cjh (09/16/82)
It is a mistake to burn a great deal of magic on trolls, since xorns and umber hulks (at least) will be significantly more dangerous to your ambitions, unless you're trying to place in the top ten list on a system where nobody has gotten over 3-4k gold. You do have to be careful with trolls---always look for loops so you can run away and heal, remember they can take 28 hp at one blow (so run away soon enough), and don't go below level 12 until you've gotten 1280 experience points (you can hang around 12 offing yetis until you achieve this unless you're in food trouble; if you have lots of food you can even off trolls until you get to 2560, which gives you a fair chance not to lose levels against wraiths). But for Ghu's sake don't wander around levels 9-18 wearing your good armor (unless you've genocided the rust monsters, which may or may not be a good move); let one suit wear down to class 9 and stick with it since if you can't survive for a while in poor armor (e.g., have very few hp) you should give up and try again. The other chance is to try on all the leather armor you find, since it can't rust \at/ \all/---bless it and it stays blessed (I've found a couple of suits of +2 leather). Food---the biggest food problem tyros (including those who have a lot of experience with 3.n) run into on 5.2 is rings. Some conclusions I've reached: 1. Even cursed factor rings (i.e., -1 Protection and Dexterity) increase the rate at which you burn food. Accordingly, factor rings are useless unless you have huge amounts of food or a Slow Digestion. 2. Searching seems to consume enough extra food that it's useless. If you have Slow Digestion and no other rings it saves you typing time. 3. See Invisible, Regeneration, and [preserve] Strength should only be worn in combat situations. Even in ant territory you should put on Strength only when you're attacked; you'll probably lose some strength but you're almost certainly dead if you wear it continuously or if you don't find a Restore Strength potion (unlikely; I usually find at least 1 by level 12).
will (09/25/82)
Iagree with all that, but are you SURE leather armor doesn't weaken against a rustie? I may be wrong, but it seems to me that I tried this once thinking o.k., leather can't rust...and it did. I believe this was in 5.2. Anyone know fer sure? The Headhunter