General walkthrough/plathrough anyone?

[Rangouren]

Hey guys!
I know that there are some walkthroughs for specific classes around over the internet but what do you guys think of making a step-by-step walkthrough for melee/ranged, spellcasters, other (farmer, mindcrafter, weaponsmith, merchant) guides?
There is a WHOLE LOT of people looking for tips and yet, despite ADOM being for nearly 15 years available, THERE IS NO GENERAL WALKTHROUGH!

For example, lawful melee fighters (Paladin, Berserker, Warrior, Archer, Ranger, etc..):

1. LVL 1-5: Speedrun through Puppy Cave. (I've been able to save the puppy as either wizard, priest and berserker)
2. LVL 3-5: ...that's the question. What to do next/instead? Looking for fireproof blanket? "Tutorial" cave? Infinite Dungeon?
3. LVL 5-10: Druid/Major Quest.
4. LVL 10-12: Caverns of Chaos -> Dwarftown
5. LVL 12-14: Dwarftown, "portal"/"quest" playthrough - graveyard, ogre vault, arena.
6. LVL 14-16: Rehetep's party
7. LVL 16-??: *ding!*

...and the *DING!* is the moment where most of the players give up....
I know that this is not a playthrough... but its still better than nothing.

And please, dont send me to youtube or some 9 years old websites. I am smart enough to find it myself.
Still, even if GordonOverkill made an AMAZING JOB creating his waklthroughs - its still only for a small amount of characters.
ADOM is specific, I know. But still - there are fighters, there are rangers, there are spellcasters. I am pretty sure we can make a playthrough for all of them. Because the game is not helping casual players at all.

Im counting on you, guys!

Regards!

[Blasphemous]

The problem is that the game is extremely flexible and the random factor determines how to proceed.
You cannot "walkthrough" that, you need to improvise often and frequently skip the "established" order.
The key to being successful lies in the details, not an overarching plan. The plan creates itself as you go, it deforms and adjusts to items, skills, playstyle, intrinsics etc.
You can plan all you want but if you don't know how to handle an out-of-depth doppleganger lord or an ogre magi in the early game, then all your plans and walkthroughs turn to dust.
Sometimes a split-second decision can mean death or life just a few turns later and nobody can guide you through that because it's too specific for your situation.

At the point where you can handle the game mechanics with ease, you just go with the flow, without really planning anything.
When you have mastered evasion, retreat and constant changes in tactics, you can dive through DH with a lvl 10 char and just smile on your way through.
You explore because stuff that comes at you is familiar and you know how to handle it. Instead of focusing on survival, you thrive and focus on exploration.
You can enter the pyramid and face Rehetep but a bad spawn of monsters might put a sudden and permanent halt to your progress. One gorgon and one poorly placed jelly cube and you're out.
This is something that guides do not mention and do not teach to go through because those are very particular scenarios that require intuition, improvisation and tactics.
At the same time, these things could occur at ANY given moment.

If you want a continuation of *DING*, then ask yourself a bunch of questions:
Do I have ring of fire? Enough PV to handle mid-game monsters? Source of invisibility? Check IQD.
What if you don't have these? Maybe TotHK then, for some, unless you don't feel comfortable handling cavernous levels that can generate some serious threats.
Need a good weapon but have lots of construct/humanoid slayers? Go for Dfg instead.
Lots of cold spells and fire resistance? Go for early tower.
No good sources of healing but otherwise decent stats/items? Maybe water temple is the next goal, with the orb being the prize.
You try to obtain what you don't have and then proceed. You see where this is going?
You adjust the plan to your capabilities, not the other way around.
The plan goes wrong, you retreat and go somewhere else.

This point that you mentioned, just after doing dwarven quests and pyramid is really where I stop and do a check on my attributes and items, THEN decide where to go based on that assessment.
You will have to do the same and neither the race nor the class will have much influence on that choice. Remember one thing though: this is meant to be entertaining, not upsetting.
If you don't like the tower without rings of ice and fire immunity, then by all means don't force yourself to go there.
Wait it out, grind a bit, restock some shops, raid random caves, revisit locations you fled earlier, dig up some graves...
Do stuff that is enjoyable instead of following some fool's plan and worrying that according to it, you should be past some particular stage of the game, while you're still in one spot, scratching your ass.
It's your game and your time, don't let guides dictate how you should proceed because you will never learn to play this game.

[JellySlayer]

While there might be a general playthrough sequence you could come up with, I think you'd probably find that it's subject to so many caveats and exceptions that it would be pretty unwieldy. IMHO, it's more a useful starting point to ask "How do I survive the early game?" "How do I survive the midgame?" and "How do I survive the endgame?" Once you have good practices in place for how to play, whether you're playing a paladin, barbarian, farmer, or archer is less important.

Nevertheless, here's an example of a short, safe playthrough on, say, an Orc Barbarian:

Start game: Typical stats are something like 20 St, 22 To, 10 PV. Very solid starting character.
Level 1: Grab a bit of food at Terinyo, activate Carpenter quest. Head to HoleInTheLaw, activate Kill Jharod quest.
Level 1-3: Dive through VD to VD:4, kill Jharod, and leave as quickly as you can. The lower level you can complete this quest, the better. Get Healing starting at 60. Go back and finish VD if you want.
Level 4-10: Puppy Cave. Eat an ant if you can. Ideally you should also grab Poison resist here if you haven't already. Don't spend too much time on PC:5 unless there's an altar, don't do the vault on PC:6 if it is mixed. Not worth the risk even for a strong character.
Level 11-15: Head to the CoC. If you happen across one or two of the low level random dungeons, you can do them if you want. Clear everything on your way to Dwarftown. Good time to stock up on herbs if you want them (though this character doesn't need them). Get the DT quests. Convert alignment to the DT altar one if you haven't already. You should be able to get Literacy before you leave and do the big ID on all of your gear if you haven't done this yet. After this, you should be looking for around 30 DV (assuming shield), 20-25 PV on Very Aggressive. Weapon should be something like Adamantium Spear or Flail. You should definitely have -Fire, -Acid, and -Poison at this point. If you've found an altar in a good area, you should have -Luck/-Fate as well. -TCtrl would be excellent too.
Level 15-16: Retrace your steps from CoC. Grab the teleport wand from the VDDL if you have a scroll/wand of item detection or magic mapping, clear Pyramid. Don't forget the climbing set and pickaxe. Next, clear Griffyard.
Level 16-18: If you've come across a nice weapon, and have -Fire, you can clear Darkforge at this point with a character like this. PV should be high 20s or low 30s at least. HP will be around 200 or so. If not, head back through CoC as far as Khelly. Finish the remainder of Dwarf quests for Big Punch, then clear Darkforge. If you're Raven born, then if you should also visit Water Dragon Cave to set up the RCT quest.
Level 18-20: If you have -Conf and a wand of cold, grab the RoTHK. Otherwise, grab the one in the IQD first. Make sure that your teleport wand is charged in the basement area in case a balor or something spawns. Next, get Water Orb. If you're desperate to save Khelly, you can use Darkforge pools to get your wish. You should also have enough resources for a crowning at this point, if not earlier. Grab the RoI from the Dwarf Mystic if you haven't already.
Level ~20: With RoI, ~35 PV and decent weapon, you can kill the ACW if you want. You might want to motor through the IQD, open up the Frost Giant Caves, and check out the greater vault for artifacts before you do. Clearing the greater vault is possible, but, IMHO, a little high risk for a character at this level unless you're really buff.
Level 20+: Dive through to Casino, resupply your gear. PV should be at least 40, you should have at least one daemon/humanoid slaying weapon ideally. Check lower CoC for greater vaults, grab the artifacts at least, and clear if they look reasonable. Clear Air/Earth/Mana, the close the gate and win the game.

[zliplus]

Speedrunning for puppy is by far the worst risk/reward option to start the game - only reason to do it is for the achievement/challenge or RP purposes.

There is no particular need (or reason) to do most quests at a specific point - do them when you feel ready to. Therefore, a very simple and generic (but viable) walkthrough goes as follows:

1. Start of game: review your character, adjust equipment if needed, read books etc. Decide which quests you'll select (align, healing vs herbalism, etc). Visit the towns, start quests (don't pick up Kranach bounty quest if not a strong early character), check out black market shop/pickpocket, buy food if needed.
2. Beginning level: go to your chosen start and level. VD is easiest/safest, low level DD/ID are fine, SMC or PC are challenging. Level to at least 5 on easy creatures. Decide whether to go back and do Kranach bounty (a good early sum of gold, but not a lot to spend it on for a while unless you found something good in black market). Keep levelling, finish your quest for Healing skill (or Herbalism, but that one is a bit more dangerous - do whatever you feel safe with). Try and find some decent armor and weapons.
3. End of Beginning: keep levelling, clear out whatever you can safely from rest of nearby dungeons (care PC6 vault and SMC anywhere). Try to finish thief quest and learn detect traps. Stock up on some food and move on to CoC. (Let's say level 8+)
4. To Dwarftown: fight through CoC to Dwarftown. Ratlings have more food, don't stay too long in big room. At Dwarftown use the shop/altar/trainer as needed/able. Pick up quests and explore nearby for levels/gold (sell eq you don't need). Take your time a bit, eat some herbs and spend gold on armor if needed and training. Eventually go explore through animated forest and maybe ogre cave (have something to deal with ogre magi?) (level 13-15?)
5. Pre-ToEF: In some order, do pyramid, portal quest, low-level random dungeons, IQD, ToTHK, darkforge. Wand of fireballs should let you beat pyramid, pyramid provides AMW for cold immune and see invis (ogre magi) as well as pickaxe/climbing set. This allows you to do other areas when ready - to get ready, explore lower random dungeons for levels/drops if needed. Worst case you'll get lots of loot that can be sold for gold that you can use to train more stats to mid/high teens. (Level 18-20s if you can clear greater vault in IQD/darkforge/etc)
6. Do ToEF whenever you have what you need (fire immune/resists, higher metal armor/weapons, ring of ice (dwarven mystic)/fireproof blanket, etc). Meanwhile, keep doing random dungeons and explore deeper in the CoC (with or without AoLS for khelavaster). After doing ToEF, keep exploring CoC until Casino. At casino, review stock and try to pick up any nice missing gear pieces (often GoGS, SLB, etc).
7. Finish the game: after Casino, shortcut via darkforge opens up. Considering returning to pick up any skills/quests you've missed, sell stuff, use up gold for final purposes (training, piety, crowning, etc), then just dive down and finish the game. Do the temples for the orbs, keep levelling, win.