Lvl 20 Orc Barbarian killed by... a water snake.

[AssDriller]

Okay, I think I'm done playing ADOM for a while. I've become a master at gettting a character past the early/midgame level, but once I get to the ToEF, I end up making some stupid decision. I thought that "Grunt" would be the exception to this. Grunt was a level 20 orc barbarian. This was my best character yet: He had >30 st, 12 le, ~12 wi, 26 dx, ~30 to, and ~ 25 pe. ~320 hp. Raven startsign; talents were alert, miser, treasure hunter, quick, careful, defensive fighter, and dodger. He was crowned the Champion of Balance with lightning immunity and was given the vanquisher as his crowning gift. He also acquired the rune-covered trident and had found a two-handed eternium sword of devestation with stats ~+24 to hit and 10d5+21 damage. Master weapon skills in both pole arms and two-handed weapons. He had bracers of regeneration, white dragon scale mail (found in Darkforge), elemental guantlets, tons of amulets and rings (including ankh, rapid healing, ring of ice, ring of damage, ring of slaying w/ 7m; 6r) He got a wish from a pool early on and used it to get an AoLS to save Khelevaster and get the scrolls of chaos resistance. Also got extra scrolls from the mystic dwarf. He also had intrinsic invisibility, and his speed was 128! The only downside was the fact that he had 3 incredible two-handed weapons and no worthwhile one-handed weapons. It was definitely a double-edged sword, as it left him with a DV/PV at ~25/18 with Vanquisher (obviously more DV with rune-covered trident). This was the main thing that was stopping him from taking on the ACW. So, I decided to take him to drink from some of the pools at the Darkforge and take a chance at a wish. Had a drink of ale, +1 dx, -1 wi and then got a wish. Wished for wands of paralyzation (for taking on ACW) and then I made the stupid decision to take another drink. Aged into "old." Drank a potion of youth, but was still middle-aged. Took another drink, lost invisibility. Cursed, doomed, water snakes. Water snakes were hitting him hard for some reason; might have lost my poision resistance from a drink as well. Kept getting down to ~70 hp. I put on his amulet of rapid healing and kept drinking. Bad stuff keeps happening and more snakes! I kept having to waste his extra healing potions and it was pissing me off. But I REALLY wanted his intrinsic invisibility back. He finally got invisibility! But it was only temporary. More aging (old again). Then, the corruption kicks in (stiffened muscles). I try another drink; more snakes appear, and they are getting good hits on him for some reason. Killed all except 1, and then realize he has ~30 hp. He has no potions of cure poison. I didn't want to waste anymore of his healing potions since I need them for the ToEF, so I figure that my blessed amulet of rapid healing and blessed bracers of regeneration will pull through. Snake hits me, poison courses through my veins, -4hp.

Lesson learned: never take another drink after getting a wish; I was lucky enough to get one wish in a game, let alone two. And fuck snakes.

[Stingray1]

Wow, such a strong character wasted away by too much drink. You should send a copy of this alcoholics anonymous. With intrinsic invisibility and the wands( pre5, mind you ) you were more than good for the ACW. You could have walked right up to him, bam paralyze him and vanquish(or do you prefer drill ) his ass without him getting one turn in. Even without the wands.

[AssDriller]

Wow, such a strong character wasted away by too much drink. You should send a copy of this alcoholics anonymous. With intrinsic invisibility and the wands( pre5, mind you ) you were more than good for the ACW. You could have walked right up to him, bam paralyze him and vanquish(or do you prefer drill ) his ass without him getting one turn in. Even without the wands.

Lol, I tried meddling around in the tower for a bit to test him out. I may have been able to beat him without the wands, but I was having a bit of trouble with getting hit by the fire giant kings and fire grues, so I figured I should probably be cautious and not take on the ACW without having some sort of way to incapacitate him (had previously lost a lvl 18 trollish farmer to the ACW and he had incredible DV/PV from a red dragon scale mail, lvl 14 polearms, and a crystal tower shield). I was playing flawlessly up to this point but I lost control and started taking too many risks with the pool. All of the afflictions caused by the pools after the wish were easily fixable if I had just been patient, but I panicked and tried to get a quick fix from them. It was a real amateur thing to do. This guy probably would have been my game winner I'm gonna have to take a few weeks off from playing; it's gonna be hard to start again knowing that I lost a character with both the Vanquisher AND the RCT. Next time when I get into a situation with pools like that, I'm going to stop playing for a few minutes, recollect myself, and think about every move that I make.

[Greyling]

Sir...Your username...I don't even know what to say.

All I know is, if you had given your orc barbarian the same name, I think the water snakes would have been too intimidated to harm him.

Watersnake 1: "Hey, look, it's a hapless adventurer! Let's envenomate him!!

Watersnake 2: "Uhhh...That guy's name is AssDriller...Maybe we better let someone else handle him. Someone like a greater Moloch."

Much Later...

Balor: Sir, it's AssDriller!!! He has (ahem) penetrated our defenses!!!

Andor Drakon: What! I thought I told those water snakes to take care of him! Forget this, I'm out of here!

(Andor Drakon backs away, covering his fundament with a large Eternium shield)

[Learning Lassie]

Sir...Your username...I don't even know what to say.

All I know is, if you had given your orc barbarian the same name, I think the water snakes would have been too intimidated to harm him.

Watersnake 1: "Hey, look, it's a hapless adventurer! Let's envenomate him!!

Watersnake 2: "Uhhh...That guy's name is AssDriller...Maybe we better let someone else handle him. Someone like a greater Moloch."

Much Later...

Balor: Sir, it's AssDriller!!! He has (ahem) penetrated our defenses!!!

Andor Drakon: What! I thought I told those water snakes to take care of him! Forget this, I'm out of here!

(Andor Drakon backs away, covering his fundament with a large Eternium shield)

Hahahahahaha.


I sympathize with the pool drinking game. My lushy characters need to learn some self control, lol. My first win almost wasn't after my hard partying hurthling drank herself into an elderly lady. After some quiet reflection she decided she'd rather go out in a blaze of glory/stupidity rather than keel over in the late CoC from old age. She lucked out and left middle aged with some decent intrinsics. Her story could have easily ended like yours though

LOL. Just saw the tags for this thread. Nice.

I do hope you come back after your break!

[_Ln_]

30 To + white dragon scale mail is around 16 PV out of 18. Was you char naked aside from the armor? No surprise everything was able to kill you.

[AssDriller]

Sir...Your username...I don't even know what to say.

All I know is, if you had given your orc barbarian the same name, I think the water snakes would have been too intimidated to harm him.

Watersnake 1: "Hey, look, it's a hapless adventurer! Let's envenomate him!!

Watersnake 2: "Uhhh...That guy's name is AssDriller...Maybe we better let someone else handle him. Someone like a greater Moloch."

Much Later...

Balor: Sir, it's AssDriller!!! He has (ahem) penetrated our defenses!!!

Andor Drakon: What! I thought I told those water snakes to take care of him! Forget this, I'm out of here!

(Andor Drakon backs away, covering his fundament with a large Eternium shield)

My next character is going to be named Ass Driller for sure

Hahahahahaha.


I sympathize with the pool drinking game. My lushy characters need to learn some self control, lol. My first win almost wasn't after my hard partying hurthling drank herself into an elderly lady. After some quiet reflection she decided she'd rather go out in a blaze of glory/stupidity rather than keel over in the late CoC from old age. She lucked out and left middle aged with some decent intrinsics. Her story could have easily ended like yours though

LOL. Just saw the tags for this thread. Nice.

I do hope you come back after your break!

Thanks, I will be back and hopefully my next post will be in YAVP instead

30 To + white dragon scale mail is around 16 PV out of 18. Was you char naked aside from the armor? No surprise everything was able to kill you.

Well the scale mail was 11 PV, but still, it definitely was the weak point. I think I had some pretty shitty armor aside from that. It may have been a little higher than 18 but definitely not much. He didn't really need it up to that point because of high dodge and healing skills + high speed + fast natural healing + bracers of regeneration + amulet of rapid healing. I think the combination of low DV/PV + cursing/dooming + old age + lost poison resistance intrinsic was what really ruined him because I had no problem with getting hit by creatures MUCH stronger than water snakes.

[Al-Khwarizmi]

Based on the items you say you had, you had no problems at all before drinking. With that awesome set of items, you could have crushed the ACW and then gone directly down to win the game. Good two-handed weapons aren't bad at all, you don't need massive DV/PV if you aren't giving your enemies chance to hit you much because you kill them in one or two hits. And Vanquisher is one of the best weapons in the game. With Vanquisher, I wouldn't even be thinking about the possibility of wielding a one-handed weapon.

What killed you was dooming, which makes monsters hit you much more. Pools are very dangerous and you'd better not drink if you really like a character and want to see him live.

[AssDriller]

Based on the items you say you had, you had no problems at all before drinking. With that awesome set of items, you could have crushed the ACW and then gone directly down to win the game. Good two-handed weapons aren't bad at all, you don't need massive DV/PV if you aren't giving your enemies chance to hit you much because you kill them in one or two hits. And Vanquisher is one of the best weapons in the game. With Vanquisher, I wouldn't even be thinking about the possibility of wielding a one-handed weapon.

What killed you was dooming, which makes monsters hit you much more. Pools are very dangerous and you'd better not drink if you really like a character and want to see him live.

Hm, I probably should've just gone for it even without the wands of paralyzation, but I've struggled with the ACW before in the past, so that's why I was so cautious. I usually drink pools if they are early in the game (like in the PC or UD) since there's a much greater chance of a reward with less investment, but from now on I'll probably just stay away from the Darkforge pools unless absolutely necessary (and I can't really think of a situation in which it would be). My choice to drink after getting the wish seems more and more ridiculous as time goes on. ADOM really is a strategic game; I've got to keep it in mind that despite feeling like real time, it's still turn based. And as much as it seems like a game of chance, skill will override luck 10 times to 1. It's sort of like to Texas hold'em in that regard.

[grobblewobble]

Hmm, I don't think drinking from pools is dangerous if you take proper precautions. If you take some curia mancox with you (sickness is deadly), sell a spare blink dog corpse to a shop before you sip and if you have enough piety to remove dooming, it's very safe.

You can't get a poolwish as long as you're doomed, though..