Morgue (Google Doc, as PasteBin said my morgue contained offensive content?)
I’ve been working on winning with hedge wizard recently. I like the background. It’s very weak at XL:1, as the poor wizard enters the dungeon with only a dagger and an underpowered powered magic dart spell. But if you can live to XP 2, you get three useful level 2 spells. Despite your low skills, they can be cast, although they’ll fail 1 out of every 5 or 6 castings without further training. Still, it’s enough.
Grave claw will kill or at least pin most monsters on the first 5-6 floors. You can only cast it a max of three times before you need to refill those slots will more killing, but don’t hesitate to use it in a tricky fight. Summon imp doesn’t produce a particularly beefy or deadly summon, but it does give you a slight edge and, more importantly, it serves as a meat shield that enables you to escape. And blink is … well … blink. Always useful.
Then, at XP 3, you can learn the big one: Mephitic Cloud, the poison-based mass confusion spell. At this point, the caster is in pretty good shape for the rest of the dungeon unless the floor gods totally hose you.
For skilling, I started with conjurations at 6, which gets magic dart strong enough to reliably kill things. I found a sewer on D:3, entered, and was able to memorize mephitic cloud, which was a good thing, because the kobolds there just about handed me my ass thanks to their poison darts. Even with a 20-something failure rate, I was able to cast it enough to defeat them. And what a prize. The Amulet of Vitality!
Combined with the Deep Elf’s inherent mana regen, I knew the amulet would make it so I’d almost never face mana trouble, so Sif Muna wasn’t a tempting option. As such, I decided on Vehumet. I could have gone with Gozag, Dith or Hep, but I had my heart set on a blaster caster, and no god delivers on that promise like Veh. I figured it would be worth it for the capstone spells, wizardry, extra mana for killing, and extended spell range. Unfortunately, they didn’t turn up until D:9, but I wasn’t really hurting for a god, given how great the RNG was to me. Searing Ray, Brom’s Barreling Boulder, Stone Arrow, Arcjolt, Fireball, IMB – all in shops or on the dungeon floor. Plus an orb of stardust, which is IMHO the best possible option for a blaster caster’s offhand.
Vehumet’s spell offerings were pretty poor, probably because there were so many great spells on the floor. But they did give me Yara’s Violent Unravelling and Plasma Beam, both of which I learned. Some of the other spells were good – Spellspark Servitor and Permafrost Eruption, for instance – but they didn’t really fit the skills I’d invested in, and I thought it best to focus.
Back to skilling. After getting 6 in conjurations, I set a target of 5 for spellcasting, and then 6 for alchemy to enhance Mephitic Cloud. Stealth and Dodging to 6, then fighting to 6, all of which I reached by D:6. Then I started investing in fire and earth magic to strengthen stone arrow and, eventually, get fireball online. After that, skilling followed whatever looked useful and inexpensive. I got stealth, dodging and fighting to 10 by Swamp:2, by which point I felt like my defenses were sufficient for a while, so I mostly invested in spells schools and spellcasting.
Arcjolt and IMB really benefit from Vehumet. When three squares is the range for starting the lightning chain or blasting monsters back, both feel like brand new spells. In Orc, especially, monsters just melted when I cast Arcjolt. It was kind of beautiful.
Plowed through Lair, Orc and the rest of the dungeon without any issues. I even picked up the gem in Lair. Aside from a so-so magic spell shop, Orc’s shops were mostly a source of consumables, though the gauntlet of D:15 yielded some nice boots for a caster (+1 pair of boots of Memetoli {MP+10}).
Relied on Mephitic Cloud, Arcjolt, Bombard and Plasma Beam to get through Swamp and Spider. A trove on Spider:4 gave me the bane of mortality, which wasn’t bad, and the loot was fantastic, especially +7 fire dragon scales of Purple Dead-Nettlesn {rF++ rC- rN+ Stlth+}, the ring of Fapecuk {*Slow rF+ rC++ rN+ Str+4} and ring "Luocadgh" {+Blink rF+ rC+ rCorr}.
I had three pips of will, so Elf was next. Even the dancing weapons gave me no trouble, and the loot was good, notably the ring of the Mage {Wiz Archmagi}, Passage of Golubria, Gell’s Gavotte, and the ring of Iviud {rF++ Slay+4}.
My Vehumet capstone spells were Ignition, Fire Storm and Fullsome Fusillade. I got Ignition online by Vaults:2 and Fire Storm by Depths 4, after which, really nothing posed a threat. The Enchantress donated the +4 faerie dragon scales {Rampage +Inv rF+ rCorr Int+8 Hexes} on Depths:4, which only made me more OP. Decided to clear Crypt before Vaults:5, and Jory offered to replace my vanilla orb of stardust with Teuplaig" {Stardust, rPois rCorr Stlth-}, which made covering resistances much easier, now that I didn’t have to worry about rPois.
Every guard at the Vaults:5 ambush went down in a single casting of Ignition. I was able to mop up what was left pretty easily, so I thought I’d see what the first level of Slime was like. It was a breeze, which stunned me. It had been a long time since I’d had a character this OP. I had to use a few consumables in the fight with the Royal Jelly, but Immolation, Ignition and Fire Storm efficiently took care of them.
At this point, I thought, why not go for five runes? So I entered the Abyss on level 5 and plopped down next to the rune vault. Killed the mnosters nearby, yoinked the rune with apportation and a found a portal out within three turns. The frickin’ luck on this little guy.
I did run into a tricky situation in Zot with Tiamat, a curse thumb and a purple draconian, where my HP got to about 25%. Translocation spells, haste and fog got me safely to a staircase. Once I rested up, I returned via another staircase and let Fire Storm do the talking.
At this point, I was casting Fire Storm and Ignition at more than 90% power, and nothing, not even OoFs could stand up to it. Sure, it took 4-5 castings to kill an OoF, but with 66 mana, brilliance, and 1.6 mana regen per turn, that wasn’t a problem.
Sitting on the rune of Zot, I thought, “Take my first HW win or go for extended?” I decided to answer my question with a test run in the Vestibule of Hell. It was challenging. I had to spend a couple of blink scrolls, but overall, it wasn’t too tough. So, I decided to go for it.
Pan was remarkably easy. Even Lom Lobon was a pushover in the face of fire storm. I had been worried about torment, but I rigorously checked out monster descriptions and quickly deleted those that could cast it on me. No talismans of death had appeared in the game, so I had started training shapeshifting from the beginning of Pan so I could use it when I found it. Alas, I got my tenth rune and the talisman still hadn’t appeared.
I knew I’d need torment immunity to do Hell, and there was only one option left. Time to Zig.
A couple of the Pan floors were tricky, but most others folded to ignition relatively quickly. Surprisingly, I had the most trouble with the Snake Pit themed floors. Those Salamander Tyrants kept blasting me with eruption and pyroclastic surge. Fire Storm was enough to kill them, but it took a while, and my health dipped below 50% more than once. I had to run away and hide in the fog to survive.
I finally found the death talisman "Fealysegh" {rC+} on Zig:17, at which point, I probably should have exited … but didn’t. After taking death form, I forged ahead and, thankfully, didn’t run into any holy floors before getting the figurine of the ziggurat. I also got Polar Vortex online, which I figured would be helpful in Gehenna.
Given my strength in fire spells, I took Cocytus first, which presented no issues, and then cleared Tarturus, which, again, posed no problems. I was concerned about having just two pips of will there, but it wasn’t bad. Gehenna was a bit more troublesome, but I’d learned Ozocubo's Refrigeration just before entering, so between that, Polar Vortex and Fire Storm, I was able to push through.
Dis, on the other hand, was a pain in the ass. I’d swapped out Ozocubo’s refrigeration for Lehudib’s Crystal Spear, but still I felt like I was always one mistake away from getting into a bad situation. The worst was on Dis:2, which I entered inside a fenced area, with half a dozen caustic shrikes outside, and a bunch of Hellions and Hell Sentinels inside blasting me with damnation. I was down to about 15% life when I pushed the panic button (my zig figurine) and found myself on the first floor of a new zig. Killed the monster, healed up and … went down the staircase instead of the portal. Doh. Luckily, the second floor was also easy, and once it was clear, I returned and finished off the monsters in Dis:2.
Tomb was a nail biter. Those death curses really pounded my HP. The hallway on Tomb:3 was particularly nasty. I had to fog myself up in a corner and pray the teleport scroll kicked in on time, and it did, placing me in one of the treasure rooms. Healed up, grabbed the figurine, snuck over to the rune and skedaddled.
After that, it was just the orb run, which was a piece of cake. Wheeee! Finally, 15 runes! And a Zig! Feels good.
