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[Dr.Feelgood]

But do they have absolutely 0 spells memmed? Do they have spell-like abilities, e.g. Nemelex cards?

Berserkers can't use spells and most fighters don't bother grinding to use them. And Nemelex is not a popular god. You can check the recent wins at CAO. There's always a few spell-less combos on that list. Spells aren't a necessity.

[Niveras]

Well, I stand corrected.

[debvon]

To respond to a comment a page back, I actually find Earth Elementalists super easy to get going. Sandblast is an incredibly powerful spell, especially against unarmored things, you just need to know when to use your rocks. Early game it's essential to use rockless sandblasts against things like lonely goblins/kobolds, small creatures, etc. With the exception of snakes. Those you need to devote rocks to killing. Also pick up any rocks you see, ever, and deposit them in your stash (only rarely am I encumbered by the time I reach the temple). As soon as you can reliably cast petrify your survivability shoots up, as long as you continue to play cautiously. Always have an escape route (i.e. a 1-square wide tunnel). In open dungeon levels without any tunnels, it's imperative to play like an Assassin. Very carefully. Keep staircases at your back and prepare to petrify everything and run. It's better to do that than to risk getting surrounded, only to have an orc priest stroll into your fov with a big 'ole grin on his face.

Passwall, I've noticed, is not a great escape spell until you have quite a few Earth levels under your belt. There are almost always better escape methods. However when you can pass through 4 walls 6-7 turns it's really great to have, especially if you have Summon Elemental. Break an elemental out of the wall, sic him on the guys down the tunnel, and passwall out of there.

Lee's Rapid Deconstruction is great for situations like, opening a door to a room containing an orcish love dog pile. Petrify one to block the door and wait until he's completely still, then explode him until everything behind is dead. Using LRD can be pretty risky because of how fun it is. Before you know it you'll have no mana left, and as you run away you'll run into a stone giant or something equally ironic, and you'll frantically try to blink or teleport or spam sandblast.

So just play cautiously early on and always be aware of how much mana you're working with. Sif Muna's channeling is amazing for petrify. I can get a newborn EE off the ground 3/4's of the time without any trouble.



Oh and for people who don't play trunk..

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

They replaced fire elementalist's starting conjure flame spell with Inner Flame, which means we can no longer take on hordes of creatures with relative ease. Or escape with ease. It's like a (more) suicidal version of fireball. WHYYYYYYYY?

Though after playing around with it a bit I have noticed that with perfect positioning and timing, you can do some serious damage to "trouble" creatures early on. Is there an ice beast standing next to sigmund? Inner fire that bastard (the ice beast) and blow it up. Hell, you can even do decent damage with goblin bombs. So while FE's have lost a lot of early survivability, they've gained some quirky nuking power. I still preferred conjure flame's great utility and nuking power though..

[Ahra]

death by horde of angry orc warriors and priests...
FUCK THAT WAS MY BEST CHARACTER YET!!!

[Taxus]

What am I supposed to do when stuck in a hallway in the early game between two enemies who I know I can't melee, who I don't have any spells to combat or weaken, and don't have the god superpowers to break through? I'm probably playing it wrong, but pure melee seems pretty tough.

Since melee characters don't have as many tricks as spellcasters, part of your survival strategy is setting up your melee combat to your greatest advantage. How did you get stuck in a hall between two strong enemies? Most of the time you can avoid that if you are paying attention and thinking about how you explore. Learning to retreat effectively is vital. A big part of that is learning to minimize the chances of running into more enemies while you're retreating, and how to break off single enemies from a pack.

The most frustrating part of full-on melee classes is that at the outset you rely way too much on luck. Get a cursed weapon?

Why did you wield an unknown weapon when you didn't have any remove curse scrolls? This is what detect curse is for.

[drkpaladin]

Even berserkers get the ability to summon reinforcements when they get overwhelmed.  This game is all about expending resources wisely.  .  I love playing trolls personally, but by vault 8 even a troll should have accidentally picked up a few abilities beyond claw or stumbled upon a beginner's spellbook, wands or evokable gear.

[G-Flex]

Why did you wield an unknown weapon when you didn't have any remove curse scrolls? This is what detect curse is for.

In plenty of games, you basically need to early on, unless you don't want to be able to butcher anything.

[breadbocks]

I was playing a TrBe (What? I wanted to get to Zot for once. :X) and what do I find on D5 but Mottled Dragon armor. Proof that crawl isn't all bad.

[Robsoie]

Yes Crawl is not bad, in last year online tournament, in version 0.7, one of my character found a crystal plate mail on D:1

... playing a spriggan

So no, Crawl is not bad because it's worse, Crawl is plain evil !

[Max White]

I was found a shiny crystal plate on d3... As a draconian...
I swear it is on purpose.

[debvon]

Believe it or not I actually found (fairly early on) a robe of the night being sold in a shop. As an assassin. And I had just enough to afford it. They were also selling what looked like a fixedart dagger, but I needed to clear mines before it was mine.

Anyway I died on the very next Dlevel wearing my precious robe. CURSES

[Mr.Person]

Why did you wield an unknown weapon when you didn't have any remove curse scrolls? This is what detect curse is for.

In plenty of games, you basically need to early on, unless you don't want to be able to butcher anything.

Yes, you wield one early dungeon knife or dagger. If it's cursed, burn scrolls to uncurse it. Better yet, burn scrolls to detect curse. After that one dagger/knife, you either have ?oRC on hand or use ?oDC on everything before putting it on.

[Max White]

Sarg: DEEP ELF WIZARD NUMBER 43, REPORT FOR DUTY!
43: Ye, yes, sir?
Sarg: 43, we need you to try your luck in that dungeon that we keep sending everybody into, and never return from, to get the orb of Zot, understood?
43: Yes sir, just tell my wife and children I loved them very much.
Sarg: No can do, 43! We already sent them in. Be careful, they might have become ghosts, and those nasty SoB's will kill you on sight.
43: Understood. 


And so another brave adventurer wanders to he's death, he's life amounting to little more than a challenge for anybody else who tries their luck. We salute you, brave fool, and may Xom look over us all!

[G-Flex]

Why did you wield an unknown weapon when you didn't have any remove curse scrolls? This is what detect curse is for.

In plenty of games, you basically need to early on, unless you don't want to be able to butcher anything.

Yes, you wield one early dungeon knife or dagger. If it's cursed, burn scrolls to uncurse it. Better yet, burn scrolls to detect curse. After that one dagger/knife, you either have ?oRC on hand or use ?oDC on everything before putting it on.

That's a fairly ideal way to play though, and in practice it just doesn't turn out that way. If I find a significantly better weapon, and it's enchanted, on D:1, then the benefit of wielding it outweighs the risk of it being cursed.

[SirAaronIII]

Is Grinder extremely dangerous or something? I ran into him on D3 and barely beat him with the help of 2 imps. Then I leveled up twice (4-6).