I'm teasing about scumming, although I don't think I'm immortal in real life like the rest of you, so whether or not I do it is up to me and my sense of my own mortality. I'm not terribly worried about going to roguelike hell by the way, I have a wand of digging.
While I think such instandeaths are horrible, my point was that having enemies which are weak/strong in that sort of way helps vary the roster a bit.
My favorite monster so far is the slush monster because of its special ability. Not sure what triggers it, though.
I don't know if anyone noticed, and you may consider this a spoiler, but when you get hit by the random-cursing ray, if your THROWN items get cursed, you can just throw them all until you run out. When you pick up what's left, they will be uncursed. I'm always happy when that slot turns red. Means I dodged a bullet, of sorts!