Specific Question for Crawl

[Omnivorous]

I know that light armour trains dodge, while heavy armour trains armour. However, does 'Armour' also positively affect you when wearing Light Armour? Or does that skill not get into the equation at all when changing to use a light armour?

[Omnivorous]

Oh.. And another question.. What exactly does a "Curse" do? The reason I'm asking is because I've found a GREAT weapon artifact, however it randomly curses my items as I use it. Why would I care about that though? If my Ring of +2 DEX gets cursed, does it give -2 DEX instead or what..? I know it's bad with Curses in general in ADOM, cause your character gets cursed there then.. But what is the downside of a curse in Crawl (other than not being able to unequip it if it's something bad)

[Vanguard]

As far as I know (I'm certainly no crawl expert) cursed equipment only means you can't remove it, but cursed potions and scrolls are less useful or even harmful compared to their uncursed or blessed counterparts.

[getter77]

Pretty much, though in Crawl scrolls can't be cursed, just destroyed IIRC and potions can be turned into a bad/junk liquid at rare occasions.  Otherwise, yep, can't remove cursed equipment.

[corremn]

I think the armour skill effects your overall AC slightly.  Dont know if it is a +value or a %value of total AC. Anyway dont train armour if you are wearing light armour, train dodge.  Never train armour and dodge at the same time, just choose a path and go for it. If you are not going to cast spells at all then go for heavy armour with high AC (if supported by your race). Else choose robes and max dodge. 

Never heard of an artifact that randomly curses items is that new with 0.5 or am I just not remembering it.  However the recurse property randomly curses the item when you use it.  I.e Sometimes your armour may recurse it self on use. So if you never take it off no big deal.

As stated cursed items are items you can not remove. They still have their normal bonuses, curse or uncursed. I,.e +2 will always be +2 whether its cursed or not.  There for any item you can not wear/wield cannot be cursed.

[Omnivorous]

Now I regret throwing away that +15 Scythe! :/ Ohwell, it almoast killed me though, had to ditch it. I accidentally used up all my remove curses scrolls, and ended up accidentally equipping a cursed sling to my weapon-slot with no means of removing it. (As a Minotaur berserker) Almoast died but got lucky and stumbled upon a Remove Curse scroll!

This is a record character for me by far! =) Level 15 now, got one orb in the snake pits for the first time ever, cleared the hive for food and now clearing Elven Halls just for fun!

Going to take a break and get some rest so I don't do something overly stupid just out of impatience! =)

[corremn]

I nearly never clear the elven halls, MiBe will have one of the best times of it though.  You want high dodge to be able to dodge crystal spears though.  Leave the last level for much later.  Try swamp instead, with a spare mace or flaming weapon handy.

[Rabiat]

Armour skill reduces the evasion penalty of heavy armour types, and increases the AC bonus of all armour types. As far as I know there's nothing more to it.

Cursing works as Corremn explained. It applies only to worn/wielded items and makes you unable to remove them until they're uncursed. Cursing doesn't affect bonuses or any other properties. They don't apply to your character, or potions, or scrolls, as they do in ADOM. I haven't heard of an item being able to curse other items either, although some items may recurse themselves if you uncurse and re-equip them, and mummies may cast spells that curse random items in your inventory.

Does the artefact have a description that says it curses other items? And are you sure that the scythe you found had +15 bonus? As far as I remember, most weapons can be enchanted up to +9. If this one has +15, and you have some polearms skill, I'd go back for it.

Also, please heed Corremns advice about the Elven Halls and clear the Swamp first. Unless you have warding, magic resistance and controlled teleport.

[Omnivorous]

It was +13 or +14.. Soon after I started using it, various items in my inv and that I was wearing started getting cursed. It was named something like "Cursed Schmitar of.." It's description said "A legendary artifact weapon with a rather... annoying curse on it!"

It's lost along time ago now, have no sligthest clue where I ditched it

[Omnivorous]

Yup, died at level 7 of elven halls... Crystal Spear. The annhiliators and their crystal spear wasn't so bad in itself.. Just had bad luck on a berserk-spree where when I was "done" with the mob, two more annhiliators appeared. They were pretty close though and i figured f I can get to one, I will kill them both. However, they both blinked away to each their direction so I was now heavily slowed, standing in a puddle of water, caught two spears bringing me to 40hp..and while I did get time to summon some help, I did not have any entity of healing that was strong enough to let me take another crystal spear.

Ohwell my first Orb ever and my last record (scorewise) was 12000, this one got 130k! Woohoo

[Rabiat]

* Slaps Omnivorous.

Didn't I tell you to pay attention to Corremns warning, dammit?


About that mighty scythe of yours... I just started a Troll Berserker run and happened to come across the artefact Scythe of Curses. It has base damage 14, and +11, +11 bonuses. It also appears to have the very exceptional property of occasionally cursing a random item in your inventory. Could that be it?

Also, unless a pack of abominations invited you to a footie match at the Swamp, I assume you mean you found your first Rune ever. Nevertheless, good job.

[corremn]

If only someone warned you not to go to elf7....

Now that you mention it I do remember that Scythe, it is just a tease really.  I have never been fond of artifacts that can not realisitically be used.  Just like that knife of accuracy, +0,+15 knife, really annoying.  If the game is going to spawn an artifact make sure that someone will one day use it.

[Omnivorous]

Hehe, well I did have Warding and good Magic Resistance. Problem was, the character was getting abit boring.. After clearing the Pit really easy, the Elven Halls was really easy too. I died maybe halfway through the Vault (or what it is) at the bottom there. Would've made it just fine too if I hadn't gotten greedy

[Omnivorous]

Okay, without having won or something like that, I'm abit tired of ONLY playing well with bashers.

I used to have problems with early-game with wizards, but that is quite easy now that I learned to use summoning early on. But once Orc Priests start appearing, ALL my casters die die die die die... I don't get it either, spells seem to be coming along fine, but they 2hit me from opposite side of screen and often behind other monsters, what the hell am I suppose to do against this?

Also, when raising a new wizard, is it smart to go for new, stronger spells as soon as possible, or should I stick to magic missile and just "train" lower spells on easy monsters?

Seriously, I don't get this x.x

[corremn]

I am not a caster expert, but ares with priests in them can be avoided until you are a little bit more experienced.  Generally you will see orcs before the priests so either lure the orcs one by one until you are one on one with the priest or avoid them until later. 

With the new version 0.5 priests and wizards show up earlier (just like they used to), this adds a fun challenge to experienced players, but is a early source of death for anyone else. 

Wands are wonderful for killing early scary monsters. You need a medium level attack spell as soon as possible, however magic missile is probably enough to kill a priest, as long as you have a back up plan.  I.e teleport, blink, speed, heal, wand, summoning.  In crawl, if you dont have a escape plan dont take on anything nasty.

Have you tried playing a hybrid magic/melee character.  Also it may be a good idea to start out as a melee character with the idea of turning it into a magic character. That way early deaths can be avoided by having more hitpoints and melee skills.  I generally dont play pure spell casters anymore.