@Leafsnail: Earth elementalists actually have one escape spell in the starter book - passwall. It's more situational than most, but combine it with magic mapping and you're a god. It becomes something of a moot point with LRD, though.
Finding the morgue in the installed version was hell. I knew where it had to be, but because hidden files are somehow impossible to view (yes, I am the admin and I know how the settings work) on this Windoze machine, I have to somewhat know where to start. So, if anyone else finds themselves up a creek on locating this stuff, seek out C:\Docs & Sets\Relevant User\Application Data\crawl
Also, I'm playing stone soup, so I'm stuck with the nature of my earth elementalists. Ironically, I've found them to be my favorite class despite being "weak", but then my other top two are Mummy Necromancers (admittedly a powerful combination, if finding Necromutation redundant), and Kobold Summoners (whatever their potential is, it isn't many that get to live up to it).
And I kind of like the whole setup of Earth Elementalists with regards to transmutations (it also makes it easier for transmuters to branch into direct damage when Evaporate's power starts waning), in that they're not just pulling this crap out of thin air, they're using the environment (which you have to admit heavily favors the earth, being UNDERGROUND) to screw the foe over. LRD is one of my favorite spells, because it's part of a group along with Ozcobu's Refrigeration and the Somebody's Lesser Intoxication or whatever it is of spells that are intended for nonviolent purposes, but have been noted to be /really useful/ for ruining someone's day.
I also support Cherbyshev for the simple reason that it is more accurate to reality given our representation (there is no fixed X or Y to be moving diagonally to in real life, you know), and the point here is reality - but cooler.