Many Deaths

[Amethyst_Dragon]

Practically all of my characters have died in fairly stupid ways, I've been playing ADOM for many years now but I have never yet gotten past level 13. Recently I've gotten a lot better though and more of my characters have been surviving to level 10 or so.

The most annoying death I can remember is when my character died of starvation when I was in Terinyo on my way to the shop.
Another time I had a necromancer who ventured into the darkness and got slain by her minions.
Several times I tried to rescue Yrrigs but was slain by him, now I mostly put off doing the quest until I've got tons of HP or an Amulet of Rapid Healing(Which pretty much never happens).
My corrupted trolls aura of fear angered the dwarven shop keeper
Once I tried attacking the Mad doctor in the outlaw village which didn't end well
Going into the outlaw village before level 5 and getting owned
Kicking a door which exploded and angered the bear who was my ally
Drinking unknown potions((Once it was one of rust removal))
Kicking an alter
Drowning, falling of a mountain, starving to death(Especially as a Drakeling), bleeding to death, dying from poison, sickness, etc
And yet more...

Most of the time I die from running into a monster that's a little to powerful for me and is to fast for me to get away from, I'd be here forever if I tried explaining all the different characters to which this has happened. Once I tried staying on the first level of the infinite dungeon because of that but it still happened.

Another time I had a druid character who was in the CoC, she encountered some white worms which she made friends with. (Actually I did that in several games, once with ants) One time she tried to mine and ran into a stone giant which killed many of them and then my character. Another time I ran into a dark elven priestess who got stronger from killing all of the worms before killing my character. Another time I attacked one of the worms and it turned out to be highly experienced so it owned me...

I've given up on ADOM many times once for several years because I die so much, the incredible detail always draws me back to it though.

[boat]

I can only speculate but I would suggest playing a different race/class combo. Maybe something like a dwarf paladin. They are a lot more tanky and you will see they can survive more shots and random door traps.

Also, If I were you, I would focus more on scrolls of identify as being your #1 goal to get (usually they are pretty common so try reading the biggest unidentified stack of scrolls you have. Obviously you will need a race that starts with literacy). This way you can identify potions which could potentially save your life from poison or starvation (potions give slight to extreme satiatiation ).

In a big room, I would suggest trying out your wands to see if you can get an offensive one with charges. Wands are extremely useful for more powerful monsters you encounter.

Another answer to all of your problems will be altars and piety, prayers are very powerful.


Don't get discouraged! And I have to agree with you that the detail is insane and draws me back too. I'm just waiting for a new release to start playing again

Also - certain classes have class powers which can save you from things like poison and sickness

Good luck!

[Amethyst_Dragon]

Thanks for the advise!

One of my favorite races to play are drakelings sinse I once won the Golden Glaudius at level six due to the acid spit. They also have a pretty good amount of toughness, currently I'm playing a Grey elf elementalist who is level 4. Once she dies I'll try playing a dwarvish paladin.

From now on I'll try to stick to literate characters, I wish you could choose your birthday.

In games I'm generally bad about hoarding stuff that has limited uses, then when I actually need it I kind of forget about it. Thats why I forget to prey when my character is dying. Also preying doesn't really help much when an elf character is poisoned or in other such situations.

Another way my characters have died is either starving to death during a fight or getting killed while eating...

I have a hard time getting good items and also getting intrinsics. I did find a way to spam for gold though... once I used that to get a Necklace of Rapid Healing.

Well... my elementalist died by randomly getting hit in the head with a stone block

[mjkittredge]

The early game is arguably the hardest part, and most of my characters have died below level 10. For me a lot of that has been from taking stupid risks with characters that were too weak.

One thing to remember, is that all characters can benefit from using missile weapons. With judicious use of the tactics settings, you can get decent to hit and damage stats for pretty much any race class combo. So use whatever you find, rocks, daggers, even torches or 1 handed weapons, go to berserk if you aren't getting hit and have space, then throw!

Also remember to go around in coward mode, then switch up to very aggressive when melee fighting, then back to coward in order to safely use first aid or healing potions (or prayer) when hit. Use keys (or spell) to lock doors if you need to rest and regain HPs/PPs.

Shields are very powerful in this game so if you find one put it on and use it unless you've found an awesome 2hander.

Trolls are a good race for starting, their huge str and toughness values allow them to survive and hit hard and carry a lot. For classes, I find archer, priest, and wizard are strong choices

[boat]

Yea amethyst, you hit the nail on the head - my main point was to stop and remember to look through your gear if you are in dire trouble, because there may have been something you missed that could save you. Yea poison is terrible so try to eat a spider corpse ASAP .

Btw that's awesome to hear you have some good success with drakeling, I have never played one. I will give them a shot sometime

[Amethyst_Dragon]

Eating a spider corpse helps with being poisoned?

It's my favorite race just because I seem to have decent luck surviving with them. They are tough but not super deficient in other areas like trolls are and the acid spit has saved my life more then once although it has also caused me to starve to death.

[anon123]

Eating a spider corpse helps with being poisoned?

It poisons you and grants poison resistance.

[Blasphemous]

It has a chance to grant resistance - pretty high chance but nevertheless it's not guaranteed.