So, after trying out a few characters and exploring around,
I rolled up an invoker character. It seemed really interesting to play.
I also really needed to play something besides a warrior so I could use identify on things.

So, at this point I'm running into problems because

1. My only successful pk strategy with this character has always been run, run, run, with the occasional potion or scroll use. This got magnified with the addition of teleport to the spell list.

This would be fine, except...

2. I don't seem able to kill any NPCs except the ones so far below my rank I get 0 xp. This makes the character somewhat useless and completely unfun for id and exploration since I can't acquire anything not already on the floor, and my exploration is limited to judicious looking around without passing any guards that see invisible.

At this point, the character seems completely useless except for perhaps teleporting around, looking around, and identifying anything I'm lucky enough to find on the floor. Since I admire the elegance of this game and the way the classes are balanced, I have to ask:

What are the right ways to play an Invoker, and what are the balancing things that make this class playable?





I suppose if I happened on a solo warrior fighting something or someone else to the death, and I happend to be invisible and he happned to be convulsing on the ground, I might be able to snipe him, but I'd give myself worse than even odds.

I expected this to be the case when I was playing a level 3 invoker.
That's par for the course for a mage in almost any role playing game. But in the mid 20s now, and able to cast fireballs and lightning bolts and such, I'm wondering what I'm doing wrong.

I've tried things such as getting the jump on a lone warrior by blinding him via a scroll while invisible, but my character was hacked and slashed to the point where I must flee before the recite lag has faded.

In other MUDs I've played, mages even the score against stronger warriors by being very nimble. They cast a spell, flee, and run back in to cast another spell. This gives them at least a fighting chance.
The melee sysem here doesn't support that sort of hit and run tactic to my understanding.

On some DIKU muds I've played haste spells decrease spell lag by 1/2, allowing a mage the ability to cast spells twice as fast. This advantage doesn't accrue to users of haste on CF, by my examination of the help files.

And against NPCs, I have no idea what to do. This char can barely survive 3 melee rounds against most things that are evenly matched.
I've tried training up hp, but it doesn't seem to be a significant help.

What should I be doing? It's not very fun to play a teleporting
rabbit, both for PK and NPCs, and at this point I'm considering abandoning the character after many hours and many deaths thinking about and trying different ideas.