-Crawl- Lucifer, the Demonspawn wizard, and the story of h..

Yes, incidentally this is the third or so character of mine which could
actually almost take on the Hive _and_ the mines without any major breaks. I
have been lucky with food, having like 7 bread and 4 meat rations stashed in
the temple, so food is no major problem, as the temple stairway was
generated in D:7. Maybe I'm playing too boldly, but hey, no pain, no gain.

In the beginning, there was nothing.... etc etc, we all know the story

In the early adventures of Lucifer the Demonspawn, giant bats seemed to come
around _every_ corner. Almost killed him a dozen of times. Some time after
that, he learned the Throw Flame spell from a book of minor magic, and that
has been his major attack spell so far, due to lack of elemental spellbooks.

yadda yadda yaa, the usual babbling about being in a tight corner etc,
though Lucifer hasn't had that many close calls after he leveled up a couple
of times, and could handle the bats.


Character dump is as following:

Dungeon Crawl version 4.0.0 beta 26 character file.

Lucifer the Conjurer (Demonspawn)
(Level 11 Wizard)

Play time: 05:06:27 Number of turns: 29064
//I haven't really played that long, I just sometimes forget Crawl running
into the background.
Experience : 11/16436
Strength 18 Dexterity 12 Intelligence 19
Hit Points : 69 Magic Points : 24
AC : 11 Evasion : 17 Shield : 0
GP : 217

You are in the Mines.
You worship Vehumet.
Vehumet is extremely pleased with you.
You are full.

Inventory:
Hand weapons
a - a +2,+1 sabre (weapon)
H - the -1,+3 crossbow of the Spinneret
It affects your evasion (+4).
It affects your strength (+2).
It protects you from fire.
It lets you turn invisible.
//Just found it, I'm not about to use it though.
Armour
e - a +0 pair of gloves of strength (worn)
f - a +2 cloak of preservation (worn)
y - a +5 robe of magic resistance (worn)
Magical devices
q - a bone wand
//Wand of frost/cold.
r - a wand of draining
w - a wand of polymorph other (0)
E - a wand of disintegration
T - a wand of teleportation
Comestibles
b - a meat ration
A - a honeycomb
J - 7 bread rations
Scrolls
d - 3 scrolls of enchant armour
j - 9 scrolls of detect curse
o - a scroll of magic mapping
v - 3 scrolls of enchant weapon I
x - 3 scrolls of identify
D - a scroll of fear
//saving these for a bad situation.
F - a scroll of remove curse
K - 2 scrolls of blinking
L - 2 scrolls of recharging
//what do the SoRe's do? all i get is "As you read the scroll, it crumples
to dust. Nothing happens."
Jewellery
g - the ring "Sugefece"
This ring increases or decreases the physical strength of its wearer, to
a
degree dependent on its power.
It affects your strength (-3).
It protects you from cold.
It enhances your eyesight.
//changed to poison resistance until the Hive is done. Essential to kill
those unseen horrors before they're way too close.

k - an uncursed ring of life protection
m - a ring of sustenance
s - a +4 ring of strength (right hand)
t - a cursed ring of teleportation
C - a ring of magical power
M - an amulet of resist corrosion
N - a ring of poison resistance (left hand)
Potions
i - 2 potions of restore abilities
l - 3 potions of might
p - 6 potions of healing
u - a potion of confusion
z - 2 potions of poison
B - 2 potions of heal wounds
G - 3 potions of speed
I - 3 potions of degeneration
O - 5 potions of slowing
R - 3 potions of levitation
//about to dump the Degeneration, slowing and poison potions.. Can potions
be thrown as weapons? IE. if i throw a PoConf onto a monster and it hits,
will it get confused?

Books
c - a book of Minor Magic
n - a book of Charms
P - a book of Cantrips
//Bought by an accidental keypress in a book shop

Miscellaneous
h - a sealed bronze flask
//what is this?

You have 2 experience left.

Skills:
+ Level 2 Fighting
+ Level 4 Short Blades
+ Level 5 Dodging
+ Level 4 Stealth
+ Level 6 Spellcasting
+ Level 13 Conjurations
+ Level 1 Enchantments
+ Level 1 Translocations
+ Level 1 Divinations
+ Level 10 Fire Magic
+ Level 1 Evocations

//Translocations are going off, since I think I can rely on the blink as
"Very good".

You have 2 spell levels left.
You know the following spells:

Your Spells Type Success Level
a - Magic Dart Conjuration Excellent 1
b - Throw Flame Fire/Conjuration Excellent 2
c - Blink Translocation Very Good 2
d - Conjure Flame Fire/Conjuration Excellent 3
e - Detect Creatures Divination Very Good 2
f - Haste Enchantment Useless 6
g - Projected Noise Enchantment Very Good 2
h - Apportation Translocation Very Good 1
i - Detect Secret Doors Divination Very Good 1

//yes, i know, I have learned too many spells from different schools etc,
but I've still been unable to find a book with selective amnesia. BTW, is
the Necronomicon any good a spellbook? costs a hell of a lot of gold.
Conjure flame has been used as a blockade between me and orcs and something
else..

Mutations & Other Weirdness
* You are surrounded by a strong repulsion field (ev + 5; repel missiles).
* You have a pair of large horns on your head.
Your vision is a little blurry.
You are partially covered in orange scales (AC + 1).

//the mutations caused by quaff-id'ing a potion of mutation

So, do _you_ think i could tackle the hive _and_ the mines?

any suggestions, ideas etc?

feel free to tell me the right from the wrong

First think you need to do is figure out what you're doing with this
guy. In Crawl, it's best to figure out what you want to do early on and
stick to it instead of going all over the place learning different
skills and spells. Is he a conjurer or is he a reaver? If you're a
conjurer, turn off short blades and only train up fighting(for hit
points).

If you're a reaver, short blades probably isn't the best route anyway
because it's hard to find a quick blade. Either Axes or Long Blades
would be better IMO---not mace/polearms because of the short blades
crosstraining. Pure Unarmed might actually be the best choice though.
Since you have those horns, you want to learn Unarmed anyway, so you
might as well go with it as your main weapon too to avoid skill
dilution.

> Armour
> e - a +0 pair of gloves of strength (worn)

Unequip the other two armours and read 2 scrolls of enchant armour,
then stash the other one. +2 is the hard limit on non-artifact
accessory armours.

> f - a +2 cloak of preservation (worn)

Very nice.

> y - a +5 robe of magic resistance (worn)

Have you used scrolls of enchant armour on this? If so, stop now and
don't do it in the future if you find this robe. Magic Resistance sucks
in Crawl. You *really* want either a robe of resistance(protects
against cold,fire) or an elven ring/scale with protection from cold
*or* fire.

> Magical devices
> q - a bone wand
> //Wand of frost/cold.
> r - a wand of draining
> w - a wand of polymorph other (0)

Dump this in a corner.

> E - a wand of disintegration
> T - a wand of teleportation
> Comestibles
> b - a meat ration
> A - a honeycomb
> J - 7 bread rations

Don't carry so much food. 2 rations is enough until you get further in
the game where banishment is a problem.

> Scrolls
> d - 3 scrolls of enchant armour
> j - 9 scrolls of detect curse
> o - a scroll of magic mapping
> v - 3 scrolls of enchant weapon I
> x - 3 scrolls of identify
> D - a scroll of fear
> //saving these for a bad situation.
> F - a scroll of remove curse
> K - 2 scrolls of blinking
> L - 2 scrolls of recharging
> //what do the SoRe's do? all i get is "As you read the scroll, it crumples
> to dust. Nothing happens."

'w'ield an empty wand before reading rechargign and you can recharge
it.

You're carrying way too many scrolls. Never carry around enchant foo
scrolls or recharging or detect curse. My typical configuration is:

2 identify
2 remove curse
4 teleport
1-2 blinking depending on my reserves


> k - an uncursed ring of life protection
> m - a ring of sustenance
> s - a +4 ring of strength (right hand)
> t - a cursed ring of teleportation
> C - a ring of magical power

Wear this for awhile instead of strength unless you are making a stash
trip or you decide to go with a reaverlike.

> M - an amulet of resist corrosion

Wear this.

> Potions
> i - 2 potions of restore abilities
> l - 3 potions of might
> p - 6 potions of healing
> u - a potion of confusion
> z - 2 potions of poison
> B - 2 potions of heal wounds
> G - 3 potions of speed
> I - 3 potions of degeneration
> O - 5 potions of slowing
> R - 3 potions of levitation

Too many potions. Stash the restores, stash 2 might, 1 speed, 2
healing, 2 levitation. Dump the nasty ones as soon as you find them and
set your init.txt to not pick those up.

> Books
> c - a book of Minor Magic
> n - a book of Charms
> P - a book of Cantrips
> //Bought by an accidental keypress in a book shop

Don't carry them around at any rate.

> Your Spells Type Success Level
> a - Magic Dart Conjuration Excellent 1
> b - Throw Flame Fire/Conjuration Excellent 2
> c - Blink Translocation Very Good 2
> d - Conjure Flame Fire/Conjuration Excellent 3
> e - Detect Creatures Divination Very Good 2
> f - Haste Enchantment Useless 6
> g - Projected Noise Enchantment Very Good 2
> h - Apportation Translocation Very Good 1
> i - Detect Secret Doors Divination Very Good 1
>
> //yes, i know, I have learned too many spells from different schools etc,
> but I've still been unable to find a book with selective amnesia.

Don't rely on selective amnesia showing up. In my last victory I didn't
get it until Vault 8(near the end of a three-rune game). Be frugal with
your spell slots until you have located a book with it. Don't try to
learn Haste when you get a message implying it will be impossible to
use anyway. Apportation, projected noise and detect secret doors are
generally useless IMO.

> BTW, is
> the Necronomicon any good a spellbook? costs a hell of a lot of gold.
> Conjure flame has been used as a blockade between me and orcs and something
> else..

Just forget it for now, you need a lot of necromancy skill to even read
it IIRC.

>
> Mutations & Other Weirdness
> * You are surrounded by a strong repulsion field (ev + 5; repel missiles).

That's a nice one. One of the best you can get as a Demonspawn.

> * You have a pair of large horns on your head.

This might make it worth going the reaver route and learning Unarmed an

> So, do _you_ think i could tackle the hive _and_ the mines?

I don't think this character is ready for the Hive. Speedy, swarming
bees are tough to handle, but they're even tougher with no bolt spell
or melee. I'd take on the MInes and Lair.