I got this character: https://crawl.dcss.io/crawl/morgue/petercordia/petercordia.txt
which I think might well be able to do Vaults after having skipped Lair the S-branches, so I’m pretty pleased with that.
(Though entering a branch I cannot exit without the rune always feels risky)
I’m wondering now whether I could perhaps do a lairless S-branch-less 3-rune game with this. Is hexes + stealth viable in extended? Perhaps I could joink some Runes in Pan? Anyone with experience? What skill training priorities would I need to have? Would it be advisable to do a couple of levels of a Zig to maximise my odds?
Cosplay Challenge or personal enlightenment?
You don’t seem like you want to do the S-branches. I was surprised, you said Lairless but you have actually cleared the main Lair floors.
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personal enlightenment.
Yes sorry, I misremembered. I know I don’t have any runes yet, because I get the warning at the Vaults entrance, but I didn’t check my Branch overview well enough.
Are you resuming playing? what was your conclusions?
You seem to have two manual of hexes?
Well. This is what I was going to say,
So you have a +12 quickblade which people do praise highly. Plus Divine Exegesis. And Discord plus Guile should work nice even against Demons (perhaps not all), careful with Venom (I didn’t pay attention to resistances)
So I thought you could stay true to Hexes and Translocations? I’d pick Manifold and Gavotte if there is Gavotte somewhere. Keep an eye out for available spells in your library.
Why Manifold Assault? Isn’t that a huge mana drain, with only okish damage, even if I do train 20 short blades for the quick blade?
I think with 20 quickblade you’d fare well with Manifold.
You can Channel Magic (but don’t abuse. How much does it cost actually?)
You can try stabbing unaware foes from afar.
And now you can also consider using a long blade. A heavy demon blade would be nice. Demon blades you shall find plenty in Pan and Hell. ( Continue upping your Dex? )
( Hell (Dis or Gehenna) may not have that many demon weapons (obsolete knowledge) Think mainly of Pandemonium instead )
( @petercordia Hey wait! looks like it’s impossible to perform extra stabbing with Manifold Assault? )
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The Curse of the Forum struck 
I died on V:1. To Boris, who was wearing a very nice +4 robe of Will++.
I didn’t run away fast enough. And then I didn’t use the ?blink. And then I was dead. morgue
(A Discorded Harpy struck the final blow)
Huh? what’s this curse all about??
Hmm sorry for your loss…
Disjunction could prevent you from dying because of Discord. Yara has a range limit and Blink is unreliable.
I see you started to focus on Translocations.
This could have been avoided as you said. Haste, Blink and all…
Sometimes when I ask a question in the Tavern, I lose the character very quickly afterwards.
Yes strategically I needed more Translocation. I was aiming for Malign Gateway and if I’d had the patience to wait for that, I think it could have killed Boris safely. Maybe I also should have forgotten Metabolic Englaciation in favour of Summon Mana Vipers.
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