Ancient Domains Of Mystery, forum overview / Spoilers / Laundry list of newb questions
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Errtai Registered user Last page view: 7679 days, 5 hours, 56 minutes and 45 seconds ago. |
Hi guys, I just discovered ADOM a few days ago and I have a lot of random questions built up. About alchemy. It seems to me you pretty much need to have high alchemy, gardening and herbology to start cultivating potions, seems like a lot of work to me. Is it really that time and skill consuming to make potions and is it worth it? Blacksmithing/weaponsmiths. The way you make armor and weapons is by getting metal drops from monsters and putting them on a forge? Is the stuff you make any good? Is this worth pursuing? What are the real advantages of being a weaponsmith rather than a fighter anyways? Necromancers. It seems really annoying to press so many commands just to tell your zombie to attack something. Also, I noticed that you don't get any experience from having your undead pets kill stuff?! Is that right? So necros are just really bad spellcasters that can make pets that don't get you exp? Identifying. I have had a pretty big problem with getting items identified. Do you need the 2 skills jacked up high just to have your stuff identified? I have played a couple wizards to around level 15 or so and never saw a book of Identify. And it seems like quite a burden for any non-caster to get their stuff identified, I end up wielding and wearing a lot of stuff only to find it cursed. Is there a guy somethere that will indentify all your stuff (ala Diablo) at least? How do you solve the identify problem. Merchants. In theory this could actually be a cool class. I imagine some guy that can easily be pimped out with nice gear at early levels and has a whole stockpile of wands, potions, scrolls etc. These guys seem very bad though, they don't seem to get special items much easier than any of the other classes. Also, that gold throwing ting of theirs is a joke. My guy didn't have the archery skill but he couldn't hurt a fly by throwing gold at them. What's the trick to using a merchant? |
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Klavert5 Unregistered user |
Well, i only know about the indentifying. You have scrolls of identify. Also, a priest can see wether items are cursed, uncursed or blessed. But i also would like to hear some more about merchants, alchemy and smithing :D |
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J. Registered user You'll never get rid of me Last page view: 5658 days, 42 minutes and 15 seconds ago. |
About alchemy: sometimes making those potions can save your life. And when you get alchemy at 100 you get a recipe for a very nice potion. It's a nice skill to have, albeit in the early game there are more important skills to boost. Weaponsmiths: weaponsmiths start with an anvil. There are a couple of guaranteed anvils in the game but otherwise they are rare. At some point of the game any character can learn smithing but weaponsmiths do it faster and better than the rest. Contrary to newbie beliefs, you cannot craft new equipment, you can only improve items you have. Might seem stupid but would be unbalanced otherwise. Necromancers aren't really all that bad spellcasters. They're just different. Barbarians for example are much worse. Also you don't get exp for kills your slaves or companions make. In the early game you might have some difficulties getting your stuff identified. After a while you'll have an abundace of scrolls of identify. Note that you can identify the cursed/blessed state of your items by dropping them on a coaligned altar. Merchants are a pretty weak class who have a much easier time buying from shops. There are three types of monsters in the game who can be killed by merchants throwing coins and no missile weapon else. Also note that the classes (or races for that matter) aren't meant to be equally easy/hard. If you're feeling happy, don't worry, it'll go away. Originally posted by noob: "I'm everytime amazed how you people know to exploit every single little bug (or not-bug) for elaborated scumming tatics even if the feature seems completely useless or bad." |
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Ekaterin Moderator on this forum Last page view: 5759 days, 11 hours, 23 minutes and 15 seconds ago. |
Also, it sounds as if you don't know how to make full use of altars yet. Altars are very useful, especially when they're of the same alignment as you (white = lawful, grey = neutral, black = chaotic). J. mentioned dropping items on them. You can also sacrifice items or monsters (there are a few things it's bad to sacrifice, but gold and blessed stomafillia are always good). This pleases your god, which allows you to pray more. Also, once your god is very pleased with you or better, dropping water on a coaligned altar will bless it (turn it into holy water). Dipping items in holy water blesses them. This helps with your identify problem - you can bless 9 scrolls of identify at a time, and a blessed scroll fully identifies everything you own. Another less important use of holy water is to pour it on the ground to grow new herbs. This doesn't work every time, but it doesn't require the Gardening skill either. Altars which aren't of your alignment are more dangerous. Don't drop items on them. You can convert yourself by sacrificing 10 GP at a time, or convert the altar by sacrificing 3000 GP. Sacrificing stuff other than gold on a noncoaligned altar is not advisable, because your deity may get mad and turn your equipment to dust. |
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Ertai Unregistered user |
Okay so, basically you get alchemy to 100 and you get the recipe for one nice potion? And you need to get lucky picking the herbs for it or spend time on gardening/herbology to get then up. And THEN you need to get random drops of the proper potion to mix? Seems like a lot of trouble. Also what is the difference between herbology and gardening? If you have scrolls of identify do you even need to have herbology? As far as merchants go, I know all the classes don't have to be balanced but I guess I figured i was missing *something* with them because they really do seem quite bad. Couple new questions. Stealth/backstabbing: Is stealth at 100 equal to the invisibility spell? And exactly how good is having stealth100 and backstab 100, does it let you sneak around and get a backstab on a monster pretty much guaranteed? I saw some demos of high level people running around invis and it seems like everything sees you anyways. Also, more often than not you will be fighting more than one monster at a time and you can only potentially backstab the first one. not to mention, finding the "back" of "B" can be pretty tedious, all this adds up to me to say, thieves and assassins are probably pretty tough to survive with. Thanks for the all the responses by the way! |
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Maelstrom Registered user The Knight of the Black Rose Last page view: 3111 days, 1 hour, 17 minutes and 7 seconds ago. |
Herbology helps you gather the best herbs - the bushes sustain longer and give you only blessed and uncursed herbs if you have Herbology at 100 (and you train it simly by gathering herbs). If you don't have Herbology all herb you gather will be cursed, and a bush will give only 1-3 herbs. Gardening is usless IMHO. If you have seeds, you can plant them with this skill - nice, isn't it? They have to be herb seeds to get anything usefull, and you have to have at least 3 of them, to create a self-replanishing square. It's too much trouble. The one nice potion that alchemy gives you is Potion of Gain Attributes. A blessed one gives +1 to each stat. It's so powerfull, that a wish (the effect of th ultimate spell, or of the rearest items) can give only one PoGA. If you're lucky enough to be able to create PoGA from common potions (the recepie is always random), you have a winner just waiting for you to lead him to the gate. Stealth is just what it says - the art of silent moving. Monsters hear and see - if they can't hear you, they might not notice you. Invisibility+Stealth 100 makes you almost fully unseen. Still, some monsters see invisible, and some can hear anything. But generally, it's worth it. A pessimist sees a dark tunnel. An optimist sees a light at the end of that tunnel. A realist sees a train. And the train driver sees three idiots on the tracks. [Edited 1 time, last edit on 4/11/2003 at 20:30 (GMT -5) by Maelstrom] |
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Iridia Moderator on this forum YASD Last page view: 3749 days, 14 hours, 32 minutes and 5 seconds ago. |
Yes, definitely. Stealth=100 is a Very Good Thing. I once won with an assassin with stealth, invisibility, backstabbing, and Find Weakness all at 100. The monsters didn't even know he was coming until they were dead. (Note: It doesn't count as a legit win--I've never done that--because I restored from the save file twice. Still, if I ever do make it, Invisibility and Stealth are going to be pretty big reasons why. That, and luck.) Die Gedanken sind Frei |
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J. Registered user You'll never get rid of me Last page view: 5658 days, 42 minutes and 15 seconds ago. |
Assassins are much better at backstabbing than others after they get their lvl 12 class power. At that level you can just go and backstab hotzenplotz and he'll die from one hit. Meleeing him at that level would be pretty fatal to most chars. If you're feeling happy, don't worry, it'll go away. Originally posted by noob: "I'm everytime amazed how you people know to exploit every single little bug (or not-bug) for elaborated scumming tatics even if the feature seems completely useless or bad." |
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J. Registered user You'll never get rid of me Last page view: 5658 days, 42 minutes and 15 seconds ago. |
Ooh, just noticed. Thieves also get a deadlier backstab at lvl 12. BTW: Thieves are fun to play! You get to use their skills all the time: pick pocket everyone, search locked doors, disarm traps on them, pick locks. Not as boring as, say, barbarians: kill, kill, kill, kick door, kill, kill, ouch that greater moloch hit me with a critical(luckily I can survive three more), then kill some more. Plus, the thief's heir gift is great! If you're feeling happy, don't worry, it'll go away. Originally posted by noob: "I'm everytime amazed how you people know to exploit every single little bug (or not-bug) for elaborated scumming tatics even if the feature seems completely useless or bad." [Edited 1 time, last edit on 4/12/2003 at 05:49 (GMT -5) by J.] |
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Gordismo Registered user False God Last page view: 7463 days, 15 hours, 35 minutes and 12 seconds ago. |
Thieves ARE fun. Especially when you steal a potion of willpower, strength, and toughness from one tension room. That backstab ability let me kill the assasin prince and the greater black unicorn in one hit. I didn't let myself get crowned until D:50, was testing if I would get something differnt if I'm next to the gate. Anyways, my gift sucked for me, True Aim, a bow, and a couple of arrows. I never did train much on bows. "The past is a ghost that haunts you from the moment it exists until the moment you don't" |
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Andor_Drakon Registered user The eLdEr ChAoS gOd Last page view: 7670 days, 11 hours, 12 minutes and 12 seconds ago. |
Necromancer companions are useful if you want someone to help fight. Later in the game, there are some VERY hard "bosses" (like a certain Chaos Archmage) who you have to kill in order to win. A companion can really help out there. ChAoS Is CoMiNg! MUAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA! |