Four deaths:
- A skeleton warrior in the Trollmire. Derp. Went one round too long toe-to-toe while still getting the hang of playing melee--my last few characters had been ranged or casters.
- A rare in the Bearscape. A solipsist, maybe? It one-shotted me with a beam of some kind. At least I took the hint and bailed, forfeiting the chance to finish the Bearscape but avoiding any more lost lives.
- Got cornered by an adventuring party and had to fight despite the mod. It didn't go well.
- Blundering around the Far East, looking in the exact opposite corner of the map for the dungeon I meant to go into, I tried taking on an orc patrol. ("Orcs? I've fought tons of orcs already!") It didn't go well.
That said, I wouldn't have won this quickly without spoiling myself pretty heavily. Until this game, I had no character survive past level 19; most died ignobly around Dreadfell. The big light bulb that made things click was, I think, watching Dave Fuxa's first few "Let's Learn" videos and adopting the tactic of clearing a dungeon up to a boss but not initiating the end battle until a few levels later. Without that, I would no doubt have keeled over in the early- to mid-game just like every other character previously. Of similar but subtler importance was familiarizing myself with the different dungeons available and oddments like the backup guardians, which I'd likely never have found (and scored goodies/levels from) without finding out about them on the wiki.
Even so, it was not a perfect character by any stretch. I didn't realize that the Combat Veteran passives sucked until I'd put a point in each of them. The elixir of foundations got made without me. I didn't realize I needed to hold on to non-magical amulets until after I finished the Jeweler quest, after which point nothing more of that nature dropped, so I didn't get to make use of any of the tier 5 gems I found. And my attack speed was hella slow, because I was running with "Eternity's Counter" in defensive mode and an 85% speed greatmaul. xD
It was a good time! Thanks to all of you for maintaining game knowledge resources around here.
Next up, probably a few casual games to get Roguelike achievements? I unlocked so much stuff this run, maybe I'll just click "Random" and run with it...
