User:Alanpost/Deep Elf Fire Elementalist guide

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NOTE #1: This guide is being written by someone who has ascended twice with the Orb of Zot. Consider the advice beta quality.
NOTE #2: This guide is a reference to my personal play style. You might enjoy the [Deep Elf Fire Elementalist guide] for more general advice.


Retrieve the Orb of Zot.

Death is the only condition which makes retrieving the Orb of Zot impossible. We can thus restate our goal: Do Not Die. How do you die?

Set Skills

  • Turn off everything but Spellcasting until it is level 14.
  • Then turn on Conjurations and Fire Magic

Find [Any] Armour

I think this advice is obsolete given changes to the scroll identification system.

Not to wear, for scroll identification. This may later change to finding wearable armour that's worth burning a scroll of enchant armour on.

Identify Scroll of Detect, Remove Curse

Before you can effectively try on unidentified items, you should have these scrolls identified. This allows you to remove those with negative effects.

Early Scroll Identification

Later Scroll Identification

Cast Zero-Hunger, Low-Failure Fireball

Intelligence: 25, Spellcasting: 14 Fire Magic: 10 Conjurations: 10

Modified down by god choice, rings of wizardry, rings of intelligence.

Worship a God

Vehumet, every time it's reasonable. The rare game may require Sif Muna.

Gets Traps & Doors Skill to 10

There is no particular rush, this can be done when no other obvious skill needs to be trained: all of your spells can be cast without hunger and a 1% chance of failure.

Train Fighting

There is some urgency, as training fighting gets you hit points. Should only be done when spells are zero hunger and low failure.

See Invisible

Scrolls of Fog and in some cases Fireball will help, but the main dungeon eventually becomes impassible without this because of Unseen horrors.

Poison Resistance

Helpful, but not strictly necessary for the middle game. Helpful for extending the corpses available for eating and reducing damage.

Find a non-Fire Conjuration Spell

Determine which Secondary School to specialize

This will be determined based on how the game progresses. In particular, early spellbooks will determine which schools to focus on.


The best option by far.



No experience here, but potentially useful.



Locate a Book of Annihilations

Cast Fire Storm


Finding a Book of Annihilations.

Spellcasting, Conjuration, and Fire Magic to all be at least level 19. I'm more comfortable with them being level 20.


A Hazard is any situation that could result in death. Some hazards are extremely basic, others result from the confluence of several events.

Running out of Mana

Being out of Mana severely reduces your tactical options.


Resting is the first option for restoring Mana. This strategy exacerbates Hunger. It cannot be done with a Monster nearby or may be interrupted by a wandering Monster.

Wands, Scrolls, Potions.

Sublimation of Blood


Main Article: Sickness

Making Noise

Main Article: Noise

Opening a door will sometimes cause it to creak.

Some spells are noisy when cast.


You cannot stay continually Hasted without enduring significant contamination.


Main Article: Curing Poison

If a potion of curing hasn't been identified yet, quaff potions from highest quantity to lowest. Note that you may quaff a potion of poison doing this.


Can be an issue due to spell hunger.

Miscast effect

You can kill yourself miscasting a spell. Trying to cast Fireball too early can kill you.

Cursed weapons and armor

Quaffing unidentified potions

Reading unidentified scrolls

Putting on unidentified items

Ranged Attacks

It is extremely dangerous to run away from Centaurs and other creatures with ranged attacks.

Fire resistant Monsters

Crimson imp


Imp Parking

With patience, an unarmed Crimson imp can be fought in melee.

Wands: Wand of magic darts, Wand of frost, Wand of disintegration.

A Wand of polymorph other will often turn a Crimson imp into a non-fire resistant monster. Alas, you will occasionally get an Iron imp, which is also fire resistant.

Conjuration-only spells.

Secondary Specialty spells.


Because of their death curse, often not worth engaging. Stair dance, they're slow.

Invisible Monsters

A Scroll of fog will make an invisible creature appear as a disturbance, making them easier to hit with Sticky Flame.

Area of effect spells, like Fireball, will hit invisible creatures when you don't know exactly where they are. Unfortunately, you might be caught in the area of effect if they are closer than you thought.

Descending Stairs

As this character is a glass cannon, descending staircases can be extremely risky: you might find yourself surrounded with very few tactical options.

Ensuring you are not Burdened will make traveling staircases as fast as possible. Deflect Missiles helps to avoid damage from monsters not adjacent to you. Swiftness or Haste can help escape a hoard that follows you up the stairs. A Potion of invisibility can supplement good Dodging to avoid damage while retreating. A Scroll of blinking can cover more ground than running.

This is one of the few instances where something like a Potion of agility helps, as you won't normally need to deal with monsters adjacent to you.


A scroll of magic mapping can be used to find staircases on levels too dangerous to explore.


This will prevent casting of all magic and reading of scrolls, substantially limiting your tactical options. Keep some potion or wand-based capabilities on hand.



You can risk quaff-iding potions earlier if you identify an amulet of resist mutation.

Does amulet identification precede potion identification? It requires scroll identification.

Magic Items

Under what conditions do you want more Mana vs. Intelligence, &c? How best to choose between Intelligence, Power, Wizardry, Fire, Conjuration?

tq: Lens

Emotional Reaction

  • Anxiety: practice tq: go slow: practice each step mindfully even if you know it's a NOP.
  • Stress: The game is getting harder, shift to stress identification and circumvention techniques
  • Focus: You're less able to focus on basic hazards, don't get caught off-guard.


In a typical game, worship Vehumet: he will aide you in casting all of your primary spells.

In some circumstances, worshipping Sif Muna is the better option: If you find an early Sif Muna altar, or Vehumet is not in the Ecumenical Temple, starting to gain piety early can help make spells available in the challenging mid-game.

Branch Progression

Ecumenical Temple

The Lair

Orcish Mines

Skill Progression

Spell Progression

My current recommended end-game spell complement. Still tweaking.

Name School(s) Spell Level
Controlled Blink Tloc 7
Deflect Missiles Air/Chrm 6
Flight Air/Chrm 3
Haste Chrm 6
Fireball Fire/Conj 5
Lightning Bolt Air/Conj 5
Sublimation of Blood Necr 2
Necromutation Trmt/Necr 8
Orb of Destruction Conj 7
Cure Poison Pois 2
Delayed Fireball Fire/Conj 7
Regeneration Chrm/Necr 3
See Invisible Chrm 4
Fire Storm Fire/Conj 9


You can have this memorized at Lvl6, though it likely is not safe to cast.

Level Progression

This is the basic ladder for level progression. Some of these events also require Skill Progression to have reached a suitable point.

Level 2

Level 3

Increase your Intelligence to reduce Spell hunger.

Memorize Conjure Flame.

Level 4

Memorize Sticky Flame. (This may have to wait until Level 5, depending on Spellcasting)

Level 5

Level 6

Increase your Intelligence to reduce Spell hunger.

Memorize Fireball.

Level 9, 12, 15, 18, 21, 24, 27

Increase your Intelligence to reduce Spell hunger.

Some of these levels may go to increasing Strength, depending on the items found in the dungeon.