCKING HICKEY! Who the fuck does that? What is this, fucking high school? Jesus christ.

 

[7hm]

hah

 

[Yeesh]

Alright, I'm still keeping my ears open for some skill advice, but let's move forward with Nancy. I turn off Axes and Dodging, with an eye towards turning off Translocations for a while when it gets to 5. Or not, we'll see. So doctoring the old text, her skills look like this:

 + Level 1 Fighting
 - Level 3 Axes
 - Level 2 Throwing
 - Level 1 Armour
 - Level 2 Dodging
 + Level 2 Stealth
 + Level 2 Spellcasting
 + Level 4 Translocations

I redouble my mental commitment to keeping her alive no matter what. Not dying is how you win Crawl, don't you know.

Ooo, a fancy double door. Could be anything in there. (It's an altar to Makhleb surrounded by lava.)

Well, well. A Robe of the Archmagi. I've never found one of those before, and god knows I've played a lot. Hmmm... apparently it was mighty but had an XP penalty in .7, and is less mighty with no drawbacks in .8. I still figure it's better than a +2 robe, so Nancy keeps it on.

In the course of IDing other items (ring of Wizardry? I can dig it), Nancy discovers that she sees no increase in display of spell power or spell cast rate with the Robe of the Archmagi. LearnDB says that it used to only effect certain schools, but in .8 it's supposed to affect all. If LearnDB is wrong about that, maybe it's wrong about the XP penalty. Nancy puts her +2 robe of nothing back on for now. I beseech anyone who knows more to chime in, even if Nancy doesn't survive this update. Which of course she totally will so stop being ridiculous.

Woe, that's a different look for level 4. (Items possibly worth buying in the store: one artifact glaive, three other blue polearms, a runed crossbow which I find tempting, and a pair of plain battleaxes. For now Nancy is left with her new mace of crushing, which actually sucks but she doesn't have much money it's better than a +0 handaxe.)

Hmmm. That's not a great development. Records indicate that Brug III was level 6 when he died. Recored also indicate that Nancy doesn't have any ability to kill stuff yet. She attempts to sneak away.

Ok, not wanting to get into a fight with an imp either, Nancy backed back into the ghost. She should have bought that damned crossbow. Shooting plus dispersal or blink or whatever = win. Don't you think? But I'm keeping my head in the game. How about teleport other? No, he resisted and now Nancy's down to 2 MP. How about run for the stairs? The ghost is slow as we Nancy is. Just have to survive a few rounds.

This is not promising. How about dart of dispersal? OK, two darts of dispersal, and Nancy makes it to the stairs. Great. (Even I have to admit that finding another stack of those darts was very lucky.)

I guess the problem for me with running away is that I feel like why bother? I mean, if you have to run away from some piddling little threat on this level, then how can you expect to defeat the foes on the next? That's why I usually don't bother; if the character can't kill some weak ass whatzit, then isn't he just a piece of shit useless character? What's going to happen when he runs into a hydra, into a pack of death yaks, christ into a lousy ogre? Let alone the real baddies who are immune to all your tricks? If you're a pussy, you're a pussy, and pussies don't win Crawl. Don't try and tell me they do, I've seen all the victory posts and everybody's wielding +10/+15 weapons of asskicking.

So that's the wrong mentality, but it's very strong for me with a character like this who has no offensive abilities at all. How's she ever going to kill anything? I have three spells memorized, and none of them do anything to hasten my enemies' demise. You can run sometimes, but that can't be all you do. Doubly especially when you're a naga.

But again, right, that's not the way to think. Keep your head in the game, Yeesh. Keep Nancy alive. Eventually she'll develop some kind of means for killing things.

These eyeball guys don't bother me so much. I don't think I hate any monster but jellies. And maybe those death drakes. And once I found not one but two shadow dragons on dungeon levl 14 or 15. That was some brutal shit right there.

Moving right along.

Another shop, how delightful. But just a statue of an elephant gives me the creeps. How is Nancy ever going to kill a pack of those? (Store has nothing worth mentioning. Crap.)

An ant trying to creep away cannot avoid the wrathful stones of Nancy (which would make a good band name) and becomes the gateway to her sixth level. I choose Int.

Super tedious dungeon layout, split into three parts. Nancy prefers to risk going down than trying to go back up and risk facing the ghost.

I take that back. (1 draining hit later, we're back up to D5 and making the long trek to the D4 stairs. Not stupid and tedious at all.)

What. The. Fuck. (I know, a secret door. But it doesn't seem to be in the obvious place, and Nancy gets hungry searching.)

By hook and crook, Nancy makes it to her seventh level. Way to not be dead yet, snakey! But with no equipment and no spells, I wonder how much longer she can last by spitting and throwing things at everybody.

Please please please be something good.

Hmmm, yes I believe this item is satisfactory.

Nancy pauses to consider her options. Conjure flame plus a missile weapon equals awesome killpower in a lot of places, not to mention conjure flame by itself boiling things in the swamp (strongbad-style devilish laugh). Fascinatingly (not really), there hasn't been a single sling drop this whole game, not that I was planning on going that route but still. Also, Ctrl-F verifies there's been nary a blowgun. That crossbow in the store still tempts me, and there'll no doubt be a centaur soon to drop a bow. Actually, Nancy is pretty underequipped to kill even a centaur, so I hope the first few are right around corners.

Also, where's the fucking temple? I like it better when that's on 4. Anyway there needs to be some offense added to this picture soon. Naga can't run away from everything, man. That's their weak suit. Dispersal and Blink are fine for every other race to get a few spaces lead so the can hoof it for the stairs, but other than with naga ghosts and other ultra slow beasties, Nancy won't be able to get away with that trick too often. She'd better learn to kill.

  Skills:
 + Level 2 Fighting
 - Level 3 Axes
 - Level 3 Maces & Flails
 - Level 3 Throwing
 - Level 1 Armour
 - Level 2 Dodging
 + Level 3 Stealth
 + Level 2 Spellcasting
 - Level 5 Translocations


You have 4 spell levels left.
You know the following spells:

 Your Spells              Type           Power        Success   Level  Hunger
a - Apportation           Tloc           ####......   Excellent   1    Strawberry
b - Blink                 Tloc           N/A          Excellent   2    Choko
c - Teleport Other        Tloc           ####.....    Excellent   3    Honeycomb

Thoughts? I'm thinking it's time to get burninatey.

 

[GarfunkeL]

I have no idea, I've never even gotten as far as you.

 

[Zomg]

My early game skill distribution is basically "turn off absolutely everything but the offense I can get out of whatever tools I already have". So if I'm playing a troll everything but unarmed and fighting is off, etc. Then I shut stuff as it reaches a point where further returns on it are of no significant value, e.g. I turn off transmutations stuff with a stalker as soon as I can cast evaporate at great, or I turn off invocations at 11-12 with a Makhlebite. In the midgame enemies get a lot more hp and AC and you need to develop defense to bang with them but early offense is everything, with shit like orc priests walking around that can flatten early characters yet can also be killed in one hit.

 

[Black Bart Charley]

Dudes, problem:

See that wasp zombie. Is there something special about them?
I emptied my whole MP pool full of stone arrows, twice, into it. Burned 2 scrolls of teleport. It didnt take any damage. Wtf?
Now I am too afraid to go left cause its full of soldier ants and top is orc knights and prolly priests. And no other way down.

 

[Ashery]

You *will* have problems killing stuff early on with a warper, but you need to develop their melee skills. If you don't, they'll never be able to take down elephants and the like in combat. Last couple naga's I took through Lair skipped over any hydra's, death yaks, and some of the other harder hitting creatures early on and only returned afterl I had cleared out the rest of Lair. By the time I was finished with killing what I could, I was typically good enough in melee to comfortably take on anything but hydras with a high head count. If you're still having issues after you clear out the weaker creatures in Lair, you can always clear a couple more levels of the dungeon.

Avoid the temptation to switch to a different weapon category just because you find a branded weapon. If you find a demon trident of speed early on, then by all means change as that weapon will server you for the rest of the game unless you come upon an amazing randart. A mace of crushing is, however, barely a step above your starting weapon and not worth switching skills for. The two things you should keep an eye on with melee weapons is their base damage and the skill level required to swing at max speed (Roughly 70% for all weapons, with the exception of 50% for small blades and 30% for quickblades). Swing delay gets reduced 10% for every two points you have in its skill and reaching this cap is key.

Skill wise, I'm surprised you turned off translocations as getting teleport control and teleport self castable is huge (TC will have a pretty unreliable cast rate early on as you have no real way to train charms). Maybe it's just my style, but I find being able to escape at a moment's notice without burning consumables is vital. Spellcasting isn't all that important at this point, either. Getting that first level skill hungerless is useful for victory dancing, but you aren't a conjurer who relies solely on spells for damage.

Re:Wasp zombie: Undead take damage to their max health so it will never look like you hurt them. However, due to how they take damage, they will never heal so feel free to retreat, rest up, and come back for round two.

 

[desocupado]

Re:Wasp zombie: Undead take damage to their max health so it will never look like you hurt them. However, due to how they take damage, they will never heal so feel free to retreat, rest up, and come back for round two.

Oohhh! So THAT'S why it seems I take forever to hit them and then kill them in one hit!

 

[7hm]

Last couple naga's I took through Lair skipped over any hydra's, death yaks, and some of the other harder hitting creatures early on and only returned afterl I had cleared out the rest of Lair.

This right here is the key to crawl.

You run so that you can come back later and kill them at your leisure.

 

[Malakal]

Last couple naga's I took through Lair skipped over any hydra's, death yaks, and some of the other harder hitting creatures early on and only returned afterl I had cleared out the rest of Lair.

This right here is the key to crawl.

You run so that you can come back later and kill them at your leisure.

Spells I found that RAPE hydras and those pesky yaks: bolt of fire (level 6 unfortunately), conjure flame (yay level 3 and its awesome for long corridors), poison cloud (lvl 5 and rapes yaks, not hydras), stone arrow (rapes both but one at a time, now 3d11 in 0.8).

 

[Globbi]

This right here is the key to crawl.

A key to crawl is just fucking luck. I just had an amazing game with DrFE, but then fell through shaft to meet death. After lair had mines and hive to clear and just identified a ring of RP. On the level with hive I fell two levels down and even though I was struggling long and killed some strong uniques I had simply no chance and nowhere to run from centaur warriors.

I find hydras very easy with any mage when just taking it slowly. Any bolt works and they are good exp so it's good to kill them, keep close to stairs just in case.

 

[Ashery]

Yea, the RNG will occasionally fuck you over, but that's what consumables and/or preparation (for lack of a better word) are for.

Preparation, unfortunately, is a bit difficult around the time in which you died as you haven't cleared enough areas to be pretty much guaranteed access to swiftness and repel missiles (I don't care what spec you're going, *any* hybrid should have both of those spells).

Consumables are, well, consumable. That's one of the reasons I fell in love with the warper class: Escape mechanisms are guaranteed early on. Nothing like being able to pop a magic mapping scroll and then control teleport to a stairwell and get my ass out of a potentially deadly scenario before it has a chance to develop (Although the RNG may fuck me over with a welcoming party at the stairs I teleported to, heh).

So, yea, you're right, luck has a major influence over whether your char lives or dies. Skill can improve your odds dramatically, but every turn's still a gamble.

 

[Black Bart Charley]

Its strange, I must have been drunk. Cause other zombie wasps go down easily in 2-3 hits.

 

[Malakal]

Its strange, I must have been drunk. Cause other zombie wasps go down easily in 2-3 hits.

Which ones? There are both yellow and red ones. Perhaps you met red ones first and then yellow.

 

[7hm]

Luck plays a role. But the RNG, over time, will almost always come out in your favour. The ability to survive long enough for that to happen is one of the things that separates good players from the rest of us.

This assumes that you take advantage of what the RNG gives you.

It's like mutation roulette. You will ALWAYS come out ahead in mutation roulette given enough potions.

 

[Yeesh]

Well, ok. Let's turn Translocations back on and refrain from worrying about how Nancy's going to ever be able to effect the death of anything stronger than an orc. She ignores her newly found book of fire spells.

Pikel and an orc warrior, together at last. Nancy has also managed to get her hands on another spellbook, but it's one of the high level ones. She tries Teleport Other again, but the lead slave resists. I guess that's a spell to forget and never memorize again with any character ever. Nancy runs for the stairs, since she doesn't know what else to do.

A little crowd down here, but nothing too scary.

A big crowd. No, I'm losing it. I don't care. She can't kill anything and I don't care if Nancy dies. What difference does it makes if she survives WHEN SHE CAN'T KILL ANYTHING?

So yeah. I blink her around a bit and drink some potions. Unsurprisingly, Nancy's inability to kill even an orc wizard in melee makes for what seems to me an unwinnable situtation.

Nancy blinks into a corner and kills an orc with a dart of dispersal. How novel.

The inevitable occurs. RIP Nancy. Despite our time together, I never came to understand the point of your existence.

1027 Nancy the Grasshopper (level 7, -6/56 (57) HPs)
             Began as a Naga Warper on Mar 11, 2011.
             Mangled by an orc
             ... wielding a -1,+0 orcish flail
              (7 damage)
             ... on Level 8 of the Dungeon on Mar 13, 2011.
             The game lasted 01:47:02 (6575 turns).

Ok, let's rap. I know that was a stupid situation to engage in, but I just completely stopped caring about that useless, useless character. Look, I've had a number of characters get to the Lair, I've picked up some runes, I've been to all the midgame branches, and I know the great, great value in having escape mechanisms. God knows, I wish I'd had the tricks a Warper starts out with on my best characters so they might have survived instead of meeting grisley fates.

But the reason I wanted those tricks on them is because those characters were valuable. They had capabilities. They could overcome most of the challenges in front of them, so I cared about them to want them to survive when they found one they couldn't.

I'm clearly doing the Warper wrong, not just because I'm playing careless and stupid and not using the escape abillities, but more because I'm not seeing the part where a Warper develops the capability to deal with most threats. All I'm seeing is the limited capability to escape, which by itself seems worthless to me. It's like a top of the line security system for a completely empty house and the house is also made of shit. What am I protecting? If you can't kill a couple of orcs, not because you're unlucky, but because you're just not sporting any offensive power at all, then what's the point? And we're talking about nagas here. Running away is not our strength. It's not like I can dart around scooping up goodies and flit away outdistancing the monsters.

So. Help me out. I get it, I'll keep Translocations on and power that up. I'll ignore Teleport Other and just aim for control teleport so I can maybe controlled blink sometime around dungeon 8 or so, maybe. But what ELSE do I do? You know, to kill things? Just focus on bashing stuff with my +0 starting weapon, and cross my fingers that an upgrade comes along that's in the same weapon family? I can try that, I guess. Clearly I need to focus on just a few skills. With fighting and translocating, that's 4 already (fight, trans, spellc, weapon). And should I abandon Stealth? That seems unwise. So that's 5.

 

[dextermorgan]

I've come to believe that the key to this game is simply knowing when to stop playing, and that time, for me at least, seems to be when I feel tempted to autoexplore-rush levels. Simply turn the game off and go play something else because you will get your character killed that way. Like I killed my very, very promising DDNe last night:

 Dungeon Crawl Stone Soup version 0.7.1-1-g7ce9b19 character file.

24498 SLouch XLII the Necromancer (level 12, -1/89 HPs)
             Began as a Deep Dwarf Necromancer on Mar 12, 2011.
             Was the Champion of Cheibriados.
             Slain by Agnes
             ... wielding a +1,+0 lajatang of speed
              (16 damage)
             ... on Level 12 of the Dungeon on Mar 13, 2011.
             Vladan's game lasted 02:50:41 (27473 turns).

SLouch XLII the Necromancer (DDNe)         Turns: 27473, Time: 02:50:41

HP  -1/89        AC  9     Str 25 (26) Exp: 12/33339 (5020), need: 4360
MP  13/27        EV 16     Int 43      God: Cheibriados [******]
Gold 1161        SH  0     Dex 27 (28) Spells:  8 memorised,  3 levels left

Res.Fire  : + . .   See Invis. : +   A - +6,+1 hand axe of the Fifty Demons {pain, 
Res.Cold  : + . .   Warding    : .   j - +3 robe by the Sea Horse {MR, Slow}
Life Prot.: + . .   Conserve   : .   (no shield)
Res.Poison: .       Res.Corr.  : .   k - +0 helmet from the Turtle {Slow}
Res.Elec. : .       Clarity    : +   G - +0 cloak of the Caterpillar {Slow}
Spirit.Shd: .       Stasis     : .   N - +0 pair of gloves of the Sea Horses {Slow}
Sust.Abil.: . .     Rnd.Telep. : .   z - +0 pair of boots of Cheibriados {Slow}
Res.Mut.  : .       Ctrl.Telep.: .   s - amulet of clarity
Res.Rott. : .       Levitation : .   t - ring of see invisible
Saprovore : . . .   Ctrl.Flight: .   d - +6 ring of intelligence

What's so special about this guy you may ask?

This:

Hand weapons
 A - the +6,+1 hand axe of the Fifty Demons (weapon) {pain, MR}
   (You found it in the sewers)   
   In the hands of one skilled in necromantic magic, it inflicts extra damage 
   on living creatures.
   It increases your resistance to enchantments.

And this:

Books
 g - a book of Dreams   
   Spells                             Type                      Level
   Ensorcelled Hibernation            Enchantment/Ice              2
   Alistair's Intoxication            Transmutation/Poison         4
   Flight                             Enchantment/Air              4
   Phase Shift                        Translocation                5
   Shadow Creatures                   Summoning                    5
   
 B - the Almanac of the Rocks and Moulding
   (You found it in the sewers)   
   Spells                             Type                      Level
   *Sandblast                         Transmutation/Earth          1
   Maxwell's Silver Hammer            Transmutation/Earth          2
   Stoneskin                          Transmutation/Earth          2
   *Dig                               Transmutation/Earth          4
   Bolt of Magma                      Conjuration/Fire/Earth       5
   Lee's Rapid Deconstruction         Transmutation/Earth          5
   
 M - a book of Unlife   
   Spells                             Type                      Level
   *Sublimation of Blood              Necromancy                   2
   *Animate Dead                      Necromancy                   4
   *Twisted Resurrection              Necromancy                   5
   Borgnjor's Revivification          Necromancy                   5
   Excruciating Wounds                Enchantment/Necromancy       5
   Simulacrum                         Ice/Necromancy               6

As you can see, RND was kind enough to gift me with a very nice pain branded axe and books that allowed me to both summon great allies (abominations) that tore through Lair and Orc mines with no trouble, as well as cast Earth-based nuke spells.

And I screwed it all up by trying to take on Agnes with Pain and Vampiric Draining (didn't even use Slouch once) because I was in the "let's get this over with" phase of playing.

So in conclusion, just STOP playing once you reach that phase. My poison of choice is Empire Earth

 

[Black Bart Charley]

Help me out.

Dont play Naga/Warpers. They suck.
I am at level 12 now and my Naga Earth Elementalist has to lure anything serious to a thin wall or stairs to take em out.

Fun fact: dont use Lee's Rapid Deconstruction in thin corridors. The whole fucking level will hear it and come after you and some of them will come from behind.

 

[Zomg]

I honestly just play warpers like melee characters that can blink and come with an awesome escape scroll and darts. And the benefit of blink and darts is getting out of melee early with shit like ogres and orc warriors, useless for a naga since they will be back into melee in a couple of steps. You also need good aptitudes to have the points to both do heavy translocations and to have killing power. Nagas thus make especially bad warpers. With a naga warper I would be trying to rely on short blades early since you have a pretty good chance of getting something of venom or electrocution or at least a short sword/sabre with good damage bonuses, and getting a fuck strong low piety offense god, meaning Trog (even with the casting loss), Makhleb, Kiku, Fedhas.

 

[Yeesh]

I've come to believe that the key to this game is simply knowing when to stop playing, and that time, for me at least, seems to be when I feel tempted to autoexplore-rush levels. Simply turn the game off and go play something else because you will get your character killed that way. Like I killed my very, very promising DDNe last night

My condolences. Coincidentally, the one time I ran into Agnes was with a DDNe too. I tried to fight her but jesus christ, so I blinked for the stairs and left her behind. But yeah, frustration got the character killed anyway. Must... control... rage...

I am at level 12 now and my Naga Earth Elementalist has to lure anything serious to a thin wall or stairs to take em out.

Fun fact: dont use Lee's Rapid Deconstruction in thin corridors. The whole fucking level will hear it and come after you and some of them will come from behind.

I love earth elementalists because I love the idea of killing things with those stupid stones. I always gather them up in case I come across an intro earth book.

I honestly just play warpers like melee characters that can blink and come with an awesome escape scroll and darts. And the benefit of blink and darts is getting out of melee early with shit like ogres and orc warriors, useless for a naga since they will be back into melee in a couple of steps. You also need good aptitudes to have the points to both do heavy translocations and to have killing power. Nagas thus make especially bad warpers. With a naga warper I would be trying to rely on short blades early since you have a pretty good chance of getting something of venom or electrocution or at least a short sword/sabre with good damage bonuses, and getting a fuck strong low piety offense god, meaning Trog (even with the casting loss), Makhleb, Kiku, Fedhas.

I think the only way I can get my head around warpers is to use them as a hard start for some other class of character who'll then have warper escape power when he (or she) gets strong enough for them to be effective and worth having. On the whole, a naga/warper seems to be a challenging combo best left to player who don't suck.

 

[Ashery]

Trog completely gimps warpers, heh.

Also, you've almost got the skills to focus on: drop spellcasting. Hunger cost isn't a priority as you're not a conjurer who has to cast multiple spells for every kill. Probably spellcasting's main benefit early on for a warper is that it provides two spell levels for each skill point.

Maybe it's just my playstyle that makes me fall in love with warpers. Yes, they have significant challenges early on, but the payoff is fantastic once you get past the temple.

Teleport self will likely be castable before control teleport due to the latter requiring charms as well as translocations. I've never used teleport other, either, so I can't comment on it's effectiveness. One early game situation I've heard it's good for, however, is against packs of elephants. Portal projectile, however, is an amazing spell to have, if a bit situational itself. At first glance it just looks like an expensive way to increase accuracy, but it allows you to fire "over" other creatures. Meaning that orc priest that can fuck you up early on can be taken down with a couple projectiled javelins while the unarmed orc melees you.

Oh, if you want an even more challenging warper start: play as an ogre. You'll learn some amazing discipline early on, provided you don't toss your computer out a window in a fit of frustration, heh.

 

[Yeesh]

Nipsy's off to an annoying start with this lame, lame layout.

Level two. What do you want, a medal?

Killing gobbos, getting money, smokin trees. I choose Int.

(Nipsy discovers a book of Flames and has a crisis of purpose. Contemplation takes time although you will not notice the gap between two sentence written hours apart. Actually I was just grocery shopping and napping, but still. Nipsy's not even halfway through her third experience level and she decides to embrace the fire, leaving the honing of her escape mechanisms for a time in the future when I care about her enough to want her to have them. Let us see how that pans out.)

Some gnolls jump Nispy, but they discover that this kitten's got claws. Or at least one discovers that, and a fourth level of experience is bestowed on the Nipster for her valor (I call her the Nipster to try and build a rapport between us so I care whether she lives or dies). Str increases, which is not my first choice. But then I do like to carry stuff. But then with Cheibriados, that is SO not a problem.

The victory inspires much dancing. Spellcasting does not raise quickly at this point, but Nipsy remains hopeful.

Dungeon level 3 starts off with a dead end.

Hmmm. The Nipster started out with no stealth skill and just picked it up a few turns ago, so she ain't too sneaky. We'll use the corner. (Shot of sleeping orc deleted) And here's level 5. How delightful.

An encounter with gnolls brings us right to the brink. I'm still willing to roll the dice in situations that could easily result in her death because I don't take wussy monsters seriously, despite the threat they pose to such a wussy character.

A phantom does this to Nipsy. A phantom and a complete lack of corpses from the last 10 things she's killed. BURNIONG A FUCKING BLINK SCROLL ON A FUCKING PIECE OF SHIT NOTHING MONSTER DRIVES ME CRAZY. WHY IS THAT FUICKING THING SO TOUGH IF IT'S A FUCKING NOTHING MONSTER? Nipsy takes this opportunity to diminish her stack of permafood for no reason, and let's play the ID game. Note that we haven't exactly found much to ID anyway, and I assure you I've picked up every single vaguely interesting item on 3 levels.

Hmmm. A cursed +5 ring of evasion is not quite a dream come true, but it's nothing to complain about. Elven armor of +0 remains her finest armor, and this halberd isn't cursed but could still be -20/-20. We shall see. BUT then LearnDB poo poos all halberds. I dunno, we'll try it out anyway.

The Nipster cleanses an orc priest with her flames of purity and is rewarded for her zeal with a sixth level. I choose Int.

You again. (early ss deemed redundant) Slicing through the troublesome phantom, the plain halberd proves its worth (later turns out to be +0). Let us dance. Spellcasting makes it to 3, Fire and Conjuration to 4. Stealth of course is climbing quickly too.

I don't think I've ever seen so many gnolls in one game.

Nipsy misses a fleeing ant, but her poison does its grim work. Level seven already? She's seen a lot of combat in her brief life.

Eight thousand bucks? Sure, I'll be back with the money in a jiffy.

Oh christ, another one of you assholes. Time to press the Nipster's luck.

Ok. That was one of those let's-go-ahead-and-die times. That fight went on forever. I let it come down to absolute randomness, and easily could have lost the character many times over. But I really didn't know what else to do. It's a fucking Phantom, not a <some tough monster>, and that one she killed earlier went down pretty damned easy. But then I guess it did fuck her up the first time. I kinda forgot about that.

It's bitterly hilarious to me that people seem to hate the thing's blinking ability, when if it hadn't been for the Phantom's blinking around like an idiot, it could have killed Nipsy 6 times over. She just klept missing and missing and missing and missing and missing and missing and missing and missing and missing and missing. It was frustrating, to put it mildly. I don't know if I got lucky or was unlucky, or if this character just sucks too much to ever kill anything. A decent weapon (with a bonus to hit) would proabably help, as if I have any control over one of those coming into play. The Nipster's found plenty of blue orc weapons, but none of the polearm variety.

I decide to take a break.

 

[dextermorgan]

This is probably a silly question but did you hit it with fire spells? I don't know about trunk but in 0.7 phantoms, unlike imp, are vulnerable (not susceptible) to fire. Normally with DDNe I've been playing as of late I just lead both to the nearest up stairs, let them follow me up then swing at them until they blink away so I can dive back down. Easier with DD I guess due to their damage reduction...

 

[Yeesh]

This is probably a silly question but did you hit it with fire spells? I don't know about trunk but in 0.7 phantoms, unlike imp, are vulnerable (not susceptible) to fire. Normally with DDNe I've been playing as of late I just lead both to the nearest up stairs, let them follow me up then swing at them until they blink away so I can dive back down. Easier with DD I guess due to their damage reduction...

It's true I didn't let loose with the flame because I haven't quite been thinking of it as ready for prime time. But here it might have done some good. In any even, with a little dance of victory this latest batch of XP might push her spellcasting prowess to where it needs to be for me to take it a little more seriously.