Ancient Domains Of Mystery An Interactive Adventure In A Fantastic World Copyright 1994-8 by Thomas Biskup. All Rights Reserved All Over The World The ADOM Strategy Guide Compiled by Matt Chatterley (matt@mpc.dyn.ml.org) Contributions from the participants of rec.games.roguelike.adom Edition #9 Last revision: 20.5.98 ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ Welcome to the ADOM Strategy guide - a document written by players, for players, designed to help you work out what you're doing wrong, what you could do better, and things that might be fun or interesting to try. This guide contains little spoilers information - it focuses on tactics and approaches to situations rather than descriptions of items and perfect solutions. It is strongly recommended that you read manual.doc through and through before referring to this document, as it will refer to items explained in detail there. This guide is also available on the web at: http://www.foxcomm.net/web2/malaux/asg/asg.html, and can be ftp'ed from ftp://mpc.dyn.ml.org/pub/adom/adom-strategy.txt. Thanks to Michael Laux for converting the guide to HTML, and providing webspace for it! FYI, the current version of ADOM is 0.9.9 gamma 9, and it's available from ftp://adom.dartmouth.edu/adom. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ *. Changes since past editions 1. Starting tips 2. Basic tips / tactics for each class 3. Food problems 4. Creative uses of traps 5. Magic tricks 6. Battle Stratagem 7. Dealing with Doors 8. The old switcheroonie 9. Beating breeders 10. Birthsigns 11. Necromantic woes 12. Coping with Karmic critters A. Glossary of terms and abreviations B. Contributing to the ADOM Strategy Guide ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ *. CHANGES SINCE PAST EDITIONS Since edition #8 (20.7.97): Dealing with doors updated. Beating breeders updated. Coping with Karmic critters updated. Since edition #7 (21.6.97): Coping with Karmic critters section was added. Since edition #6 (24.5.97): Necromantic woes (keeping slaves alive) section begun. Since edition #5 (23.5.97): The monk, elementalist and beastfighter sections have been edited. Birthsigns section added. Since edition #4 (18.5.97): The merchant & farmer sections have been edited. The Necromancer and Beastfighter sections have been rewritten. The starting tips section has been rewritten to fit 0.9.9 A brief note that food is available in more places added. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ 1. STARTING TIPS Below lie a number of valuable tips for the start of your games, to help you get a little bit further. None of these are considered 'spoilers', and in cases where they might be, they have been made ambiguous. Many people find it worthwhile to visit the outlaw village and use the shop there to get an idea of some of the items that may lie ahead. This tactic is not for the weak of heart or body, though, as it can be fraught with danger. From hereon in, you must choose your path quite carefully. Personally I like to talk to either the Village elder, or the Druid, to get a main quest, and to the Sheriff (all these three are in Terinyo). You will soon learn the advantages of the respective quests, and their limitations. I also advocate visiting the small dungeon to the NW of the village, until you reach level 5 (after which, it gets kinda risky), before decending, and continuing on until I can return to the wilderness safely. I usually pop out at Level 4 to do the Sheriff's first quest, too. After this, I return to tackle the quest I was assigned from the Druid or Elder, which is usually much easier. A section later on details food problems, since these can crop up for more experienced players, not just beginners, and lots of people have different approaches to them. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ 2. BASIC TIPS / TACTICS FOR EACH CLASS This section is made up of hints, tips, and overall strategies for getting started when playing ADOM - where you should go first, what you should make sure you do, and how to try and stay alive doing it. Bear in mind the information in the manual on the classes at all times - this information is from a players perspective, what to do and what not to do. I've also included which races I particularly recommend for each class, but ANY race in ANY class can be fun. A) Fighter Dwarves, Trolls, Humans, Orcs, the more physical races make the best fighters. As a rule fighters get plenty of hit points (unless you're playing one of the weaker races), and enough strength to get by with - carrying a lot of items until you can check them out isn't a problem. However, you won't have healing skill when you set out, and will probably want to make sure to use First-aid after every fight, to help yourself heal up before continuing (you can wait out injuries, but this uses a lot of food without healing). It's usually a good idea to work on your two-weapon skill, and when you have a high to hit bonus with one weapon, switch to two (it's often a good idea to use two weapons in the same class that in theory compliment each other, a larger one and a smaller one, or two mid-sized weapons). Of course, if you find a *good* shield, it may be more worth your while to use that instead of a second weapon - but generally speaking a fighter's advantage is in that he can do lots of damage hand-to-hand, and take a fair bit back. Getting yourself setup with a crossbow or other good missile weapon is also what I would consider a priority, or at least grab something you can throw - if you're injured and making a retreat, it's a valuable asset to be able to attack as you run. On this subject, the combat actics setting seems to be important for fighters (although it can be valuable for everyone). If you're fighting an opponent who does a LOT more damage than you can handle for long.. up your tactic and try to kill it before it kills you, or alternately lower it, if you still have a good chance of hitting. Dropping to "coward" status when on low hitpoints can easily save your life. To go back to skills for a moment, Dodge and Athletics are good to increase too - they give you bonuses to DV, and chances of stats increasing with levels respectively. Take every possible chance to up your DV/PV, ughness and rength. Also xterity, but to a lesser extent. Your race will obviously influence your skills - look at them carefully before you start, and see what will benefit you most. Armour, and the choices of armour you make are critical - the fighter class is the walking tank, if you like. You can choose between better DV and better PV as you wish, it depends if you'd rather be hit for less, or just hit less and hit harder when you are. Avoid armours that penalise your to hit or to damage figures too much, and avoid becoming burdened or worse - this makes fighting harder from all angles. So.. you need to balance weight of armour versus the protection it gives you - if one pair of boots gives 1 more DV than another, but pushes you upto burdened.. they probably do more harm than good, the same goes for damaged armour, if it's weighing you down without offering much protection, lose it. B) Paladin Most of what I said above for fighters still applies, with a few differences - Paladins are lucky enough to start with healing skill, which makes life a lot easier. Paladins also find it MUCH easier to learn spells (I believe), should they find books, and scrolls are more useful. Think of Paladins as the "holy knight" figure, and you can see that they are seen more as a cleric / fighter cross-class, and have some of the benefits of each. C) Rangers Rangers are another "cross-class", with many of the advantages of fighters, and archers - they start with a missile weapon and minimal proficiency in it's use. Remember to use the missile weapon you get, since you won't be as sturdy as a vanilla fighter character. On the other hand, rangers are also good using two weapons from the out - a bonus most players will want to take full advantage of (You start out with two fairly compatible weapons, but will no doubt want to tweak the combination later). On the whole they fare well in combat, but you'll want to be very careful not to get surrounded, and to at least wound enemies from afar if at all possible. D) Thieves Smaller, nimbler races tend to make good thieves - a class that I prefer to play as using tricks to avoid and win in combat, rather than a fighter with a few nice bonuses. You'll have less hit points than a fighter - usually by a fair margin, especially if you pick a smaller race, and will be much weaker. Choices of armour, weapons and equipment are even more important, as being burdened will worsen your combat situation - something you really can't afford. Lighter armour with better DV / PV is most desirable - sacrifice the extra couple of PV from chainmail, for leather armour which doesn't penalize DV, for instance. Thieves get skills pertaining to picking locks, finding and disarming traps and so forth - exceptionally useful, and you should check all doors at least a couple of times, since those traps can be deadly at lower levels, and stealth skill can save your neck in some situations. Smaller, lighter weapons such as daggers and short swords are good, even when you manage to raise your strength a bit - but in any case you'll want to try and stick to one weapon category to let the bonuses from training offset strength penalties. It may be wise to put spare melee weapons somewhere in the dungeon you can get to if need be, rather than carrying them around with you, since they can really weigh you down. Picking a light missile weapon, with easily available ammunition (rocks are good for this infact, they're common, and it's not too bad to carry plenty of them to get by with), is important - you'll want to at least soften up tough opponents, during all stages of the game. On the topic of shields, you'll probably be best off if you only use a small shield - or a light one, to avoid encumbering yourself which may negate a lot of the bonus. With the thief's traditional high dexterity, you can probably happily move onto using two weapons fairly soon, should you wish to do so. E) Assassin Assassin characters are quite similar to thieves, except without some of the "thief" skills - disarming traps and so on, unless their race provides it. The backstabbing skill which they do get gives them good first hits on Neutral or unsuspecting victims, and they begin with a cache of poison potions - dipping weapons in these at times of crisis can add that little extra edge you need. Often you begin lightly armoured like a thief, with two weapons - it may be beneficial to remove one at first. Generally you have a cache of half a dozen or so daggers lying around in your pack, and I find these are suitable for using as missile weapons. Looking at the weapon skills for a second, assassins seem to begin well skilled in the use of daggers - double wielding them even right from the off may be fairly useful, providing you don't wish to use a shield. F) Wizard Wizards are perhaps one of the most powerful classes - but this is levelled out by their struggle during the early stages of the game. As a wizard you will always have abysmal hitpoints - I advise you to get as much armour as you can, and put up your PV rather than DV, so that when you are hit, you aren't hit so hard. Even with a good DV, you will occasionally get hit for more than you can safely handle. Using a one handed weapon or perhaps even no weapon and TWO shields, helps to increase both DV/PV, using a two-handed weapon such as a staff is probably a bad move. Wizards begin the game with a staff or dagger (it depends). In either case I do advise as above, just getting a one handed weapon such as a dagger, since they're nice and light. You also start off with a couple of rings, some magical scrolls / potions and a spellbook or two. Learn the spells in the little town (stop if they seem too powerful, they can do nasty things), put on the rings and sort out your weapons. I advise against trying the one level dungeon NW of the town, it's pretty tough for a mage when as you come out the monsters can clout you pretty hard. Trying to raise your strength will be a constant struggle, but luckily you should start with healing skill - this helps offset the low hitpoints a little. When your level increases, put up healing and concentration, as well as literacy (this allows you to regain HP / PP as fast as possible, and learn new spells more easily). If you're in a situation where you are almost out of PP and or the enemies are getting close, switching to coward tactics can help you avoid some hits, while you prepare to resume your onslaught with magic. You need to really rely on your spells, until you can safely take on weak enemies without it. Two words of caution: Magic missile and Lightning bolt can bounce, be careful where you cast 'em, you don't want to fry yourself. G) Priest Priests are one of the most powerful classes, perhaps I should say, easiest to start with. Consider them a spellcasting strongarm class - they're reasonable fighters and reasonable spellcasters, which can give them an edge in many situations. They begin the game lightly armed, with a suitable blunt weapon, variable body armour and so forth, with one or more spellbooks and potions in their backpacks, and generally a couple of scrolls as well. The best thing to do is head straight to the little town, learn the spells in the books (until the books vanish - that way they can't be destroyed as you run around, nor do they weigh you down). A word of advice - if after a few reads you haven't learnt any of the spell, or you get a wierd side effect from trying to read it, stop! The book is too powerful you, and you should wait for a while before trying to read it agian - improve on your literacy and go up a level or two. Your concentration skill and Mana score also reflect on how powerful a spell you can learn, I believe. Priests also start with a high level in the immensely useful "Detect Item Status" skill, which indicates the cursed/uncursed/blessed state of an object - this can save you a lot of grief! Healing skill is also given to Priests, giving them a further edge in combat - they heal up relatively quickly. If your priest character has low hitpoints, you'd be well advised to take up the policy of using a missile weapon, even if you have offensive spells, and saving your PP for healing spells (assuming you have them). The sort of spells you begin with, and find along the way will very much influence how you have to play. H) Bard Bards are one of my favourite classes, each game can be very different - those skills which are not set by your race, are picked randomly, since the Bard is viewed as a "Jack-of-all-trades" type character. You'll start out lightly armed, and with a pet (I believe this changes according to your race), which is your greatest asset, it pays well to watch it's health, and cast curing spells / throw it curing potions should it get badly hurt. Learning to use the pet effectively can greatly increase your lifespan. You should overall regard the Bard class as a poor fighter, with some small aptitude for magic - you'll be able to successfully learn relatively simple spells, and be able to fight weaker to medium difficulty (relative to your level and equipment), opponents off. You'll need to combine both elements, along with the special ability you get - pets, to defeat tougher enemies. Fairly light armour, and a combination of one large weapon, one smaller weapon of a similar kind work best for me here, but this does depend on your personal playing style - Bards certainly have fairly little trouble double-wielding, but wearing a shield wouldn't do them any harm either. I) Monk Monks begin life scantily equipped, with the bare minimum they need to survive, as befits their beliefs. No money, one iron ration, a staff, a robe, some sandals and the usual torches etc. The staff is for use against enemies you wouldn't want to touch, otherwise you should probably fight barehanded - a monk's special strength. The monk class recieves a good amount of hit points, and usually a reasonable amount of PP, with a good DV to boot. They begin with good first aid, and healing skills, are literate (unless your learning score is too low), and also have food preservation - you will either want to go find some money, and then return for food, or pump up food preservation, to avoid starving. It's definitely beneficial for a monk to remain lightly encumbered, and to not carry anything that isn't required. I also advise avoiding armours which give hit/damage penalties, or those which sacrifice DV for PV. It should be noted that a Monk's attack, and DV improve with level. In general as a monk, you will want to think out most of your encounters; don't attack anything you don't have to, consider adjusting your (T)actics to match the length/nastiness of the fight, and consider if you will be best off using normal attacks, or your kick. Kicks are often substantially better for the first couple of levels, and slightly better thereafter (but harder to hit with). Just watch out, since kicking doesn't train your unarmed combat skills. Beastfighters may do more reliable and consistent damage than monks, but with enough and experience, you will be able to walk through anything. J) Healer Healers actually have a couple of big advantages - they begin with high healing skill, and have a stethoscope. Play around with this item, it can do some interesting things. You'll start out in light 'armour' - clothes usually, if not all the time, and with some healing potions which can easily save your neck in tough situations. Healers can do so-so damage with the weapon they begin with, and getting more armour is usually a priority, depending on strength / carrying capacity. The small village dungeon is a good place to start, since you heal well and have the "emergency" healing measures, and can often pick up good equipment there. K) Weaponsmith One significant advantage to be noted: Weapon smithing, amazingly enough. Starting with the smithing (and associated) skills, if you manage to accumulate the elements needed to make yourself a weapon, you can make some pretty dashed nice ones. That said, read the above section on fighter style classes, since the weaponsmith conforms muchly to those outfits. L) Archer The archer class is intended as your 'missile maniac' type fighter, poorer in hand to hand, but potentially lethal at range. You want to pick your weapon (stereotypically a bow), and try to stock up as much ammo as possible for it, along with a backup (possibly rocks), just in case. Avoid engaging in hand to hand where at all possible (since initially, and later on, you'll tend to get trounced). M) Merchant At the start of the game, merchants begin with a selection of one type of 'goods' (they specialise in this), for instance a bunch of potions, scrolls or rings. This gives a definite bonus, in that not only may you get some good items to help you at the start, but you have a good number of one type identified to begin with. Otherwise, the merchant class is similar in my mind to a fighter/mage crossover, weaker than either individual class, in it's specialist area. Merchants lucky enough to specialise in potions will be given the 'Alchemy' skill to start with - a very useful bonus! N) Farmer Starting with the best supplies, and associated skills, Farmers are good fighters, and general all rounders. They also begin with a stack of seeds, and the necessary skills to use them. With a little clever thinking, a farmer can reap a grand harvest. O) Mindcrafter Ooh! Mindcrafters get special mental powers (confusion, mindblast, and such), as they go up levels. These powers are similar to spells, except they have no limited number of usage, and have a big downside (the undead). Mindcrafters are however NOT good spellcasters, despite the skills for mindcraft and spellcasting being largely similar. In combat they meet their downfall, make full use of your abilities when you can, otherwise you won't live to regret it. P) Barbarian Powerful fighters, barbarians are denied the luxuries of reading and writing, but are recompensated in that they are even more mighty than standard fighters (primitive warriors, consider them). Q) Druid Masters of nature, it is said that no animal will harm a druid, druids are also very competent spellcasters, even if their hand to hand skills are poor. R) Necromancer Similar to the generic Wizard character, the Necromancers spells tend to bias towards death, and the dead, including their special skill, the raising of slain foes to serve them. This skill however, bears a grim cost. It is advisable that a Necromancer be conservative with his use of necromancy until he has become powerful enough that the gain is worth the cost. It may be best to play a necromancer as a straight wizard for a while, until their skill is at a good level. Even then, a necromancer's ability to use wizardly magic will come in handy. It is wise to strike a balance between necromancy and traditional magic, since use of one will limit use of the other. S) Elementalist Elementalists are akin to mages, save they gain spells with levels, automatically, in addition to those from books (these spells are all of an elemental nature). In addition, each spell is renewed in your memory every level, partially depending on how much you've used it. Don't be too afraid of running out of a spell (but don't be reckless either!). T) Beastfighter This class is akin to the Monks, although less refined. They are typically proficient with their bare hands, but do not suffer the same restrictions that monks do. On the flip side, they do not gain all the same bonuses, either. If you're having a hard time making a Monk work because of all the restrictions, you may wish to try playing a beastfighter. Note, however, that while beastfighters may be walking tanks capable of consistently badly hurting almost everything, they do not have the flexibility of the monk -- they cannot as effectively wield weapons, for example. You will want to keep them practiced in at least one common weapon in order to deal with monsters you won't want to touch. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ 3. FOOD PROBLEMS Initially, you may find that you cannot carry enough food from the village shop into the village dungeon, to survive. In this case, and in general, you need to consider alternate sources of food. Corpses from slain foes are the most predominant, and many corpses have side-effects too, some good, some bad. Discovering them is a trial-and-error process (although some you can easily predict). Blessing those corpses with potentially good effects before consuming them is also wise (since it avoids possible negative effects, and makes good effects more likely, in general). Food is also dropped when enemies are killed, and as a last ditch survival effort, potions do provide some sustenance. Of course, on longer journeys, the survival skill in very useful, and being able to garden can help, if you have the right materials to hand. Farmers particularly can do well here. Magical means can also provide satiation, through scrolls of the same name, or even the spell (an extremely useful one, if you get it). Food preservation can be trained aside from levelling by carrying many corpses with you at all times (this means you will use it more, and it will train better, in theory), and it is, incase you didn't know, one of the most useful survival skills. To move back to rations, and the like, while the shop in the first village is the only shop dedicated wholly to food that I have found (although others like it may very occasionally show up in the dungeons), shops like the Dwarven and Outlaw village ones also have food sometimes, although usually at very inflated prices. There are also other shops (general stores, if you like), in fixed and random places, which can have food available at relatively reasonable prices. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ 4. CREATIVE USES OF TRAPS There are many types of traps lurking there to get you in ADOM, and you will soon learn when it is prudent to search for them (before kicking or forcing a door for instance). However, having found a trap, before you hurry on and disarm it, consider it's other potentials: A) Spear / Arrow traps These traps hurl spears or arrows at you, depending what type they are. While the former are not much use (spears are really too heavy for projectile weapons, since carrying a good supply is cumbersome), unless you have been using polearms as your primary weapon and need a backup or three, the latter are immensely useful. If you trigger an arrow trap, most of the arrows will not hit you, or hurt you if you have a half decent PV/DV. Very few of them break either.. so trigger the trap a few hundred times, and even the most ardent archer has a decent supply of arrows. B) Teleport traps There are two uses here, one riskier than the other. If something nasty is chasing you, you can lure it over the trap to get rid of it *if* it triggers the trap. A more certain route of escape is to trigger the trap yourself, and make ready to fight it off next time around. C) Acid traps Obviously, you can lead monsters under these to get them hurt (this saved many of my characters, more than once), but you can also try to destroy cursed equipment which is vulnerable to acid (dump everything else, and trigger the trap a bunch). Not a very safe way of doing so, but if all else fails and you just have to try and get rid of that ring of doom.. D) Fireball traps Dangerous puppies to use in anyway.. if you lure a monster onto one, be careful not to get caught in the backlash, otherwise, you can use these to destroy fire-vulnerable items. They are particularly useful in both respects if you have good fire resistance or even fire immunity. E) Stunning and/or blinding traps A stunned or blind foe can't hit or defend as effectively as normal, obviously. Lead enemies who are following you over traps like these to make them more vulnerable (or to give you a small headstart to run away with). Blinding traps also have a very useful application, if you find yourself in a nasty situation with Gremlins. Remember the movie? Zap 'em! ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ 5. MAGIC TRICKS Yes! Magic tricks. That is, tricks you can apply when dealing with magic, not the Paul Daniels kind. Lightning bolts, and Magic missiles will bounce off walls. You can use this very much to your advantage (to get a double-hit on one or more monsters), but must be very wary so as not to blow yourself away at the same time. This also applies to thinks such as lightning breath from a lightning lizard.. so be careful there too. Of course, in the case of lightning, if you have some sort of resistance to the damage.. you can wipe out enemies with multiple hits, without need to worry about nuking yourself. Darkness is an extremely powerful spell. Why? Because many things can't see in the dark! If you cast darkness, it can provide excellent cover for you to run away under, or should I say, to make a tactical withdrawal. If you're carrying a lit torch, or wearing an amulet of light, this trick is useless (obviously). The light spell also has a useful application (Like blinding traps), if you need to get rid of gremlins in a hurry. Also beware, since the range of your bolt spells seems to increase with your level. You might unwarily nuke yourself to high heaven, if the range goes up a little and you are not anticipating it. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ 6. BATTLE STRATAGEM There are many general strategies that can be applied during combat in ADOM, to aid your chances of survival. Firstly, it's key to never get surrounded (even if you can easily defeat your opponents, because you should be able to kill them just as easily, with no risk of being hurt). Backing into corridors, and confining your enemies in corridors allows you to fight one of them at a time (and if you are a mage, you can use bolt spells to good effect too). If you have a ranged weapon, standing back in a corridor (where you can easily retreat to fight off attackers), and firing into an open room can be a good way to weaken enemies (or even kill them). If you suspect that a door you are about to open will collapse into a vault, try to go around it (or open it without triggering the trap). Failing that, make sure you have a way back (and out) when you open it. Webs can be extremely useful in making your escape down a corridor (providing you don't get caught in them), and letting Cave Fishers do some of the work for you, can be very profitable indeed. Remember that fire will easily cut through webs, if you need safe passage. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ 7. DEALING WITH DOORS by Bruce Greenwood ADOM is probably the nastiest roguelike game when it comes to door traps. Some will drop huge piles of rock on your head, while others will obliterate you - and half your equipment - in a huge ball of fire. For this reason, you should always approach doors with caution. First, the good news - you won't ever find unlocked doors with a trap, and it's fairly unlikely (although possible) for a trapped door to be set off the first time you try to open it. The bad news is that you can't tell if a door is locked just by looking at it. There are several ways of getting past a locked door, the most obvious being to unlock it. There is one place you can always find keys, but you might find the price a little too high to pay. There are also a couple of more "magical" solutions to getting through a door. If you can't unlock a door, then you have three choices - leave it locked, hoping to find a key later on, tunnel around it using a pick or somesuch instrument, or to kick it down. If you DO decide to kick it down, keep in mind that only some of the traps can be avoided by standing in a safe position, and that equipment you carry may be in danger. Although a door may seem stubborn, it is always possible to kick one down, given time. It's also worth knowing that repeated searches can show up traps on doors, and save you quite a lot of effort; a good use for the find traps skill. If you discover a trapped door and are not able to disarm it, or don't wish to risk setting it off, it's best to find an alternate route. One other way to move past doors you don't want to open, as mentioned, (because you can't find traps, or cannot disarm a trap), is of course, to remove one of the pieces of wall next to it with a pick-axe. The disadvantage with this approach is that you can't close a gaping hole in the wall as easily as a door! Opening a door with an appropriate key will always disarm any traps set upon that door, and allow safe passage. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ 8. THE OLD SWITCHEROONIE by Dan Martin For a general strategy comment I'd like to talk of the ": s" command. Which is the switch postion with monster command. This command is in the manual, but I just saw it recently and so I don't think everyone knows about it. It does what it says, switches your postion with a monsters. I don't think it works with hostile monsters tho (or I've just never succeeded with one). It can be used to get past that non-hostile bat in the hall that blocks your way, but you can't kill because you're neutral. You can use it to put pets between you and the enemy chasing you. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ 9. BEATING BREEDERS Many an adventurer has met his demise at the hands of one of the wicked, fast-breeding creatures in the Drakalor Chain. There are two kinds of monsters who will multiply, Breeders (monsters which split, or multiply to give two monsters of the same kind) and Summoners (who summon a group of other monsters to their aid. Sometimes the same kind, sometimes different). Tactics for killing the monsters themselves will vary, depending on the sort of monster, but, tactics should vary slightly if you are dealing with summoners or breeders. The first important thing to note is that each breeder can potentially split into two at any time, whereas a summoner can potentially summon a group (probably around half a dozen) other creatures at any time. Blink dogs are particularly lethal summoners - typically the creatures summoned are not summoners themselves, but blink dogs are, so if you aren't careful, the amount of creatures you end up with can increase almost exponentially. Whatever you are faced with, as soon as you identify a replicating monster of some kind, if only two or three are present, you should direct your attack at them immediately. Keeping a missile weapon with a reasonable range close to hand can save your neck - if you can take them out before them multiply, it's over before it's begun. If however, things start to get out of hand, the first thing you must do is ensure you cannot be attacked from many sides at once. The second thing to do, is try to limit their growth, close doors, or make them (wands of door creation are absolute lifesavers if you get caught in the wilderness, or somewhere with few doors to block breeders). If it's possible to escape now, then do so, having contained them. If not, then begin hacking your way through them - if you can kill one roughly every other round, you'll be okay. Bolt spells are extremely useful if you manage to line them up. Note that summoners do not summon as rapidly as breeders reproduce, and you can kill them without much trouble (provided you are tough enough to take out the monsters summoned), by backing into a safe area and hacking away. A final point worth a mention is that breeders can fulfil one use, assuming you are reasonably challenged but not badly endangered by the breeder in question; you can use them to train your weapon skills up, by a small, if not significant amount, as long as you don't have to rush off on a quest, and have sufficient food to last you. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ 10. BIRTHSIGNS Do you puzzle over which class you should play for each birthsign you get? There are many subtle advantages to each birthsign - some are good for everyone, others benefit specific classes more. Detailed information on Birthsigns is available in the adom manual. A) Raven While this is fairly generally good (speed & perception boost among other things), it is especially beneficial to bards, since it has a positive effect on the 'strength' of your companions. Bards of all classes rely quite heavily on their companions (at least initially), and this is obviously a gift from the gods! B) Book This is pretty much a spellcasters sign, but a pretty good allrounder. The notable effects are that it is easier to learn spells (makes life easier for everyone.. particularly borderline casters like clerics), and you gain an extra skill advance each level, which is lovely for anyone. C) Wand The real magic-user's sign. Characters beginning (and being) neutral get significant bonuses to magic (mana bonus, extra PP to start, and cheaper spells). This sign is also reasonable for the 'good guys' since it bestows lawful tendencies. D) Unicorn This (very generic) sign bestows a certain resistance to the effects of chaos, and lawful tendencies upon those born under it, and is a great one for lawful hack'n'slashers, like Paladins, but not a bad thing for anyone, by any means. E) Salamander The elementalist's sign! Bonus mana, cheaper fire magic, and extra power points mean that an elementalist born under the sign of the Salamander has a big step up, since fire spells form a decent part of his repertoire (burning hands, firebolt, fireball, etc). F) Dragon A sign for the ferocious warriors! Somewhat in keeping with the names of martial arts films, this is also a very good one for monks. Despite a willpower penalty, those born in the month of the dragon are stronger, tougher, improve their combat abilities more easily, and have a huge extra benefit from their use of 'T'actics (a boon for monks). G) Sword This is the sign for more controlled fighters, in some ways, bestowing the same bonus to tactics as the Dragon, but a greater benefit to learning melee weapons kills (as well as an initial learning boost). H) Falcon Excellent for rangers, and the like, since the children born in the month of the Falcon show an extraordinary aptitude to the talents surrounding survival in the wilderness. I) Cup Another good sign for magic user wannabes, since it bestows a great bonus to learning spells, as well as an extra skill advance every other levels. Those born in the cup also find it easier to gain levels. Good for clerics (and similar), who can often learn magic but have some trouble. Also not bad for mages themselves. J) Candle This sign is the real all-rounder, since it bestows two simple but fantastic effects, it makes you heal faster, and it gives more favour with the gods. Trollish characters can do especially well with a super-healing rate, now! K) Wolf A sign for the wary, for the survivors. Wolf-children draw more nutrition from their food, are more perceptive, and very strong of will. Beneficial for almost all characters, especially those who find their carrying capacities limited in some way. L) Tree The tree depicts extreme stubbornness, and those born in this month find themselves more rigid as to their alignment, and stronger of will. Another good all-round sign. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ 11. NECROMANTIC WOES ADOM's necromancer class is extremely interesting, and quite a challenge to play, if you can get the hang of keeping your servants alive! Initially, you get no choice in the sort of slave that will be created, and your only control will be to ensure that the humanoid corpse you use is from as powerful a monster as possible, and that you keep your mana up. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ 12. COPING WITH KARMIC CRITTERS by Adam Dawes Karmic lizards (and later, other Karmic beings) can be a real pain. They hang around in the dungeons, often at quite early levels, and can be very difficult to dispose of. The main problem is that as soon as you attack one in melee combat, you're almost guaranteed to become doomed -- not a good situation to be in! This section of the ASG briefly covers some approaches to karmic lizards which will hopefully remove them from sight without getting you doomed. The first thing to observe is that it is only melee combat that is dangerous. A kick or a punch: doomed. But this is not the case with ranged attacks. You can happily fire arrows or quarrels, or throw clubs or daggers, and you won't suffer any negative effects at all. As soon as you can, arm yourself with a bow and arrows or a crossbow and quarrels and you'll be prepared for any close encounters of the karmic kind. Though it is rather difficult to hit anything with an arrow if it's standing right next to you... Drakelings have an advantage over other characters in that they can spit acid without requiring any extra equipment. Keep spitting at the lizard until it dies (but you'll get *hungry* if you take this approach). Of course, wands and spells are useful against karmic lizards as well, but tend to come only in limited quantities. You should also be able to use some of the other tricks described in this guide to damage or kill the lizard; lure it under traps, etc. If you absolutely can not manage to kill the lizard, all is still not lost. The remaining tips all require that either you are faster than the lizard (not too difficult) or that you somehow manage to put some distance between yourself and the persuing karmic being. They also work on the fact that lizards cannot doom you by hitting you; the only way you become doomed is to hit back. Don't worry about being attacked by karmic lizards, unless your hitpoints are running low... The first thing to remember: lizards can't open doors. Get the lizard to follow you in to a room and the close all the doors to that room. If you're worried about another creature opening the doors and letting the lizard escape, lock the doors behind you. As long as you've locked the lizard away in a safe place you shouldn't need to worry about it again. The second tip is to try to abandon the pesky lizard on another level. Get it to follow you up the stairs to a previous level, and then (after putting some distance between you and it) go back down the stairs and continue on your way. You won't be bothered again until you come back, and then you can abandon the lizard on the lower level again. If you're fortunate enough to suffer a Karmic crisis on a level containing an altar, it's worth knowing that the universe will place no penalty upon you should you choose to offer the creature to your god. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ A. GLOSSARY OF TERMS AND ABREVIATIONS The following is a list of useful terms and abreviations that you may encounter when reading documents like this, or discussing ADOM over the newsgroup. All the terms here have occured in some way on rec.games.roguelike.adom, or in an associated resource. [Abreviation/acronym/term] - It's full name / a description of it. ADOM - Ancient Domains Of Mystery ASG - ADOM Strategy Guide, this document! DoD - Dagger of Death DSM - Dragon Scale Mail LMB - The living mana battery corruption MoDest - Mace of Destruction MoDisr - Mace of Disruption PH - The Poison Hands corruption PoCC - Potion of Cure Corruption PoE - Potion of Education PoGA - Potion of Gain Attributes RoF - Ring of Fire RoFR - Ring of Fire Resistance RoI - Ring of Ice SoCR - Scroll of Chaos Resistance SoS - Sword of Sharpness WoW - Wand of Wonder WMoPC - Writhing Mass of Primal Chaos NB: Items such as SoCR may be written ?SoCR, depending on the individual using the acronym, since ? is the game symbol for a scroll. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ B. CONTRIBUTING TO THE ADOM STRATEGY GUIDE If you have something to add, please do one of two things: 1. Email neddy@itl.net, with your contribution, clearly written and ready for inclusion (I may rewrite it, to make it fit better into other sections, if appropriate). 2. If you would like to see some intelligent discussion on your point, post it to rec.games.roguelike.adom, and I will try to pick up the points raised during the discussion, and credit those who made them. I can't guarantee I'll definitely notice your suggestions, now that the group is higher traffic and I'm busier, though. Unless you request otherwise, I will list your name below, along with the section you contributed to. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ C. LIST OF CONTRIBUTORS Listed below are all those who have written sections that have been included (or parts of sections). Thanks also go out in general to the numerous rec.games.roguelike.adom readers without whom a large portion of this would not have been possible. Sections: Adam Dawes Coping with Karmic critters Bruce Greenwood Dealing with doors Dan Martin The old switcheroonie Michael Laux Necromancers & Beastfighters William Tanksley Mods to Beastfighter & Elementalist & Monk Comments / Points / Other contributions: Chris Ingersoll, Psyco Farm Boy, Whismerill, Michael Laux, William Tanksley, Bridget Farace, Wouter Godefroy, ABC-Gi, Chris Pohl. Special thanks to: Thomas Biskup, for creating the most addictive game ever. Michael Laux, for converting this guide to HTML and providing webspace for it.