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[Robsoie]

Okawaru does not sound bad , i used it with a very good Mountain Dwarf in trunk and it was helpfull.

The only cons of the trunk Okawaru is the Might replaced by Heroism, Might was giving a very usefull temporary damage boost that could save you dwarf often, while Heroism just add temporarly skill increases that are rather pointless at mid game and more.

But the gift system is always good, i had some very nice randart. And with the AC system being improved in trunk, the lack of Might is more or less balanced by your Mountain Dwarf increased damage reduction from the AC, as you can take more hits.

I don't think you can vorporalize a distortion brand.

Damn, my plan is in the water then.
Wonder what kind of brand i will apply then, draining is dangerous as it just serve to lower the XP you'll get from a kill making you then not gaining XP fast enough for resisting in lower dungeon floor, flaming and freezing have a big cons considering if you're unlucky you're going to face mostly monster immune or very resistant to it and venom is basically useless at mid game.

I guess i'll go freezing, even if i perfectly know with my kind of luck that Crawl will then most likely spawn nearly only cold immune monsters starting from now , but at least if it can slow down some big bad in close quarter it could allow my character to be able to run from them.

[beorn080]

I'm not sure if you can do it without going shining one, but holy wrath is a good brand.

[Mr.Person]

Holy wrath, distortion, and pain can't be vorpalized. To get a weapon branded with those brands pernamentely, you have to max piety with TSO, Lugonu, or Kiku respectively.

[Mindmaker]

Too bad.
Killed by a player ghost.

Nemelex is a great god for MdFi, but you get to few decks in the beginning...

[Soadreqm]

I started several kobold summoners, and one finally took off. D:4 had some kind of vault, a strange place with metal walls, twisted crannies, fungi and scorpions. A lot of scorpions. And a pile of weapons. A short sword of venom, a long sword of holy wrath, a morningstar of protection and an executioner's axe. Too bad I can't wield the axe due to being a kobold. I think this is the first time ever I see one of those.

Anyway, my imps are killing everything. Can't cast Summon Scorpions, but I could manage Canine Familiar. Is it worth it?

Also, I ate three chunks of sky beast meat. sInv, Dex +1, deteoriation. My luck with mutation continues.

[Mr.Person]

Canine Familiar is really bad. The hounds are squishy and weak. Scorpions are much less squishy and stack poison damage real fast.

[Soadreqm]

Okay. I'll stick with imps and keep raising my summoning skill. I'm doing pretty okay with them, anyway. They're cheap, and my naturally awesome eating skills let me spam Sif's energy channeling fast enough to keep replacing the imps as they die.

[Frumple]

Canine Familiar is really bad. The hounds are squishy and weak. Scorpions are much less squishy and stack poison damage real fast.

Wait, what? Has something changed in the recent development builds? Just recently, canine familiar could produce war hounds that were damn solid. When your summoning got up a bit, you'd put out more of those than hounds, and do a pretty good job of wrecking the joint. CF's a good spell in the early/mid game. Mixed imps and canines can get you pretty far.

Scorpions can turn on you, which can be dangerous, and they're quite flimsy. The poison stacking bit is accurate, though. What you really want is ice beasts. Those are sexy, and two or three of them can drop a hydra fairly easily.

[Mindmaker]

The dying words of most my characters: "Must... save... wands...".

[tomas1297]

The dying words of most my characters: "Must... save... wands...".

Amen. Also "must...not...spend...piety...need...god...gift".

[Robsoie]

Just reached a point now in which my Deep Elf can actually cast level 6 spell hunger free.
So i guess it's time now to use something else than the level 5 lighting bolt as my main damaging spell.
Due to Sif Muna, i have a very lots of books in my stash, so i have a lot of choice regarding which spell i could use now.

My current skills :

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

HP  63/63        AC 13     Str 11      Exp: 16/154824 (157), need: 45375
MP  40/40        EV 20     Int 30      God: Sif Muna [******]
Gold 2770        SH  0     Dex 15      Spells:  6 memorised, 30 levels left

   Skills:
 + Level 2 Fighting
 + Level 5 Maces & Flails
 + Level 12 Dodging
 + Level 7 Stealth
 + Level 1 Stabbing
 + Level 3 Traps & Doors
 + Level 19 Spellcasting
 - Level 14 Conjurations
 + Level 3 Charms
 - Level 14 Air Magic
 - Level 4 Poison Magic
 + Level 4 Evocations

most turned off to give priority to Spellcasting (as the goal was to get quickly good spells hunger free.)

My current spell list

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

 Your Spells              Type           Power        Success   Level  Hunger
a - Shock                 Air/Conj       #####        Perfect     1    None
b - Mephitic Cloud        Pois/Air/Conj  #######...   Excellent   3    None
c - Iskenderun's Mystic   Conj           ########.    Excellent   4    None
d - Airstrike             Air            ########..   Excellent   4    None
e - Deflect Missiles      Air/Chrm       #######...   Great       6    None
f - Lightning Bolt        Air/Conj       ########..   Excellent   5    None

Shock is now basically useless as i'm meeting less and less monsters it can 2/3 shot
Mephitic has been always very usefull at confusing large mass of monsters (i have enough MP to cast it several time)
Mystic Blast plain amazing though i wish it was less than 4MP each use
Airstrike had helped clearing Hive (though i didn't noticed much difference in damage with Mystic Blast against those flying bees) other than that, it's relatively unused by my character
Deflect Missiles have been saving my character from centaur encounters without a problem.
Lighting Bolt has been great at cleaning lots of monsters encounter in corridors.

So far level 6 spells that seems interesting :
-Iron Shot, that apparently my character should be able to cast at "Very Good" from the book, could use some Earth skills, it looks very damaging, more than the fire/frost equivalent at level 6.
But my major cons is that this spell is said to be unreliable in regards to accuracy, and it costs 6 MP to cast, with a large chance to miss it could be a disaster. Wasting 6 Mp on unreliable accuracy does not seem a good idea.

-Fireball, can be cast at "Very Good" too, will have to get some fire skill to increase it, but neither in bot or wiki i see how much damage it does, i know it's good from the wands using it, but is it really that good for spending 6MP on it by use ?

-Bolt of Fire/Bolt of Cold, same damage/range, "Very Good" too, but will need training in Fire/Cold skills, could be nice as replacement from my Lighting Bolt for enemies in line.

-Freezing Cloud, that is at "Great", the effect sounds nice in theory from the description, but i have strictly no experience with this spell, is it as good as it seems or a waste of 6MP ?

Or should i instead begin to learn some summon skill to get some meat shields as in some situation i have been using teleport while i think a few allies could instead have helped my escapes ?

[beorn080]

If you have access, summon butterflies. Level 1, summon large cloud of butterflies that critters have to fight through to get to you. Individually, they're basically worthless, but it still takes time for enemies to eat through them.

As for damage spells, I'm less qualified to say, but summon butterflies is almost essential.

[Soadreqm]

My spriggan who won had evokable freezing cloud from a rod, and it was definitely pretty good, even though the hunger cost was something of an issue. I was still using it in Zot. Of course, I had enough combat skills to stand around and engage the monsters in melee so they couldn't leave the cloud, which may have played a part, but I'd say it's definitely worth memorizing no matter what.

I've heard that fireball sucks, but don't really have much firsthand experience with it. I've used the wand version every now and then, and that seemed pretty okay. Wands of fire/cold have generally been more useful, so maybe you should go for one of the bolts instead. Iron shot I've never used. From what I hear, it deals massive damage but only against one enemy and misses more often than ideal.

Other spells I think you should consider:
Swiftness - Only costs two spell levels, and even a slight boost to your running away skills is a huge boon.
Levitation - Makes swiftness more powerful. Also lets you cross water, magma and traps, as well as boosting your carrying capacity.
Haste - You probably need some more charms skill to cast this reliably, but if/when you can, it essentially doubles your death-hurling capabilities
Summon Butterflies - Another spell that increases your ability to run away
Apportation - For grabbing interesting items before and during running away

Learning summonings sounds like a pretty good path too. My last character to learn Summon Demon was kicking ass left and right. I forget what he died of.

[Niveras]

Freezing Cloud is definitely a strong spell. It is usually the third offensive spell I mem when playing casters: air elementals get shock by default, meph cloud ASAP, (throw icicle/IMB to upgrade Shock if I get lucky), then freezing cloud. It lasts pretty much until end game, where you get something like Tornado/storms to do the heavy lifting.

The only real worry is against some cold immunes/undead who are resistant. It also takes some practice when aiming in corridors, because it can easily flood onto you - especially if the corridor is already partially filled from a previous cast.

[Robsoie]

Thanks, i got Summon Butterfly and Call Imp, managed after exploring D:15 D:16 and D:17 with Swamp:1 and Swamp:2 to get the Summon Skill to 10, those Deep Elf are really quick learners.

Sif Muna does not seem yet interested in giving me more powerfull summon books unfortunately, but with a skill 10 i should be ready for them once they come.

I'll learn Freezing Cloud then at least in case i am going to get a bit too close to an enemy, so they'll stay in the cloud, with the good cold resistance i have from items it should be no problem for my character if the freezing cloud backfire.

After playing so much with Mummy and Vampire before this game, i nearly forgot how much it is annoying to deal with hunger if you don't find either a sustenance ring or a gourmand amulet as those seems for now lacking from everything i explored (may certainly have to use my 2 acquirement scroll to try to get them it seems), nearly every 5 minutes of game time despite not doing anything increasing the normal 3 by turns loss of nutrition.