Crawl and Brands

[Psiweapon]

Is it me or the first requisite for your character to actually go somewhere is finding a venom-branded weapon?

For me, venom brand = get to the snake pit or somewhere that deep

no venom brand = get killed at some random point before Dungeon 10

[corremn]

Poison weapons, while good in the early levels, are quite weak (due to poison resistance) in later levels. If you are relying on branded weapons then you *may* be doing something wrong.  Remember your tactics have to evolve as you get deeper.

Crawl is brutal, every turn may be your last, but nearly every death should be avoidable. Use darts early in the game to soften up enemies, and run from anything that may kill you. Crawl is not a game to have a I-might-try-to-kill-that-ogre mentality. You have to switch to a that-ogre-will-probably-kill-me-so-I-will-avoid-it mentality.

 I think once you regularly get to or past level 10 then you progress to the next "level" as a player.  You become the "mid-game" player, as opposed to the "early-game-die-to-easily" player.  Unfortunately I have not really got past the "mid-game" player stage.

[Psiweapon]

Well, I guess with 1 in 7 characters I manage to get to Dungeon:10, and a bit beyond...

Right now I'm playing a Naga of Cheibriados, which started as a venom mage.

Weak threats and bugs fall to poison, mid threats fall to a +2/+6 orcish battleaxe, and screenloads of orcs die to Slouch. Just for good measure I carry a variety of thrown and missile weapons. Managed to find a +0/+8 ring of slaying and a cold resistant naga barding.

I've just found "a dark tunnel"  on Lair:4 but sadly right now the crawl wiki is offline...

[Psiweapon]

Got killed at Shoals:3 eventually... I did my best against a swarm of water elementals summoned by some unique monster, but finally I had to use a scroll of teleport as a last resort.

Guess what? It beamed me down between Polyphemus and a throng of merfolk.

Anyways, probably my better run, AFAIK the most advanced character I had died on the shoals, and one floor prior to death I meleed a player ghost to true death.

[jim]

Nice work, Psiweapon. Chei is not an easy god, and Nagas are not an easy race.

You have the right idea in that you do want to seek an edge in the early game: curare needles, a wand of draining, mephitic cloud, a branded weapon. But in the absence of that edge, you need to be one cowardly motherfucker, just like Corremn says.

[Psiweapon]

Well looks like I more or less have gotten the gist of these Nagas of Cheibriados...

I'm cleaning Orcish Mines:4 again, after three or four "failed" attempts that died on level 2-4.

I really like Beogh and orcish priests, it's really fun to see those orcs converting to your case, but he's a wuss in comp oh hey wait insulting a god is probably no great idea.

Edit: harold appeared in the nick of time to destroy most of my HP with a firebolt. Teleported away but he appeared again and couldn't confuse him. Dead now

[jim]

One thing that can help you change from an early game player to mid game player is to realize that the branches in Crawl are a buffet, not a series of prix fixe courses. It can be hard to clear out the orc caves or Lair on a single excursion, especially when you first encounter them. You might want to dip your toes in a few levels each, collecting loot and XP. Only when you've exhausted all easy paths (or if you're feeling brash) should you push to the bottom.

BTW, spriggan or felid sneak/skirmishers can get really awesome if you get them over the early-game hurdle.

[Psiweapon]

I had quite a lot of fun with spriggan abyssal knights and felid... berserkers.

But these cheibriados' nagas can kill full SCREENS of monsters. I'm at the deepest spot of orcish mines for the third time in two days.

Still, note taken about the branches