First Ever Win: Gnome Assassin
I won't have time to play ADOM much for a while, so I went a little overboard when I saw this character was doing well. After I got crowned, I decided to try to pull off everything--everything--that a Champion of Balance could do. The only things I didn't do were the Filk quest (I had over 200 kills) and the kissing of the frog (I did talk to them, but I never got a good response and I didn't care enough to farm them).
This character was very cautious and methodical until about the Minotaur Maze, at which point I realized that she had built up enough resources to crush the game beneath her heel. I made numerous backup savegames and would likely have been willing to savescum a little, but she never died--I feel good about that. :D
Deciding factors in victory:
- Crowned with Executor
- Found "Carrying" gear early to save up loot easily
- Ironfist and Bracers of War found randomly at low levels
- Good luck on first few corruptions (Eyes, Antennae, Bulging Cranium, Teleportitis, Thorns, and Horns, in that order, at which point I needed to use about 7 Blessed SoCR to reseed myself before I finally got Thin, Acid Breath, and Small without first having Mana Battery or Stiff Muscles)
- Offensive Alchemy
- Carefully cleared about half of the bug temple, gaining much speed in the process.
I handled the Assassin's Guild, SIL, Library, and Quickling Tree after I closed the gate. Everything else came before. I went overboard in the Guild; not only did I kill the Prince, sweep the whole guild clean, and use stomacemptia to make sure I devoured every corpse that dropped, I also took my Pick Axe and Wands of Digging and physically tore the place to shreds. When history remembers Assassins, it will remember me, and those fools will be forgotten. ;)
That said, I did pull some scummy tactics:
- I stairhopped 3 times (i.e. I went between I9 and I10 until I was Strained), primarily for potions of Water (which didn't start dropping often for me until the endgame). I did get the water, but nothing else especially useful came of it.
- I outleveled the Minotaur Maze by killing Burp's mom, so I loaded a backup savegame to do the maze first. This cost me a wand of Destruction and a potion of Education that the dragon dropped the first time (she had nothing noteworthy the second time), but it did get me into the maze.
- Most egregiously, I reloaded 3 times to get a stack of 7 Rings of Djinni Summoning on D8 while I only had 6 Potions of Exchange on hand. I didn't need any of the Khelly rewards as I already had better on all counts, but I wanted to save him, and I was getting bored of farming. My wishes only made the game marginally safer (I had already easily stomped the ToEF, Darkforge, Bug Temple, Tomb, and Maze), so I don't feel too bad about doing this, but there it is. I made all of my wishes right away:
- AoLS
- Crowns of Lightning (complement my Blue Dragon Scale Mail to limit item damage in the Air Temple and Blue Dragon Caves)
- Tower Eternium Shields (to replace the Medium Eternium Shield I had already smithed up)
- Pairs of Seven League Boots (though every single time I ran away from level 20+ was by teleportation, for which I had found several books)
- Concentration (I never got within 200 casts of being out of any spell and I never went below 15 Blessed Gem of Power, but it saved some micromanagement)
- Oils of Rust Removal (saved micromanagement of switching between backup crossbows)
- a tuna sandwich (didn't take, so I wasted the wish on purpose, it's not like I needed anything else by that point)
Code:
Gobbofinder St:42 Le:41 Wi:35 Dx:57 To:50 Ch:22 Ap:34 Ma:36 Pe:26 N=
DV/PV:163/55 H:1003(1003) P:639(639) Exp: 50/40195756 DrCh Sp: 176
Blessed Satiated
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Background Information
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Name: Gobbofinder Race: female Gnome Class: Assassin
Eye color: green Hair color: brown Complexion: tanned
Height: 3'1" Weight: 88 pounds Scars: 1
Age: 225 (grown-up, 107 years of unnatural aging added in)
Star sign: Cup Birthday: 17/Cup (day 257 of the year)
YOUR HISTORY:
Your parents belong to the nobility. They are rich, respected,
wealthy and own more than they can count.
In your childhood you were a credit to your family. Your people
loved you and enjoyed your presence.
In your youth you enjoyed competition against others to the
fullest. You were a very active kid.
Your young adulthood was characterized by hard and long work. You
had decided to study under a renowned master. To your great disappointment
you had to find out, that he was a hard, unjust and tyrannic man,
embittered by his old age. Your apprentice years were quite terrible.
You decided to become an Assassin.
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Inventory
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Total weight: 2674 stones Carrying capacity: 19012 stones
rustproof crown of lightning [+8, +6] (+5 spd) <- spare wish, for blue dragon caves
ankh
rustproof chain mail of carrying (-1, -3) [+5, +9] <- found early, helped with money
girdle of carrying [+2, +3] <- found early, helped with money
hooded cloak [+4, +1]
jet-black battle axe (Executor)... <- Crowning gift
medium obsidian shield (Protector)... <- D49 gift, replaced eternium tower
ring of searching <- worn most of game for convenience
ring of ice <- worn very nearly all of game (alchemy bombs)
bracers of war [+8, +4] {Dx+8} <- buried in Dwarven Graveyard!
iron gauntlets (Ironfist) (-1, +0) [+1, +3] {St+7} <- pickpocketed in Unremarkable Dungeon!
seven league boots [+4, +4] <- spare wish when saving Khelly
rustproof heavy crossbow (+9, +6) <- many a slaying round was fired through this
bundle of 86 bland quarrels (+1, 2d6)
pick axe (+0, 1d6+2) <- first one I found, never broke once
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Stuff
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Helmets ('[')
helm of water breathing [+6, +7] <- what I used until pre-Khelly wishes
Armor ('[')
clothes of the sea [+0, +0] <- found in HMV shop--handy for Water Cave!
blue dragon scale mail (-1, -4) [+6, +12] <- in lesser red dragon vault around D30, smithed for fighting dragons
One-handed weapons ('(')
adamantium mace of penetration (+9, 1d6+9) <- dropped in Unremarkable Dungeon!
Tools (']')
heap of 2 magical writing sets (5) <- never tried to use these
heap of 4 giant boar skulls <- I always find lots of these...
magical writing set (2)
Rings ('=')
ring of djinni summoning <- while clearing out Dwarven Halls post-victory
Wands ('\')
wand of digging (2 charges) <- used most of my booze, facilitated lazy travel
wand of destruction (2 charges) <- used once, just to see what happens; stat drain, ick