General Tips?

[gut]

There is already a copy of all monsters and
their descriptions on your own hard drive.
They are in the Adom executable. They are
not even encrypted, but written out in plain
english. Are you all so L that you haven't
even loaded you executable into a text editor? : )
I don't think that constitutes code-diving, you
are just reading the text. To me it's N at worst.

To help a bit, I loaded my own, and searched
a few seconds. I found the text string where
the monster descriptions start, here it is:

'A deadly giant insect of utter blackness that attacks with'

This is a description of a killer bug. The monster
title will be listed after the description. Gosh,
that really took me back : )

[Chaine]

Owright, in between learning pickpocket and saving for DT:

Doing the raider lord quest (sheriff in terinyo) is good to make the wait for the dough for detect traps less painful. You have to do it before hitting level 6.
Alternatively, cruise around in ID (levels 5-6) for the cash.

If still low level, visit the SMC for the waterproof blanket.
When you hit level 3-4 start thinking about getting out (arbitrary, depends on wether you want the raider quest).
You may want to try to avoid killing to much and getting into a tight spot.
Even visiting it at level 1 and leaving immediately can be useful.
Also, If you don't get the blanket, just locating the stairs down will be good for the future.
If you are literate, funk about for some time there and train it by reading the two scrolls you find there over and over. They don't work outside.

If you're already past that, however:
After leaving the Carpenter dungeon, go for the puppy cave (available @ tiny girl in Terinyo). Even if you do not want to complete the quest, the cave generates a guaranteed vault, and on the whole has higher chances to generate goodies (herbs, altars, shops, royal vaults).

Afterwards you're good for Caverns of Chaos. Or the pyramid, unfortunately I don't have too much experience in meeleing the pyramid.

That Keethrax (the bandit leaders name if I don't remember it all wrong) Quest should be the first you do? How the heck is that supposed to work, in the beginning of the game you don't have either the skill or cash enough to stay alive long enough to generate more than one-two wilderness encounters as far as I know.
By the way how quick does literacy increase when reading those two scrolls? Can't go fast, right?

[spectre]

Kranach, Keethrax is the black druid, the quest you get off Terinyo Druid.

Yes, it is a hard encounter, there's a limit, you have to be below level 6, which is where your first class power activates. It can also take days to find them, that's another bad thing.
Mostly I do it for the alignment boost for my C characters, the money comes second (money is an issue only to a certain point in the game, but it helps in the early game nonetheless).

It's not like you must do it (unlike the quest for healing), it is simply useful. I would skip it if playing a merchant or a farmer, or other characters who are really frail at the beginning.

"By the way how quick does literacy increase when reading those two scrolls? Can't go fast, right?"

To be honest, it's rather slow. And it seems you can't read the same thing over and over like 100 times and get many increases later.
I'm usually doing something like this: I enter the room, kill stuff, read one of these scrolls, then the other one, repeat it one or two more times, proceed to the other room. The results won't be close to spectacular, but it's ADOM, every little bit helps.

[Chaine]

"Uncursed rusty black dragon-hide gauntlets (-2, +0) [+0, -1]", would theese had been any good if it wasn't for the rust (which can be removed with rust removal?)? Had another Grey Elf Priest death, he was doing just fine and had learned 7 (new record) spells but eventually starved (I'm really used to classes with food preservation, it seems).

[Kato]

Those aren't too bad. Black dragon gauntlets give you protection from acid.

I have a question for everyone. After you use one carrot room...will you ever find another?

[Doalag]

I believed I got 2 in one game, BUT I also suspect I confused between 2 games.

[gut]

Chaine:
> "Uncursed rusty black dragon-hide gauntlets (-2, +0) [+0, -1]",
> would theese had been any good

They are made of iron, so they can be smithed up.
That would be for later though. There are a lot
of requirements for smithing. I think they are
worth packing around in case you need a quick
source of acid resistance.

Chaine:
> Had another Grey Elf Priest death, he was doing just fine and
> had learned 7 (new record)

Have you considered exploiting the ID for books.
Climbing up and down the stairs between levels
1 and 2 will net many spellbooks, and really give
spellcasters an early edge. Food and other items
are also abundant with 'ID scumming', you should
not want for food after a stairclimbing session.

Once you have found a few offensive spellbooks,
consider clearing the BUGWIL for extra exp. levels.
Actually, you should practise that with a few
'throw away wizards' first, so as to give your
real PC a good shot.

I had recorded (a while back) a demo of how to
do the BUGWIL safely, with an exp. level 1 wizard.
If you watch it, and practice a few times, you
should be able to pull it off safely. Here is the
link to the file, (I hope it still works).

http://hyperfileshare.com/d/c3baaeda
This link no longer works, I will record another
(better) one and post it in a little while.

Here is the new demo. I was meaning to record
a better one, one of these anyway. The last one
showed only how to clear the BUGWIL to the
stairs. This one shows how to clear the entire
BUGWIL. It usually gets your PC to exp. level 13,
but you can get to 14 or more if you don't mind
doing it while strained and bloated. The demo
is only about 350 K and runs a bit over 15
minutes.

http://hyperfileshare.com/d/a3497656


Kato:
> After you use one carrot room...will you ever find another?

Yep, if you look long enough. The ID is a good
place to look for carrot rooms. Actually, the
room effects are (I think) all beneficial, for a
PC like a gray elf wizard. The 'library' room
effect drains St, and puts it into Le. The mirror
room gives +1 to Ch, if your Ap is over 20 (for
a gray elf, it almost always is). The carrot
room gives +5 to Pe, if you have carrot juice.
The 'mud bath' rooms give +1 to Ap.

Are there ANY negative room effects for a gray
elf wizard?

[Kato]

Yes. I ran in to a room where all the mirrors were there and they all shattered. It lowered my charisma by one. lol.

Question...when you all mention stairclimbing...are you exploring that whole floor or just going up and seeing what is in the first room each time you generate a new one?

[gut]

> Yes. I ran in to a room where all the mirrors were there and they all
> shattered. It lowered my charisma by one. lol.

I thought it gave -1 to Pe. That was because your Ap
was lower than 20. Had your Ap been 20, you would
have gotten +1 to Ch (I think).

> Question...when you all mention stairclimbing

I was reffering to 'ID scumming'. That is when you
climb the stairs, pick up any interesting items in
sight, climb again, and repeat. This is an effective
(and pretty cheap) way of generating hordes of
items. Most players that have a few wins under
their belt stop exploiting this feature, as it is
very powerful. These days, I only 'ID scum' if
I am doing a specific challenge game, and need
an item (or items) very quickly.

[Kato]

> Yes. I ran in to a room where all the mirrors were there and they all
> shattered. It lowered my charisma by one. lol.

I thought it gave -1 to Pe. That was because your Ap
was lower than 20. Had your Ap been 20, you would
have gotten +1 to Ch (I think).

> Question...when you all mention stairclimbing

I was reffering to 'ID scumming'. That is when you
climb the stairs, pick up any interesting items in
sight, climb again, and repeat. This is an effective
(and pretty cheap) way of generating hordes of
items. Most players that have a few wins under
their belt stop exploiting this feature, as it is
very powerful. These days, I only 'ID scum' if
I am doing a specific challenge game, and need
an item (or items) very quickly.

Yeah...you are right. It was -1 to PE. And my AP was below 20 cause of the mummy wrappings I am wearing.

That's really that powerful? I thought you had to at least search the level out to find the stuff...but just going up and down like that and snagging the stuff in that room? I've never tried that before...