ADOM - Ancient Domains of Mystery

hamster

Anyone play this game lately? I've got back into it again and advanced a random character (a high elven Paladin) to level 10 before dying of poison by Holzenplotz's poisonous melee attack in the outlaw town. I was just about to go to the CoC. I've been playing this following the rogue rule of no reloading a saved turn. If you die you die and thats that. It really feels final when you meet your death. :cool: Best I ever did was get to the upper levels of CoC but I tend to do the other village quests until then.

Sarky

A friend recently said he wants to kill me for introducing him to such a horribly addictive game. It is fantastic, isn't it? Best I ever managed was a 25th level dark elf mindcrafter, which took some doing, I'll tell you. Necromancers are tough ones as well, never got much past level 12 with them.

I read some of the spoilers recently, and was utterly stunned at just how big and complex the game is. There appear to be at least 4 different ways of finishing, there are so many places to visit...

It's bloody hard, though. My brother managed to get two characters to 50th level (wizard and elementalist respectively), and both are finding it impossible

trying to get halfway through the earth temple, let alone any further

Actually, I think I'll download it at work right now and have a go at an elven archer....

hamster

Actually I tried the mindcrafter. Quite good actually. Must try that next again. I liked the way you don't have to depend on finding spellbooks to get the best out of them. I guess archery and some missile weapon suits them well. It's just when you meet those undead folk it gets tricky.

What do you normally do when starting out?

I always do the healer's quest and get to the Carpenter (I find the Dark sage quest too tough and I hate the ranged attacked at that early stage).

I don't bother with Kranach anymore since I waste too many days trying to find him (don't want to reload saves if I waste a week finding him).

Next I go to the Puppy cave and get the corpse (never got it alive). Then I go to the Infinite dungeon and then finally to the CoC which is rare-ish.

Ever bother with the "time works against you cave"?

My favourite character is a priest for obvious reasons. Wished altars appear that bit earlier.

What do you think of Pets? I can't stand them. They get in the way and start to be become slow and it's tedious looking after them.

Ever tried a chaotic character? I tried the Troll. Looks good but I missed reading scrolls? How can a Troll get that far?

Btw, download AbomBot 3 you can make a 3+ hour recording of game for less than 500Kb! You need to get AdomSage for that though. Adomsage uses the linux version of the game.

Sarky

hamster wrote:

Actually I tried the mindcrafter. Quite good actually. Must try that next again. I liked the way you don't have to depend on finding spellbooks to get the best out of them. I guess archery and some missile weapon suits them well. It's just when you meet those undead folk it gets tricky.

At level 25 they get a telekinetic blast, no mind contact. Handy for undead and chaos creatures. Keeping them alive long enough is a huge challenge, though. And if you don't have the power points, you can't substitute your health like with wizards. Tough but rewarding.

What do you normally do when starting out?

Depends. Sometimes, especially if I have healing at the start, I take the Keethrax quest, because the black torc gives a hefty speed boost.

Often I'll accept the Kranach quest, head off to a dungeon til I'm just off level 6 (because the quest disappears at 6) and then hunt him down.

If I feel like a nice lawful boost I'll go for the puppy (By the way, there's something like a 3 day limit before the dog dies).

Ever bother with the "time works against you cave"?

Yes, because only the first floor is tough, and there's a few handy things there. Besides the mountain village, it provides a shortcut halfway across the map.

My favourite character is a priest for obvious reasons. Wished altars appear that bit earlier.

I'm quite fond of mindcrafters and beastfighters. The latter seem to find a lot of alters too, and a happy god is great for a few instant heals. It's sometimes fun to be crowned your god's champion early on, too...

What do you think of Pets? I can't stand them. They get in the way and start to be become slow and it's tedious looking after them.

True. Necromantic slaves are more fun...

Ever tried a chaotic character? I tried the Troll. Looks good but I missed reading scrolls? How can a Troll get that far?

Chaotic characters are fun, and get all sorts of crazy quests and powers. Trolls are fun, especially barbarians and beastfighters. All that brute strength... Also, there's an artifact called the potion of literacy. Ask Thrundarr in dwarftown for quests...

hamster

Actually that human priest "virgil" I have seems promising. He's just in the Village dungeon just now (level 3). I have reached level 5 and ready for Kranach. I have a good flame and cure hits spells! I'm planning to go to the outlaw village and learn the thief guild skills while I'm still neutral. I plan to go lawful when I return to the dungeon since I found a lawful altar with some gold pieces... hmmm or sac a neutral or evil beastie...

A lot of useful stuff so early! Hope I don't mess this up....

Sarky

'Tis a plan alright. Be wary of characters who advance quickly, they're generally physically wussy. Use caution, and a ranged weapon helps no end.

One thing I found, and which was confirmed by the spoilers, was that you get some great characters by playing to the stereotypes, Like Trollish barbarians, elven archers, or hurthling rogues. One nasty combination is a farmer born under thae sign that cuts weapon skill increases by 20%. Farmers already need 10% less points in the polearms skill, so that character would become very good with polearms very quickly. And there's an utterly fantastic artifact weapon called "Moon Sickle", a nasty scythe that should make a farmer a very dangerous opponent...

Generally most of the artifacts are swords of some kind though, so a good sword skill is very handy.

And never underestimate drinking from a pool. My last low level barbarian got a wish out of it, and ended up with a pair of eternium greatswords!

hamster

Sarky wrote:

'Tis a plan alright. Be wary of characters who advance quickly, they're generally physically wussy. Use caution, and a ranged weapon helps no end.

Missed Kranach on the way to and from the outlaw town. Hunted for 2-3 days and went back to the village dungeon. Converted the lawful altar to neutral via a sac with chaotic goblin (while level 6). Now got everything identified. Got a sling and a bow. Don't have fletchery so I'm concentrating on the sling.

It's hard to avoid levelling up at low levels. Virgil the priest is now level 6.
But I'm try to do as much as possible between levels:
i) picking pocketing where ever possible (just got the skill at 9pts)
ii) shield level is going up via blocking (even when coward at the moment)
iii) cast spells to raise effiency and keep training mana while PP restores.
iv) throw rocks where ever possible. Waiting on finding a sword. Have a flail - not mad on it really.

Not keen on carrying too much just yet... so I don't carry too much between levels. I leave any stuff I don't want at the stairs before going down to the next level. I get it on the way back or if I need it later. I have beast of burden talent (+30% carrying).

I have haggling but not much really since it fails way too often even at high levels.

I also change to berserk when firing a missile to get the best to-hit value and then switch back to neutral.

Can't think of anything to make the best of each lowly level yet. Anything else you try doing in a turn? Backstabbing or searching traps etc. Don't have those skills just yet obviously so not much can do to train yet.

I'm closely aligned to my God now at closer to N- than N=. But it will be level 9 before precrowning (no artifacts generated) so it may happen before I leave the village dungeon! Fingers crossed and than I don't die again.

Sarky wrote:

One thing I found, and which was confirmed by the spoilers, was that you get some great characters by playing to the stereotypes, Like Trollish barbarians, elven archers, or hurthling rogues. One nasty combination is a farmer born under thae sign that cuts weapon skill increases by 20%. Farmers already need 10% less points in the polearms skill, so that character would become very good with polearms very quickly. And there's an utterly fantastic artifact weapon called "Moon Sickle", a nasty scythe that should make a farmer a very dangerous opponent...

Yeah, the combos are really powerful. Is the rogue good for unlocking doors? Either that or throw a big rock at it.

Sarky wrote:

Generally most of the artifacts are swords of some kind though, so a good sword skill is very handy.

Sword of Nonnock (or whatever would be good with the willpower it has). Yep, waiting for a sword. Have a blessed scroll of defense for future gear.

Sarky wrote:

And never underestimate drinking from a pool. My last low level barbarian got a wish out of it, and ended up with a pair of eternium greatswords!

Brave! With my luck I would be corrupted and then cursed and then attacked by water snakes before I would get anything and then the pool would dry up. I tend to avoid pools since I'm don't want to reload saves. Wishing would be nice though!

Sarky

Have you ever tried the treasure hunter talent? You need Alert (1st level) and Miser to qualify, but it's dead cool, because you find loads more "stuff"(50% more, I think.) Some of it is very valuable and/or powerful, although not quite artifact level...

hamster

Sarky wrote:

Have you ever tried the treasure hunter talent? You need Alert (1st level) and Miser to qualify, but it's dead cool, because you find loads more "stuff"(50% more, I think.) Some of it is very valuable and/or powerful, although not quite artifact level...

I never tried getting that. I noticed that I did not get that option in the current Priest character I have. He's doesn't have the alert skill. I'm starting to appreciate that. I came across a wand of gold detection so I'll save them for vaults if I ever live that long. My talent are developing good shot -> keen shot etc. Level 7 with sling and 6 with axe (swords non-existance until now). Mugging swordmen didn't work!

My priest is now level 13. I think it's now the longest living character I've had without reloading. The story since the last time is that he healed Yrigs and cleared the village dungeon. Got close to his God but I was wearing a amulet of balance which made me extreme alignment again. Took it off and decided on precrowning later. Don't know if that gets more expensive later though.

Anyway, I went to the Puppy cave next (another aligned altar and a wand shop!) and went down to level 5. I was expecting the usual open spaced level you can get there but this time I got a vault of some sort - must have been minor. There was a bee-hive and the monster generation was scaring my character. But it got better after awhile but I had decent spells by then (major & minor cures/bolt/flame/bless). Found the stairs to level 6 and.....

.... you feel excited! Oh-oh! Another vault. It felt safer than level 5 since there were narrow choke path to avoid getting surrounded. Mostly filled with orcs and got the puppy corpse and got out of there. I went through my stuff and came across a potion of wonder (uncursed). Read about it. Interested I drank it. Got a new spell alright! Divine Favour ?!? Is this the priest version of wish. I never got wish or anything like it before. I can't cast it though... 15pts of it was granted and costs 415pts to cast! And my hitpoints are just under 100. Just missed silvernight. It's day 19. Hmm..... don't want to kill my character though!

Went back to Teyino and gave the puppy corpse back and got the Holzenplotz mission. Now level 12 priest. Sell excessive backbraking load to outlaw shopkeeper. What do you do with all your gear or where do you stash it? I have it the other room in the thief's guild house. I will be moving when I go to the CoC. I spent all my money to get trap detection (3500). Didn't do Kranach.

Off to the ID for awhile. Plan to go deep as level 8 or so. I'm playing ultra-cautious, my last character, eleven wizard died on level 10 - and he was a lvl 13 mage... reason? lack of attention of course... I was moving too fast with the keys. Currently now at lvl 13 with the priest. Once I get some money and some more experience I'll get my loot and go to the CoC. Probably will be day 25-ish by then if I survive. Starting to get really attached to this character.
:eek:

Sarky

I just realised that dark elf rangers start off with two scimitars, one of which is +3.

I smiled. I'd already named him Drizzt and all...

hamster

Sarky wrote:

I just realised that dark elf rangers start off with two scimitars, one of which is +3.

I smiled. I'd already named him Drizzt and all...

Hah! Does he have healing? That's a good start. Their alertness is good. You going to use 2 wielded weapons?

My priest now down around lvl 6-7 of the ID. Not deep I know but I'm training unarmed fighting just in case for future. I can't seem to do much about water traps or fire traps until it's too late. No Alertness. Have 2 fire blankets now (one blessed). Not nearly enough water potions. Just lost my 2nd leather armour. This guy is a record for me. Nearly level 15 now at 100K exp. I'm getting gold to get the rest of the guild skills.

hamster

An update on the adventures of Virgil the priest. Last he has continued his training by diving deeper into the Infinite Dungeon. Once he reached level 17 he decided to come back to the surface and face Hotzenplotz who was easy to defeat by spells at this stage. Went back to Teyino and stocked up and went to the small cave. In the small cave, he went invisible and used maggic mapping to find the exit. Then teleported to beside the exit and went down to the Unremarkable dungeon. There were quite a few nice things there... several vaults along the way. Came to the surface and went to the Barbarian
clearing and got the courage mission. Now at the CoC itself and went down to the Arena and fought. Currently at level 5 where an altar has been found. Now lawful and yet to be pre-crowned/crowned. Have 1 artifact...
autocursing Kinslayer sword. Note the screenshot attached. He foolishly used the Earthquake spell in on the CoC level 5. Notice that he survived but the level has been thrashed beyond recognition! The up and down stairs and are intact... and the altar is still in one piece!

This character is my longest living character. Never had I one live this far or long and relatively so experienced. I'm not looking forward to the next level... the open area next. I have no breeder neuter scrolls. I heard of the door/room 40 monster trick. Likewise, I'm in fear of the upcoming Tower of flame adventure. I have 2 fireblankets... and some fire-immunity.
Are mithril swords any good for heat resistance? After reading the excellent guide by Williams it really sounds like living hell!
Any comments on the inventory on what could help? I hope I can keep Virgil alive for a little longer!

Sarky

You'll want as much fire immunity as possible before the Tower of Eternal Flame. Being crowned is usually the way I'd get it, but eat as many fire lizards as you can, and maybe fire beetles (I'm not sure if they help...). Artifacts don't melt, arm yourself with one beforehand. Get ready for a bloody massive fight in there. And it only gets harder... the fireproof blankets should keep whatever you're not wearing safe.

MrNuked

I finished this game in 1999. It's superb. I went back to it since then and got my character to level 50, but found that it was impossible for me to change alignment away from C-, and that made it impossible for me to get the ending I was after.
Here is a spoiler that is not in any of the online spoiler docs afaik, although doing this is possibly what caused me to become irrevocably evil so do so at your own risk. It is an easy method to get a very high skill level once you have readhed a certain point in the game (reasonably far on)

instead of using the ring of the high kings, kill the guardian at the top of the steps. Then kill him again, and again. You get huge amounts of experience each time (enough to go up a level each time I think for some races/classes) and he is not too tough so long as you can stay out of his reach and hit him with projectiles.

I don't remember what my character was when I finished it. When I got to level 50 I was an archer, I think a human one, though possibly a grey elf.

Omega is a similar sort of game that is also very good, though not as good. It is humourous too. I also finished that.

Sarky

I think my favourite system of deities in one of these games was in Crawl. The game itself was a little...odd... But the religion was cool. Prayers lasted several turns, and during that time whatever you did was in the name of your god. Killing stuff while praying was a great way to keep gods or war or death happy, or destroying undead while praying to a good or righteous god, or casting spells while praying to a god of magic, and so on. As the god got happier you advanced in religious rank and were given some really nifty abilities. Gods of death gave you death magic, gods of war gave you healing and enhancement abilities, gods of magic gave you spells... There was also a god of chaos, who ignored your prayers and just did random stuff for his own amusement. It often happened you could start off with double your strength, but he might also send a greater demon to kill you as well. It was great...

hamster

Just an update on the priest...

My human priest is now level 19. He has most spells at this stage. He also got his first corruption. He's got horns. He is excellent with swords and slings. He's currently around dwarf town in the CoC.

He went via the animated forest after an abortative attempt through the Dwarfen Halls. He met a room of MageDoom Eyes (2000+ exp each) and it nearly killed him due to the confusion that they caused and the magic drain they cause. I will never drop a wand now! Luckily a white Unicorn teleported in and started killing them. Created a magic door to lock them in and got the hell out of there. Met an Ancient White Dragon on the way out and was easier and worth 12000+ exp points!

Well, he didn't do Keethrax so that corruption is going to be a problem. Gulp!

Sarky

Not really. Visit the druid in Terinyo again in about 5 levels time...

Boro

Just started playing this now. I am a level 5 ranger and i am "extremely close" to my god. I see in an adom guide that that means im elegible for precrowning/crowning. I have no idea how to do this though or even what it does. Any help? Im currently in the dungeon for the puppy.

Sarky

To recieve (pre)crowning, pray to your god (the _ key, if memory serves)

Precrowning means your god rewards your devotion. In my experience this means you get an artifact, but there could be other rewards. Crowning means you become your god's champion. You get permanently blessed, immune to either fire, cold, acid or electricity, an amulet of order/neutrality/chaos depending on alignment, and another nifty artifact. It's spiffy. But be careful, if your alignment changes you fall from grace and the god will send a ridiculous amount of celestial/infernal nasties to kill you. Which they almost certainly will, unless you're REALLY tough.

hamster

The priest has stumbled into the Gremlin's Cave. Quite like this place... an infinite number of Gremlins. These seem to quite rich in pickings. The priest has swiped dozens of potions and rings. I suspect that it gets less and less so after awhile. Likewise the experience value has dropped to 5 pts but it very helpful for training melee (swords), blocking (shields) and slings for the priest.

One thing though... I noticed the gremlins are generated "experienced" now. I killed over 1500 of the buggers. Wonder how does this work? I agree with the exp point principle. Just curious how experienced they can get.

Corruption! Can you swipe a potion of cure curruption or is it really rare? Having fun anyway.... and still alive via non-reload! Amazing for me anyway.

hamster

hamster wrote:

Corruption! Can you swipe a potion of cure curruption or is it really rare? Having fun anyway.... and still alive via non-reload! Amazing for me anyway.

Just to add an interesting thought to this if it is possible...

You could randomly steal one of these in a non-corrupting area (get a good few) and have a really good character before venturing deep into the CoC well after ** days where corruption rates double. Would this be a possible strategy (as well as being very long)?

Sarky

It could take forever. Might be easier to find a wish for a few potions instead. You should get two, at least, out of that.

Apparently Guth'Alak the druid gives you potions of cure corruption if you give him bodies of chaos creatures. Somewhere between 20th and 30th level he'll give you a quest that will cure you of ALL your corruptions. Yes, all of them. There's a shortcut somewhere in the CoC to the surface, too. It's deep, though.

hamster

Sarky wrote:

It could take forever. Might be easier to find a wish for a few potions instead. You should get two, at least, out of that.

Apparently Guth'Alak the druid gives you potions of cure corruption if you give him bodies of chaos creatures. Somewhere between 20th and 30th level he'll give you a quest that will cure you of ALL your corruptions. Yes, all of them. There's a shortcut somewhere in the CoC to the surface, too. It's deep, though.

Yep, I haven't come across any yet. I found a SOCR in the Mountain Village by teleporting into a room. I'm Lawful so I can't get the Dwarfen Mystic's scrolls yet. I got 1 corruption and at 88 days (gulp!) but I have done most quests outside the CoC bar SoulForge and the Assassin level (might do that)...

I'm starting to feel like doing as much as possible outside (ie get as high as possible in experience)... regardless of the no. of days and then worry about the double rate of corruption. At least it's free outside and in many of the Dungeons. Eventually though... <gulp>.... :eek: will need to venture to the TOEF and into the corruption zones....

I heard Guth'Alak does give potions for bodies of certain? Chaos creatures but those are hard to come by (black unicorns?) and I think Guth'Alak gives a quest at level 30-ish but only if I did his first mission. Doh! Definitely next time since he also gives a potion for Keethrax's body too. Me dost corrupt too much. :cool:

Sarky

Have you tried the great rift yet? As a spellcaster it's probably the most important place you'll go. Just about every spellbook is there!

hamster

Sarky wrote:

Have you tried the great rift yet? As a spellcaster it's probably the most important place you'll go. Just about every spellbook is there!

)) AFAIK, I'll need to be wearing artifact weapons and clothes (or leave everythingn home) and 50,000gps (to buy another climbing set) to survive the inevitable item destruction that will happen after I tumble in? But yes... I wanna visit might kill the character and learn from it. I'll find teleporting so important now.

How did it go with your archer?

Sarky

What with one project/game and another, I never got the time to try it. However, Drizzt is now a not insignificant level 12 ranger with some rather nice gear. A happy encounter with a room full of tarantulas has left him both satiated and highly poison resistant.

He's getting worryingly lethal with a longbow, too. I can't wait to see how ridiculously dangerous a level 12 archer is...

hamster

Oh woe is me! Virgil met his demise last night in a certain underwater cave. It was easy... too easy... He started to become too blaise about things. Hitting the keyboard keys a wee bit too fast... not enough thinking. Virgil was washed away by a Dragon Turtle. Ah crap! He was alive since mid august... that means he live 2 months realtime. Reach for the valliums!

Anyways... generated a random character... a female High Elf Weaponsmith... don't expect to get that far. Hmm. Should be fun. Any bets on how she dies?

Actually here's a quick one - being a weaponsmith, she carries a heavy anvil at 1000st. Since Forges are few and between. Is there any point in carrying this heavy object around with her? Her max. carrying ability is 1350st and her start weight is 1316st ! Leave her anvil at Lawsville until later?

Sarky

Carrying heavy stuff makes you stronger.