Ancient Domains of Mystery (ADOM)

[Sian]

theres a couple of bugs, but they aren't making the game unplayable ... as long as you keep off picking Skilled in talent tree, given normal play you shouldn't run into them

[Sian]

As to get a good chance of moving far into a game I'm selecting a combo that i've already won the game with once

The History of the Orc Barbarian Choppie

Choppie is born in the Month of Candle



Candle is generally acknowledged to be the strongest in the game, "Heals faster" is just as strong as Healing on max, "gods are more forgiving" is fairly miniscule in worth, while Free Talent opens up for more bonuses, by getting more talents (d'uh)

The Night you were born [...] is one of the special abilities that sometimes turn up when you roll a character, in this case Undead sometimes panic when in close combat with you, but this happen so rarely that while a nice bonus its not really breathtaking



As for gender there's a few bonuses with each

Males get +1 Strength and their prices in stores are regulated by your Charisma stat (with is otherwise worthless, unless you are Bard)
Females get +1 Dexterity, ability to gain a quest where you have to find a giant frog and kiss, which gives Appearance modifying gear, and Appearance is the regulating stat for stores (both otherwise just as useless)

as I'm going to play a Barbarian which already have high strength (its hard to naturally raise it beyond ~18 without corpses), and have Herbalism (which can be used to raise Dexterity to ~25-27) I'm going to pick Male, for even more Strength



As mentioned earlier I'm going to pick Orc, each race have their own basic stat line, and a number of skills they're born with, Orcs are born with the always powerful Find Weakness (which gives +crit chance), Mining (faster to mine, and less chance to break pickaxes), Metallurgy (near worthless since you can weight identify ores) and Backstabbing (which can be gained later in the game, and gives higher chances to crit non-hostile monsters) ... major cons by picking Orcs is low max Age (Ghosts and other stuff with Aging attacks are more dangerous) and that's about it ...



Picking Barbarian, High strength, High Toughness (health), good skills (gains Dodge, Athletics (faster, higher chance of training physical stats), Herbalism (know how to pick herbs which can be used in a multitude of ways) Stealth (less chance of enemies spotting you) and Swimming (could be learned by giving carrot juice to someone later but nice to have nonetheless ... largest cons are Illiteracy (even if their Learning attribute otherwise should be high enough, which is unlikely ... can be learned after a quest some time into the game) and the total inability to learn or use spells.

...

As for Talents, I'm picking Alert (in it self lackluster at +1 Perception, but it opens access to Treasure Hunter which is very strong), and Miser (finds more Gold, also lackluster but is the other Talent needed for Treasure Hunter) ... after Treasure Hunter is chosen, I'm moving up the +speed and +DV lines, and perhaps also the carrying capacity line so i can carry more junk (I've a tendency to pack ratting)

Next post i enter Drakalor Chain

[Sian]

Lets go ... someone that want killing?

first things first lets see where we are and our stats



as advertised, my strength is very high (even more than usual, often Orc barbarians only have some 23-25 str) nearly up where Trolls are, and Toughness are also very good (it can be raised to 25 with herbs together with Dex and Willpower) ... on the other hand Choppie appears to have a learning disability and don't know what a spell is (Ma 1!) ... no spellslinging with this Barbarian anytime in the future. DV and PV (DV = Defensive Value, how hard it is to be hit, PV = Protective value, how much it hurts) are both reasonably high

Items



Studded Leather is much better than its average (usually its [-1,+3] = -1 DV, +3PV) ... the rest of the stuff is average ... notice that I'm carrying a spear which is a polearm and by far the strongest weapon category (it gains massive +DV when leveled up, only challanged by staves (nearly twice as good DV boni, but uses two hands and have a tendency to hit as a wet sock), since it can be used while having a shield in the other hand, also note that i'm carrying a small stack of rocks which i can use to throw at people ...not that i think that is going to be very relevant (i'm strong enough in melee so i shouldn't need to) but theres a couple of monsters that are very painful to melee (karmic creatures which makes you unlucky when you hit them in melee)

Skills



As expected really ... most important to raise is Athletics, Dodge and Find Weakness, and secondarily Herbalism (improving in priority when i find herbs to farm), Backstabbing and Stealth ... later on add Healing and Pick Pocketing to high priority

Lets move to the first city ... eh ... Village



In here there is 4 quests available, of which 2 is mutually exclusive ...



Her puppy ran off to a cave i failed to spot in the valley to the Northeast (i only just game from there girlie, sigh), and she fears that its dead (it dies unless you discover the last floor before day 4)



the Village Carpenter have gone spelunking in a cave to the Southeast and have gone missing (and theres also a Healer in that cave which can teach you healing if you prove merciful) ... This quest is exclusive to a quest a druid in the center of the village gives, which asks you to find an evil druid and kill him, which gives you a semi-useless artifact and either Herbalism/Gardening or a Wand of cold + Spellbook of Frost bolt ... Given that i allready have Herbalism (Gardening is useless IMO) and a wand of cold can be found by normal means i prefer taking the Healing quest

Futhermore theres also a quest where i need to find a Raider, before level 6 ... not going to do that ... only gives 3000g and later on (after another quest of which its not a prerequest) a blessed amulet of Order (moving my alignment towards L)

off we go ... how do you read this bloody compass



Small Cave ... extremely dangerous place, monsters spawn at twice your experience, so i'm dipping into here to generate them at a survivable level for later spelunking in the caves underneath



Large Bat (Brown B) and kobold (light green k) is hostile so i can't leave ... beserkergang and smack them (Large Bat being my first kill ... this might be important later) with my trusty spear and i leave again ... I ignore the two bogrolls (scrolls) on the stairs as they're useless



fun fact ... cityname is an Anagram for "Hole in the Wall" which in turn is a reference to the Gang in Wild West Wyoming, which had people such as Sundance Kid and Butch Cassidy ...



Learned Pick Pocketing, which gives a chance of picking an item on 10s or lighter from most humanoids, which CAN be an artifact ... also nice to get a ton of potions and wands for later use ... theres also a black market store, but it didn't really have anything interesting for later buying (don't have the gold for buying stuff there) ... a Mugger thought he could mug me ... he won't mug any others from now on since he's dead

Lets go check the cave that puppy should be in



My initial mission here is just to dive asap to level 6, where the puppy and a minor vault is and then out again ... of notice because theres a Giant Ant hive on level 2, and level 5 is cavernous ... due to my strength and toughness, Ants shouldn't be an issue but with weaker races/classes they would be a tough deal to handle ... cavernous is one big cave which have heightened monster generation so its easy to get mobbed there by many small stuff

[Sian]

lets start our spelunking

Level 1:


nice ... stairs ... but where are the monsters

Level 2:


glad i wasn't in front of the door, wouldn't be killing but it would certainly be uncomfortable ... ADOM is very trap happy ...



Killed a Zombie on the way to the stairs, but no sight of Giant Ants yet

Level 3:

a pile of gold in the room in the southeastern corner, couple of bats to the east (one of them carrying a potion)



Whoops ... then again ... there was a ton of rats behind the door that died from the explosion as well (granting me the XP, and a level) ... anyone called for an exterminator?



improving Athletics, Find Weakness and Pick Pocketing

hmm ... appears that the room is trap mayhem, different rats triggered Pitfall (with Pit vipers), acid trap and fireball trap ... i must have missed a "You Shudder" at the start of the level ... oh well ... I'll explore it later ... Stairs



Level 4:


Giant Bees ... day just keep getting better and better, at least when i kill them later i get some beewax for later (Banshee screams are deadly)



And the hive is on the way to the stairs ... I have to kill some bees on the way back upstairs i guess ...



Dodge, Backstabbing and Herbalism

Talent is Treasure Hunter

Stairs



Level 5:


caves ... couple of monsters including a Dark Sage and a Ogre (none of which left corpses ... Dark sage could give literacy and Ogres could give str (although with my strength its near on impossible in chance) and be a good supply of food) but nothing i couldn't handle ... level



Backstabbing, Pick pockets and Find weakness

Level 6:


Gonna kill the Hobgoblin, pick up whatever is to the southwest (turned out to be a pair of sandals) and then ascent again to the surface.

...

On my way back Bees have started leaving the hive ... i throw rocks at them untill they come into melee (they dies by succeeding an attack on me but i get poisoned from it), luckily none of them manage to hit me

...

And i'm out again with a bit of loot ... Next up ... lets find the Carpenter

[uberfish]

your character's quite a tank

[Sian]

Orc Barbarians tend to be able to tank quite a bit ...

But later on they start suffering from lack of Spells which can help later on

[Sian]

Village Dungeon



Level 1:

Nothing of notice, other than a couple of scrolls both named "YIKES", and i noticed that my Strength and Appearance both raised 1 doing my ascent from puppy cave



Level 2:

gained a level

*Image forgotten*

Athletics, Find weakness and Pick pockets

Otherwise not anything of interest



Level 3:

Yet Another Boring Level



Level 4



Found a potion of Water (to be blessed into holy water when i find an altar) and another scroll of "YIKES" ... i'm tentatively guessing Identify scrolls ... fits the dungeon difficulty level ... Also found Jharod the Healer ... to gain Healing skill i have to kite the Carpenter up to him and be at least NC


Level 5:


Finally something remotely interesting ... a Wererat with a rat pack, on which i gained level 6



Dodge, Find Weakness and Pick Pocket

Talent is Quick ... +2Speed and a prerequest for a couple of things, choices worthwhile was either this or Careful (+1DV, also prerequest for a couple of things), but i don't feel a need for more defense as of yet ...



Rats dropped a couple of things, most interesting thing being a Glass Amulet (which always is an Amulet of Light), and a Iron Ration for eating later on

Level 6:

Found a stack of Quarrels (weights 4s each so they're some variant of slaying), killed a Gray Ooze with Rocks (they corrode melee weapons), found a ring (not using it till i get it at least partially identified to see if its cursed or what)



Even more Strength? ... but thank you ... at 29 Strength now



Level 7:

Found an Short bow (now i only need some arrows ) and killed a Ochre Jelly with rocks (same reason as Gray Ooze earlier)

Found Yggirs (purple t) time to kite him upstairs to Jharod




Next up ... finishing the last few rooms i bypassed downstairs in this and then clearing out the puppy cave

[Sian]

Can't get Healing yet due to me still being C(haotic) ... need to be some variant of N(eutral) first, so i can first get healing when i've found an altar of some kind

Finished up the last of VD, leveling up underways



Dodge, Find Weakness and Herbalism



and another point in toughness raising it to 25 (unable to raise it futher with Herbs)

Back to the Puppy Cave

Level 1: found the door to the rest of the dungeonlevel, but there weren't really anything worth mentioning



Level 2:

Found the Ant Hive and started killing them as they crawled out of it, but was interrupted by a Cave lion which i had to get rid off (if you kill a feline, (Cave Lion, Cave Tiger, Wild Cat) you lose the chance of getting Ring of the Master Cat later in the game which is one of the strongest rings in the game, and have to fight the Cat Lord which is one tough cookie, so if at all possible, don't.

gained a level while trying to shake off the Lion



Athletics, Find weakness x2

Lion lost interest in me and i returned to the Ant hive killing stuff, Giant Ant Queen crawled out and i killed her in 2 hits, and it dropped a Medium shield, lets start using it ... [+3,+1], not great but works, and it'll mean that i can get up to level 3 in shields, which gives a flat +2DV per shield level, up to the DV on the shield, but it can only be trained when not in Berserk Tactics mode ... on my way back i found the Cave Lion again ... after a bit of dancing back and forth i managed to lock it into the room where the crumpled ant hive is (room furthest to the northwest)



Level 3:

i get a look into the trapped room (see earlier post) but otherwise nothing interesting

Level 4:

start kicking the bee hive pissing off the inhabitants, retreat back into the corridor where i can kill them one at a time with minimum chance of getting screwed over



more summoners ... this time a Jackalwere ... think small werewolf



Blink dogs, teleporting summoners ... give teleportation control if eaten ... lets see if i can get a corpse to eat



Lucky me ... nomnomnom ... if i get teleported by something i choose where i'm teleported to

Level 5:

Just passing through for the time being ... i'll explore it when i've done level 6

Level 6:



Hey there doggie ... now to find the vault to clean it out ... usually have a couple of interesting items, gaining a level trying to find it



picking backstabbing, Find weakness and Herbalism

Talent is Very Quick (+3 Speed) ... lets me run even faster outrunning stuff or keeping pace even if lugging around with to much junk



managed to lock the dog in the small corridor to the west of me (from which the door on the other side is hidden) ... its safe now ... Vault is in the Northeastern corner, and i've seen enough to say that it consist of Gnolls and Hyenas

first thing worth mentioning is a large shield weighting only 86s ... which means that its adamantium ... (-1)[+9,+3] ... probably going to keep use this for quite a while even if the (-1) means one less to hit



WOOHOO ... a gnoll was carrying Shining Silver Bracers ... or Bracers of War ... an Artifact which is by far the strongest pair of bracers to have (partially because its the only pair of artifact bracers but eh ...)

[+8,+4] {+8 Dexterity} with heightened Regeneration, heightened critical chance, heightened luck and resistance (don't confuse with immunity) to Stun, Death Rays and Confusion

On that high note ... I end the turn by collecting the dog and getting ready to ascent the cave

have a good feeling about this game and think i might actually get a win out of it

[Sian]

Cute dog is stupid

on my way ascending though level 5 (the cave) it decided to run over to a hostile enemy which one-shotted it ... oh well ... the tiny girl can get its corpse to bury.

I can just as well explore that level then now that i don't have to take care of stupid dog

only interesting find on the level was Quarrels of some variant of slaying

Went to Terinyo and gave the girl the corpse (and talked with the Elder which boosted me to NC by finishing the carpenter quest), so off we go to the Village Dungeon to get Healing ... next thing on the agenda is diving into SMC, finding the stairs down and then exploring the Unremarkable Dungeon (which have a higher chance of special items than a usual dungeon, such as shops, pools, forges, altars, rivers etc)

SMC


Luckily the stairs are just in the next room ... lets go spelunking

Level 1



There a forge (gray &), and not much else of interest

Level 2



Much more interesting ... a river (which i could cross but don't really feel the need to) and a Neutral Altar on which i can get clarified the item status of all my junk (hence sort though my crap ton of weapons)

Interesting stuff hiding in my backpack ... Stone Club of Devastation ...(+0, 5d6+6) ... much better than any of my spears, and with the shield and Bracers i've found, short term the DV bonus from using Pole arms are pretty neglect able, also sacrifice enough monsters to get my god very pleased, to get my water blessed

Level 3

theres another vault on this level ... lets poke a bit around

Theres an Chaotic Altar (not going to try and convert it ...) and the Vault is Orc based (yey ... race friends ... huh ... hostile ... must be a enemy tribe ... charge!) ... milking all Orc Scorchers for Orcish Spears to see if their is any good one inbetween (Orcish spear of Devastation would be fantastic but i doubt it), leveling up on the way



Athletics, Herbalism, Stealth

in the end there aren't much more interesting on this level, next one



Level 4

Tower Shield with a weight of 108s ... thats ademantium as well ... quick trip to level 2 to see if its good ... meh ... Cursed ... oh well ... i'll wait and maybe use it later when i've either got more holy water (bit low at 4) or learned reading so i can get a blessed scroll of uncursing to read) ... my Ademantium Large shield is still making it a breeze to go though

Other than that ... not really anything interesting



Level 5

Another level with an river ... at least the river is very small (1 tile wide at some points, if going diagonally), so i should be able to cross it fairly easily ...



Aargh ... can't find the exit ... i've searched all posible walls for doors and found nothing ...

hmm ... lets see what i have of wands ... fireing blind ... ... nothing remotely useful

Meh ... have to return later ... climbing up and out

Then i'm off towards Caverns of Chaos

[NobleHelium]

Why didn't you clear out level 5 before getting the dog? Would have stopped it from getting killed.