[Chris Byler]

Originally posted by mr.white:
my very first game I used an earth mother. She Lasted about 3 battles until she found machaka and got blinded by a witch-doctor. Sigh.

That was one lucky witchdoctor to get through a pretender's MR (unless it was in a seriously hostile dominion). If he was going to be that lucky, he should have been casting Seven Year Fever - or maybe Blindness is better against something with that many HP? Can diseased units still regenerate?

In any case, Curse has no defense and is always nasty; Blindness, Seven Year Fever and Soul Slay are all serious setbacks if they get through MR (and there is always some chance). Life drain won't help against any of those.

And of course the old Favorites, Black Bow of Botulf and Ethereal Crossbow; they now have a new friend, Vision's Foe. (RoF one per 3 rounds, but if it hits it is armor negating and automatically causes an eye loss with each hit - I saw no mention of an MR save. Air 1 Death 1 Cons 4 IIRC.) Eye Shields, Totem Shields, Knife of the Damned (I think this causes curse even if it fails to damage, but not sure), Heart Finder Sword and Shields of the Accursed still work well too. These are all non-artifacts that can be forged for reasonable cost.

Although Elemental Hauberk provides 100% resistance to fire, frost and lightning cheaply and easily (IW: if you're reading this, make that 50% resistance to fire, frost and lightning. No non-artifact should have 3 permanent immunities.), you still have to devote a separate item slot to poison or take your chances with Bog Beasts, Hydras, Poison Cloud, Snake Bladder Sticks and the new Serpent Kris. Regeneration and life drain will help offset poison - unless you're also cursed, in which case the poison is very likely to cause afflictions even if it doesn't kill you.

Anything can be seriously weakened by afflictions. Generally, things that aren't too badly bothered by blindness will be rendered useless by feeblemind and vice versa. The Void Lord might be an exception - feeblemind would be inconvenient but not necessarily incapacitating - but he can still be crippled, weakened, chest wounded, and possibly lose an arm.

Even if the enemy is Arco or can cast Gift of Health, afflicting a SC takes it out of action for a while. Curse and horror mark are gifts that keep on giving.