A barrage of new questions (spoilers?)

[Wraitheist]

1) Food/weight - I've already lost several characters due to starvation, so I've attempted to stock up on food from the shop in the starting village. However, food is quite heavy, so I can't carry very much. What am I to do? This was actually more of a problem on my fighters as their starting equipment is quite heavy. Suggestions? Should I be munching on corpses in the dungeon instead?

2) Spell/projectile aiming - I know how to aim in the 8 directions, but how do I target something that isn't aligned with my character?

3) I'm still having problems healing up between fights. I know that the healing skill speeds up regeneration automatically. What does first aid do and what do I need to use it? Someone said something about a candle being good for healing for new characters? Where do I find one of these? The only shop in the only village I've found has nothing but food.

4) Dungeon SW of village - I always start here (is there a better place?). My current elementalist actually made it to the bottom (i think), but, unlilke my other characters, I can't find the mad carpenter to finish the quest. I made it to level 7, I think, but can't find another >. I retraced my steps all the way out of the dungeon but couldn't find him.

5)Character Generation - Is there a way to assign stats or are the only options random and answering questions? Any insight on how the questions work?

6)My elementalist learned the spell "fireball" automatically at 2nd or 3rd level. After one use, it disappeared. This happened 2 or 3 times. Now, after casting it, it is still on my spell list. What's going on here?

7) I've met Jhared in the dungeon several times and when I tell him I want to "learn", he says that I must how that I can exert mercy. What does this mean and what must I do?

8) Locked/jammed doors - On most characters, I just kick these down. As a caster, can I destroy them with my spells somehow?

9) Tactics - What exactly does changing tactics do and which should I choose as a mage? Fighter? I know that offense goes up and defense goes down and vice versa, depending on which way you go. Is speed/healing affected? What else?

Thanks very much! Loving the game so far :)

[PeanutGod]

Hey!

1) Food. Buy Iron rations if you can afford to. They weigh less than a normal large ration. Otherwise yes, corpses in dungeons are there to eat. Some will make you sick, but the vast majority are fine to eat and may even give you stat bonuses. Later in the game, you can buy tasty snacks from some ratlings that will fill you up and also be lighter than rations. Also, there are scrolls of satiation which can help, certain potions will fill you up, some herbs are excellent to fill you up, and if needs be, you can pray to your God when hungry, and be satiated by mana.

2) Press 't' and then use the arrow keys to move the X line that appears to who you want to shoot. You;ll get the hand of it.

3) Healing - naturally beneficial. First aid is used when you are sick, or when you are bleeding. To use it press 'a' and a list of your skills will come up. Press the letter associated with the first aid skill. The candle you are on about is actually a birth sign, one that lends itself to healing properties. Start a game under this sign and you'll find your healing a little better. Otherwise, when you come to resting, just make suer to do it in an out of the way area.

4) Dungeon SW of the village? Do you mean SE? It only appears once you have the quest from Rynt. If you are in the right cave, level four should have an NPC wandering around a room. If not, you're in the wrong dungeon.

5) The stats are random, but naturally changed by whatever race/class you're starting with. The opening question system does indeed change the stats, and can be useful if you're trying to aim your character in a certain direction. The Adom Guidebook by Andy Williams, has a section on this, telling you what each question does for your character.

6) With an elementalist, rather than learning spells through a book, they learn them automatically as they progress in levels. But like all spells, they can only be cast a certain amount of times before they run out. On the spell screen, you would see something like this

Frost Bolt 200 , 12PP [P:+0, R5, E4d6+R*]

That 200 is a rough estimate of how many times you can cast it before you 'forget' the spell. When you run out, it disappears, but will re-appear again when you advance a level with an Elementalist.

7) Jharod - Lovely fella. Basically, he isn't going to teach you shit unless you can prove to him that you're worthy of such knowledge. Once he has said this, continue on through the dungeon until you reach the bottom. you'll find the mad carpenter running around, and he'll try to kill you on sight. Don't kill him, but let him follow you back up the levels. Walk back to Jharod with the carpenter in tow, and when they are on adjacent spaces, Jharod will 'do his thang' and heal him. There, you have proven you are able to exert mercy.

8) You can't destroy them with your spells. But you can use Knock to open them without traps going off. If you have a wand of destruction, I think I'm right in saying that this will blow several shades of shite out of the door as well, but they are pretty damn rare.

9) Tactics come into play when your in combat. Facing a hard monster that is smacking you for lots of health each round and you want to escape? Go into coward mode and run like hell. The same is true for berserking. Use it to get the beat down on an opponent who may be tough, but will probably succumb to some heavy heavy smacks. As a wizard, you'll no doubt be using coward mode more than berserker, since you'll want him to stay alive. Play around with it and see what you feel comfortable with.

[Grey]

Heh, okay, some very basic questions here...

1. Most corpses are good to eat, some even have special beneficial effects ("you are what you eat"). Don't eat kobold corpses though, and be careful of some others. Later on in the game you'll find ratlings that sell light food and maybe even some special herbs, but early on you'll have to rely on random food finds. Characters that start with food preservation generally have an easy time.

2. Spells can only be aimed in those 8 directions (except improved fireball). Missiles can be fired wherever you want.

3. First aid can be applied directly after you've been hurt to recover a couple of points of HP. It's not terribly effective. The "candle" thing refers to the "Candle" birthsign that's generated randomly when you start up a character. It vastly improves healing rate. Generally though you're only choice is to wait slowly. Once you get the Healing skill maxed out it's not too bad.

4. Not certain which dungeon you mean. The one with Jharod in it? Just to note, when you're in a dungeon it gives a little description on the bottom - VD7 meaning Village Dungeon level 7 for instance. Yriggs should be down there - he's a purple t, and is quite noticable for how hard he hits.

5. Only random. The questions thing... well, personally I wouldn't bother with it, it's a waste of time to sit through when the char will likely die just as quickly. But you can find the full details in Andy's Guidebook (http://www.andywlms.com/adom/adomgb-toc.html).

6. When you press 'Z' to cast a spell you'll notice there's something there called spell knowledge. It indicates the number of castings left available. Casting a spell will normally make that figure go down by about 3 or 4, and eventually disappear. Elementalists get extra castings in certain spells every time they level up. I think the amount you get is dependant on the Learning stat.

7. There are two ways - first is to heal a pet in front of him (not available for most characters). Second, and more preferable, is to lure Yriggs to him. Note that he doesn't teach chaotics.

8. There is a "Knock" spell that helps open them, or wands of knocking. Thieves also have the open locks skill, though it tends to set off traps. You can find keys lying around too sometimes. When kicking doors it's best to kick from the side rather than head-on to avoid certain traps.

9. It's best to have Tactics set to Coward almost always, especially when spellcasting. Switch to normal or Very Aggressive when fighting in melee. You can also get a bonus if fighting on Berserk whilst naked, but it leaves you rather open to attack - handy for one-hit kills though. You should get used to constantly switching back and forth between different tactics settings.

7.

[gut]

> 1) Food/weight -

Having the 'food preservation' skill, will help in
generating more corpses. Good eating is large bats,
giant rats, orcs, and goblins.

> 2) Spell/projectile aiming

You can only target one spell like a missile, and
you probably won't start with that one anyway.

> 3) I'm still having problems healing

My advice to any player in your position, is to play
as a trollish healer. This will allow you the best
chance to survive, and see more of the game. You can
make the switch to a more versatile PC later.

> 4) Dungeon SW of village - I always start here

If you start with the healing skill (troll healer),
you can head west, to find the main dungeon in the
game. I think this dungeon offers more opportunities
to power up your PC.

> 5)Character Generation -

I highly recommend setting a few configuration variables
in your adom.cfg file, after the novelty of the 'questions'
wears thin. Here is an example of some of the more commonly
altered settings:

--------------------------------
Base_Delay_Factor = 2
Fast_Missile_Readying = false
No_Book_Spellcasting = true
Questioned_Attributes = false
Sex = male

# Allow_Default_Names = true
#class = archer
#race = troll
#name = yy
----------------------------------

The options with an '#' before them, are the ones I like to
toggle, or alter periodically. If you like to roll a few
PC's, and keep the best of the lot, these settings can save
a lot of bother.

[Timpak]

1) Food/weight - I've already lost several characters due to starvation, so I've attempted to stock up on food from the shop in the starting village. However, food is quite heavy, so I can't carry very much. What am I to do? This was actually more of a problem on my fighters as their starting equipment is quite heavy. Suggestions? Should I be munching on corpses in the dungeon instead?

Eat corpses, you can eat any goblin, orc, bat, cat, rats (not wererats), human except dark sage, doglike creature except rabid dog and werewolf/werejackal, frogs, that should cover most eatable creatures in the beginning.


2) Spell/projectile aiming - I know how to aim in the 8 directions, but how do I target something that isn't aligned with my character?

When shooting a missile you aim using t and then moving the cross with your numpad. When it comes to spells all spells act differently. Bolt spells you only choose which direction since it shoots out in a straight line (lightning bolt and magic missile bounce on walls), ball spells expand in a ball from your character depending on your willpower, burning hands and bless attack one space in the direction you choose, improved fireball is just like a missile.



3) I'm still having problems healing up between fights. I know that the healing skill speeds up regeneration automatically. What does first aid do and what do I need to use it? Someone said something about a candle being good for healing for new characters? Where do I find one of these? The only shop in the only village I've found has nothing but food.

Except for natural healing with or without healing skill and/or candle birthsign the only other ways of healing are praying (should only be used in desperate situations), potions of healing, spells that heal, jharod in the village dungeon where the mad carpenter are, the evil doctor in the outlaw camp, spenseweed herbs, pepper petal herbs, royal jelly from beehives.


4) Dungeon SW of village - I always start here (is there a better place?). My current elementalist actually made it to the bottom (i think), but, unlilke my other characters, I can't find the mad carpenter to finish the quest. I made it to level 7, I think, but can't find another >. I retraced my steps all the way out of the dungeon but couldn't find him.

For spellcasters I usually start in the infinite dungeon, a dungeon south of the village dungeon. If you really were in the right cave the mad carpenter might have died from a monster or a trap. Check your killist if you see him there then he died by a trap. There could also be a secret door somewhere to another room, 's'earch some walls.


5)Character Generation - Is there a way to assign stats or are the only options random and answering questions? Any insight on how the questions work?

The guidebook says how the questions work, but I doubt it's right. The amount of time the questions take is not worth it. Race and class is what has most impact on stats.


6)My elementalist learned the spell "fireball" automatically at 2nd or 3rd level. After one use, it disappeared. This happened 2 or 3 times. Now, after casting it, it is still on my spell list. What's going on here?

When you have a spell you have a limited amount of charges, one charge is not equal to one casting. The amount of charges the spell takes to cast depends on class, stats and how many charges you have in total.


7) I've met Jhared in the dungeon several times and when I tell him I want to "learn", he says that I must how that I can exert mercy. What does this mean and what must I do?

Heal a pet near him or lure the mad carpenter next to him. You can then learn healing skill from him if you are non chaotic.


8) Locked/jammed doors - On most characters, I just kick these down. As a caster, can I destroy them with my spells somehow?

Knock spell/knock wands/destruction wands/keys/open lock skill can open locked doors (I'm not sure but you might be able to dig through them with a pickaxe but I've never tried that). Otherwise you are stuck with kicking. A hint is standing diagonal from the door when you kick them, that way you can avoid doortraps that only effect the space vertical or horizontal from the door.


9) Tactics - What exactly does changing tactics do and which should I choose as a mage? Fighter? I know that offense goes up and defense goes down and vice versa, depending on which way you go. Is speed/healing affected? What else?

Tactics simply effect your to hit, damage and dodge value. Berserk = highest to hit and damage but lowest dodge value, coward = lowest to hit and damage but highest dodge value. The different tactics are good in different situations.

[Silfir]

Not sure why Timpak excluded dark sages. They make fine eating, as does any human, interestingly, and are especially good if you started out unable to read.

Don't get used to trollish healers - they are good to learn the basics, but after that you are frustrated because of their slow leveling. Besides, if you have trouble with starvation, playing a troll is exactly what you should avoid. Try an orcish barbarian - they are super-strong and have excellent armor rating to boot, so you won't get damaged much and have enough HP to easily survive the little damage you do take. They can also survive luring Yrrigs around right from the start. Or go with a dark elven beastfighter - they start out with Food Preservation and lots of fresh meat, which should carry you for a while, and they get Healing. No Literacy for a while, though.

[DeSt]

Cursed dark sages greatly reduces literacy.

[riktikticheck]

Or go with a dark elven beastfighter - they start out with Food Preservation and lots of fresh meat, which should carry you for a while, and they get Healing. No Literacy for a while, though.

sorry to burst a bubble here, but darkelven beastighter does not get food preservation, starts out with good armor tho and is othervise good. The alertness and find weakness are good, only real thing missing is the preservation.

[Silfir]

I know cursed dark sage corpses have a chance to reduce literacy (greatly?). Which is amended in a single level-up, and unless your Literacy is dreadfully low, it won't take away your ability to read scrolls (Remember that cursed dark sage corpses cannot take away Literacy - only reduce the skill score to 0). NON-cursed dark sage corpses will increase PP regeneration (nice for wizards) and GRANT literacy to characters that do not have it. There certainly is no reason to warn an aspiring player to stay clear of dark sage corpses, considering their value if you don't have Literacy!

Another excellent thing to eat is spiders. Yes, you heard me right. Yes, they are poisonous. But... eating them grants poison resistance, which is an excellent thing to have early on.

Beastfighters do not have Food Preservation among their class skills? Goodness, you are right. Oh well, there's still the fresh meat, Healing, and Xtreme melee prowess. Just stay unarmed.

Another good choice is a high elven archer. They start out well armored, have excellent Dexterity and their longbow is able to absolutely devastate any of the early game opponents together with the high stacks of arrows. Dark elves have better skills, but you have to find something you can replace your hand crossbow and tiny quarrels with.

Also, about First Aid: It's MAIN use, in my eyes, is not fighting sickness (doesn't really help against it) but fighting poisoning. There's three levels of poisoning: Poisoning that is easily waited out, poisoning that is impossible to survive, and poisoning that is life-threatening, but can be fought successfully if one uses First Aid every time it does damage, until the poison is either gone or Jharod the healer is reached.

[Amhazair]

All right, I realise this thread is very old (found it by searching for 'secret doors', but since it's about newbie questions I'll add my own instead of starting a new thread.

In the beginning of the game, I always get stuck on the early dungeon SE of Terinyo. Several times when going down a level I ended up in a small one- or two-room area with no door to move out of it and continue exploring. Using 's' to find a secret door didn't produce any results for me so far. (I did use it in every accessible square in one or two of the smaller closed of dungeon parts.) Is it actually possible for the dungeon to be closed off in this way, am I simply being blind, or is there some other trick I should try to use? (mining myself a tunnel? But most characters don't have that skill so early. Anything else? )

In one instance I used a trick from the guidebook, where they say that kicking the wall where there is a secret door gives a slightly different message (it realy hurts your foot) and found a place where there should be secret door that way. However, using 's' to search at the same spot didn't reveal anything, and I didn't find any way to make use of the info I got from the kicking. ('O'pen didn't work, nor did simply walking onto the wall square where the secret door should be, and I didn't find any other logical possible action in the key shortlist, so I'm totally at a loss about how to proceed now. )

[Grey]

The kick method is what I always do, presuming I have enough PV not to take damage from it. If you keep searching next to that spot then the door *will* be revealed. It helps to use the 'w s' command to search many times at once. I can only presume you're using half blind characters if you always have trouble with this ;)

[Orbic]

Use the command "ws" and you will search for I think 20 turns in a row or until you find something.
The s(earch) command is only one game turn of searching, that may not be sufficient to find a well hidden door :)

[gut]

> (it realy hurts your foot) and found a place where there should be
> secret door that way. However, using 's' to search at the same
> spot didn't reveal anything,

Just keep kicking it, it will kick through eventually. Like Grey says
though, keep an eye on your HP's if your PV is low.

[Amhazair]

Well, thanks for that. 'ws' worked like a charm this time. I have to say it feels good to finally be able to finish that first quest.
Of course, I starved on my way back to the village, (first time that happened) but hey, can't have everything at once, can you. :D

(And no, some of the previous characters had very high perception)

[gut]

You can pray for food when you're hungry.

[Sintaluva]

I'd like to add that if you get stuck in the dungeon SE of Terinyo (be it the carpenter or the dark druid quest) you can always go somewhere else and return later. There's no need to complete that quest in the early game. It is often a good idea to go to the Arena (level 3 of the Caverns of Chaos in far W) first for some lightweight but nutritious food.