> Congrats. I was thinking of trying that the next time I played, which will probably be many months from now at the soonest. I'll have to think of something different now -- getting a level 1,000 character, maybe? Levels probably go very fast with one character, once you're sufficiently high.

Yes they do. I was averaging probably just under one level per battle on level ten. Level 1000 would still take a long bleeding time to get to, of course. The other trouble being that, at level 104 (the highest level I was at *before* finishing the game), it cost me in excess of a quarter-million gold just to remove paralysis. If for some reason I had been *killed,* things would have gotten downright nasty for me. I actually commented to Sam around that point that I kinda wished I could *stop* gaining levels, since the increases weren't really significant and the cost of healing was getting staggeringly high.

One thing you can try, if you're interested, is see what the highest resist you can get is. I had my cold resist up to 18, and I believe that's the record. Of course, there is a certain pure maximum for this one (which may well be 18), so that takes some of the fun out of it.

> Or, possibly, beating the game with only one character the whole time and no class changes (I'm wondering which class selection would be the easiest).

Well, with no maximum number of hit points, it's technically *possible* to finish the game as any class. But my thoughts on it are:

-- SPOILERS AHEAD! READ NO FURTHER IF YOU HAVEN'T FINISHED REFUGE! --

.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.

1) With no class changes allowed, that means no assassins or druids, which means no natural AC bonuses. That'll be a big problem against all of the paralyzers on level ten, since one hit will send you back to town (as I know only too well). I don't think it's possible to get an AC of 65 or higher without spells or natural AC bonuses, but, if it is, the knight's clearly your man.

2) The aforementioned paralysis factors in for another reason: AGL. Wizards and Sorcs can't get an AGL higher than 31; that means they'll be running dead even with the Escorts, at best. Which is a shame; the AC-increasing BIGSHIELD and BODYARMOR spells are a big help around there, but you won't be able to pull them off before the Escorts get to act.

3) Lone wizards have a heck of a time starting on level five. I know, because I tried it. You run into a whole lot of monsters with poison immunity from that point on, which means you're kind of up a creek. If you have a lot of patience, you'll be able to level to the point where that's not a problem, but it'll be agonizingly slow going on level four. I couldn't handle level five as a seventeenth-level wizard, let alone any levels deeper than that.

4) Lone sorcerers will find level ten insanely difficult. Escorts (so Stephen tells me) take four QUAKEs to kill, and you'll be worthless in physical combat. Plus, for the same reason, you'll always be running out of MP, and there are no restorative items. Also, no healing spells means you'll have to be full-up on Restoration Amulets and pack a gajillion HP, which sorcs gain very slowly.

5) Rogues suck.

6) The knight, with no magic whatsoever, will have a bit of a struggle. The first noticable problem will be the lack of light spells and COMPASS; easily fixed with some magic items (or previously obtained MAPs and a good sense of direction). On the lower levels, you'll suffer for not FLOATing - *never* leave Teralt without an Information Highway. In the higher-middle levels (seven and eight, in particular) you'll *really* feel the lack of spells. On these levels, a well-timed QUAKE can be invaluable, but you'll have to muscle it through. Feasible at a high enough level, but difficult.

I think, all that said, the knight is your best bet. He can get 34 AGL - enough to beat the Escorts - so just pump your AC. With enough hit points, you can absorb any amount of damage, but one paralysis will send you back regardless. You'll basically need to count on luck seeing you through the battles with the Escorts, since you won't be able to get AC 65, and it's a slim chance that you can get all the way through without any single paralysis hit succeeding. I think sorc and rogue are out, but wizard is possible - just open every combat against Escorts with BODYARMOR and hope they don't paralyze you before that goes off. Either way, the odds are not good. But it is *possible.*

That's probably more detail than you wanted in response to that, isn't it. ;-}

> The speed challenge (in MR's case, minimizing the total elapsed time to finish the game from a clean start with an empty roster) works well for AGL games, but is difficult to substantiate for MR, so I think I won't do that.

Yeah. I can't even accurately track the number of moves I made, since I used the same *account* I was tooling around with before. Even though I started totally fresh (and, no, I didn't filch any equipment or gold from any characters I already had), the moves I made before are still on my counter. It probably took me somewhere in the neighborhood of thirty thousand moves to clear, but I can't be sure just by looking at my backup filenames.

> > Autograph requests will be accepted if you enclose a self-addressed, stamped envelope.
>
> Seriously? Sounds too good to be true.

No, I'm serious. ;-}

Oh, and, if it makes you feel any better, I spent the last three days (while I was playing refuge) talking to people about it and saying "don't tell gremlinn about this! If you do, he'll beat me to it!" ;-}

- Darikari