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Octopode

16 (34%)

Tengu

7 (14.9%)

Draconian

17 (36.2%)

Centaur

6 (12.8%)

Other

1 (2.1%)

Total Members Voted: 34

[Frumple]

Well, if you can get your heavy armor up to a decent level the magic penalty is minimal, no?

No.

Well, it depends on how heavy you're going. Chain/ring isn't terrible, but higher than that (iirc) even very high armor skill doesn't stop your casting chances from tanking. You're not going to cast in crystal plate or GDA unless you're rocking casting boosters, high Int, and probably ridiculous skill levels, ferex, iirc.

Quick wiztest in crystal plate with 15 across the board for skills and 13 int was showing Great up to level four spells, though... maybe it's not as bad as I thought. Little more checking shows bopping it down to 10 makes even level 2 spells poor. 27 armor, though, puts it back to the starting values. So... I'unno. GDA makes things a bit worse. Depends on all the other variables, I guess

Someone better with actual number crunching could probably give minimum skill levels points, ha.

But yeah anyway. Wiztest says you could probably just pump strength and shove points into whatever spell schools you feel like you need and probably end up managing to get off low level utility stuff without much trouble. Just take a while, heh.

[Basque]

You can quaff-ID potions but you should do it in a safe area. Don't worry about piety because Xom certainly doesn't (i.e, you get good or bad effect regardless of your piety).

I definitely, definitely encourage you to go for Dragon Form but that might be a long ways off. Crawl is definitely geared towards magic-based characters, so if you plan on playing past the early game you should plan for that. I think the only good aptitude Demonspawn have is Necromancy, so that's there if you find the right book.

But yeah basically what Frumple said for the skills is my understanding from reading the wiki. But Demonspawn Chaosknight is the combination most at whim to the RNG so you could just do whatever.

[Toaster]

If you plan to cast at all, you're probably best off putting your stat points into Int.

Demonspawn can be dependent on which mutation sets you get (though not nearly to the level of a Draconian.)  Pay close attention to the message you get- if you see "You feel monstrous as your demonic heritage asserts itself" you're going to lose a lot of slots but gain lots of auxiliary attacks.  A couple points in Unarmed will help those along if you stick to melee.  If you go the TMut route, you might as well ditch the spear once you get your UC off the ground and go full-on unarmed, because Blade Hands is sweet... assuming you can find a book for it any time soon.

[GlyphGryph]

This is bad, so bad. An ant, nothing but an ant, but it was vicious. It lives, still. We tried to flee it! But we could not escape. It poisoned us, and tore into us. We collapsed before it's onslaught, and I was certain we were dead. In desperation, I closed my eyes and chugged a mysterious potion from my bag in the hopes it would save me.

We felt ourselves grow faster, and when we opened my eyes... the ant was gone. And my surroundings different. I heard the sound of Xom's laughter in the air.

The worker ant bites you.
_* * * LOW HITPOINT WARNING * * *
 Drink which item? (? for menu, Esc to quit)
 You feel yourself speed up. It was a potion of speed.
 Xom thinks this is hilarious!
 The worker ant bites you but does no damage.
 "Let's go for a ride!"


But it did not stop there.

Your surroundings suddenly seem different.
 Your surroundings suddenly seem different.
 Your surroundings seem slightly different.

         ..........#                 Xomling the Poker
        ...........#                 Demonspawn of Xom
        ...........#                 Health: 3/28      ==----------------------
        ########...#                 Magic:  3/3       ========================
               #...#                 AC:  9            Str: 13
               #...#                 EV: 16            Int: 18       
               #...#                 SH:  2            Dex: 17       
               #...#                 XL:  3 Next: 41%  Place: Dungeon:3
               #?..#                 Wp: a) +2 spear {=f}
               #...#                 Qv: h) dagger
               #@g.#                 Pois Contam Fast
               #...#
               #...#                 g _ hobgoblin (sleeping)
               #...#
               #...#
               #..$#
               #...#
               #...#
               #..


_Your surroundings seem slightly different.
 Found a scroll labeled YCUFIC UKHLAI {tried on +2,+2 spear} and 13 gold pieces.
_A hobgoblin comes into view. It is wielding an orcish club.
 Drink which item? (? for menu, Esc to quit)
 You feel more agile all of a sudden.
_It was a potion of agility.
 Drink which item? (? for menu, Esc to quit)
 You feel more clever all of a sudden.
_It was a potion of brilliance.

[GlyphGryph]

What should we do?

[Un67]

Here is my best advice to you: don't take any advice from the wiki, tempting as it may be. The advice is either outdated or outright terrible/incorrect. Use the knowledgebots instead.

And in the short term, run and pray that the poison wears away. You can outrun the hobo because you're hasted. If you have any healing potions of any kind, quaff them. And if you don't, just quaff your unIDed potions just in case something works to save you.

[GlyphGryph]

As you can see, I've already been hard at work quaffing. But I'm worried I'll hit one of the few bad potions if I keep pushing my luck, especially if escape is a distinct possibility with all these boosts. +speed and +agility means if I DO fight, which might be good just to have a clear area to rest, I can probably kill the hob with thrown stuff and my poison spit.

Probably.

The poison seems to be doing less damage than my natural regen, at least, since I gained an hp with all that hopping around.

[Un67]

Then you should be fine with finding a safe corner and resting. Also, it's unlikely that anything you'll quaff will make the poison any worse, so if the situation gets desperate you may as well try.

[Dr.Feelgood]

Every time I try to RP in Crawl my characters die horribly.

I managed to nearly win with Xom (a bug made the game unwinnable), so here are some tips:

- Xom is an action junkie. Exploration and long stretches of non-fighting will make him bored. Do not fully explore levels and try to increase your movement speed.
- Repeated trips to your stash will also bore him.
- Don't bother trying to make him happy, just keep him from getting BORED.
- Xom likes it when you're seriously outnumbered or outmatched. And he's very likely to help you. Though his "help" is also likely to harm you.
- God punishments are hilarious to Xom.
- Try to get Controlled Blink asap.

No, let's go with serious winnable characters from the beginning. This won't be any fun if you don't get anywhere, because D:3 splats tend to get really exhausting. Try a HaHu - very good with slings and has decent defenses in EV and Stealth. Go Trog or Okawaru.

Painfulhilarious deaths are more fun than someone who beats the game on their 1st try.

[Un67]

You really must have enjoyed my attempt at making a DCSS LP last summer, then

I still am of the opinion that it's actually fun to see endgame content sometimes.

[Basque]

As far as quaffing unidentified potions goes, from my understanding one of the healing potions is the most common, right? However from the sound of the situation and because Un67 sounds like he knows what he's talking about retreating and resting is probably the best bet.

And like Dr.Feelgood said Xom being Bored will always cause bad effects  but you can still get bad effects regardless of piety or anything so if I can emphasis one of his points:

- Don't bother trying to make him happy, just keep him from getting BORED.

Seeing LPs like this always makes me want to pick up the game in question, and I've never played Crawl before. Kobold Stalker sound good for a first timer?

[Un67]

If you're a first timer, I highly suggest Kobold Berserker. It is really simple, really easy, and great for getting a first win. Here's how it works.

1) Press "m" and turn off training Armour. You're going to be a DEX fighter.
2) While I'm on skills, hang on to that mace you start with, no matter how un-Koboldish it seems. Turn off the Maces and Flails skill at level 12. I'll explain why later.
3) Kill stuff, and butcher and eat everything that's not poisonous, mutagenic, or rotting until you get to Engorged.
4) Sacrifice all the corpses you can't eat.
5) Abuse Trog's invocations. Use Berserk when you need a serious edge against an enemy, Trog's Hand for good healing through regeneration, and Brothers in Arms in the mid-game to pretty much kill everything. But don't use BiA too much, because you need piety.
6) Why do you need piety? Well, when you become Trog's Champion, he'll shower you with gifts of dubious quality. Having specialized in Maces and Flails, Trog will hand you a demon whip - and I swear, it is one of the best weapons in the game. I got one very early and I brutalized the whole game with it- it was my first and only win, although right now I have a decent spellcaster who's coming close.
7) Tackle the game in this order - Dungeon to the Lair of Beasts -> All of the Lair (Orc will probably come first in the Dungeon, but Lair is far easier) -> The Orcish Mines (Do not go into the Elven Halls, it will be a deathtrap at your level) -> The FIRST FOUR floors of the Swamp/Shoals/Snake (The fifth floor is the last level - a branch end - and it will be the hardest. Also ignore the Slime Pits because that place is a deathtrap.) -> The Dungeon up to the Vaults -> The FIRST SEVEN floors of the Vaults (The eighth floor is one of the toughest areas in the game in a standard run) -> The FIRST FOUR floors of the Elven Halls (You're probably sensing a pattern ) -> The rest of the Dungeon -> The branch ends of Swamp/Shoals/Snake (For the runes there which are Macguffins needed to enter the final zone of the standard game.) -> The branch end of the Elven Halls (Can be skipped, as it has no rune and can be very dangerous, but it had good loot.) -> The branch end of the Vaults (There is an ambush of a ton of vault guards when you enter - take them slowly and lure them up the stairs, don't be a hero and fight them all at once. This is actually a very important Crawl strategy you should heavily abuse over the course of the whole game to survive.) -> Zot (Make sure you have good fire resistance - at least two levels - electricity resistance, and mutation resistance. The orbs of fire in Zot are the nastiest things you will fight throughout the entirety of the game, with a possible exception for the ancient liches also found in Zot, and fire and mutation resistance can neutralize much of their danger, although far from all. The electricity resistance is for the electric golems which are incredibly dangerous, although they may not appear to be so at first.) -> Grab the Orb -> Run back to the entrance, and win!

Yeah, that was probably way longer than it needed to be, but seriously, this is how you win a KoBe, speaking from experience

[Basque]

Congratulations on your win, Un67! Considering how informed you seem, I'm surprised you haven't won with lots of characters. It's neat to see what kind of different combinations can work, I would normally associate Berserkers with high strength fighters like Minotaurs and Trolls.

GlyphGryph, if you don't mind me asking you haven't said much about your experience other than that you usually play Nagas. How are you feeling about this run so far/how's it compare to how you normally play? And as a side note, have you ever run a Naga of Cheibriados? They seem like a good match for each other.

[Un67]

Theoretically, I am a good player as I know a good bit about the game. In practice, I'm rather awful because I have terrible crisis management skills and don't really tend to play optimally, not to mention my lack of practical experience for most of the game. In theory, I know HOW to, but actually doing it? Effort

[GlyphGryph]

Nagas and Cher go pretty well together. Piety builds fast. But I've actually had more luck with Fedhas, at least as far as I've made. Having minions to stick between yourself and the enemies, either to hold them off while you blast them with spells or to cover your retreat, is amazingly helpful.

And my newest, a Level11 Fedhas Venom Mage Naga just got toasted by god knows what. I opened a door and there were suddenly three pages of messages that ended with that wonderful "You have died. Fedhas is pleased with your contribution to the ecosystem."
Lots of elf, orc, and centaur projectiles it looked like, the room was some sort of ambush room. :/ Well know I know that sort of stuff exists I guess!

Eh, better luck next time.

But now back to the game proper! Let's see what happens next...