Re: [crawl] mummy necro

In article <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>, [EMAIL PROTECTED] 
says...
> Larry Bassel - .- -.- ---   .-. --.. . -.-. --.. . ---... 
> 
> > I've continued my experimentation with Mummy necros who worship Sif Muna. 
> > ...
> 
> So you finally arrived to conclusion that mummies are fighters/necro with
> a little aid of divination. :-)

To some extent yes, though probably not as much as you would. My approach 
is more necro/divination with a little aid of fighting/wands.
 
> 
> > AC : 3          Evasion : 10          Shield : 0
> > Poor as usual ;-)
> 
> Too poor IMO. I'd use heavier armor if possible. Search for some body armor
> with pluses (as you have identify).

I'm looking (have ID'd all the potentially interesting armor and weapons 
on levels 1 through 7 so far, nothing better has yet showed up). I'm 
hoping for an armor store soon.

> 
>  
> > You worship Sif Muna.
> 
> I prefer Kikubaaqudgha who gives all (and more) necro books himself plus
> Recall slaves and other nice abilities. Messing with Sif Muna is
> unnecessary IMO.

As mentioned in my earlier post, I realize Sif Muna is an unconventional 
choice of god for a Mummy necro. Different strokes for different folks...

> 
> 
> >  u - a -1,+3 orcish dagger of draining
> >  v - a +1,+2 whip of reaching
> >  I - a +0 halberd of freezing (weapon)
> >  V - a +0,+1 dagger of venom
> > Any thoughts on which weapon is best? Freezing is good against imps, I 
> > haven't tried the reaching one.
> 
> Daggers. Venom normally, draining if you want to weaken strong monsters.
> The others are poor. The ultimate is perhaps weapon "of Pain" for necro.

Wouldn't draining be somewhat of a duplication of my necro abilities? I 
would think I'd want my melee attack to complement my spellcasting skills
(to kill monsters my necro spells aren't good against).

> 
> >  + Level 9 Divinations
> > Yes, this was intentional. Identify was essentially unlearnable until 
> > Divinations got up this high (and Spellcasting 6 and level 10 probably 
> > helped too) even with the ring of wizardry.
> 
> Not worth to pack so many exp in it IMO. It's rather for your satisfaction
> than character power. Usually you have enough detect/remove curse to wield
> ego weapons and armor. Wands are identified easily by zapping at weak
> monsters, potions by drinking, most scrolls by reading, staffs when casting
> spells (or not useable for fighters). In addition you have scrolls of
> identify for hard identifable stuff. So the spell could be considered as a
> little nifty dessert when the main meal is much more important.

Actually I can get the best of both worlds (see Tina's later post). Since 
I worship Sif Muna, I can learn ID when I have a lot of stuff on a 
cleared level to identify, then unlearn it (and relearn offensive spells) 
when I go down to the next level (until I pick up enough spell levels 
that it isn't necessary to do this), using ID scrolls for quick ID of 
something important when I don't have the spell.

> 
> 
> > You have 2 spell levels left.
> > You know the following spells:
> >   Your Spells                       Type                  Success   
> > Level
> >  a - Pain                         Necromancy              Excellent   1
> >  b - Animate Dead                 Necromancy              Great       4
> >  c - Detect Traps                 Divination              Excellent   2
> >  d - Repel Missiles               Air/Enchantment         Good        2
> >  e - Blink                        Translocation           Good        2
> >  f - Identify                     Divination              Fair        6
> >  g - Detect Creatures             Divination              Excellent   2
> 
> More wizard than Necromancer. How do you expect to kill monsters when out
> of zombies (several good monsters could kill them in no time)? With Pain
> only? You will detect them perfectly, go to them bypassing the traps,
> identify their stuff and animate corpses but the killing part is missing.

Yes, I've got a Mummy wizard for all intents and purposes (and maybe this 
isn't a character you'd like to play or one that you think has a good 
chance to get the Orb, but I'm enjoying it). Also note that if I do want 
a Mummy wizard, I've got to develop the character this way (start with 
Mummy necro, go heavy on Divinations) since Mummy wizard is *not* one of 
the allowed starting character choices.

And I do recognize that I need some better offensive spells, hence the 
question in my original post. I do see drawbacks for the most likely 
candidates (correct me if I'm wrong):
Vampiric Draining: only useful when hitpoints are below max (but 
conversely good for some badly needed healing for a Mummy)
Agony: won't actually kill, right? I'm not sure what this spell actually 
does and have to admit I haven't tried it
Bolt of Draining: lowers experience value of kills
Dispel Undead: only useful against undead (but seems quite potent against 
them)

I figure that since I've already won once, I'll try a few experimental 
characters just for fun...

Larry