My First Victory: a Gray Elven Wizard

[Esquire]

I played ADOM a lot in the late 90's and completed some early version of the game a few times by resorting to save scumming. This March, after beating Civilization 1 on Emperor, I decided to give my all-time favorite Roguelike another try. Perhaps I wouldn't call this victory honest, since almost every other type of scumming was involved.

I got quite spoiled and started bombarding Dracalor Chain with various wizardry characters. First few promising ones died in the fangs of the Fire Orb Guardian, Chaos Piranhas and Killer Bugs, but when I started paying more attention and playing more carefully, a victor emerged. It took me about 100 days to reach the Tower of Flames, but right after that, in the Library, I discovered that I was TOTALLY INVINCIBLE. The rest of the game was very easy, even the Mana Temple and D50 didn't pose any difficulty -- a balance issue in the game, perhaps? Acid Balling Finstanarius, I wished Khelavaster and the Assassin Prince were still alive. Next time playing a wizard I'll go for an Ultra Ending.

Here's how it went: (I love reading other peoples detailed victory posts, so here's mine

Part I -- Around Terinyo
* peeped at SMC, found stairway, didn't go for blanket
* learned pickpocketing
* UD1 had wide river, backed up to Druid and Puppy quests
* went back and forth in PC and DD in search of more combat magic, used Stun Ray, pickpocketing and melee weapons a lot
* found Frost Bolt and Magic Missile, cleared PC6, killed Druid, learned Gardening
* became member of thieves' guild, no money for Detect Traps etc.
* killed Hotzenplotz
* descended through UD, stun-pickpocket-bashing, got teleport control (no teleport yet)

Part II -- Forest, Pyramid, Graveyard
* took Barbarian's quest, 1st kill bandit, thought "no problem", completed around lvl30
* enter CoC, no herb farming yet, straight to DT, did Thrundarr's 1st quest
* walked through AF dual-wielding shields, straight back up through DH (wand of Tel.)
* vanquished ogre tribe, stun-killed the regulars, bolted the magi and lords
* began collecting stash of P's of GA, W, D and T for post-herbal era
* re-surfaced, cleared ground level of Griffyard invisible, mainly by melee weapons
* got nice cash, learned Detect Traps, went to Pyramid
* Pyramid cleared using Invisibility and Fire Magic, no problems there
* I had decent armor and shields so didn't have to avoid melee so much
* cleared Dwarven tomb, Griff with holy water and Nonnak with Magic Missiles, got Teleportation

Part III -- Water Temple and Beginning of Scumming
* back to CoC, finished dwarven quests, melee training in arena, magic missiles for the daemon
* down CoC, melee'd and burned the CoC graveyard
* invisibility and fire magic for the water temple, darkness and burning hands for Snake (learned from guidebook)
* lured Banshee to AF, harvested massive amounts of treasure (again, from GB), had Strength of Atlas
* spent a lot of time, got lots of spells, but no ring of ice
* got 1st corruption, re-surfaced, took Snake to Guthrie
* visited Assassin's Guild, used missiles (so I wasn't totally spoiled), had to kill Prince
* cleared Darkforge with Lightning Ball, got Red Dragon Scale Mail and eternium flail

Part IV -- Needless Scumming, Avoiding the Tower
* wearing RDSM, scouted ToEF invisible, without equipment, frost bolting everything, didn't dare to enter temple
* headed west, got RotHK, had -Conf for Skeleton King, magic missiled him in his cabin, cavernous levels were easy, thx to on-demand, controlled teleportation
* pickpocketed gremlin cave, still no ring of ice
* pacified big room in CoC, farmed enough Moss, Morgia and Stomafillia to last me a lifetime
* didn't dare to enter ToEF, dove to ID40-something and back, still no ring of ice
* more scumming in the AF, still no ring of ice
* had loads of cash from AF, got crowned, got Staff of the Wanderer (never used) and acid immunity

Part V -- Dragon Slaying and Other Feats of Might
* finally, ToEF, day >90, lvl >24, overkill
* killed everyone and didn't take any damage, was so embarrassed of all the scumming
* climbed down the Rift, cleared the Library, nobody could even touch me, got weird tome
* had Magic Map from Library, cleared Minotaur Maze (again GB, calculated top trap types)
* got S's of CR from Minstrel
* enhanced Wi to >32, ice balled and magic missiled Bug Cave, got more ingredients for P's of GA

Part VI -- Bling Bling, Air and Earth Temples
* had >12 P's of GA stashed, drank them all, passed the wall of flames, to the Ca$ino
* played for 200M gold, bought spellbooks, trained on Wi and Le
* descended to Air Temple, didn't bother to check other levels, instead Teleported through (save for one greater giant vault)
* fire bolted through air temple, Yulgash was stuck, surrounded by summonees, was easily magic missiled
* TP'd down to Earth temple, balled (fire, lightning, ice) elementals and grues
* lured ASB to previous level, TP-danced around it and bolted it to death
* it was just too easy

Part VII -- Blue Dragons, More Scumming, and Acid Balls
* didn't dare enter Mana Temple (was around lvl 38), so I decided to try Smithing
* spent about two months of game time trying to improve equipment, Wi and Le still increasing
* would've done just as well without smithing, got nice cap and girdle however
* I also killed Riurry around this time, didn't need the corruption removal, though
* took Sharad-Waador's quest, gained nice xp, Srraxxarrakexx was killed by magic missiles, no problems, even with item destruction
* to the mana temple, acid balled PP-drainers, had Wi ~70, magic missiled the meat shield off of Nuurag-Vaarn and shot him with humanoid slaying ammo, again no problems
* thought D50 would be a cake, but for some reason played for more cash and trained Dx, bought more spells from casino and even smithed a bit (again, no good)
* had ~5000 castings in Fire Bolt and Magic Missile, ~2000 in Acid Bolt and ~1000 in Acid Ball,
also had plenty of demon slaying ammo
* D50 WAS a cake, I killed everyone and took no damage myself
* closed the gate, cleared off corruption with remaining S's of CR, and left DC.

[Esquire]

Allac'Allon   St:52  Le:53  Wi:69  Dx:50  To:56  Ch:27  Ap:37  Ma:59  Pe:34 N=
DV/PV: 85/59   H: 831(831)    P: 1217(1217)  Exp: 50/31331958   DrCh  A: 0
Blessed

Name: Allac'Allon         Race: male Gray Elf       Class: Wizard
Eye color: light blue     Hair color: silver        Complexion: pale
Height: 6'7"              Weight: 149 pounds        Scars: 5
Age: 310 (grown-up)
Star sign: Cup            Birthday: 2/Cup (day 242 of the year)


Total weight: 31385 stones                Carrying capacity: 70475 stones

Head          : uncursed metal cap [+8, +7]                           [50s]
Neck          : uncursed amulet of balance                             [3s]
Body          : uncursed eternium plate mail (-1, -2) [+2, +13]      [240s]
Girdle        : uncursed metal girdle [+6, +4]                        [25s]
Cloak         : uncursed cloak of protection [+0, +3]                 [20s]
Right Hand    : blessed lead-filled mace "Big Punch" (+1, 8d5+3) [-6, +0]
Left Hand     : uncursed tower crystal shield (-2) [+13, +6]         [260s]
Right Ring    : blessed ring of the High Kings [+2, +3]                [1s]
Left Ring     : uncursed ring of slaying (+6 melee damage, +6 missile damage)
Bracers       : uncursed bracers of toughness [+0, +0] {To+6}         [10s]
Gauntlets     : blessed iron gauntlets "Ironfist" (-1, +0) [+1, +3] {St+7}
Boots         : blessed seven league boots [+1, +0]                   [30s]
Missile weapon: uncursed sling of the long shot (+4, +2)               [3s]
Missiles      : -
Tool          : blessed whip (-4, 1d3)                                [15s]


Daggers & knives         6    +5    +2   +1   skilled              526
Maces & flails           9    +7    +5   +3   excellent            1927
Swords                   3    +2    +1   +0   basic                130
Pole arms                8    +8    +4   +8   excellent            1165
Twohanded weapons        5    +4    +6   +1   skilled              94

Slings                   6   +12    +9   +2   skilled              90
Bows                     5   +10    +7   +1   skilled              7
Crossbows                7   +14   +10   +2   skilled              373
Thrown rocks & clubs     1    +2    +1   +0   basic                9

Shields                  9   +18              excellent            1651


  Alchemy ...................100    (superb)       [+2d4]
  Archery ...................100    (superb)       [+1]
  Backstabbing ..............100    (superb)       [+1d3]
  Climbing ..................100    (superb)       [+3d3]
  Concentration .............100    (superb)       [+2d4]
  Courage ...................100    (superb)       [+1]
  Detect item status ........100    (superb)       [+1]
  Detect traps ..............100    (superb)       [+1d3]
  Disarm traps .............. 75    (great)        [+1d3]
  Dodge ..................... 73    (great)        [+1]
  First aid .................100    (superb)       [+1d3]
  Food preservation .........100    (superb)       [+1d5]
  Gardening ................. 73    (great)        [+1d3]
  Haggling .................. 89    (great)        [+1d3]
  Healing ...................100    (superb)       [+1d3]
  Herbalism .................100    (superb)       [+2d4]
  Listening .................100    (superb)       [+3d4]
  Literacy ..................100    (superb)       [+2d4]
  Pick locks ................ 76    (great)        [+1d3]
  Pick pockets ..............100    (superb)       [+1d3]
  Smithing ..................100    (superb)       [+1]
  Stealth ...................100    (superb)       [+1d3]
  Survival .................. 62    (good)         [+1]
  Swimming .................. 79    (great)        [+1]
  Tactics ................... 62    (good)         [+1]
  Two weapon combat ......... 60    (good)         [+1]
  Ventriloquism ............. 83    (great)        [+1d3]



   Acid Ball           :   737,  19pp     (Effectivity: +14)
   Acid Bolt           :  1645,   7pp     (Effectivity: +23)
   Bless               :  2884,   5pp     (Effectivity: +0)
   Burning Hands       :  3121,   4pp     (Effectivity: +31)
   Calm Monster        :  1451,   4pp     (Effectivity: +7)
   Create Item         :   710, 150pp     (Effectivity: +2)
   Cure Critical Wounds:  1302,   9pp     (Effectivity: +2)
   Cure Disease        :  2011,   5pp     (Effectivity: +0)
   Cure Light Wounds   :  4701,   2pp     (Effectivity: +9)
   Cure Serious Wounds :  2496,   5pp     (Effectivity: +6)
   Darkness            : 14001,   3pp     (Effectivity: +2)
   Death Ray           :   950,  60pp     (Effectivity: +0)
   Destroy Undead      :  1441,   4pp     (Effectivity: +7)
   Disarm Trap         :  2343,   6pp     (Effectivity: +2)
   Earthquake          :  1055,  48pp     (Effectivity: +0)
   Farsight            :  1604,   9pp     (Effectivity: +10)
   Fire Bolt           :  3245,   5pp     (Effectivity: +41)
   Fireball            :  2087,  10pp     (Effectivity: +12)
   Frost Bolt          :  3194,   6pp     (Effectivity: +24)
   Greater Identify    :  1100,  60pp     (Effectivity: +1)
   Heal                :  1091,  24pp     (Effectivity: +1)
   Ice Ball            :  1462,  14pp     (Effectivity: +9)
   Identify            :   974,  45pp     (Effectivity: +0)
   Improved Fireball   :  1038,  17pp     (Effectivity: +5)
   Invisibility        :  3244,   5pp     (Effectivity: +12)
   Knock               :  2633,   6pp     (Effectivity: +11)
   Know Alignment      :  2183,   6pp     (Effectivity: +0)
   Light               : 13994,   1pp     (Effectivity: +18)
   Lightning Ball      :  1744,  16pp     (Effectivity: +12)
   Lightning Bolt      :  4598,   6pp     (Effectivity: +18)
   Magic Lock          :  3468,   4pp     (Effectivity: +9)
   Magic Map           :  2141,  21pp     (Effectivity: +15)
   Magic Missile       :  6010,   4pp     (Effectivity: +43)
   Mystic Shovel       :  3121,  59pp     (Effectivity: +5)
   Neutralize Poison   :  1529,   6pp     (Effectivity: +1)
   Petrification       :   930,  72pp     (Effectivity: +0)
   Remove Curse        :  1057,  30pp     (Effectivity: +2)
   Revelation          :  1495,  20pp     (Effectivity: +1)
   Scare Monster       :  1736,   8pp     (Effectivity: +0)
   Slow Monster        :  4044,   4pp     (Effectivity: +6)
   Slow Poison         :  2725,   4pp     (Effectivity: +0)
   Strength of Atlas   :  2365,   5pp     (Effectivity: +21)
   Stun Ray            :  2877,   4pp     (Effectivity: +19)
   Summon Monsters     :  1900,  17pp     (Effectivity: +5)
   Teleportation       :  1763,  11pp     (Effectivity: +37)
   Web                 :  1750,   8pp     (Effectivity: +0)


Allac'Allon, the gray elven wizard, saved the world with his brave efforts
and became a great ruler while saving himself 21 times.
He scored 18564908 points and advanced to level 50.
He survived for 0 years, 166 days, 3 hours, 11 minutes and 34 seconds
(166053 turns).
Allac'Allon visited 141 places.
His strength score was modified by +34 during his career.
His learning score was modified by +34 during his career.
His willpower score was modified by +55 during his career.
His dexterity score was modified by +34 during his career.
His toughness score was modified by +43 during his career.
His charisma score was modified by +16 during his career.
His appearance score was modified by +15 during his career.
His mana score was modified by +38 during his career.
His perception score was modified by +15 during his career.
He was the champion of the arena.
He was a member of the thieves guild.
He made a little water dragon very happy.
He killed the emperor of the ancient minotaur race.
He defeated the arch enemy of a mighty karmic wyrm.
He stopped the generation of nasty bugs.
He left the Drakalor Chain after completing his quest and became a great
leader and famous hero.
7691 monsters perished under his attacks.
The following 27 artifacts were generated during his adventure:
  the si
  the scythe of corruption "Moon Sickle"
  the golden gladius "Death's Sting"
  the Chaos Orb of Elemental Water
  the Chaos Orb of Elemental Air
  the Chaos Orb of Elemental Fire
  the Chaos Orb of Elemental Earth
  the staff of the Wanderer
  the lead-filled mace "Big Punch"
  the scorched spear
  the rune-covered trident
  the sword of Nonnak
  the elemental gauntlets
  the ring of the High Kings
  the phial of Caladriel
  the crown of science
  the ancient mummy wrapping
  the ankh
  the black torc
  the Chaos Orb of Elemental Mana
  the black rune-covered dagger "Needle"
  the black rune-covered dagger "Sting"
  the iron gauntlets "Ironfist"
  the black tome of Alsophocus
  the emerald dagger "Serpent's Bite"
  the weird tome
  the axe of the minotaur emperor
He possessed the following intrinsics:
  He was fire resistant (gained through an item).
  He was poison resistant (enhanced through an item).
  He was cold resistant (gained through an item).
  He was acid resistant.
  He was lucky.
  Fate smiled upon him.
  He was able to control teleportation.
  He was stun resistant (gained through items).
  He was shock resistant (gained through an item).
  He was immune to acidic attacks.
He had the following talents: Affinity with Bows, Affinity with Crossbows,
Affinity with Slings, Alert, Careful, Charged, Eagle Eye, Far Shot, Good
Shot, Keen Shot, Miser, Missile Weapon Master, Potent Aura, Shield Expert,
Shield Specialist, Strong Healer, Strong Magic, Treasure Hunter, Very
Careful.
He had a final speed score of 109 (final base speed: 109).
He was a messiah of Ayssia.
He asked for 38 divine interventions.
He was a holy champion of Balance.

[Silfir]

Scumming + gray elven wizard = total pwnage

Even so, any non-savescummed victory is a truly admirable achievement by virtue of making no deadly mistake in an entire game!

I am pretty sure that gray elves get the highest percentage of first victories evar...

[sgeos]

Congrats on the first win! Good luck getting an ultra!

[_Ln_]

Big Punch in your hands looks astonoshing xD
Congratulations!