Actually, when I said "faster" I was talking about the big picture and at the higher levels after agility was maxed out and AC was pretty high. With using spells sparingly and relying on the RESTORE spell during and after combat I could deal with a lot more monsters and get a lot more experience in a single trip. By that time I had already had plenty of cash saved up in case of an untimely demise.
I was curious about the frequency of spell failure. It happened to me a few times in various games. It involved the HOME spell and happened when an assassin, wizard, or druid (useless) tried to cast it after a combat. Any thoughts?

drbug




> > It was faster to hack and slash and use RESTORE than to use multiple QUAKES or CHAOSES.
>
> I found it to be faster to use multiple QUAKEs for battles with more monster groups, the threshhold being around four or five. Hacking and slashing takes as many rounds as there are monster groups, but by using multiple QUAKEs you can usually finish things off in four rounds (excepting a few of the toughest creatures). Compared to just attacking, it takes *slightly* longer per round to select a QUAKE spell (but at least it's going to be the one pre-selected, being the most powerful spell), but for 6-group battles, it's almost always the case that multi-QUAKEs will be a bit faster than hack/slash. And of course, if MURKON is one of the groups, it's faster to attack him.