So i just played this dude https://crawl.dcss.io/crawl/morgue/Kyonne/morgue-Kyonne-20260321-121401.txt
a Dwarf Forgewright which got me farther than ever by using Forge Lightning Spire, Forge Blazeheart Golem and then going for melee, it did wonders for me in the Dungeons and the Lair and then later when i found that armor that bumped me from 23AC to 42AC i felt pretty much invincible, but then when it came to the S vaults i couldn’t even get past the landing area, the Swamp and Slime/Snake pits were relentless and even after killing a bunch of stuff with appropriate resting by going up and down the stairs the wave of enemies never seemed to end until i eventually got caught in some bad spot and died
Being my first time getting this far i’m not sure if i simply played bad or if i prepared wrong, i completed all the floors so i got all the equipment that i could get but i dunno if i spread my skills wrong, ignored some good magic or didn’t play my God right (didn’t use any of his abilities aside from calling the shop once, was pretty much relying on the passive that gets enemies confused when looking at gold)
So yeah i’d appreciate any advice that could have made this character work
You died because you were getting double zapped by a shock serpent. Lightning has bad accuracy but ignores half of your AC too and you char was all AC. You should position yourself in such a way that they can’t double zap you.
Also you last action shouldn’t have been trying to swing at the serpent. Instead you should have used some consumable like a scroll of fear.
I also wouldn’t have used that crystal plate. Sure you have 42 AC but you also have almost no EV and no SH at all with that dire flail. Also rF- is bad in Snake and annoying in Swamp.
Your training is very spread out, with a bunch of it not doing much. You trained loads of Spellcasting while not needing extra MP or spell levels. You’ve trained extra Maces & Flails without needing to reduce your weapons delay.
I would have used a shield and a morningstar (there is a +2 protection one in your game). There was also a +2 helmet of light in Lair 5, as well as just normal helmets, those do something unlike the hat you are using (hats don’t give any AC themselves, helmets do).
Don’t attempt Slime so early, it’s more of an endgame branch. If you are struggling with the start of Lair branches make sure to use some consumables or god abilities, Potion Petition from Gozag is very nice.
So when it comes to training weapons i shouldn’t be thinking about increasing my damage/accuracy, instead hit the delay cap and move on? Similarly i kept training Spellcasting thinking it would keep increasing my damage, especially since the Lightning Spire was hard carrying me
As for the helmet i grew the antennae mutation which prevented me from wearing those helmets aside from the hat, which i had hopes to find some scrolls to enchance it at some point. I’m still a little confused at how the potion of mutation works if it always a re-roll of everything when you drink one, but i kept the antenna mutation in fear of losing the one for reduced MP cost, plus i also got a +2 AC in the process so i figured that covered my lack of helmet
Re Weapons: Fighting also improves your damage/accuracy with weapons, and it also improves your HP, so once you’re at mindelay, it’s better to train Fighting than more weapon skill.
Re Spellcasting: Spellcasting counts as 1/4 of all schools for power/failure, so it’s generally better to train schools for that and only train Spellcasting if you need more spell levels, or if it’s several times cheaper than the schools you intend to train.
Re Mutation: It seems Lici missed the antennae mutation. As for how the potion works, it first removes 2-3 mutations, then adds 1-3 random mutations, then it has a 50% chance to add an additional good mutation. I’m not sure I would’ve drank the potion there even with frail since you had iridescent scales and efficient magic.
Killed from afar by a shock serpent (17 damage)
the ring of Makhleb’s Generosity {Fly rElec Will+ rCorr}
Changing rings takes only 1 turn.
Also, is there a particular reason you skipped Orcish Mines? It would be much easier than any S branch.
It looks like they never even saw Orc, as the dungeon overview looked like this:
Branches:
Dungeon (15/15) Temple (0/1) D:4 Lair (5/5) D:11
Swamp (1/4) Lair:2 Snake (1/4) Lair:3 Slime (1/5) Lair:4
Vaults (0/5) D:14 Depths (0/4) D:15 Sewer (visited)
Bailey (visited)
Orc: D:9-12
Yeeah i uh… Look, it was 3 AM and my neighbor had this really loud music and uh… Orc wasn’t even in my mind for some reason, only realized it was a thing when i read the morgue file, guess i filtered it out after my poor little octopode faced a mosh pit there last time i stopped by, will keep it in mind for the future
Changing rings takes only 1 turn.
That’s good to know, though i have to work on my awareness, electric effect of going through AC didn’t even occur to me and i didn’t study those snakes as i should’ve considering it was my first time seeing them, the nagas and their poison breath hogged all my attention in the middle of that kerfuffle
S branches are generally extremely deadly, a big difficulty spike. Without all the experience, loot and gold (which is essential for a Gozag worshiper!) no wonder you struggled even more than normal. Gozag lets you bribe Snake Pit making it much easier to deal with.
And shock serpents are some of the most dangerous threats at this point of the game. They are never to be underestimated.
Blazeheart golem’s explosions are loud as hell, probably the reason you felt enemies were never-ending. Also, am not sure how well golem works with ponderousness ego given how much movement this spell involves. I’d abandon it for Walking Alembic.