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[ShadeJS]

Even I would recommend learning Mephitic Cloud if you ever get the chance. It's that good.

Or Evaporate if you're a Transmuter.

Odds are if it has a beating heart, either will deal with strong individuals or inconvenient packs. Both also make it a cinch to flee. Mephi + Poisson (x2 per baddie) +Flee, or Evaporate Confusion + Evaporate Poison + Flee will let you kite most of the early game, and does wonders in Orc and the Lair. Or if you're braver, or need to dump XP into a skill, it gives you plenty of time to buff up and wade in.

[Mr.Person]

It's not the spell. It's not even the confusion (although the confusion is part of it). It's the low level spell that incapacitates non-rPois low-HD foes. The actual status condition is unimportant. The confusion is more than enough time to kill your foe, and even if they snap out of it early, just confuse em again. And if they're strong, confuse them and run away. You've got flexibility with Mephitic Cloud.

The reason I like Sticky Flame better is that with MC, you incapacitate your foe then kill them. With SF, you skip the intermediary and just kill them. Of course, I still learn MC since it's an amazing escape tool, but I use SF for general use. The downside to my "Vehumet DSFE" is primarily spell slots. That means no or little adaptability. With 1 slot on Flame Tongue, 2 on Throw Flame, and 4 on Sticky Flame, that's 7 spell levels spent right there. Since I generally turn off Spellcasting and in Trunk Demonspawn level very slowly, I tend to always be low on spell slots. Around the time I hit Lair Vehumet starts gifting me, so I want to keep 4 slots open for Mystic Blast and then spend my next 7 slots on Orb of Destruction (It's not great, but it works). To make matters even worse, I'm going to want Abjuration, too, so there's another 3 spell slots spent. By this point in the game, however, more and more enemies resist poison! Argh! So by this point I'm on the lookout for escape spells. MC is a good spell, but it won't help me escape from the kinds of enemies I actually want to get away from, such as hydras, liches (Boris, usually), high-HD uniques, demons, ranged attackers at edge of LOS, and probably several other nasties I've forgotten about. What with spell slots being so tight, I just can't afford to spend them on MC. I'd rather have Blink, and I dislike Blink.

[DJ]

The nice thing about MC is that it lets you train fighting in a safeish way, for those sweet, sweet HPs. Training stabbing doesn't hurt either.

Not to mention that fast monsters can kill you before they burn to death.

[Leafsnail]

I just had a DEWi (or whatever they're called) that had both sticky flame and mephitic cloud.  Only to get insta-owned whilst going down the stairs.  Damn.

On the other hand, you can kill swarms of death yaks really easily when you have both spells.  Step one: if anything isn't confused, confuse it.  Step two: if anything isn't burning, fix that error.  Step three: if you're out of mana, ask Sif for some more.

Bonus points for doing it near deep water, which seems to appear far more now in Lair.

Can I just ask - how does Strength skill effect an assassin?  Daggers are meant to be "better for the dextrous", but does strength still effect damage?

[Soadreqm]

I'm really quite scared now.

And I'm interested to know whether you will lose this character to power-induced overconfidence, or the Grace of Xom. Keep us updated!

[Kagus]

Well, Nemelex Xobeh seems to be far more fickle than he used to be.  I've run dry on cards, and the big man seems to be preoccupied with other matters, so I'm stuck wandering around with lackluster fighting skills and a SERIOUSLY AWESOME DAGGER THAT KILLS EVERYTHING.

I also picked up a level in spellcasting from reading scrolls, but I don't have any books to work with.

I've got eight wands that still have some charges left in them, but I've already dropped three-four others that I drained (yes, there have been a LOT of wands).  Through the use of confusion and paralysis wands, I've been one-hit-stabbing ogres with that dagger.  I'm level 9, I've got 9 strength, and I'm on dungeon level 9.

I've got loads of evocations skill (level 11 right now, in fact), plus enough Traps & Doors skill to keep me from ever stepping on the traps that show up around here.

Now I'm just trying to conserve wand charges, so I took on about four orcs and a warg one-on-one in a corridor with no boosts.  The warg hit me once for 2 damage, which was the total damage suffered.  I think 23 EV is pretty decent, don't you?

That skirmish also included a couple orc warriors and a giant eyeball (who became the warg, thanks to one of two wands of Polymorph Other) who were dealt with through wands and stabbing.

I am starting to get worried though.  I'm running out of useful charges, and I still haven't seen so much as a pamphlet from Nemelex.  Hopefully he'll restock my collection soon enough...

EDIT:  There goes Psyche.  One stab, one kill.

EDIT2:  Four killer bees and a manticore.  The manticore needed a couple hits from my wand of confusion, which was restored from emptiness when I remembered that I had a scroll of recharging on hand.  I've got somewhere around 2300 free XP right now.

[beorn080]

Did you sac those dry wands? I'm not sure if he takes them, but if he does I'm sure they'd help.

[Kagus]

I'm sure I did.  I've been saccing just about everything lately, making sure not to weight things too far off of summoning.  I actually ran across a book before I had the spellcasting skill, and I gave that to him too.  I even bought a randart hand axe from a store and sacrificed it.  I've currently got [****..], "A shining star in the eyes of Nemelex Xobeh", but he still seems to be distracted by something.  I wonder what's keeping him from dealing me a new set...

EDIT:  Ah, there we are!  I knew you hadn't forgotten about me, great one!  An ornate deck of summoning, yes thank you...

[beorn080]

Nice. I just started another Merfolk Crusader. 6 darts of reaping off of a Kobold on level on. Now I just have to find a 20 headed hydra thats almost dead and I'll be set.

Edit: I now have my own personal Batarang. An orcish dagger of returning. Yay. I'm gonna chop my own head off.

Edit: I fell to Sigmund with a flamethrower. Yay fun.

[Mr.Person]

Not to mention that fast monsters can kill you before they burn to death.

Doesn't actually happen very often, oddly. Spiny Frogs are about the only Lair danger capable of moving that fast with that many hitpoints. Even if you don't have a great spell to kill them, just Sticky Flame and run. Try and get as many turns of burning as you can. It'll be half dead by the time it catches up to you, making it easy prey for whatever other spells and wands you've got. And seriously, if you can't take a few hits, a few levels of Fighting skill isn't going to help. If you're trying to do a "don't get hit" wizard, Fighting skill is the last thing you need.

[Soadreqm]

Inspired, I started a spriggan assassin myself. I haven't found the temple yet. There was a lone altar of Okawaru, but I decided to hold out for Nemelex, since I'd already started stacking all the dungeon crap. I got Str+1 and clarity from an unidentified potion of mutation, which obsoleted my amulet of clarity. And I've found a dagger of speed, as well as a dagger of returning, although I've never gotten the hang of using those. The +4 ring of protection I found early has also been nice. I just took out a mini ant hive of five giant ants in four stabs and a short melee with the last one. Speed is a kickass brand.

I've also found four spellbooks, three of them with first level spells I can practice with. Most importantly, the best utility spell of them all, apportation. Not useful as often as some other spells, but totally worth it for all those times you find a spellbook sitting next to a Trog altar. And I'm not really going for a caster-type here, so slots shouldn't be much of an issue. What other spells should I consider getting? I'm level eight, with one level of spellcasting, and have:

Spoiler: spell list (click to show/hide)

 a - Apportation                   Translocation                 Fair        1
 b - Freeze                        Ice                           Fair        1
 c - Summon Small Mammals          Summoning                     Fair        1
 d - Blink                         Translocation                 Fair        2
 e - Call Imp                      Summoning                     Fair        2
 f - Portal Projectile             Translocation                 Fair        2
 g - Sticks to Snakes              Transmutation/Summoning       Fair        2
 h - Throw Frost                   Conjuration/Ice               Fair        2
 i - Call Canine Familiar          Summoning                     Bad         3
 j - Ozocubu's Armour              Enchantment/Ice               Bad         3
 k - Poison Weapon                 Enchantment/Poison            Bad         3
 l - Recall                        Summoning/Translocation       Bad         3
 m - Spider Form                   Transmutation/Poison          Bad         3
 n - Control Teleport              Enchantment/Translocation     Useless     4
 o - Olgreb's Toxic Radiance       Poison                        Useless     4
 p - Resist Poison                 Enchantment/Poison            Useless     4
 q - Summon Scorpions              Summoning/Poison              Useless     4
 r - Teleport Other                Translocation                 Useless     4
 s - Throw Icicle                  Conjuration/Ice               Useless     4
 t - Poisonous Cloud               Conjuration/Poison/Air        Useless     5
 u - Summon Ice Beast              Ice/Summoning                 Useless     5
 v - Teleport Self                 Translocation                 Useless     5
 w - Freezing Cloud                Conjuration/Ice/Air           Useless     6

EDIT: It's apparently a +5,+2 dagger of speed. The only problems I'm foreseeing are monsters with flat damage reduction and finding something more awesome and wasting this. Is there any reason I shouldn't use my two scrolls of Enchant Weapon I on this baby?

[beorn080]

I think I just found a Bear Cave. A small alcove with a Black Bear, and a honeycomb and Royal Jelly. Shame I'm a mummy.

[Jervous]

Cool! My fighter ghoul learned how to use magic


Then he died.

[beorn080]

Apportation, Blink, Controlled Teleport, and Spammals. In that order I think would be best. Blink is very useful, and Spammels is very good in combination with it. Portal Projectile might be useful as well, making long range shooting quite easy. If you want mass offensive, Olgreb's is a nifty poison everything spell, but it loses its usefulness against poison resistant mobs. Honestly, I'd probably just run down the teleport line, which should net enough spellcasting to cast Spammals consistently.

Edit: I just found an odd Temple entrance. A small pond with 4 tiles of lava a tile away on the diagonal. It constantly creates steam. Not sure if this is good or not.

[Leafsnail]

Oh wow... needles of paralysis.

Just... needles of paralysis.  Killing a paralysed Sigmund with a single stab at level 5 is awesome.

Unfortunately, I only had 7, and one broke on impact with Sigmund.  Better use these wisely.