How to avoid become overloaded and overstressed

Question

In traveling through the Gnomish Mines, it seems pretty easy to quickly become overloaded with gear. However, I normally try to stash all of this stuff in a safe place for selling and/or using later.

An issue that I have been noticing though is that when I deck my character out with a sweet outfit won from the dwarves and gnomes is that I am typically at a 'burdened' status. I am wearing a mithril coat, helmet, gloves, and shoes (not iron shoes, just normal shoes or hiking boots). My inventory is really not that full either, I have some food, scrolls, wands, and a few knives and darts for throwing.

I am assuming that my equipment I'm wearing is what's hurting me....is there a good way to train my strength/constitution so that I am not burdened any longer?

Answer 1

Pushing boulders is a good way to train strength. If you do this in sokoban, its even better since you have to move boulders anyway to get at the rewards.

Answer 2

Ways to carry more

1. Drop things
2. Put things in a bag of holding
3. Increase your strength by:
   • Having a character with higher strength to start with
   • Excercise (see below)
   • Eat non-cursed royal jelly
   • Eat non-cursed giant corpses
   • Eat non-cursed spinach
   • Drink a potion of gain ability
   • Wear something that will increase your strength: Gauntlets of power, ring of gain strength

You can excercise by being stressed/strained, pushing boulders, kicking doors, throwing iron balls or boulders around, force a lock, fail to open a resistant door, drink healing potions, have the regeneration intrinsic, and fighting. I may have missed some.

4. Increase your constitution by:
   • Not being hungry
   • Sleep with a (foo)cubus (only sometimes)
   • Drink a potion of gain ability (sometimes)
   • Wear something to increase your dexterity: Gauntlets of dexterity

Anyone with additions or suggestions comment and I'll add them in

Answer 3

A Bag of holding (BoH) is good for this.

Items inside it only burden you by half their weight. (quarter for a blessed BoH, or double for a cursed one. A cursed BoH will also eat some of the items you put into it.)

There's sometimes one to be found at the end of Sokobahn, but I often have found one before then anyway. To price-id in shops, regular bags cost about 2, but BoH, oilskin sacks, bags of tricks all cost 100.

Your BoH will spontaneously dissappear, taking all your contained items with it, if you put into it a wand of cancellation or another bag of holding, or a bag of tricks. I have done this and it is not a happy day.

Answer 4

Try applying a Unihorn, or restore ability, to fix lost attributes, esp. if this occurs after fighting, quaffing, or eating. Generally,being Burdened isn't all that bad (esp. if your status just changes upon picking up the items in question), the extra AC may well make up for a decrease in speed. The real danger is when you move to Stressed/Strained, that really makes you ineffective (although it does exercise your strength)._