No vampiric touch so far for Gwenno. Doesn't really need it with a ring of regeneration, though. And there are always those coin operated healing devices on every floor.

I know have the complete Midnight set. I am not using the armor or shield, partly because many floors are too easy with low AC, partly because I want my Spiritual Hammer in one hand for ranged attacks, and partly because I think you need Leather Armor for Ranger's dual wielding bonus.

Sword of Midnight + Ring of Shocking Grasp deals over 30 damage regularly and sometimes over 40.

An interesting use of Protection from Fire: After casting it, you can cast Fire Storm on an enemy in front of you and expect not to get hurt.

I'm on Floor 9. Floor 10 is a water level, so that should be interesting. (I have found multiple Helms of Underwater Action, so that should help if I get stuck and can't breathe.)

Hags don't seem to cast spells, even though I enabled it in the options.

Gwenno is now on the 9th floor, fighting spirit nagas and death knights. Sadly the later can one-shot her with their fireballs. And Gwenno has reached level 20, that means no more xp for her and she has so far only explored half of her dungeon. She has found a spell of Morden.'s sword, but sadly that is a level 7 spell and bards can only cast spells up to the 6th level. Which she hasn't found any yet. Neither level 5.

And I just finished level 10 (Headcount attached). My Paladin is currently Lv, 14, 146 HP, -10 AC. Actually AC could be lower. Is it capped at -10 just visually or totally? Smells like just visually, as with -9 AC I was taking lots of hits from Undead Beasts, and with couple upgrades, around twice as less.

You could also attach your headcounts and stats to your progress notes :)

Edit; next floor has Living Mucks... Any advice for melee character? Seems that this floor is incompatible with melee entirely and my adventure has to stop here.

Edit 2: Looks like Living Mucks don't devour Flame Blade. I am so glad I didn't roll pure fighter, as this floor would be harder than impossible for them.

Floor 10:

Water elementals appear here, and I;m not sure about the other enemy.

Flame Strike and Fire Storm do not work at all. Note that this makes my 7th level slot completely useless on this floor, as there are no level draining undead in this dungeon.

Resting isn't a problem if I have Water Breathing up. It is a good idea to have an extra cast of the spell handy if you want to be sure that you can rest. If you have a Helm of Underwater Action (3 have spawned in this playthrough) you can skip the extra Water Breathing. (Useful if you can cast mage spells and want an extra cast of Lightning Bolt or Vampiric Touch (not Fireball, as that will likely fail underwater).)

Slay Living will be my one decent attack spell on this floor. Think it makes sense to replace my one cast of Flame Strike with either Cure Critical Wounds or Slay Living. (Lost Helm of Midnight makes True Seeing unnecessary.)

Perhaps it is Water Weird.

I am done with Living Mucks' floor (Headcount attached). That was 44 of them on the floor! Floor Master was Spirit Naga... Which was a common monster several floors above, so it died just by me looking at it.

Yes, the other enemy is Water Weird, which doesn't get much of a chance to survive.

I think Slay Living is actually a good spell. It seems to do damage more reliably than Flame Strike and it sometimes kills enemies in one hit.

Wondering what the boss will be.

And I had Living Muck boss on 12th floor... :)) Other enemies also weren't new - Mummies and Undead Beasts. Headcount attached.

The level didn't seem to have a boss. Perhaps the boss was a water elemental or water weird, just like the normal enemies on the floor? (Probably water elemental.)

Ready to go to the next floor.

Slay Living is actually useful in this game. Don't underestimate that spell! (Especially in dungeons that don't have undead.)

Edit: One more thing: If you are underwater and can't breathe, you only take damage when you move. You can stand still in one spot all you want, and you won't drown, no matter how much time passes. Also, one Water Breathing spell will let you last forever, I believe, even if the spell should have worn off. (Poison, by constrast, doesn't work that way.)

Edit 2: Poison is not an instant kill in this game. If the saving throw is failed, the enemy will turn green and start taking damage rapidly, even if poison strength is low.

I think water level can have only 2 types of enemies - Water Elementals and Water Weirds.

I am done with 13th floor, which featured Greater Medusas (5000 EXP), Greater Feyrs (13000 EXP!!!) and floor master was Sword Wraith (650 XP...). I am Level 18 now and completed only a bit over half of dungeon. Already capped on AC, which is bad news, because enemies like Greater Feyrs hit me most of the time and there are barely any upgrades to look for already.

I barely use any spells, because it means sacrificing shield (and I have Shield of Keign +1). However, thanks to healing spells, resting takes MANY times faster than if it was pure fighter, and I can actually kill stuff like Living Mucks.

Greater Feyrs have up to 4 attacks per round with 5 THAC0 according to Monster Manual (might be different in game), which means you need to have at least -15 AC to minimize attacks from them (and AC is capped at -10 here), even then they will have at very least 18% chance to hit you. Whatever, they can be easily kited, reducing all damage to 0, but kiting is boring :)
Perhaps water level is exception (I disabled it, as don't want to be suddenly blocked with no means to breath underwater), but respawns are random anyway. Sometimes you have monster popping almost on top of you 10 seconds after you killed one, sometimes it takes quite a time.

You only need to sacrifice your shield when casting spells. Once you have your spells up, you can put your shield back. Also, you can click on the holy symbol to open the spell window and then unequip your shield (this makes it possible, for example, to dual wield Flame Blades).

Spell slots are taken by healing spells and Flame Blade. Don't forget that Paladins get much less spells than Clerics, and that they aren't Clerics, but a melee character. Also Shield of Keign provides Magic Resistance, while 2nd Flame Blade is tricky to click when you kite fast opponents. Flame Blade isn't the good weapon at all and it denies you the use of item in the hand which holds it (and makes identifying items impossible). It is only good for Living Mucks, because it doesn't get consumed.

Thing is, until D&D 3rd Ed., Paladins are much better than Fighters in all ways. I took it playing it as fighter, sword-n-board style, and holy symbol is there when things turn bad and fight demands some versatility from you (e.g., long sleep with healing spells after, Flame Blade to not have weapon consumed). But they aren't caster class.

Also apart from inconvenience of always having shield with you, no need to forget about caps as melee character. As Paladin you get access to many Cleric spells quite late, when they aren't needed. Aid, Prayer, Bless are useless and take valuable healing spell slots, as it isn't hard to get to -10 AC, you hit most of the time because of low THAC0 of your class and you have high enough HP pool, so that additional 1d8 HP won't make difference.

Cleric on other hand needs it, because he isn't made for melee (despite various opinions), and as such he can't equip most of armor and has quite high THAC0. Thus all Aid, Bless, Prayer and other spells are useful to Cleric to help him in fight, he also gets more spell slots and learns spells much earlier on.

Though I still need to confirm that AC is actually capped at -10 and it isn't just visual cap. Makes me also question if THAC0 is capped at 1...

Why should a cleric have armor limitations? They can wear anything. They are limited to blunt weapons.