Alright.. this has to be the LUCKIEST fighter I've ever played in my entire life. Before lair (somewhere around the temple I think?) I found the +6 +6 Lehudib's crystal spear {return}. Then inside the lair I cleared out an ice cave with demons and at the end was the +15 Maxwell's patent armour {rCorr, Cons, -CAST, -TELE, MR} which is an amazing pure fighter platemail. Right after I leave the ice cave I smack down a yak and Okawaru gifts me the +7+8 eveningstar "Abbaed" {flame, dex+3}, and I'm a mace fighter. Oh and I forgot to mention the artifact ring "Jula Wuu" {+Rage, +Lev, rElec, Dam+2} that I found earlier as well.
So I'm sitting here with 44 AC, 32 SH, an amazing throwing weapon, an artifact eveningstar, and I haven't even cleared lair yet. Moments like this make me forget all about the times crawl has screwed me over.
Spellcasting. The same problem goes for MD. I've not yet actually tried a SEEE. As for IEs and FEs, I prefer DEs, for the massive boost on spellcasting.
Also, what's this I hear about new training system?
EDIT: Just downloaded the trunk to play skalds, holy shit, shroud! It's like repel missiles, but for meele!
Sandblast will get you by until you can get spellcasting up. You just need to manage your rocks wells.
I was wondering about that. How do you use rocks to power up sandblast?
ctrl+click your rocks to wield them, then use sandblast. It's amazingly powerful against unarmored things (and even armored-ish things) once it has some spell power behind it.