Annoying chaotic crowning corruptions

[Dazed]

Hey all, been a while :) You might remember me from the 35-odd page thread when I was lamenting about not getting very far (put paid to that with your help, thanks!) then ended up with 2 normal wins by the end.

After a long break, have picked up ADOM again for another stab at it, this time with the intention of completing a normal chaotic ending. After lots of dying again (and one character getting to D:50 and dying there :(), I've managed to get a fairly stable character going.

Until the bugger got crowned.

So, I would like to introduce you to Malicious, a chaotic dark elf beastfighter born under Dragon. He's currently level 13 with these stats:

Str: 23
Le: 11
Wi: 19
Dx: 38
To: 31
Ch: 6
Ap: 16
Ma: 13
Pe: 16

He's picked up a few artifacts on the way, namely:

robes of resistance (pre-crowning gift)
Hammerhead (randomly found, can't remember where!)
bracers of war (crowning gift)


as well as the Scythe (sacrificed for crowning piety) and the Pyramid artifacts.

His current talents are: Alert/Miser/Treasure Hunter, Careful and Quick. He is also immune to shock (crowning).

The story so far is that Malicious decided to immediately run down the Small Cave to the HMV and not bother with Terinyo or L-thingplacename, although he didn't manage to pick up the water blanket on the way :( There was a general shop somewhere in the Unremarkable Dungeon which gave better selling prices than the HMV, so he prefers shopping there.

He then went down the CoC to Dwarftown, where Thrundarr told him to kill an orc scorcher (easily done), go past the Animated Forest (Dwarven Hall exits were discovered) and kill the ogre tribe (done).

The main problem is that Malicious had issues killing ogre lords, so I pointed him toward the Pyramid. The AMW was got and I decided to get Malicious crowned.

Now, the little bugger ended up with these corruptions:


teleportitis
mana battery
poisoned hands


Isn't that a pain in the old proverbial? I can't think of worse corruptions to get off the bat. Especially as Malicious doesn't have any form of teleport control whatsoever. Luckily he has thick gauntlets.

So, this early in the game, I'm not sure what to do. Can't do the arena quest due to teleportitis. Wands are buggered. Any ideas? Blink dogs haven't been very forthcoming, and as you know, I'm not an ID scummer :)

[Dudley]

Options :
1)Random teleport in HMV till you reach the place with the scroll of chaos resistance. Prepare Food!
2) Get over you conviction and get a blinkie from ID.

Those are the only thing i see to durably remove the problems. Sorry for you, had you been neutral, you could have tried the dwarftown scrolls. And at lvl 13 you can't do rift YET.

[moomoo]

Random teleport is horrible until you get ctele, then it might be something to hold on.
Poison hands is not too bad either tho you'll prolly end up ruining your pots and foods (btw curse stomacemptias you have)
Mana battery at that point of the game needs curing.

I myself would head out to ID and scum blink dog corpse (sorry) then use the teleportitis at all places possible - HMV, darkforge, water dragon etc. And after that try curing poison hands and manabattery.

And hey, you have great artifacts so far for de beastie, who are kick ass combo anyway. Best luck!

[Dudley]

May i recall that to be a beastfighter already guarantees a GOOD artifact, and that's one of the good points for them most used?

[JellySlayer]

Teleportitis is not the end of the world if you can get control--it's actually quite beneficial, for the most part. Best bet is probably to scum ID or Big Room for blink dogs. Without teleport control, you really can't do anything else...

Poison hands is nice for a BF, if you have some thick gauntlets for when you need them. It's auto-remove for me if I can manage it, but some people like it. Mana battery sucks, pretty much always. At least they're stacked with the most desirable one on the bottom. If the one on top was something really good (Apish, say), then you'd be stuck losing a really good one because you need to treat the bad ones.

There's one SoCR available in the HMW. If you can get to Darkforge, you can try using the pools to wish for an AoLS for Khelly (better than straight SoCR wish, of course). There's 3 in Bug Temple, but without access to wands, you probably are 30 levels lower than you need to be to get through. Rift needs 5 levels, but should be doable if you can hold out that long.

Personally, I normally hold off on chaotic crownings for as long as possible. 3 corruptions is nasty early on unless you get really lucky, which, in my experience, never happens.

[Overheat]

Beastfighters are difficult to play chaotic because part of their awesomeness is their crowning gifts.

No one has mentioned that if you take GuthAlak's quest, there is a returnable chaotic corpse (Keethrax), for a PoCC. BTW, I think the potion is always blessed, but remember that the HMV SoCR and the ones you get from the weird tome quest are always cursed.

EDIT: Duh, I am a moron. I never play chaotics.

[Dudley]

No one has mentioned that if you take GuthAlak's quest, there is a returnable chaotic corpse (Keethrax), for a PoCC. BTW, I think the potion is always blessed, but remember that the HMV SoCR and the ones you get from the weird tome quest are always cursed.

Guth won't reward chaotics

[Dazed]

Thanks for your quick replies :) Have decided to attempt hopping between ID:3/4 to get a blink dog corpse. Am not enjoying this chaotic character so much. I like neutrals!

Didn't know that Guth won't give PoCC out for corpses... that's a bugger, so I assume he won't give the unicorn quest at the end?

I suppose that if this fails, the main lesson I'll have learned is... don't play chaotics :D

[Grey]

He'll give the unicorn quest... but the unicorn won't. Essentially you can't even claim the chaotic reward without converting.

[Dazed]

He'll give the unicorn quest... but the unicorn won't. Essentially you can't even claim the chaotic reward without converting.

Bah, stupid unicorns :) Oh well, live and learn (or die and learn).

Is there a method to generating blink dogs? So far I'm just trying to complete as much of a level as I can on the ID and then descend to the next level, repeat. I have had blink dogs but none have dropped corpses.

[JellySlayer]

Bah, stupid unicorns :) Oh well, live and learn (or die and learn).

Is there a method to generating blink dogs? So far I'm just trying to complete as much of a level as I can on the ID and then descend to the next level, repeat. I have had blink dogs but none have dropped corpses.

Once you find blink dogs, do the following:
-'N'ame the first one you see.
-Find a nice big room and let it summon.
-Don't kill the named one. It will summon again eventually.
-Repeat ad nauseum until you get a corpse.

[Orbic]

Warning: they tend to level up. Not so easy to kill after a while!

[Dazed]

My issue at the moment is getting the blink dogs to generate in the first place...

[vogonpoet]

best bet is to stair hop, then spend one turn on the level, then stair hop again - any dogs generated on level creation seem to teleport into the stairs room during the extra turn.

[Dazed]

Found a blink dog, named it Blinky, watched it summon for ages and finally a corpse dropped! Got the SoCR from the HMV and now Malicious only has teleportitis. Thanks for your help :)

Although, I don't think I'll do a chaotic character again, heh. Not sure if Malicious will make it...

[moomoo]

A teleporting beastfighter with bracers of war is a sure win ;)

Take it easy.

[Dazed]

Take it easy.

Thought I'd update on Malicious' progress!

Malicious is now level 23 and at the Casino :) He did all the Dwarven quests apart from the greater daemon one as he wasn't up to killing it (and Dwarftown altar is neutral). He's picked up a few more artifacts on the way but they're all melee weapons so useless (got a surge of power in the ToHK and got Wyrmlance).

ToEF was pretty easy, threw a cursed potion of invisibility and potion of poison and hit the ACW with berserk melee, then hit the Rift. SoCR were received, and Malicious learned a few spells on the way. He used Frost Bolt to get the RoHK. He also cleared out the Assassins' Guild and Darkforge.

EDIT: I should probably add that Malicious also has a ring of djinni summoning, which he's storing at the Old Barbarian's Glade.

Now, the level about the Casino is a greater undead vault after zapping a wand of monster detection. I've heard bad things about these. I think the artifacts in the vault are Serpent's Blade (came up as green weapon on scroll of item detection) and a missile weapon of some sort (Far Slayer or the sling - you can't get Sun's Messenger as a drop, right?).

Serpent's Blade would be useless of course, but Malicious is training up bows and crossbows (level 8 and 7 at the moment), so would it be worth the risk to see if the missile weapon is Far Slayer?

[Dudley]

Not worth. At all. Undead rape your ass down do earth till it looks like it was never meant to be a living thing.
That only is true if you don't have a hyper trained fireball. Or Improved fireball. do you? Else, definitely NOT worth it.
Btw, IIRC RoDS are indestructible, aren't they?

[Grey]

The missile is likely Thunderstroke, which is one of the crappest artifacts in the game. Greater undead vaults tend to sap all the goodness out of a character, so I'd recommend steering clear.

You should keep the RoDS on you - it's made of adamantium, so in your backpack nothing can harm it.

[moomoo]

Now, the level about the Casino is a greater undead vault after zapping a wand of monster detection. I've heard bad things about these. I think the artifacts in the vault are Serpent's Blade (came up as green weapon on scroll of item detection) and a missile weapon of some sort (Far Slayer or the sling - you can't get Sun's Messenger as a drop, right?).

Serpent's Blade would be useless of course, but Malicious is training up bows and crossbows (level 8 and 7 at the moment), so would it be worth the risk to see if the missile weapon is Far Slayer?

Far slayer is nice, but definately not worth clearing that vault for. If the layout allows and you have the magic mappings and teleports you could try snatching it. Clearing an undead vault prolly ends up in a sh*tstorm of summons, aging and stat drain. Considering the fact that you're chaotic you end up corrupted alot too.

After you've closed the gate and won try coming back and clearing just to see the horrors yourself. Gather up blessed slaying ammo for emperor liches and such and have "fun" :)

[Dudley]

As i recalled. My first win cleared a undie vault. Without missiles. With his bare fists. after finishing the game.

[Silfir]

If you don't care about your stats (like after finishing the game) it's not that hard. Paralyzation and death ray resistance for the emperor liches, absurdly powerful melee for killing.

Level 50 melee characters can do pretty much everything. I remember entering the Rift, after winning, butt naked except for a couple bits of gnomish candy, just to see how far I could go. I took apart a diamond golem using bare fists. With a barbarian, not some sissy beastfighter or something.

I ended up collecting what amounted to decent midgame equipment and died because I was too stupid to do the doppleganger king check in the Library. (Incidentally, if an emperor lich summons even one doppleganger king on your honourable ass, you either break down and use a wand or die like the bloody idiot you are. :) )

As for greater undead vaults in general - I have cleared one for the artifacts several times, before I closed the gate. I consider it a horrid bore, because of all the summonings. You spend ages picking off lich kings and emperor liches among the masses of kobold shamans, goblin berserkes, big dogs and brown worms. Or, depending on the layout, you spend hundreds of arrows picking off said masses from a corridor.

I suppose you can make it more exciting and much shorter if you decide to jump in and melee everything. The whole endeavour might just be over a little more quickly than you'd like.

[vogonpoet]

yeah the summons are uber painful - especially if its the layout with loads of emperor lichs... even with loads of undead slaying ammo, its gonna take ages to get through the hordes - and its not like emperor king or even master lichs can only summon large dogs, i've seen wall beasts, doppelganger kings, cats, all sorts.

Basically, come back later :)

[Dazed]

Well... the ending was a bit of an anticlimax... the level 32 beastfighter power really makes D:50 far too easy :D Didn't even bother hitting anything.

Didn't bother with the greater undead vault, but came across 2 greater giant vaults, but the artifacts were useless (hammer of the gods, Protector). Turned out that the undead artifact was Far Slayer.

Also did a really stupid thing where I got poisoned hands and managed to screw up 13 potions of extra healing into poison. Was tempted to try poolsipping for an extra wish but decided against. Managed to find a couple more ultra healing potions. I also hate doppleganger kings, one brought Malicious down to 1hp! Killed another by catching him in webs and casting Magic Missile (which was really crappy).

Mana Temple was really annoying as Nuurag-Vaarn wasn't really wanting to move, then all my humanoid ammo missed him, finally a quarrel of darkness blinded him so Malicious went in for berserk melee.

After closing the gate, used the ring of djinni summoning to wish for more SoCR, but wasn't enough to get me a nicer ending. I'd like to think that Malicious didn't end up getting all lonely :( If you end up chaotic with no corruptions, do you still get to be a king/queen and rule over your people? I'd guess they'd be really nasty rulers.

YAVP here (http://www.adom.de/forums/showthread.php?p=53197#post53197) :)

Thanks again. Now I've done one of each alignment, I might try moving up into Ultra endings!

[Silfir]

You can get a clean ending if you have no more than two corruptions, I believe. Also, yes, winning as a chaotic lets you become a really nasty ruler alright :)

[moomoo]

Malicious would make a fine ruler - who cares about the 12 eyes, thin apish looks or malignant auras haunting the throne room. Congrats on the win.

[Dazed]

He had +13 to Appearance at the end... I bet that if he had all the corruptions removed he would have been nasty, a king, and damn good-looking to boot :D

I have to admit that when I finish a character, I want them to have at least 20 Appearance. I guess the mirror smashing room has the same effect on me as the "You have won 2nd prize in a beauty contest" card in Monopoly ;)