Angband Help and Advice Thread

[Thomkal]

Over in the werewolf forum in Abe's great and recently completed The Dungeon game, Abe mentioned some of his influences on the game he created and mentioned Angband. Angband for us oldtimers is one of the best "dungeon-crawl" type games out there. It's a DOS/ASCII graphics kinda game, so don't expect beauty when you play it, but don't let it put you off either. It's bascially a random dungeon generator that gives you a different game each time you play it.

I thought I might start a thread here to allow some of The Dungeon players who took a look at Angband after it was mentioned to get some help and advice with it. New and Old players too of course.

There's a ton of Angband variants out there that make the game more challenging and interesting. I suggest newcomers start with the basic Angband game which you can find here:

Angband at oook.cz - download select the beta version at the top, windows graphical version. There are some changes you can make to the graphics through the options menu, graphics sub menu, but I suggest newcomers put it on "None" This gives you bare-bones graphics, but also gives you letters that represent monsters which will make more sense to you than the various graphic icons of monsters used in the other graphic packages. You can also change the size of the screen by going to the Windows Menu, Font Submenu, and click on the term-0 window.

Before you create your first character you should go through and set some of the birth options (the = key to bring up the menu). You can get a help page of the various options by hitting the ? key once you are into a one of the birth options menu. One that you might want to set right away is in the cheat options menu. If you'd like you can set the cheat death option. This usually gets a big gasp of "NOoooo" from experienced Angband players, and I don't use it myself, but its a fact of life-new players in Angband die a lot. And it can be frustrating to have to restart your character a few times before you can get one that can survive a bit. I recommend you turn this option off though once you get comfortable with the game.

I can suggest a starting class/race too-Dunadan Warrior. Dunadan are taken from Tolkien's Middle Earth and are just more experienced humans basically. It will take you more experience to go up a level with them, but they give you good stats across the board when you start off so should give you a better chance of survivability. Warriors are pretty boring really, no spells available to them, but can use every weapon and armor practically which will be a big help for a newbie. If you want to experiment with spells I would go with either a Paladin-(Fighter/Priest), or a Ranger (Fighter-Mage). You get a slow dose of spells while still having strong combat strength.

I can give you advice on what to do/get at the town level, but once you get in the dungeon you are faced with a multitude of commands you can use to move/attack/interact with the dungeon etc. I've just noticed that the latest versions of Angband make this a bit easier for the newbie-just hit the Enter button and you get a menu of various commands you can use. I personally printed out a list of the commands (you can find them in the help menus) when I first played the game just because there are so many and its nice to have them at hand when you need them. Some other helpful commands are ? for the help menu, = for the options menu again, ~ for the knowledge menu to give you info on things you've seen in the dungeons so far (the letter x will let you "recall" info on items you see in dungeon as well), and Shift-C to get a "character sheet"

Feel free to post questions and advice here.

[thesloppy]

I am a T.o.M.E. man myself, but I love all the roguelikes. I probably played A.D.O.M. for 12 years, which is a pretty good amount of gameplay for $0.

[Thomkal]

yeah TOME's pretty good too, but pretty far removed from the original Angband these days. I probably like Zangband the best, but there's a Japanese version, Hengband with some unique character classes I really like-Magic Eater is my all-time favorite class-lets you suck the power from rods, wands, and staves and use their powers as your abilities in the game, pretty cool.

I play A.D.O.M every now and then, but can't seem to get into it like other roguelikes.

[PurdueBrad]

Great idea Thomkal. I stumbled on this during Dungeon and it's a great play, particularly for $0.

[path12]

Man, don't use a cheat death option. That's the beauty of roguelikes, you die game over.

[DaddyTorgo]

eh, i would love to use the cheat death option. i keep dying before i really get into how the game works and it's irritating

[Thomkal]

Originally Posted by path12

Man, don't use a cheat death option. That's the beauty of roguelikes, you die game over.

I'm with ya Path, but to keep a newbie's interest it might be best to use the option for a little bit in the beginning until you get comfortable with how the game works. But after that, than yeah don't use it-it makes the game more challenging and thrilling knowing you won't be able to continue on with the character if it dies.

[Thomkal]

a couple quick tips.

Line of sight is your friend and your enemy at times. Mobs with distance attacks can attack you if you are in range and within their Line of Sight (even if you can't currently see them). So be careful when you cross a large room to get to an exit. Don't go in a straight line equal with the exit, go above or below till you get to the exit. You don't want to die from something shooting at you from off-screen do you?
-You can use LOS to your benefit however. In a corridor with a corner, come up to the corner or backup so you go around the corner. This way you only are affected by distance attacks from the mob around the corner from you. If you were to go from the corridor into the corner itself, you would be in a straight line to whatever is there and thus vulnerable to distance attacks from any and all monsters in range. Use "pillars" in some rooms you will find to the same effect too.

-Don't think you've ever cleared a part of a dungeon level. New monsters will spawn in areas you've been to after a certain period of time. A pain at times if you are trying to escape from something into a "safe" zone that you've been to already, but also a good thing if you don't want to go up/down a level/back to town yet. You can stay on the level and eventually spawn some more mobs to fight.
-Make sure you buy food or have spells/scrolls that will cure your hunger. You don't really want to die of starvation do you?
-rest whereever you can safely in the dungeon, even if your just down a few hp's. You mostly never know what's around the corner in Angband, so better to be at full health/spell points when you do face it.

[PurdueBrad]

Quick, stupid question. I am a warrior and picked up a set of magical leather armor. How can I find out what kind of magic it possesses? I put it on but it didn't give me any info. Thanks in advance...

[path12]

Originally Posted by PurdueBrad

Quick, stupid question. I am a warrior and picked up a set of magical leather armor. How can I find out what kind of magic it possesses? I put it on but it didn't give me any info. Thanks in advance...

As a warrior you are going to need to likely find some scrolls of identify, and also be careful, because sometimes magical items are cursed and can't easily be unequipped.

You should be able to get some sort of idea in the meantime though by seeing if wearing the item changes any of your stats....

I might have to get this set up again. Been about a year since I've last played....

[PurdueBrad]

Thanks a ton Path. Well, now I have yet another really, really basic question. How do I evaluate the quality of a weapon (not an RPG'er so some things are foreign to me). For instance, I'm a warrior and I have a broad sword that is 2d5 (+0, +0) and a short sword that is 1d7 (+3, +4). I've also been shopping and, other than price, can't quite figure out how "good" a weapon is. Thanks in advance (again!).

[thesloppy]

If memory serves, the first number is the bonus to hit, and the second is the bonus to damage.

[BYU 14]

I am looking at Sryth currently, has anybody played this and does it compare well to TOME?

[Thomkal]

Originally Posted by BYU 14

I am looking at Sryth currently, has anybody played this and does it compare well to TOME?

I found Syrth a few days ago myself. It doesn't really compare well to TOME or Angband that I've seen so far. It's more like a solo Dungeons and Dragons campaign. It has some randomness in there, but also preplanned quests.

[Thomkal]

Originally Posted by PurdueBrad

Thanks a ton Path. Well, now I have yet another really, really basic question. How do I evaluate the quality of a weapon (not an RPG'er so some things are foreign to me). For instance, I'm a warrior and I have a broad sword that is 2d5 (+0, +0) and a short sword that is 1d7 (+3, +4). I've also been shopping and, other than price, can't quite figure out how "good" a weapon is. Thanks in advance (again!).

Good question. The max damage you can do before you add in any strength bonuses or whatever is 10 with the broad sword. 2d5 stands for 2 rolls of a 5-sided die if there was such a thing. 1d7 is 1 roll of a 7 sided die. The max you can damage with the short sword is 11 ("roll a 7 and add in the +4 damage from the sword.) Ths short sword gives you a better chance to hit a mob (the +3) so while it may do slightly less damage than the broadsword, you'll hit more with the short sword to make up for the damage loss. In general go with a weapon that gives you a plus to hit and damage if the do comparable damage. You might not want a dagger (1d4) (+3, +4) because the broad sword would do more on average, but a short sword is close enough to use it over the broad sword. Also be aware that the lightest weapons may allow you to get more than one attack in a round if your dexterity is high enough.

There's a bit more to damage based on which version of Angband you're playing but that's the basics.

[Thomkal]

Things to buy from the various stores when you begin the game. You might be able to sell something you start with-like a scroll of Word of Recall to give you extra gold. Some townspeople-drunks, aimless merchants, will drop gold if you kill them, but beware of mercenaries and battle hardened veterans who can kill a beginner character.

-food, I usually buy to get up to 10 food because I'm cautious that way. You can probably get away with less.
-lanterns and oil to refuel it-Torches are fine, but have a shorter radius and don't last as long. So trading in your torches for lantern and oil is generally a good idea if you have the money for it after getting other things.
-armor. There's a lot of cheap armor in the armory normally-anything that can improve your AC (Armor Class) early on is a benefit
-scrolls of identify-this may be more of a priority in this version of the game, because they have been very rare in the dungeon so far, and usually you get them to drop early on. Your class may give you a clue as to some items-like a warrior will either be told the weapon is magical (which could mean cursed so careful), excellent, special, etc, or be told right out what the weapon is. But generally you'll need some way to identify the multitude of stuff you find. You can store things in your home on the town level until you can ID it too.
-potions of cure light wounds. Could save you from an early death.
-distance weapons-if you don't start with one, you might invest in one-like slings and short bows-make sure you buy the things to go with them like arrows and iron shots! Mobs tend to run away when they are nearing death, and it can create havoc if they run into a room with other mobs, or they are a caster/distance attacker themselves. Having a distance weapon can take them out so you can worry about the other mobs. Things in your direct path to your target will get hit first though, so careful. Mage types can use the Magic Missile spell for this early on and there are wands of magic missile that most can use too if need be for this purpose.

[PurdueBrad]

Thanks again for the quick answer guys. I'm playing the 3.1 beta that is linked in the first post. I have only gotten two characters past level 8 thus far but one is my current character and I'm taking much more time to get into it. I appreciated the above post as well that gave some buying tips, will definitely look to those in future starts.

[Thomkal]

Glad to help PB. Getting past level 8 with your first characters is actually pretty good. There's just so many things that can surprise you when you are new. Definitely take your time with it and be careful if you hold the key down to search or run because creatures will run up while you are doing that and attack. And yes I have died that way before.

-speaking of searching, you'll soon figure out the pattern of secret doors. One or two doors off by themselves, usually means there's a third or even fourth door there if you search between them. Three doors are very common. If you have a hard time searching because of your class/race, try digging into the wall where you suspect a door may be because digging will reveal it.

-speaking of digging forgot to mention to get a shovel if you can when you start the game. You can dig into those things that look like asterisks in the walls with your shovel to get gold(ore). You can also use a shovel to break up the rubble that blocks your way sometimes though that's pretty easy to get through without a shovel. Some rooms called vaults deeper in the dungeon may also require a shovel to dig into. If you can't afford a shovel or the stores don't have one, your edged weapons can dig into the ore, but can take much longer than with a shovel.

-some early mobs to watch out for. The early levels really set you up for the typical groupings of mobs in the later levels. These groupings are very dangerous to new characters.
```Breeders. There are mobs out there that start out as just one creature, but once you get within range and they wake up, they can "breed" at a very quick rate, quickly overwhelming the young adventurer. These breeders can be of benefit to you if you can keep their numbers down, but its usually best to kill them off as quickly as possible. Don't run up to them if they are active if you have spells/distance weapons that you can attack with before they grow too much to handle. Various colored worms and white mice are the most common early on, but be on special lookout for giant white louse because they breed VERY quickly and must be taken out as soon as possible when you see one.

---Pack Monsters. These are a group of the same creature-they hang together in a room or corridor. They will quickly overwhelm you if you encounter them in a room, so stay just outside the room and let them come at you one at a time. Mass damage spells like stinking cloud can help here. Jackals and cave spiders are the earliest packs you will run into, and the spiders in particular can be tough on a new character. Look for wolves and the dreaded "Elemental" Hounds later on (Fire Hounds, Light Hounds, etc)

-Uniques. The game has a number of unique monsters that you can encounter. These are "one-shot" monsters, usually named rather than just black orc, you'll have Ulthang, son of Ulfast for instance. These are generally a lot tougher than the normal creatures you fight. Be sure to use potions of speed, berserk strength, etc when fighting them. Once you kill one, you won't encounter it the rest of the game. The big advantage of killing one besides the big xp gain is the one or more good magic items the unique will likely drop. If nothing else you can sell them if you can't use them.
---uniques are made even tougher by the fact that most come with an "escort"-a group of monsters from the same race as they are generally. You may have to fight through the escort to get to the unique, severally weakening you in the process. Spells/staffs that affect a group of creatures at one time can come in handy here. The first uniques you are likely to encounter are Farmer Maggot (well I don't know if he's in the version yet but I assume he is) and his two dogs. Farmer Maggot appears at random times at the town level and will not attack until you do, and can take a LONG time to kill if you are just starting out. His two dogs appear in the dungeons, usually alone, sometimes with a jackal escort, and kill many a newbie.
---Unmoveables. There are a group of monsters that cannot move, but will attack if you step up next to them. They can do a number on your equipment and stats so its best either to ignore them or attack from a distance. Their numbers include various colored jellies, the shrieker mushroom patch, various colored molds, and as mentioned in the Dungeon game, the deadly Q, Qullythug. They can teleport themselves around actually, but otherwise don't move. Don't worry though you won't encounter the Q's for a while.

[JAG]

Originally Posted by PurdueBrad

Quick, stupid question. I am a warrior and picked up a set of magical leather armor. How can I find out what kind of magic it possesses? I put it on but it didn't give me any info. Thanks in advance...

Too funny that you could even think to do this after your pink experience in The Dungeon! There are some really really nasty cursed items out there, always identify before wearing / using unless death is guaranteed anyway.

Besides what Thomkal mentioned, other things that every character should carry:

1. Scrolls of Phase Door - Handy to blip away from an unfavorable tactical situation.
2. Scrolls of Teleportation - Handy when you absolutely have to leave the room you're in due to out of control breeders / summoners or monster that's too fast and powerful for you.
3. (once you can afford them) Potions of Cure Critical Wounds - Can cure a variety of ailments without fail.

Before you get too far diving into the dungeons, try to get resistance to fire / cold / acid / electricity. Other very useful (really needed before you get too far) item flags to look for are See Invisible and Free Action.


I've played Sryth before as well. Not a bad game, the adventures are pretty well written and entertaining, but after you finish with the content, there wasn't much to do except grind and I didn't feel like repeating the same stuff to little purpose, so I gave it up.

[Thomkal]

Some ways to get around identifying objects early on.

-Scrolls and Potions. Don't want to carry 10 different un-ID'ed scrolls and potions around until you get the chance to ID them? Here's a solution: read/drink them. Now this comes with some cautions-there's some bad ones out there that can kill you if you read/drink at the wrong time. Get into a dead end corridor, or stand in a corridor against a close door before reading. Make sure you are relatively healthy, but not completely before you try this. If you are injured and you drink a cure potion, you'll know it this way. Same with a neutralize poison potion when you are poisoned. Why a dead end? Well for one specific scroll you will likely come upon early, but for others as well-do you really want to go blind in a corridor/room you haven't explored yet? A dead end means things can only come at you one way. Don't do this after the first few levels though as their is some potions that can do some nasty stuff to you. You'll will "lose" some nice potions/scrolls this way but most you will find easily enough again in the early levels. You rarely get a way out of depth potion/scroll-you'll cringe when you read a scroll of acquirement on level 2 though.

-wands, rods, and staffs. You'll likely want to ID them afterwards to see how many charges they have, but one quick way to find out if they are good or bad is to use them. That un-iD'ed magic missile wand might come in handy early on if you test it out on a monster. If you wait till you get back to town to ID it, you might be dead before you get back to town.

Some things not to try with this method:
-Rings and Amulets-A lot of the early rings and amulets are cursed, meaning you won't get them off unless you have a remove curse spell/scroll. Better to take them to town and store them in your home until you can ID them.
-Armor and Weapons. There's an exception here in that if your "psuedo-ID" kicks in and tells you a weapon is "good" "excellent" or "special" then go ahead and try it especially if its replacing a normal weapon or armor. Sometimes you will be rewarded when you get a message that your shiny new weapon does fire damage on top of normal damage. Or something bounces off that shiny shield. You'll need to get them ID'ed to get the full plusses to hit/damage and other abilities/resistances it might have. But in the meantime that little extra damage/protection might save your life.
-Be careful if with weapons and armors that "pseudo-ID" as "magical" in this version of Angband. They can have either negative to hits and damage or positives. And you might not be able to tell from how you are hitting in combat. And some could be cursed.

A special note on "special" psuedo-ID'ed items. If you get the message that an item is "special" rejoice-you've just found an artifact! These are named items that have generally good/helpful powers-well those that aren't cursed that is! You probably won't find artifacts right away with the exception of a certain light source, but they will become more and more common as you go down in levels. You'll want to go beyond the regular ID here and use *Identify* scrolls/spells/items. You may need to use the higher level ID on other good items to find out the full powers in the item.

[Abe Sargent]

Zangband is my fav variant, btw

[Abe Sargent]

Digging for gems and ore is where I got the Spade of Digging for my game, btw

[Thomkal]

I wondered about that Abe

[Thomkal]

There are a ton of options you can set when first setitng up your character, here are some that I suggest setting for a Newbie friendly experience (hit the = key to bring up the options)

-Interface Options: Yes to Use Old Target by default, Always Pick Up Items, Automatically squelch (ignore) worthless items, both open/disarm options
-Display Options: Yes to Player Color indicates low hit points
-Warning and Disturbance Options: No to the first disturb option, yes to the other three. Audible Bell to yes. The "bell" can get annoying pretty quick though, but it may help as you get used to the game.
-Birth Options: Yes to Maximize, No to Random Artifacts (but fun when you get to know the game better). Yes to Start with more money than equipment. No to all the Monsters AI options, No to the three restrict options, no to Lose Artifacts, No to don't generate connected stairs, no to don't show level feelings.
-set hitpoint warning to 20%
Then do the dump options so you can have these same options again, leave it as the default file name. Then hit the load user pref file when creating a new character again to set the same options up.

Level Feelings: You'll notice that after a short time on each level of the dungeon you will get a message about how difficult you feel the level is. It's important to pay attention to these messages. (CTRL-F will let you see the level message again). That's because if you get told you are on a very dangerous level, you should play the level a bit more cautiously, save healing and other one shot items till you find out what's causing the message.

I would tell you the differences in the level feelings messages, but this version of Angband has completely different level feeling messages than any other version I've played. Generally though they go from the very tame, to more and more urgent/nasty. You knew you were on a tough level when you got the message, "Visions of Death swirl through your mind!", but I don't know what the equivalent is here.

[Groundhog]

I got addicted to roguelikes back when I used to work night shifts. Angband and ADOM were the two that I spent most my time with.

[Thomkal]

I first found them in college way back when, there was a version of Rogue, Moria, or Angband on the college servers. They should have known better than to put an addictive game on their servers.

[Lonnie]

I used to play a lot of Angband and variants. I have been playing Stone Soup Dungeon Crawl lately. There is a nice wiki for it if you like to have the spoilers. Since I have played over 200 games and not won, I like the spoilers myself. Download the tiles version for a really pleasing game. I myself play on a server that tracks scores and gives stats for all of your runs.

http://crawl-ref.sourceforge.net/

CrawlWiki - CrawlWiki

Crawl!

[Thomkal]

I have never been able to get far into Crawl, but maybe I'll give it another try.

[PurdueBrad]

Hey guys, looking for another bit of help.

I've gotten up to level 19 but am choosing between a couple weapons:

short sword of westernesse (1d7) (+7, +8) (+2)
long sword of slay dragon (2d5) (+13, +6)

I screwed up and sold another westernesse weapon earlier even though I had ID'ed it. IF I'm not mistaken, the top hitting power out of the short sword is 15 whereas out of the slay dragon it is 16 or am I missing something? How big is the last +2 that the short sword gives?

Thanks a ton in advance...

[Thomkal]

That +2 the short sword gives at the end of the name there is actually a plus to one of more of your stats. Take it on and off to see which one. (you may have to *ID* it to see the bonuses) The sword should also have several abilities on it, so make sure you *ID* it. You have the damage right on the weapons. The slay dragon only gives you extra damage against dragons, no other special abilities, so despite that nice to hit bonus on it, it will probably benefit you more to use the westernesse sword when you see the abilities on it.

[DaddyTorgo]

how do you deal with wanting to come up out of the dungeon to sell stuff or buy stuff and then go back down? just scrolls of recall?

[Abe Sargent]

There are spell of REcall in spellbooks and my favorite the Rod of Recalling

[Abe Sargent]

Or you can just climb up/down using stairs, but recall is much faster once you get past 1000' or so

[Abe Sargent]

I remember Westernesse being really good.

[Abe Sargent]

http://www.thangorodrim.net/TANG/index.html

[Abe Sargent]

Yeah, I just looked it up. It has the key two abilities you need to survive past 1000' feet or so.

[PurdueBrad]

Thanks Abe. And did you say past 1000' feet? My level 19 guy only goes down to level 8 (sometimes 9 if I'm feeling lucky). It looks like it added to my dexterity, constitution and strength. Thanks a ton guys.

[Thomkal]

Great find there Abe, that should help newbies a lot

[Thomkal]

Originally Posted by DaddyTorgo

how do you deal with wanting to come up out of the dungeon to sell stuff or buy stuff and then go back down? just scrolls of recall?

What Abe said, primarily through word of recall scrolls unless your a spellcaster that has a recall spell or find a rod of recall. I generally don't bother with recall until I need to go past the first couple levels and save my money for other things early on.

[Thomkal]

Oh there is a way you can get a character "dump" or a screen "dump" of the level you are on, if you'd like to post here for advice and suggestion. Go into your Character Screen (C) and look at the options at the bottom of the page. Its f(ile) that you want to hit to get a character dump. You can find that file in your "user" folder. It doesn't look very good on notepad though, so you may have to play around with it a bit to get a version you can use to copy to paste here.

As for a screen dump, hit the right parenthesis ) on the screen you want to save. It's also in the user folder-as dump, it looks a little better than the character dump.

[Thomkal]

Yeah you should start going below 1000' now that you have that weapon PB.

[Abe Sargent]

But not too far, because you'll need resists and Hold Life after another 500-1000 feet.

[Abe Sargent]

I think I've had promising adventurers die more to Z than any other foe.

[Thomkal]

Originally Posted by Abe Sargent

I think I've had promising adventurers die more to Z than any other foe.

Amen, not as much anymore now that I know what to expect from them, but yeah they killed off many a good character in my earlier playing days.

[Thomkal]

So how goes it with your character now that you have that weapon PB? Be glad to look at character dumps for anyone who needs advice.

You will encounter two different kind of rooms in Angband-one you've likely encountered already PB at your level, one you might not have yet.

1-Monster Pits. This is a large empty room filled with monsters from the same race-probably 50 or more. Orc Pits will likely be your first experience with them (wand of light for the win! here). As long as you pull them into a corridor or only let one come to the door entrance at a time, you likely won't have much problem with the orcs, and by this point you'll like have some way to teleport away if they do cause you problems. They are a great experience getter early on.
---Not sure if this version of Angband has them or not yet, but one pit to stay away from is the dreaded Jelly pit. Filled with all the unmoveables jellies, molds, etc usually including one that can move, an ochre jelly, you want nothing to do with them. Close the door if you didn't detect the pit before, or otherwise avoid them. Other fun pits that could be in this version-Trolls, Undead (called a graveyard), and Dragons amongst others.
---If you are playing in Preserve Mode, you will not be getting the message that usually tells you if there's a artifact/monster pit/vault on the level. So some means of detecting monsters is useful for finding these pits before you stumble on to them.

Vaults-These are really really fun and tense rooms. These are special rooms, usually in some kind of pattern or design that are filled with a lot of different monsters and more importanly some OOD (out of depth) monsters (including uniques). And even more importantly for you greedy sorts out there, likely filled with great treasure, either already in the room, or the stuff that drops from creatures when you kill them. Likely to be more than one artifact amongst it all, plus numerous other good items. These vaults can really send you on your way to deeper levels...or can really send you to the graveyard quickly.
-In most cases there will be just one or two ways into the vault, and it may require you to dig into those entrances to get in. Hence the need for a shovel that I mentioned above or something like a wand of stone to mud. Some monsters will be asleep when you enter them, but others will not, and will attack if within LOS so you need to be ready for it. And be careful-some creatures might have the ability to eat their way through/phase/teleport through walls! And you might have to dig your way into individual parts of the vaults too.
---you will need a way of detecting traps, and a way of removing traps from vaults-like a wand or staff of door/trap destruction that can get rid of multiple traps with one charge off of them. There is perhaps not a worse feeling in Angband other than losing to Morgoth at the end of the game than entering a vault without detecting for traps, or not having a way to get rid of them easily, and then hitting a trap door and falling to the next level, the vault gone forever.
----Other things you will need are multiple potions of whatever healing you can get, perhaps something that can cure things like confusion, fear, and slow if you don't have items that protect you against them, and ways of teleporting both yourself and monsters away from you. You are simply going to face monsters that are just too tough for you in a vault. A wand or spell of teleport away will make you life that much easier then-just remember you might have to face them in another part of the dungeon if you have to retreat from the vault!
---you should "clear" out the whole level before taking on a vault. A level will never really be clear of course with new mobs popping up after a while, but you risk a lot if you teleport away from a vault into an area you haven't explored yet and find yourself facing a pack of monsters or a unique and its escorts. Minimize your chances of this greatly by clearing the rest of the level first, who knows maybe you will gain a level while doing this or get some needed items making the vault a little easier to take on.

[Bobble]

Couple of questions from a noob:

- In town, can I kill all the drooling idiots, stiniking beggars, etc. without repercussion? What's the point of that anyway?

- If something has knocked down one of my abilities (strength, say), what's the best way to get that back?

TIA

[Thomkal]

Originally Posted by Bobble

Couple of questions from a noob:

- In town, can I kill all the drooling idiots, stiniking beggars, etc. without repercussion? What's the point of that anyway?

- If something has knocked down one of my abilities (strength, say), what's the best way to get that back?

TIA

Yes you can kill all those without reprecussion. They are there just for flavor really, to show a living breathing town. In some versions of Angband though this might not be true-some take alignment (good neutral or evil) into play for various things that can happen in-game. Just be careful of the ones that can attack back for damage or stealing your stuff. Even a little dog or cat can kill a character just starting out if they are especially unlucky.

There are potions of restore ability (strength, wisdom, charisma, etc) you can buy from one of the magic stores or temple in town-forget which one off the top of my head, plus the black market could have some at higher costs. There are also mushrooms of restoring that will restore any lost stats. You will also find items that will sustain a stat during the course of your travels that will prevent stat loss.

Hope you are having fun with the game!

[path12]

Originally Posted by Thomkal

---you will need a way of detecting traps, and a way of removing traps from vaults-like a wand or staff of door/trap destruction that can get rid of multiple traps with one charge off of them. There is perhaps not a worse feeling in Angband other than losing to Morgoth at the end of the game than entering a vault without detecting for traps, or not having a way to get rid of them easily, and then hitting a trap door and falling to the next level, the vault gone forever.

Has this happened to you? I don't think I've ever been able to get past level 35 or so, as a result Morgoth is just some random concept.

[Thomkal]

Originally Posted by path12

Has this happened to you? I don't think I've ever been able to get past level 35 or so, as a result Morgoth is just some random concept.

Well no this hasn't happened to me, because I've never made it that far either I'm ashamed to report LOL. But I assume that I would feel worse if I lost to him if I made it that far. I've got a couple characters into 40 ish level, but my biggest problem is that a new patch comes out that doesn't let you move your character over, or a new version that I've got to try, or some race/character class combo that sounds really cool....I have this same problem with MMORPG's.

[PurdueBrad]

Thomkal, things are working pretty good. I'm up to level 22 I think. I pulled a character dump but it looks too long to post here.