I've not been playing IVAN that long (in terms of actual game play - maybe someone remembers my few posts a little over a year ago?).

In the very beginning of UT1, I found an Ommel Tooth Armor +1 or 2 with an AV of 26 as I remember it.

Wearing it had a heavy penalty (-3, I believe) to both DEX and AGI, but it gave a several point bonus to END. I was so sad when that character kicked the bucket...

Hopefully I'll get a bones file sometime. If I do, I'll give you the exact stats of this armor, since I could be slightly wrong.

Yeah, but the "reincarnate a character" choice in the main menu helps with that.

Unce you've played a few times and you're more used to the menu, it goes faster. It also helps if you've played D&D a little bit.

I strongly second this. I've noticed that this feature, if nothing else, really adds to the feel of a rougelike.

The best implementation of friendly creatures I've seen is in the rougelike "Incursion", which I suggest any of you play if you haven't. It could be used as reference for adding them.

Currently there are already genies, which I think count as borderline to this.

I suppose that if you return to normal when you're a headless zombie, you die, correct? If by some fluke not, then you could return to normal, then have your head replaced. You really ought to maintain those things when you return to normal, simply because it's more interesting.

Also, I know that zombies can pick their own head back up and put it on. Is this limited to their own head, or can it be any head? It would be rather cool to go around with a tiger's head. If you could retain it when you returned to normal, it would be even cooler.

The wand would have to stun them for only a short amount of time. Stunning something for a decent amount of time might be accomplished by breaking it. Drop it next to your enemy/ies, distance yourself and shoot a fireball at them. BOOM! STUN! DEATH!

Interesting...
I should research this phenomenon...

Wow, I can just imagine beating enemies to death with your own head. Can the priestess heal that?

Mushroom Slime! A healthy alternative to other less efficient weight loss products!

I'll repeat the death I just had here, because it was my best character so far, and because it was somewhat extreme. I already have it in my sig.

I ate a grey unicorn corpse in GC2, got teleportitis, blinked into a minefield, and set everything off, igniting my gunpowder backpack and breaking my wand of fireballs.

Luckily, I was wearing two rings of fire protection, so despite my demise I was relatively unhurt.

I lost no limbs. That was the end of Tripwire. It seems I named him well.

[UPDATE!]
I just had a newbie die in a much more suitable way to be mentioned in this thread.

For the first time I got the holy banana. Shortly afterwards, one of my legs got ripped off by a bear trap. I picked it up and began on my trip back to town when I encountered a skeleton, which hit me for vital damage in the head. I panicked and began to run, but it promptly ended that by hacking my other leg off. I was overloaded, and knew that it would probably kill me during the turn that I dropped my stuff, and even if not, I'd never get away from it without dying. So I pulled out my banana. No, the other one. I decided that since trying to escape would certainly get me killed, I'd go out with a bang, and if I was incredibly lucky, I might even survive!

BANG!

The skeleton died almost immediately, blown into pieces. Then my head was completely destroyed, ending all hopes of continuing this character. Both my arms bled out as well. But that wasn't the end! Oh no! Then the explosion damaged the very banana I'd just fired. It ruptured, releasing the rest of its charges on me. It ripped both arms off at once, as if to finish the job in an explosion of sadistic irony.

Thus ended the life of Ripcord, yet another appropriately named character.

If you wear two rings of fire protection, does the protection stack?

Very true. Actually, I'm currently in GC1 for the third time! On a bones level, no less! Just got a lot of nice equipment from a kobold and a pile of my old character's equipment. I'm heading back to town to sell some of it for a wand of fireballs.

[UPDATE!]
Alright, I ate a grey unicorn corpse in GC2, got teleportitis, blinked into a minefield, and set everything off, igniting my gunpowder backpack and breaking my wand of fireballs.

Luckily, I was wearing two rings of fire protection, so despite my demise I was relatively unhurt.

Still, a well trained dog (or even a decently trained one, I'd wager) is smart enough to follow its master around corners. Whatever the case, the current system is annoying, so it ought to be changed. It distracts from the fun of the game and is time consuming. I don't want to have to kill the dog to play a fun game.