This is less bragging than it appears. More of an example of the exact situation when this game is at it's best.
I am doing Labyrinth with an Orc Rogue. I found endiswall like immediately and spent most of it being way over confident. I converted every single spell before finding the second boss. It's a wraith. I look at remaining resources and go "welp that's a wipe"(to use MMO vernacular). I decide to push it anyway. I blow a wad of potions on the wraith(whupaz, reflex, quicksilver). Still not enough. I had been avoiding deities because had determined them not useful. (I had GG, and JJ). It occured to me though that I may be able to get enough HP to take a hit from using GG and since I had already blown all my potions for trisword this wouldn't be terrible. I convert, gather hp by clearing popcorn(was not enough for a level up left anyway, I was playing terribly). Just eek over the hp threshold.. but.. now I need to heal. I have enough piety for a protection so I use that. Still need more hp.. I see a couple small unexplored spots and that puts me over the edge. Ok another hit in. But I need one more(so I can finish off with first strike). Despair is kicking in. But wait I left explorable tiles in a subdungeon.. and I have a transmute scroll.. that could get me enough gold to buy something to convert for more piety. Success. Wraith down. Rex is staring at me. Despair kicks in again. But wait! I have yet more resources. If the math works I might be able to pull it off! Up at a gallop I buy a mana pot! I use 2 last blocks of recovery. I blow one last endiswall.. and I still can't take a hit. Now this is where smart turns to luck but I still feel smart for trying. Lets go desecrate JJ for some piety. SUCCESS! Protection later I am punching the boss. One more hit. A shop has a hero's badge. And I can afford it! Hurrah, Rex is dead.
Ok so that was a long block of text with a whole ton of bad play during it and leading up to it. I was not monitoring resources well both in early game and apparently late game. However the sheer amount of things I could manipulate to get to my goal made me feel smart. Eeking out numbers at all corners. It's at these moments that the game is at it's best. It makes me want to do that again, if a little tired from exertion of my brain. I am not sure if the game needs more ways to create these situations or if they exist enough to be ok(the hard part is recognizing them and being persistent enough to see them through). Any way, that was my cool story bro.