Newbie problem

[grrraaaa]

Hey all! I've been a fan of these kinds of game since I played Rogue waaaay back in the day. Anyhow, I found Portralis a few days ago, downloaded the latest 0.3, and began.

The problem is, I didn't earn any xp or level kill counts on the noob rat quest. I made a half-elf monk, bought some gear, talked to some NPCs, smacked 10 rats, and got exactly nothing for my efforts. I had assumed the wimp rats would bring me to xp level 2 and monk level 1 (2?) where I could up my stats, skills, abilities, and whatever else this game has to offer. Needless to say, the monsterous rat found me a nice snack.

Any ideas? I'm pretty sure I did everything right.

- Gra

[Frumple]

The short of it is that some folks (Me included, tehe) were, in a sense, abusing quest-monsters infinite non-elite hoards for easy xp and loot... so the boss fellow cut out XP from non-quest-boss kills (i.e. the little rats).

Best thing to do to get that first level is probably head into a random dungeon (outside the town, there's stairs down. They're on pretty much every non-town, non-quest related map.), find more rats (or worms, or crows, small wolves, um... there's a lot of easy-kill low-level critters), and kill them for that first level-up.

Little bit tougher than it used to be, but most scrolls are pretty cheap (teleport scrolls are your friend), so it's not that bad.

[Variaz]

Also, if you outfit yourself properly with those 1000 golds, you should be able to defeat the rat. It has actually been nerfed, considering you're not level 2 anymore when you kill it(well, unless you went to a random dungeon). It's very possible to kill it at level 1.

Try wearing an Iron Mail, an Iron Helm, and some gloves and boots. That will give you a nice AC, enough to make sure the rat will miss you.

I'll probably increase the monstrous rat's xp value though, you should really be at level 2 at the end of this quest.

If you're new to Portralis, I warn you that the game can be very difficult at times, you really have to build your character very well. But unlike most other roguelikes, you can revive once you die, but lose all your non-eternal items that weren't stored in your home, and your "Death Count" is increased. But you keep your level and everything you completed in terms of quests, etc...

[grrraaaa]

Heh. I killed the monsterous rat at level one. With my dagger. Amazing what 6 attacks per round will do for you!

I don't have a lot of free time (job, wife, three kids, etc...) but I'm loving this rogue-like so far! Difficulty be d**ned, that's half of the game right there! Though reviving sounds like a VERY cool feature.

To help me plan my monk, what are the best ways to get around a physical-immune monster? I know the Ki Strike does half magic damage and if I take the time, I can get a level in Elemental Lord and throw one or more (how many per round?) punches that do pure elemental damage. Could a monster be immune to physical, Ki's magic, and elemental damage?

- Gra

[Variaz]

grrraaaa said:

To help me plan my monk, what are the best ways to get around a physical-immune monster? I know the Ki Strike does half magic damage and if I take the time, I can get a level in Elemental Lord and throw one or more (how many per round?) punches that do pure elemental damage. Could a monster be immune to physical, Ki's magic, and elemental damage?

- Gra

An elite/boss monster will never have both physical and magic immunities, and a monster naturally resistant to physical at 100% will never gain magic immunity. That said, a monster COULD have both 100% physical and mana resistance, but so far, there aren't any.

Ki punch, Element Punch and the High Monk's Energy Punch I believe can all be good. I'd say place at least one point in Ki Punch though. It only delivers one blow, but if you raise the combat feats skill, you can replace some normal attacks by a special one, including Ki Punch. So with a Combat Feats skill of 10, you could replace 2 regular blows by 2 Ki Punches.

And for a monk, don't forget to equip some good gloves! They provide extra damages. Also, if you go for Element Punch, I'd suggest Light as an element, as undeads like ghosts are weak to it. Other good ones are Fire, Acid, Sound and Electric. I'd stay away from Poison and Darkness(though you might want to consider them if you're playing as Kobold or Demon.).

[Frumple]

[ramble]
The best way, eh? That can be dependant on a lotta' factors, but the generic answer usually starts with "multiclass". Monks are one of the better dungeon-crawling classes, stat-bonus wise, but I'm personally not too fond of most of their abilities.

Instead of ki-strike, slap some points into wisdom (or the wisdom boosting ability) and grab a book of missile and (something) for those critters you can't (or don't want to) smack to death -- to be honest, most of my range-centric builds last much longer than the melee ones, even if they do massively more damage in melee than they do at range. There's a lot of really fast monsters that will kill you before you get to melee range -- beware the 's'. You need pretty impressive speed just to hope to reach parity as a melee fighter.

But for physical-immune critters specifically, you'd have more options if you were one of the elemental immune folks -- Zulgors, Celestials, and Demons -- who can pick up their respectively immune branded glove and wail away without caring. As for now, Zs and Cs are probably the best of the three, as not much resists chaos and light. Still, if push comes to shove, remember that you can use branded weapons even if you focus on unarmed combat. There's at least two early artifacts that have impressive poison brands.

Branded ammos -- especially rounds and bullets -- are also very useful for taking out physical immune monsters... at least when you're desperate. They're perfect throw fodder, especially considering how rare purple boomerangs are.

Oh... and while monsters can't be immune to both physical and magical damages, they can be immune to one and reflect the other -- those are an absolute pain, especially if it's magic immune/physical reflecting. Really, one of the best ways of surviving the tougher elite/bosses is a healthy sense of cowardice. Keep teleport scrolls around -- I don't go down stairs without at least ten, remember that jumping can get you over distances quicker that normally, don't be afraid to hop up and down stairs to refresh the level, there's lots of little things that can keep you alive. So yeah... running away is the 'best' way of getting around things you have trouble killing. *sage nod*
[/ramble]

[Variaz]

As Frumple pointed out, melee characters are indeed tougher to start with, unlike the vast majority of RPGs. Mages are definitly the easiest to start with.

However, as you get better weapons and better melee abilities, and more importantly, more attacks/rounds, melee starts becoming the most powerful method of combat. You can use Element Strike or a "Melee Attack" spell to take down ghosts and the like, you can use the Combat Feats skill to replace some of your attacks with special abilities(a good tactic is "hit & run", using Jump ot Leaping Spin to get away from the monster at the end of the round), some weapons types like Swords, Polearms or Martial Arts allows you to block without a shield, while others can use a shield to block incoming attacks, etc...

I'm more of a melee guy myself, so I know what I'm talking about! Though so far, I enjoy the Swords + Gun combo. One sword in one hand, one gun in the other, high dexterity(Weapon Finesse helps making up for lack of strength) and no need for a shield since I have my sword and my dexterity is high. So far so good, hopefully it will continue to go well!

[grrraaaa]

So, ah, the Death Count is just bragging rights, right? As in: "Ha! I died 200 more times than YOU did!"

I'm learning all about the afterlife. And the poor poor state of a revived character

- Gra

[Variaz]

Eternal items are your friends! And a death count of 200 is NOT something to be proud of.

Another tip I can give you is if you find a really cool item, be patient! Recall to the town, store it in your home, and wait until you can buy a scroll of object eternality from the rare items shop before using it. You wouldn't want to lose a cool blue item, wouldn't you?

[Gando]

Meh all these games later and I havent even SEEN a blue item :/ I think thats just a myth...

[Variaz]

No. First of all, objects below "rank" 20 will NEVER be blue. Items are generated with a rank equal to the dungeon's level, but then, the "bonus level" is randomly generated, so at level 20, the chance of getting a blue is still very low. From monsters, the item's rank is the average between the dungeon level and the monster's depth, so if you defeat an Elite Kobold infantry on level 20, the average depth is 11, not enough to generate a blue. Also, whenever a blue CAN be generated, there's only 10% chances of this happening.

[Gando]

*pokes Variaz with a humor stick...* was joking about the myth thing Though I still havent seen one

[Variaz]

I prefer to clarify things before it gets in the "Bug Reports" when it's not one.

[Gando]

My preference is to know what is and what isnt a bug myself. I am usually on target, though of course some things might seem like bugs to a newer player when they are merely bad features But I know that not getting items that are tweakable before midgame isnt a bad thing or a bug...just the way the game is balanced. Good thing I managed to avoid that ring of stupidity(-139 int) eh?