So, I finally got around to compiling Nethack again, and have played 31 games. Early on it was pretty ugly, I was getting stomped on around dungeon level 3. The last few games have been pretty good though, and except for running into YASD, were well on their way to starting the quest.
Top 3 scores so far:
No Points Name Hp [max]
1 83713 Arcana-Wiz-Elf-Fem-Cha died in The Dungeons of Doom on level 18. Killed by a rock troll {17606}. - [80]
2 37964 Ugg-Bar-Orc-Fem-Cha died in The Gnomish Mines on level 6 [max 11]. Killed by a priest of Mitra, while paralyzed by a monster {7986}. - [109]
3 36645 Graagh-Bar-Orc-Mal-Cha died in The Dungeons of Doom on level 2 [max 9]. Killed by Mr. Gweebarra, the shopkeeper {9261}. - [96]
The first one there is really annoying. That was the first character I've played so far that I thought was going to be ascendable. Cleared out the mines, picked up the luckstone at the end, and BUC id'd everything. Soko was a boh, and I got my pet to steal Gauntlets of Power from a shop on level 2 or 3, so I could carry everything without being burdened. Thanks to the GoP, I could deal some serious damage with daggers, and I quickly skilled that up to Expert. My curse in this game was not finding a single ID scroll, so I had huge piles of un-ided scrolls/wands/rings. The death was really stupid, I had been trying to lure the troll onto an altar so I could sac it without moving, and ran into a landmine. That dropped me to 20hp, so I burned the last charge of my wand of fire on the E word, in the pit. I then tried to crawl out of the pit, rather than put on my ring of levitation... After crawling out, the troll whacked me once with his polearm, and I croaked. Had I slipped on the ring, and run away without burning the charge, I could've made it around the corner and been safe from the troll. Had a magic lamp, which if I had blessed I could've used for a spellbook of identify, but I was enjoying the perma-light source so much I didn't want to give it up. In hindsight, I should've just gone ahead and tried to get the wish out of it, a regular lamp is still useful, and I would've found a spellbook of light eventually.
The second entry was also annoying. Made it down to mines end, but couldn't figure out what was luck and what was load, so I left them and came back up to minetown to id/sell. Altar was lawful, I was chaotic, and a neutral unicorn wandered in while I as buc id-ing, so I decided to convert the altar. As soon as I did, the priest paralyzed me, and killed me where I stood. I didn't even get a chance to drink a potion or fight back
The third entry was pretty silly on my part. I had 4 blessed potions of healing/extra healing, and never drank them. I cleaned out 2 scroll shops that were at least 20 squares each, and slaughtered dozens of Kops. And then died to a shopkeeper that was 1-hit away from dieing himself, all because I forgot to drink the potions I'd stolen from previous shopkeepers. The absolute worst part about this one is that because it was on dungeon level 2, it didn't even leave a bones file.
And then just because they were so funny, I'll post the bottom 3.
29 198 Legarda-Val-Hum-Fem-Neu died in The Dungeons of Doom on level 2 [max 3]. Killed by a large mimic {330}. - [16]
30 67 Legarda-Kni-Hum-Fem-Law died in The Dungeons of Doom on level 1. Fell into a pit {172}. - [16]
31 4 Anturas-Tou-Hum-Mal-Neu died in The Dungeons of Doom on level 1. Killed by a sewer rat, while unconscious from rotten food {22}. - [10]
That first one was in a shop, I walked into it trying to get to the scroll behind it. E-word didn't write properly, was killed in 2 turns.
Second one was hilarious. I had just finished killing off a jackal while skilling two-weaponing, and it took me down low on hp. Took 1 step, fell in a pit trap, and died.
The last one was .... Killed a newt, ate it's corpse hoping for a "mild buzz", and it turned out to be a rotten corpse; killed by a rat 22 turns into the game.
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Well, I've been having fun. Wizards that start with at least 17 Int seem to be the easiest so far, as hunger-less spell casting seems pretty overpowered. Especially when they get up to level 8-10, and start having a decent power reserve. In my last Wizard loss, I should've done a lot more casting, especially as I had 20 Int, and 161 max power (132 when I died). Only 3 spells known though, Force Bolt, Haste Self, and Wizard Lock. 3%/76%/12% chance of failure respectively.