holy water

[Yosemite Sam]

How aggressive is the need to find holy water? Can I get by without diluting any potions?

[Janis Papanagnou]

Post by Yosemite Sam
How aggressive is the need to find holy water? Can I get by without diluting any potions?

Of course, but it depends on your actual game.

I recall that in my very first Nethack games I did not even know
about holy water.

But in your case you know about it, so why abstain from diluting
potions (unless playing some specific conduct)?

If you just want to avoid fountain effects that's reasonable. But
then you can (eg. with water walking) also dilute potions in pools,
or just clear existing potions (confusion, blindness, hallucination)
with a unicorn horn, or cancel magical potions with the wand/spell.

Janis

[Yosemite Sam]

Post by Janis Papanagnou

How aggressive is the need to find holy water? Can I get by without
diluting any potions?

Of course, but it depends on your actual game.
I recall that in my very first Nethack games I did not even know
about holy water.
But in your case you know about it, so why abstain from diluting
potions (unless playing some specific conduct)?
If you just want to avoid fountain effects that's reasonable. But
then you can (eg. with water walking) also dilute potions in pools,
or just clear existing potions (confusion, blindness, hallucination)
with a unicorn horn, or cancel magical potions with the wand/spell.
Janis

I don't know what to make of the fountains disappearing. It seems like
I could make it unplayable if I am not efficient enough with using them.
Most of them don't disappear without leaving pools though ime.

[Janis Papanagnou]

Post by Yosemite Sam
I don't know what to make of the fountains disappearing. It seems like
I could make it unplayable if I am not efficient enough with using them.
Most of them don't disappear without leaving pools though ime.

I don't quite understand what you wrote here. - Do you want fountains
to not disappear when interacting with them? Do you not want to fiddle
with the dangers of fountains in the first place?

You can (and should) avoid fountains if you cannot handle the effects.
Nymphs, demons, and snakes are all difficult to handle, and especially
for early game characters it often ends a game quickly.

In my experience there's rarely a need to dilute potions early game.

If you want water to dilute potions you can use a pick-axe and dig up
a fountain to create a pool of water, then go swimming with only the
items to dilute (unless you have water walking which makes the issue
more comfortable) in your inventory. That way you avoid the fountain
effects (and the pool won't vanish).

Does this answer your questions? (Otherwise please elaborate a bit.)

Janis