ToME: the Tales of Maj'Eyal

That's the third time that I die being surrounded when I go down to the next level, two times in dark crypts (with the archmage) and one time in the halfling complex (with a slinger). It seems that's a big danger, it kills me more this than bosses. This last time I teleported away seeing too many cultists (after having rased up a stone wall), and I jumped into another bad situation. I used movement but there were cultists around every corner. But was too late. They killed me. I resurrected thanks to the blood of life thingy, then I died again hopelessly. There's a line after which you're already dead, even if you're still alive.

I'm thinking of the best strategy to face these situations. Perhaps teleporting isn't a good idea, especially in dark crypts who are filled of cultists and the level is so small that's even more crowded. Movement could help but there's always the risk to stumble into other cultists. I could stay still on the ladders but there are cultists that can teleport you, so that isn't very safe. I could risk it, but if they teleport then I'm in trouble. Even if I use movement to return to the ladder I'll find it occupied by the cultist that teleported me. I could try to push him away with strike but that doesn't work always and I risk not surviving a turn of concentrated attacks. Perhaps invisibility but I didn't had the spell nor the rune slot, and I'm not sure how much it's useful (never used it).

Unfortunately that's a random quest so if I evade it I'll never see it again. That's a very dangerous random quest. You can bow before the bandit leader, you can wait for the cursed psycho, but this isn't avoidable in a convenient manner.

I could always try it, and if I find a ladder ambush (that's very likely in dark crypts as I already said) I teleport out the dungeon. Don't know if this works though.

Some advice? Especially with the archmage. Anyway I've never tried with another class.

The best advice for the crypt remains the same as it always has been: Blight resistance -- at least 30-40% -- and enough HP and healing to tank a few hits, somewhere in the range of 6-8 hundred base HP with a solid regen, heal, and/or shield -- at least 4-500 HP regen/heal/shield if you can swing it; certainly no less than 250 or so. Yes, that means either some con investment or using +HP items, which probably don't boost SP or magic. That's fine.

For a surrounded archmage, your best bet is probably to have PT going, pop a movement infusion, and go find somewhere not surrounded. Alternately, you've got a number of AoE debuffs. Ice storm, flameshock, illumination. In your case, you had stone wall -- drop an inferno or corrosive vapor, hide inside the wall until healed/CD is over (movement infusions can help with the CD in 21, and you've got snap talents anyway), then pop out and repeat. PT's going to be the way to go there, too. Make sure to use freeze on the most dangerous creature in range (Blood magi or corruptors) if you're not popping an AoE. Don't let your health get low -- push comes to shove, time prison yourself to let CDs drop. Dig yourself a little zig-zag tunnel so you only have to deal with one critter at a time -- somewhat suboptimal for the AoE heavy archmage, but possibly better than trying to face six or seven elves at the same time. You can use disruption shield, then time prison yourself and let the collapse explosion kill things.

If the dark portal users are causing problems, be wearing anchoring items. They resist teleport, though the tooltip doesn't mention it. Check the item code to see which ones do it. Alternately, kill the cultists before they can portal you -- freeze or flameshock as soon as you see them, then go at them.

Finally, if you're really worried about the crypt and not willing to do the smart thing in that situation -- i.e. not take the quest -- make sure you go in with some extra levels. You can run into it for the first time starting at level 24. Level 22, 23, go grind the elven ruins for a bit. I'm fairly confident pretty much any class can at least survive the crypt going in at level 24, if they've got the right kit and are careful, but obviously a higher level (and subsequently greater tactical options) is going to help.

I always do the Back to the Future quest as soon as survivable (eg after completing Daikara) and pick up the Rune of the Rift. After activating my Shield rune, the rift rune lets me remove the most dangerous enemy caster, Freeze the second-most, and in a pinch Teleport away the third-most, which is almost always enough for me to kill everything safely after Shield runs out.

If the starting area of a level looks hopeless, you can always activate Shield, then blindly Teleport, under the assumption that "anywhere else is better than here." But the upper levels of the crypt rarely cause problems for my archmage (when I die is while taking risks to try and protect Melinda.)

I did it. I invested some points in dig, stonewall and probability travel. I also bought 2 rings with 12-13% protection from blight, I had an amulet with 7% protection from blight. I also use always premonition, although it's a bit random which element protects from depending on what they cast at first.

The new strategies that I had to use were digging a way in the rocks in level 5 and using targeted stone wall to block enemies, and some earthquakes in addition. In the upper levels I've got two ambushes but I managed to resolve them simply with movement and earthquakes.

I never managed to use probability travel. It's a bit risky and requires a lot of mana to be mantained (I already had arcane power, stone skin and premonition).

But I haven't even tried to save the woman, there were too many cultists and I was only lvl 24. I would have probably died if I didn't hid digging tunnels. It seems pretty hard to save her.