Lich
04-23-2008, 01:34 AM
I have played ADOM for a long time, but stopped for a couple of years. Looking back, I must say that it is a truly remarkable game. I think ADOM really captured the Gygaxian spirit of providing players a world where they live out their fantasies. For some reason, no other game has stirred up my imagination as much as guiding an ?@? symbol through dungeons to stop the incursion of chaos.
Out of all the characters I played over a period of about three years, I only won with two of them, neither of them an ultra ending. I admit that this is quite sad, but I have come to really love that gray elven druid and the drakish mindcrafter.
A lot of the guides written by other players make the game sound really easy. For me, that is definitely not the case. After having a wizard whacked to death by a goblin in the SMC, I have settled on playing all my characters in this way: go to Terinyo, get healing if not trained in it, grind in the ID until level 16, go to the pyramid, go do the druid quest, go through the SMC, then to the CoC. I guess I err on the side of caution. However, this process does have its benefits. If I?m a fighter type PC, I will have my weapon skills trained up nicely; for spellcasters, I will never worry about running out of spells (2000+ charges of all bolt spells); and I almost always ended up with at least one PoGA. (beginners take note).
When progressing through the game with my drakish mindcrafter, I feel that most of his abilities are just for show. I found myself in the catch-22 situation that he doesn?t have good mindcraft unless he levels up, but because they are so weak at low levels, I can?t kill tough monsters to gain experience. When Greater Telekinetic Blast finally came around, the PP cost was ridiculous. A mindcrafter?s weapon skills progress normally quite out of necessity, as I had to take out the ghost lords on D50 with arrows. Being a drakeling also helped matters A LOT, it?s basically an acid bolt that cannot be shrugged off. I killed all five orb guardians with acid breath, and managed to go on where a high elven mindcrafter should just press ?Q?.
In theory a spellcaster such as a wizard is much easier to play then a mindcrafter, but all my spellcasters die to one thing: mimic hiveminds. I had soooooo many promising necromancers and wizards, and the mimic hiveminds disguise themselves so well, they look like a regular iron ration! (and it seems that fate always dictates that I do not find an amulet of free action). I finally showed them when my druid closed the Chaos Gate, zapping a room full of mimics on the way.
Finally, some of random thoughts from my experience:
If you?re not a pure spellcaster, train your missile weapons skills. There are monsters where it is guaranteed that you will die if you fight it in melee.
Don?t go through the Dwarven Halls, you can get killed before you even see the monster that killed you (happened to me with a greater titan). When it?s a finite chance for an infinite loss, don?t take that chance.
Teleportation save lives.
The Cat Lord is a bully. What am I supposed to do when I?m sandwiched in a corridor by two hostile cats? (I was level 3)
It?s always more fun to play with lots of imagination. I invented a story for my L+ necromancer that she raises people after their deaths to avenge the injustices done to them in life. It was very enjoyable until she got killed by a mimic hivemind. (grrrrr)
Out of all the characters I played over a period of about three years, I only won with two of them, neither of them an ultra ending. I admit that this is quite sad, but I have come to really love that gray elven druid and the drakish mindcrafter.
A lot of the guides written by other players make the game sound really easy. For me, that is definitely not the case. After having a wizard whacked to death by a goblin in the SMC, I have settled on playing all my characters in this way: go to Terinyo, get healing if not trained in it, grind in the ID until level 16, go to the pyramid, go do the druid quest, go through the SMC, then to the CoC. I guess I err on the side of caution. However, this process does have its benefits. If I?m a fighter type PC, I will have my weapon skills trained up nicely; for spellcasters, I will never worry about running out of spells (2000+ charges of all bolt spells); and I almost always ended up with at least one PoGA. (beginners take note).
When progressing through the game with my drakish mindcrafter, I feel that most of his abilities are just for show. I found myself in the catch-22 situation that he doesn?t have good mindcraft unless he levels up, but because they are so weak at low levels, I can?t kill tough monsters to gain experience. When Greater Telekinetic Blast finally came around, the PP cost was ridiculous. A mindcrafter?s weapon skills progress normally quite out of necessity, as I had to take out the ghost lords on D50 with arrows. Being a drakeling also helped matters A LOT, it?s basically an acid bolt that cannot be shrugged off. I killed all five orb guardians with acid breath, and managed to go on where a high elven mindcrafter should just press ?Q?.
In theory a spellcaster such as a wizard is much easier to play then a mindcrafter, but all my spellcasters die to one thing: mimic hiveminds. I had soooooo many promising necromancers and wizards, and the mimic hiveminds disguise themselves so well, they look like a regular iron ration! (and it seems that fate always dictates that I do not find an amulet of free action). I finally showed them when my druid closed the Chaos Gate, zapping a room full of mimics on the way.
Finally, some of random thoughts from my experience:
If you?re not a pure spellcaster, train your missile weapons skills. There are monsters where it is guaranteed that you will die if you fight it in melee.
Don?t go through the Dwarven Halls, you can get killed before you even see the monster that killed you (happened to me with a greater titan). When it?s a finite chance for an infinite loss, don?t take that chance.
Teleportation save lives.
The Cat Lord is a bully. What am I supposed to do when I?m sandwiched in a corridor by two hostile cats? (I was level 3)
It?s always more fun to play with lots of imagination. I invented a story for my L+ necromancer that she raises people after their deaths to avenge the injustices done to them in life. It was very enjoyable until she got killed by a mimic hivemind. (grrrrr)