> > I think Speed is worth almost any sacrifice in MR. When you sacrifice WC, don't forget that more Speed allows you to hit each monster more times per turn, even when Speed is below 5. That means that your WC 8 weapon will hit two monsters 5 times each instead of your WC 13 weapon hitting one monster once. You're much more likely to get first-round kills that way.
> >
> > Also, every time you level up and gain Speed, you'll automatically become a more powerful fighter. That won't happen with the long range weapons, and you'll be stuck at hitting one monster once. Your only hope then will be your Assassin gaining WC every 3 levels (which he will anyway).
> >
> > Don't forget that your Assassin picks up 1 AC every 5 levels. Also, AC is way less critical if you have AC spells and healing magic. All it does is make monsters miss more often, which is a non-issue till your front guys start getting paralyzed. At that point, you can start equipping Items with higher AC.
> >
> > As an aside, Speed 12 allows you to hit 9 monsters at once, and it's pretty hard not to kill them all in one round once you get to that point.
> >
> > As another aside, at this point in the game your Assassin has more than 15% crit hits with his bare hands. Anyway, it's far easier to kill with brute force than with crit hits.
> >
> > ^v^:)^v^
> > FB
> >
> Okay, thanks a lot! I didn't know that speed lets you hit a single monster multiple times. Thanks for the advice, it really helped!

I just want to re-iterate how musch I want to THANK YOU, THANK YOU, THANK YOU!!! With a speed of now 6 (it turns out I had my wizard equipped with Boots of Speed all along for some strange reason), my one assassin can now kill monster groups in one turn that it took all three of my assassins at least three turns to kill. And the loss of AC is more than made up with AC-boosting spells. THANK YOU SO MUCH!!
>
> > > > > Okay, I have a situation in MR that I would like some advice on.
> > > > >
> > > > > One of my assassins has a natural speed of 4 (she's equipped with bow and arrows, which is a one-hit-per-turn weapon, along with a bunch of iron equipment, so her speed is 1 right now), an AC of 39, and a WC of 13. I am only at level seven of the labyrinth, so the only speed-enhancing item I have found is Light Armor. If I use Flamberge instead of Bow and Arrows, replace the iron equipment with equipment that doesn't slow down the speed, and replace Plate Armor+1 with Light Armor, my assassin can have a speed of five (just enough to strike multiple enemies),an AC of only 20, and a WC of 8. Is the loss of AC and WC worth the multiple hits? Or should I just keep leveling up (the assassin in question is at level 13) until I am strong enough to venture deeper into the labyrinth to get better equipment, while keeping the Bow and Arrows as well as the iron equipment? Oh, and the Flamberge has a crit hit of 15%, I think, and the B&A has a crit hit of 3%, just to factor that in.
> > > >
> > > > One thing that I noticed is that you have bows and arrows on an assassin. Bows and arrows is a long range weapon so it automatically puts your speed to 1, no matter if you have iron equipment or not. In my personal opinion, I would try to find a long sword +3, stealth blade, blade of power, or light sword. Even long sword +2 or +1 would do. Anything to keep your speed high. The higher your speed, the more monsters you can attack which kills them faster. Then you really wouldn't have to worry too much about AC. But until you can find one of those, use the flamberge. It's a lot better than bows and arrows. And try to change your equipment as soon as possible.
> > > >
> > > > If you have a sorcerer(ess)/wizard(ess)/druid in the back, give it to them. Their speed doesn't really matter unless they are in the front 3. In my opinion, it gives them something to do if they don't cast spells.
> > >
> > > Right, thanks. The thing is, up until now, ALL my characters were equipped with B&A, because up until now, all their speeds have been hopelessly below 5 anyway.
> > > Just as a recap: The thing to do is to sell B&A, equip flamberge, sell my iron equipment, replace them with other equipment that don't provide as much AC but don't lower my speed, sell plate armor+1 (my other characters have better armor than that), and equip light armor, right? This will bring my speed up from 1 to 5, my AC down from 39 to 20, my WC down from 13 to 8, and my crit hit up from 3% to 15%. The reason I'm skeptical about this is that with a speed of 5, I will only be able to hit 2 monsters at a time, for 8/13 of the damage of B&A. I just still wonder if it's worth the loss of AC (cuts my AC almost in half!).
> > >
> > > What does everyone else think?