Act 4: It turns out that the Shiurath you "killed" is but one of the thousands of manifestations of a far greater evil. That was one of the weaker ones. For now, you are in WAY over your head, and need to escape this hellhole. There is a tower which leads back to the mortal realm, through which many lesser fiends like Kobolds and Minotaurs pass through. That seems like your best bet, but it's sure to be heavily guarded.
If you're playing with the Noncombatant Perk, you should get points for each enemy you leave alive instead. Also, triple points for gold on hand, but also triple points deducted for time taken; a side-effect of Noncombatant is that you are being constantly swarmed by enemies that are nearly impossible to escape, so you cannot afford to explore much at all (meaning you take much less time and find much less gold on your runs).
To ensure that health orbs drop at a fair rate: Have a hidden integer counter, HealthOrbPoints, to track if the player has fought well enough to earn some help. Have an variable, PlayerMissingHealth, track the missing percentage of the player's health at all times, as an integer from 0 to 100. When an enemy hits 0 HP, before destroying the enemy, first add PlayerMissingHealth to HealthOrbPoints. When destroying the enemy, if PMH is greater than 50, and HOP is greater than 500, drop one large Health Orb, and decrement HOP by 500; if HOP is between 200 and 499, drop one small Health Orb, and decrement HOP by 200. If PMH is greater than 75, and HOP is still greater than 200, have the enemy drop a second small Health Orb, and decrement HOP by 200 again; if PMH is greater than 88, and HOP is STILL greater than 200, drop a third small Health Orb, and decrement HOP by 200 again. (NOTE: HOP values will definitely need adjusting, but the concept is still sound.)
For the record, I did survive, against all odds. But having a negative feedback loop kick into high gear for that kind of situation would've been appreciated.
I'm a Ranger, my dog is dead, and I've defeated 4 enemies on 1 HP by myself. None of the enemies have dropped any Health Orbs. Don't you think that, when the player's health is this low, and the player has survived at least two encounters, that Health Orbs should be guaranteed to drop in the next encounter?
No, Atomic Pope is completely correct. In this game, Speed is absolutely crucial to your success; it guarantees higher scores, the ability to reliably put some distance between you and enemies, the ability to make free melee attacks on enemies, how long your buffs last, and the ability to pick up health orbs before they disappear. No other stat in this game is as useful and versatile as Speed. And both Fighter and Wizard start with the lowest Speed: a pitiful 4 on Suicide. But unlike the Fighter, the Wizard still has the advantage of range. Berserk only raises the Fighter's speed just enough to make him not completely useless in combat.
I think it should be possible to escape to the previous stage, if you're near the entrance and surrounded by enemies. Although there should probably be some kind of Coward Penalty associated with it, so that it avoids abuse.
In NetHack, there are Succubus enemies, and there are Saddle items. In CQ2, there is only the former. This is a grievous error which must be corrected posthaste.
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