Finally gave CLIVAN a try, I'm not quite sure the balance is just right yet:



Screwed up with the equipment pic, had +8-9 valpurium everything with (accidentally) valpurium Mjolak +11 and Neerc Se-Ulb +10 for Petrus. By far my most powerful character ever; I was basically invincible by the end.

Some notes:

1. The added content is highly focused on the early-mid game, which basically just lead to much more loot with little risk.
   
2. Likewise, after hitting the danger level soft cap (topping out at elite dark knights, orc generals and whip champions), there's nothing more dangerous to face. Sherry fell on the second level of the dwarven branch, after which there just weren't any truly dangerous NPCs to face (not counting Izzy, who still didn't want to spawn). Needless to say this got boring fast.
   
3. While I can't be sure, the danger level scaling seemed a bit low compared to 0.50. I was toting valpurium gear around by GC7 and barely had even apprentice dark magi spawn.
   
4. Clearing GC5 before finding the ommel blood quest prevents you from completing it.
   
5. What's up with Mellis' school food rate? Only got one can during the entire run.
   
6. holy fuck that Eptyron is annoying to fight against
   

The deep forest was very enjoyable though a bit on the easy side after GC5; I was probably overequipped for it already. Having a guaranteed wand of cloning from the mushroom boss was rather nice as well - you're less dependent on luck for a successful run.

Absolutely, if you're really paranoid of your danger level that's totally something you could do.

I wouldn't bother since danger level's not a big deal grumble grumble

I really doubt the SoCM prohibition is tied to the material Neerc spawns with; more likely it's just an innate property of the item. Having one turn into banana flesh would just mean you've got an evil life-swallowing banana mace. Not that I've tried it, or even checked the script entry more closely.

All the three exploits should be fixed, no question about it. Shoplifting would be fine if it was difficult to do, like having a pet carry things out of the shops in Nethack; here you just pile things and kick them.

Turning elite guards untameable or increasing the difficulty to something above the scroll level (lyre?) could be worth consideration as well, doing that completely trivializes GC1-4.

Heh, not to me no, though someone did do this by accident way back IIRC.

It's got nothing to do with being weak, I would say. It's also not restricted to levels when entering them, I went through GC1 normally at first, then returning after some while found some newly generated negatively enchanted NPCs.

I've no clue what causes it, a bug of some sort I suppose? All I really know is that it's surprisingly frequent.

Like you may have noticed on the shoutbox, I started writing a guide. It's starting to be ready enough to make public, so here's a link: JoKe's Guide to Elpuri.

Some of the hints 'n' tips sections aren't probably quite populated enough yet, I'll be adding some as they come. I don't really know if it's enough to get anyone through the freedom win either, but we'll see.

Must be one of the longest things I've ever written, too.

Mostly to those who would actually glean some use out of this: any specific bits and pieces I should add light on?

Neat!

Kharauder here, btw.

Highly enchanted boots of kicking with a very heavy material might help with the damage. You'd also need to rely a lot on kicking things against walls for the extra damage.

I may need to try this next.

No gas immunity, so I had to try and keep any contact with the red clouds as short as possible. The only real harmful effect from them ended being polymorphitis, which is why I kept a ring of polycontrol on. Sure, lost my near-perma haste from blue clouds on contact with them for a short while, but that never proved to be a true problem.

I really can't say whether or not it's actually more powerful than a normal staff damage-wise, I only chose it over a normal staff for the effect, plus the fact that it was the only (semi-)artifact weapon available by GC2.