From: vh@cs.columbia.edu (Vasileios Hatzivassiloglou)
Subject: Re: Incredible.  Simply.
Organization: Columbia University Department of Computer Science
Date: Wed, 18 Nov 1992 04:30:32 GMT

In article <1992Nov17.204515.18545@csi.uottawa.ca> u519876@csi.UOttawa.CA (U. N. derGrad) writes:
>Unbelievable.  This is _by far_ my best game ever, and I'm only
>on dungeon level 7!
>
>FOUND (believe it!) so far: gauntlets of power, 2 blessed magic lamps (!),
>boots of speed (yessir!), amulet of reflection, blessed tinning kit.
>
>WISHED for (2 lamps):  Mjollnir (now up to +6), gray dragon scale mail (+0).
>
>_AND_ I've just found a wand of wishing!  WITH 3 CHARGES! on dlvl 7!
>
>*suppressed shiver*
>
>The obvious question:  what do I wish for?  I've go 6 wishes left (I've already
>wished for a blessed scroll of charging (I wished for 3, but only got one. ?),
>so 2 (left) + 3 (recharge) + 1 (wrestle out of wand).  SIX!  :-)
>
>Please note that I'm not a newbie (well, not too bad).  Using saved games, I 
>_have_ reached demi-godhood.  For the past month, I've been trying to complete
>the game without saving, and always seem to meet _stupid_ deaths.  Furthest I've
>gone without saving is dlvl 30.  This _should_ be THE game.
>
>My own suggestions:  amulet of life saving (more than 1, perhaps?), 3 blessed 
>scroll of enchant armor, ring of levitation, 3 blessed scroll of genocide
>(liches, et al), 3 cursed scroll of genocide (nurses, wraiths), ring of teleport 
>control.
>
>Side question:  I don't have Stormy or Excalibur, so I'm not protected from level
>drains.  If I genocide liches, am I safe?
>
>Other Side question:  can I wish for more than 1 amulet of life saving with a
>single wish?  
>
>What do the experts think?  BTW, I'm playing a priest.
>
>--
>Kevin Coughlan
>u519876@csi.uottawa.ca
>--

Being an experienced player (although I'm posting for the first time), I'd say
you should wish for any of the "best" items that you don't have and are rare to
find. By "best", I mean the best armor for each armor slot, and some valuable
and rare tools. These are:

helm of telepathy
gauntlets of dexterity
water walking boots / speed boots
shield of reflection
Hawaiaan shirt

(No point in wishing for GDSM, since you can get it from the dragon if you
have a want of polymorph. Also, it's relatively easy to find a cloak of 
displacement).

Useful tools/other stuff that you can wish for : blessed luckstone, magic marker,
blindfold, stethoscope, amulets of life saving.

On early experience levels a ring of levitation/conflict or gauntlets of
power are useful. Depending on what you find on your way, you may need to
wish for some other items if you are unlucky, such as a ring of protection
from shape changers (indispensable on later levels).

Never wish for a scroll. Wish for a magic marker instead, and write on your
useless scrolls after you make them blank; you can get much more scrolls
that way than directly wishing for them. The one exception is if you need
a type of scroll and you haven't found any, it is rare, and you are not a
wizard (this really applies only to the genocide and charging scrolls).

You can also wish for blessed potions of gain ability, but do that only if
your intelligence and/or dexterity is low; the other stats can be raised in
other ways. Note that this will lead you to be able to raise your HPs and
level much easier than summoning nurses/wraiths, so there is no point in
wishing for cursed scrolls of genocide.

Answering your side question 1 : No, genociding liches will still leave you
exposed to level drain attacks. This is the point that many posters miss
when they compare the various weapons and say things such as "Frosty is the
best" or "for later levels, go for Mjollnir". The truth is that when you
have a decent number of HPs and good level/stats, you don't really care
for the difference in damage, but you do care for keeping your level intact
(unless you want to go raising it every so often). There are only two
things that can protect you from level drain attacks, and that is wielding
Excalibur or Stormy. Now, you can get Excalibur easily (and rustfree), and
you don't want the level drain attack of Stormy on lower levels (to be able
to get these intrinsics) and you don't care about it on higher levels. So
the weapon of choice is Excalibur, and there is no need to wish for it.

Side question 2 : No, you can't group amulets together, therefore you can't
wish for more than one.

BTW, you have two more wishes, after you recharge your two magic lamps.


Vasilis Hatzivassiloglou.