R52 UNE: Ahkmor the DE Assassin

[Dogbreath]

So normally I'm too lazy to post my YAVP/YASDs, but this one was pretty special, so I decided to write up a little something.

Right from the start Akhmor was meant to test whether or not Assassins could get the Assassin Prince quest early or not, so I needed him to be ultra-capable. What surprised me by playing him was realizing just what a powerful class Assassin is. I haven't really played assassins since I first started playing ADOM - I'd always play rangers instead, since rangers started with considerably more skills, which is all I thought mattered at the time. I'm glad I had the chance to play him, it was an incredible game.

Akhmor was born in the month of the Raven, which was a good choice for him, seeing how many times that extra speed saved his life. After entering the chain, I went to Holeinthewall and killed a beggar, and then perused to the wares at the black market and learned pick pockets from the master thief. I retrieved the blanket, found the SMC downstairs in the room next to the upstairs (which was nice), and stopped by Terinyo to get the village elder, sheriff, and tiny girl quests. I killed Kranach with a thrown poisoned dagger on the way to the VD, got the reward and used it to buy thieves picks.

For most of the early game I used thrown daggers (often times poisoned) as my main weapon. I was pretty fragile (starting toughness was like 9 or 10) and had maybe 30 HP at level 6, so I relied heavily on my speed, DV, and pick locks. I would lock every door I came across, cordon monsters off one at a time, and kill them with my poison daggers. (Right from the start I was doing a lot of damage in melee. Assassins probably have the highest melee DPS of any class due to insanely high critical hit percentage you get with BS+FW+Stealth+class bonus) Using this method I managed to work my way down to VD: 7 and lured the carpenter back up. On coward mode he didn't really have a chance of hitting me (DV of 40), so my main concern was getting trapped between him and another monster. Fortunately this didn't happen, and I got him to the healer.

At this point I was still C, and had the quest from Hotzenplotz, but my Learning score was at 15 and I really didn't want to lose a few points from the mad doctor, so I decided to wait a bit and see if I could find an altar. Luck was on my side and I found a lawful altar on UCa:1 (the newbie dungeon) and converted to L, and then got the healing skill. (unfortunately it was a corner altar, so I couldn't even get past "pleased" and get my water blessed - not enough gold) At this point I was already level 11, so I decided to get a move on post haste and dived into the UD after picking up a few rations from Munxip.

I came upon a neutral altar on UD:4 and tried to convert it so I could finally raise my piety and bless my water. (I think I had a cursed girdle or something I needed to get rid of) The altar converted me instead, but no big deal. I sacced a few monsters and got my holy water.

I found an undead vault on UD:5 and cleared it pretty quickly. At this point I had about 20 orcish knives from 2 orc tension rooms, so it was a matter of killing off all the dangerous monsters from a distance and then meleeing the skeletons and whatnot to pick my knives back up. After I cleared it I found a Tower Crystal Shield [+13, +4] that I ended up using for the rest of the game, and a Dagger of Death, which quickly replaced the crappy Orcish spear I was using. (I ended up using daggers for most of the game, though I had a little fling with dual-wielding whips of the snake +7 DX, which along with the air orb and other DX raising gear got my DX around 90 - in the end, they just didn't hold up compared to the twin daggers)

I got to the HMV and was happy to see Leggot was a Hurthling. For some reason, the RNG really likes making Leggot a Dwarf whenever I play Dark Elves, and I never get decent prices in shops. I went ahead and bought a girdle of carrying he was selling (very desperately needed, as I only had a strength of 14) and sold all the mithril weapons and gear I had been carrying for some decent cash. At this point I was almost out of food, so I headed straight to the CoC to buy some lizards from the ratlings.

I found a neutral altar on D:1 which was very nice for pre-crowning and pool sipping purposes later on, and then bought some lizards from the traders and headed down to Dwarf Town. On D:7 I found a statue of an Ice Dragon which, after kicking, gave me 2 blessed rings of Ice, which was pretty awesome. Waldenbrook had a scroll of danger (which was useful later) and a helm of teleportation, which I bought and kept with my until the end of the game. The Elder asked me to kill a Dark Orc, which I thought would be difficult, but I actually found one on D:11. I did the next 2 quests and went all the way down to Khelevaster. I tried coming back up through the DH, and almost died. I ran into a threat room of Ghost Kings who literally came at my right through the walls, and I went back down as soon as possible and teleported away - but not before being aged 200+ years. The helm of teleportation saved my life.

I was level 15 at this point, so I got the graveyard quest, and headed back up, doing 19 of the Arena fights in the process. I stopped on D:1 and spent about 8 days (in game) getting pre-crowned. I got pre-crowned with Serpent's Bite, which was not only the perfect weapon for my Assassin, but was also my main weapon all the way up until I got Needle+Sting. It's a humanoid slayer, poisons, and has a very high critical chance. Combined with my already very high critical chance as an assassin, I ended up killing almost every monster in the game with 1 or 2 hits. I 1 hit a greater moloch, a balor, and a great blue wyrm with it, for example. I normally used it along with my crystal shield, though for a little while I tried dual-wielding it with a whip of the snake. I gave up after a while because there weren't many monsters that would survive long enough for my second hit with the whip, but I was taking a lot more energy and and a lot less DV without my shield, so it was really pointless.

Anyway, I was a level 16 by the time I got crowned, so I needed to head to the pyramid. I decided to some in on R5 (the caves) and found an altar on R5:1. I briefly considered a second pre-crowning, but decided it was too scummy and left. Rhetep fell to 2 blows from Serpent's Bite, and I then went to the Asssassin's Guild in order to chill with my homies for a while. (Grabbed the wand of teleport while I was there...) I explored the graveyard, killed the necromancer and then dug up graves for a while until a tiger-summoning Lich King put a stop to that. (thank you, wand of teleportation!) I learned swimming from Blup, explored the Puppy Cave and finally found a ring of the fish. Crossed the river again, visited Blups Mum, and got the RCT. (Raven starsign is very nice) At this point I got rid of my daggers and used the RCT as my thrown weapon instead, though surprisingly not very often. Again, Assassins are the best melee class in the game, and so I didn't really need missiles except against karmics and stat drainers.

At this point I still only had like 100 HP or so and was level 18, and knew I was nowhere near ready for the Ice Queen quest, so I did a big loop of the world map and started visiting the random dungeons. They're a very nice touch, btw, but I was wondering if maybe TB has considered doing one of the campaign mini-quests in each one? Having some unique monster/town/temple or whatever at the bottom of each one would be pretty sweet. I cleared R2, and found a potion shop on R2:5 which got me a potion of potential toughness and potential strength - both badly needed. (my strength was still around 17) I also ran into a Gnoll Vault on R2:9 and got some decent armor, including some Bracers of Resistance.

Next I hit up R1 and finally, finally found some herbs on R1:3. I didn't have herbalism but it didn't really matter since I had a scroll of uncursing. I ate a bunch of morgia while I harvested the moss, and got my toughness up to 21 and my dexterity up to 27.

R3 had a general shop with some decent gear, as well as another gnoll vault. At this point I had about 220 HP as well 3 forms of fire resistance (intrinsic, elemental gauntlets, and bracers) and the 2 rings of ice, so I decided to raid Dark Forge. It was pretty easy (I guess Golems count as humanoids? Serpent's Bite slays them), but I found literally nothing good other than the crown of science.

Disgusted, I went to R4 where I found the Robes of Resistance from a random drop on R4:2. I ended up using them for the rest of the game, since you really can't beat that +12 PV and +5 toughness. I also found 2 rings of Djinni Summoning, one on R4:5 and one on R4:13. There was also a Blue Dragon vault on R4:10 that I steered clear of - actually, I don't think I ever came back to clear it out, which is probably why I never found one artifact.

The entire time I was going through the R caves I was also pool sipping and running back to D:1 to take care of any dooming/cursing. I got -sleep, see invis, -paralysis, -shock and teleport control from the pools. (along with a bunch of other effects that I later got rid of from pool sipping) Finally, on a pool in R4:13, I also got a wish. Since I already had the 2 RoDS I knew I could use for Khelly, I decided to use my wish on Concentration.

I went back to the CoC and killed Bonk the Hill Giant in the Arena and got a PoGA from the Dwarven Elder (as well as his reward for freeing Griff's Spirit), saved Khelevaster, and then cleared the Water Temple. I brought the snake corpse back to Guth'Alak, and decided I was finally buff enough to do the Ice Queen domain. I was level 21 at this point and had about 240 HP. I still had a few close calls, but the PoEH from the Dwarf Elder really helped.

I found a Greater Undead Vault on the 5th level of the Frost Giant Jarl cavern, which ended up being a massive, hour + long battle that took everything I had. Ultimately the RCT was my best friend in the battle - I would retreat to one of the side corridors of the vault and kill all the summons until one of the lich kings would appear, then I would 1-shot him with the RCT. rinse and repeat until I killed the last Lich King, and then I took out the Emperor. I went from level 21 to level 24 in the process.

I found Far Slayer and Nature's Companion in the GUV, which was nice. Killed Haggar, killed the diplomat, killed Hotzenplotz, and moved on.

At this point I had finally found a pair of SLB, so I went out to the wilderness, put on my crown of science, and went boar hunting. I also had an extra wish and concentration at 100 by this point was tired of constantly being strained! (my strength was still pretty low) and having to reorganize my inventory, so I wished for spellbooks of Strength of Atlas and read them with the crown on, as well as a handy dandy spellbook of Iceball. (which came in handy later)

I got my giant boar around day 65 (just a bit too late), and then went to Holeinthewall and killed 20 beggars so I could get courage, as well as get knocked down to C-. I fed the Ratling (AMW, Phial, Sword of Nonnack, Crown of Science, Moonsickle), and then did the final dwarf quest and fed him Big Punch. I did the rest of the Old Crone Quests, and then went and converted back to N on the D:1 Altar, and got crowned at the R5:1 altar. With Death's Blade. Which I literally never used - why would an assassin use a frikkin' Claymore? IMO this needs to be reevaluated as a crowning gift for assassins.

I was level 27 now and still had very low attributes, so I decided to rectify this. I went to the Bug Wilderness and didn't have too much trouble - I could one hit most of the bugs with Serpent's Bite, or take them out with the RCT. On the lower level, I just went on Coward mode and cast Ice Ball a lot to clear it. Then I grabbed the scrolls of magic mapping and went off to the Minotaur Maze. I got through that pretty quickly and got rewarded with the AoTME (which I never used) and Wyrmlance (ditto), as well as 6 PoGAs and 2 PoS, which I desperately needed. I cleared out the high king cave and then hung out until D:90.

I entered the Stone Circle and killed Keriax - he fell to 5 of the winged quarrels of slaying I got from the BUGWIL. The Far Slayer can be handy in a pinch.

Next I stopped by and picked up Hawkslayer and spent a little while in the cavernous levels of R5 training him. Once he was strong enough, we wandered around R6 until I reached level 30, and then I had Hawkslayer kill the Greater White Unicorn. I got 8 PoGAs and no alignment drop for my trouble. (or rather, Hawkslayer's trouble) Around this point I also got alchemy up to 100 and started pumping out PoGAs pretty regularly - I ended the game with most of my stats in the 60s or 70s.

I went to the ToEF, no trouble due to elemental gauntlets + robes of resistance. One-hitted the ACW, gave his corpse to Guth'Alak (who apparently doesn't care that I slaughtered his white unicorn friend) and then dove all the way to the Blue Dragon Caves. (killing the banshee, cat lord, bugs, et al. on the way, skipping the rest of the levels/temples and a greater giant vault and leaving them for later)

The BDC were ridiculously easy. None of the dragons noticed me, so I could just walk right up to them and bump them and they would die instantly. I gained a few levels from monsters I had to kill along the way (greater molochs, titans, a balor, etc.), and then took out Barney with 3 hits. I found another RoDS and a wand of wishing with 0 charges along the way.

I went to the Assassin Prince and got his quest at level 36, and then fired a missile in his domain (not a chaotic act) to anger him and everyone else (who were peaceful since I was an assassin), and got Sting. From that point on, I dual-wielded Needle and Sting through the rest of the game. Since I had grand mastery in daggers and TWC at 100%, it only cost me 1000 energy to fight with both of them. The Assassins' +20 DV dodge bonus and the +18 DV from Needle+Sting meant that I didn't have to worry about a shield at this point - I still had 148 DV while fighting without a shield since I kept my tactics on "defensive."

I dove to I:21 and killed and ate Filk, and then went and climbed down the rift. I finally got a spellbook of teleport (which I needed to move around the CoC quickly), as well as the weird tome. Went to the Mad Minstral and gave him the tome, and he gave me 6 SoCR as well as telling me about the scintillating cave.

Killed the Emperor Moloch (a few blessed demon slaying quarrels) and got the ToTRR.

From this point on, the ToTRR replaced the RCT as my missile weapon. It's actually pretty awesome and does about 3 times the damage, while having the same slaying powers.

I dove back into the CoC and cleared the Air Temple in about 2 minutes, cleared the Earth temple in about a minute, and took out a greater giant vault and found the Ring of Immunity. I cleared the mana temple pretty quickly (used humanoid slaying quarrels on the archmage), and then went and killed Blue Dragons until I picked up level 50. I had used one of my wishes a while back for herbalism (so I could stop buying ratling crap and built a nice stockpile of stomafilla), and used another for a girdle of giant strength.

Got the golden girdle for my uselessness gift. It's the first time in 14 years of playing ADOM I've ever found it.

I cleared level 50, instakilling most of the balors and chaos wizards. I killed fisty in 2 hits, then just sat around dumping most of my inventory and blessing all my potions of boost stat. At this point I hadn't used a single SoCR in the entire game and had actually 'u'sed the mana orb 3 times before leaving D:48 because I had too few corruptions. Now I just had to w5 for a while until I finally got past the 85% mark and was corrupted enough to enter the portal.

I drank all my potions and boosted my speed, went through and killed Andor Drakon with humanoid slaying quarrels.

[Dogbreath]

Flg with notes:

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##############################  ############################# ################ #
Ahkmor        St:99  Le:99  Wi:90  Dx:99  To:99  Ch:46  Ap:84  Ma:99  Pe:97 N=
DV/PV: 85/79     H:1238(1238)  P:452(1741)   Exp: 50/27225652   ChAoS Sp: 215
Blessed Invisible Bloated Berserk
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(All stats heavily boosted, except CH)

----------------------------------------------------------------------------
                            Background Information
----------------------------------------------------------------------------

Name: Ahkmor              Race: male Dark Elf       Class: Assassin
Eye color: black          Hair color: white         Complexion: black
Height: 5'10"             Weight: 114 pounds
Age: 277 (grown-up, 145 years of unnatural aging added in)

[Ghost Kings did a number on me]

Star sign: Raven          Birthday: 9/Raven (day 9 of the year)

YOUR HISTORY:
        Your parents are traveling adventurers. They are doing moderately
 well but are talented enough to survive.
        In your childhood you were a credit to your family. Your people
 loved you and enjoyed your presence.
        In your youth you worked a lot to become rich and famous later.
 Consequently you rarely had enough time to play with other kids of your
 age.
        As a young adult you were a credit to your family. Your parents
 supported your plans and were very understanding. They tried to help you
 along your way with all means at their disposal.
        You decided to become an Assassin.


----------------------------------------------------------------------------
                                  Inventory
----------------------------------------------------------------------------
Total weight: 20795 stones                Carrying capacity: 164438 stones

He: uncursed eternium cap [+5, +8]                                    [28s]
Ne: blessed amulet of life saving                                      [3s]
Bo: uncursed robes of resistance (-4, -4) [+3, +12] {To+5}            [60s]
Gi: uncursed girdle of giant strength [+3, +4] {St+13}                [30s]
Cl: uncursed cloak of invisibility (-1, +0) [+5, +5]                  [30s]
RH: blessed Trident of the Red Rooster (+36, 6d12+18) [+12, +12] {Ma+24}
LH: -
RR: blessed ring of slaying (+8 melee damage, +6 missile damage)       [1s]
LR: blessed ring of immunity                                           [1s]
Br: blessed rustproof bracers of regeneration [+3, +3]                [18s]
Ga: uncursed thick gauntlets (-1, -2) [+3, +3]                        [15s]
Bo: blessed waterproof seven league boots [+6, +4]                    [30s]
MW: uncursed heavy crossbow "The Far Slayer" (+18, +18)              [350s]
Mi: bundle of 30 blessed quarrels of humanoid slaying (+3, 2d6+3)    [120s]
Tl: blessed torch (4244 turns of fuel remaining, lit)                 [10s]


----------------------------------------------------------------------------
                                    Stuff
----------------------------------------------------------------------------

Total weight: 19949 stones   Carrying capacity: 164438 stones

[Almost all that weight is from the gold - I pack pretty light. Nothing is cut from the inventory]

Helmets ('[')
   uncursed rustproof helm of teleportation [+5, +3]                  [50s]

[Saved my life more than once]

   uncursed Crown of Chaos (-6, -6) [+0, +15] {Ma+10} (+10 spd)      [500s]
Armor ('[')
   blessed fine leather armor "Nature's Companion" (+2, +0) [+2, +8] (+15 spd)
Shields ('[')
   uncursed tower crystal shield (-2) [+13, +4]                      [260s]
Gauntlets ('[')
   uncursed elemental gauntlets (-1, +0) [+0, +3]                     [10s]
Cloaks ('[')
   uncursed cloak of protection [+0, +5]                              [20s]
   uncursed cloak of invisibility (-1, +0) [+3, +0]                   [30s]
Girdles ('[')
   uncursed eternium girdle [+0, +4]                                  [12s]
   uncursed girdle of the emperors "Celestrix" [+13, +13] {Ch+8}      [25s]

[First time I've ever seen this artifact]

Boots ('[')
   blessed eternium boots [+2, +5]                                    [55s]
   uncursed seven league boots [+4, +2]                               [30s]
Necklaces (''')
   blessed necklace of rapid healing                                   [2s]
   uncursed ankh                                                       [3s]
   uncursed amulet of death ray resistance                             [7s]
   blessed amulet of order                                             [3s]
   uncursed Medal of Chaos {Ap+12}                                   [300s]
   blessed amulet of balance                                           [3s]
   uncursed amulet of teleport control                                 [3s]
   blessed necklace of the eye                                         [3s]
One-handed weapons ('(')
   blessed emerald dagger "Serpent's Bite" (+3, 3d4+3) [+3, +1]       [13s]
   
[Best weapon in the game, IMHO]

   heap of 2 blessed whips of the snake (+4, 5d2+8) {Dx+7} (+7 spd)   [30s]

[These are nice too :) (ADOM really needs artifact whips!)]

   blessed pick axe (+1, 1d6+4)                                       [75s]
   blessed phase dagger (+0, 1d4)                                      [5s]
   uncursed sword of sharpness (+0, 4d8+6)                            [35s]
   blessed black rune-covered dagger "Needle" (+8, 3d4) [+4, +1]      [10s]
   blessed black rune-covered dagger "Sting" (+8, 3d4) [+4, +1]       [10s]
   uncursed sword of sharpness (+0, 4d8+4)                            [35s]

[I spent a little bit of time dual-wielding swords of sharpness. They're just not as good as Serpent's Bite]

Two-handed weapons ('(')
   blessed rune-covered trident (+6, 3d12+6) [+4, +4] {Dx+12}         [80s]
   blessed ancient claymore "Death's Blade" (+6, 6d8+6) [+4, +0]     [400s]
   uncursed rune-covered halberd "Wyrmlance" (+15, 4d8+10) [-2, +0]   [50s]
   uncursed axe of the minotaur emperor (+12, 4d20+16) [-6, +4]     [1200s]

[Never used the last 3. AoTME is a great weapon, but not very thematically fitting for an assassin, so I refused to use it]


Missiles ('/')
   bundle of 28 uncursed quarrels of giant slaying (+3, 2d8+3)       [112s]
   bundle of 48 blessed quarrels of undead slaying (+3, 2d6+3)       [192s]
   bundle of 34 blessed quarrels of demon slaying (+3, 2d6+3)        [136s]
   bundle of 12 uncursed quarrels of jelly slaying (+3, 2d6+3)        [48s]
   bundle of 4 uncursed winged quarrels and slaying (-4, 2d6)          [8s]
   bundle of 59 uncursed quarrels of construct slaying (+3, 2d6+3)   [236s]
   bundle of 10 uncursed quarrels of dragon slaying (+3, 2d6+3)       [40s]
   bundle of 2 blessed quarrels of jelly slaying (+3, 2d6+3)           [8s]
   bundle of 6 uncursed delicate mithril quarrels and slaying (+1, 2d6+6)

["winged quarrels and slaying", "mithril quarrels and slaying." Apparently this bug has not been resolved]

Tools (']')
   uncursed hexagonal key                                              [1s]
   uncursed thieves picks                                              [5s]
   uncursed box with flint and steel (40)                              [5s]
   uncursed tiny key                                                   [1s]
   uncursed climbing set                                             [180s]
   blessed fireproof blanket                                          [10s]
   blessed triangular key                                              [1s]
   blessed box with flint and steel (45)                               [5s]
   blessed round key                                                   [1s]
   blessed waterproof blanket                                         [10s]
   uncursed tinderbox (23)                                             [3s]
   blessed hexagonal key                                               [1s]
   blessed torch (4137 turns of fuel remaining)                       [10s]
   blessed square key                                                  [1s]
   blessed torch                                                      [10s]
   uncursed box with flint and steel (39)                              [5s]
Rings ('=')
   heap of 2 blessed rings of ice                                      [2s]
   blessed ring of fire                                                [1s]
   uncursed ring of invisibility                                       [1s]
Wands ('\')
   uncursed wand of poison (8 charges)                                 [3s]
   uncursed wand of fireballs (10 charges)                             [3s]
   uncursed wand of teleportation (55 charges)                         [4s]

[I had to do "something" with all my booze. This was originally like 130 charges, but I used a bunch]

   uncursed wand of monster detection (7 charges)                      [3s]
   uncursed wand of destruction (4 charges)                            [3s]
   uncursed wand of destruction (2 charges)                            [3s]
   uncursed wand of far slaying (2 charges)                            [3s]
   uncursed wand of trap creation (8 charges)                          [3s]
   uncursed wand of knocking (0 charges)                               [3s]
Potions ('!')
   heap of 16 blessed potions of extra healing                        [32s]
   heap of 15 blessed potions of ultra healing                        [30s]
   heap of 3 potions of holy water                                    [12s]

[Never used these. Not sure why I even bothered, Andor Drakon never hit me. (he needs to be buffed up a little)]

Scrolls ('?')
   uncursed scroll of dark predictions                                 [2s]
   blessed scroll of item detection                                    [2s]
   blessed scroll of magic mapping                                     [2s]
   heap of 2 blessed scrolls of great identify                         [4s]
   heap of 5 blessed scrolls of identify                              [10s]
   heap of 44 blessed scrolls of power                                [88s]
   heap of 5 blessed scrolls of uncursing                             [10s]
   blessed scroll of darkness                                          [2s]
   heap of 3 uncursed scrolls of monster detection                     [6s]
   uncursed scroll of gold detection                                   [2s]
Books ('"')
   blessed manual of bridge building                                 [100s]
Food ('%')
   heap of 86 uncursed cooked lizards                                [258s]
   heap of 40 uncursed stomafillia herbs                              [80s]
   heap of 2 blessed devil's roses                                     [4s]
   heap of 54 blessed spenseweeds                                    [108s]
   heap of 24 blessed stomafillia herbs                               [48s]
Valuables ('$')
   1469740 gold pieces                                             [14697s]

[From selling the rest of my gear. Didn't know if it improved my high score, so I wanted to find out.]

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                                Weapon Skills
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Melee weapon           Lvl   Hit   Dam   DV   Level          Required marks
---------------------  ---   ---   ---   --   -------------  --------------
Unarmed fighting         2    +2    +0   +0   basic                1
Daggers & knives        15   +20   +12   +5   Grand Mastery
Clubs & hammers          1    +1    +0   +0   basic                25
Maces & flails           1    +1    +0   +0   basic                25
Swords                   4    +3    +1   +1   skilled              96
Axes                     1    +1    +0   +0   basic                25
Whips                    9   +12    +7   +9   excellent            86
Pole arms                8    +8    +4   +8   excellent            508
Twohanded weapons        1    +1    +1   +0   basic                25
Staves                   1    +1    +0   +1   basic                25

Missile weapon         Lvl   Hit   Dam   Ra   Level          Required marks

---------------------  ---   ---   ---   --   -------------  --------------
Slings                   0    +0    +0   +0   unskilled            7
Bows                     0    +0    +0   +0   unskilled            7
Crossbows                7   +14   +10   +2   skilled              13
Thrown axes & hammers    0    +0    +0   +0   unskilled            7
Thrown daggers           6   +12    +9   +2   skilled              78
Thrown rocks & clubs     0    +0    +0   +0   unskilled            2
Thrown spears           10   +20   +15   +3   excellent            160
Boomerangs & scurgari    1    +2    +1   +0   basic                9

Shields                Lvl   DV               Level          Required marks

---------------------  ---   ---              -------------  --------------
Shields                 12   +24              Mastery              3855

Damage caused with your melee weapons:
--------------------------------------
Right hand: +252 bonus to hit, 6d12+113 damage

Damage caused with your missile weapons:
----------------------------------------
Ammunition: 30, base range: 40, +194 bonus to hit, 2d6+102 damage




----------------------------------------------------------------------------
                                   Skills
----------------------------------------------------------------------------

[Found a *lot* of potions and scrolls of education]

  Alchemy ...................100    (superb)       [+1]
  Alertness .................100    (superb)       [+1d5]
  Archery ...................100    (superb)       [+1d3]
  Athletics .................100    (superb)       [+1d5]
  Backstabbing ..............100    (superb)       [+3d4]
  Bridge building ........... 65    (good)         [+1d3] (ma)
  Climbing ..................100    (superb)       [+3d3]
  Concentration .............100    (superb)       [+2d4]
  Courage ...................100    (superb)       [+1d5]
  Detect item status ........100    (superb)       [+1d5]
  Detect traps ..............100    (superb)       [+2d4]
  Disarm traps .............. 82    (great)        [+2d4]
  Dodge .....................100    (superb)       [+1d5]
  Find weakness .............100    (superb)       [+2d4]
  First aid ................. 97    (superb)       [+1d3]
  Haggling .................. 77    (great)        [+3d3]
  Healing ...................100    (superb)       [+1d5]
  Herbalism .................100    (superb)       [+1d5]
  Law .......................100    (superb)       [+2d4]
  Listening .................100    (superb)       [+2d4]
  Literacy ..................100    (superb)       [+1d3]
  Music ..................... 42    (fair)         [+1d5]
  Necromancy ................ 63    (good)         [+3d5]
  Pick locks ................100    (superb)       [+2d4]
  Pick pockets ..............100    (superb)       [+1d5]
  Stealth ...................100    (superb)       [+2d4]
  Survival ..................100    (superb)       [+1d5]
  Swimming ..................100    (superb)       [+1d3]
  Tactics ...................100    (superb)       [+1]
  Two weapon combat .........100    (superb)       [+1d5]
  Ventriloquism ............. 48    (fair)         [+3d4]


----------------------------------------------------------------------------
                                   Spells
----------------------------------------------------------------------------
   Frost Bolt          :   601,  12pp     (Effectivity: +0)
   Ice Ball            :   513,  24pp     (Effectivity: +5)
   Identify            :   305,  75pp     (Effectivity: +2)
   Strength of Atlas   :   360,   9pp     (Effectivity: +9)
   Stun Ray            :   843,   8pp     (Effectivity: +0)




----------------------------------------------------------------------------
                              His further life:
----------------------------------------------------------------------------

After slaying Andor Drakon and dispersing his malevolent energies the scales
of Balance appear before you. All the forces of Balance seem to be united
behind them. You are lifted to the status of an Avatar of Balance and the
tales of your deeds are spread all over Ancardia.

Your deeds are recounted at camp fires and interpreted by philosophers and
priests alike. The common man looks up to you and you slowly start to be
revered as a minor power of Balance. After a few millennia have passed you
are raised to the position of a demigod to guard Ancardia from the forces of
Chaos and Order forever.

Under your guidance Ancardia becomes a balanced and happy world, enjoying
its own freedom to be never again threatened by the unbalancing powers of
the universe.

[This is my favorite ending. :)]

[Dogbreath]

Continued:

----------------------------------------------------------------------------
              His achievements during his battles:
----------------------------------------------------------------------------

Ahkmor, the dark elven assassin, transformed into an avatar of Balance.
He scored 24170977 points and advanced to level 50.
He survived for 0 years, 126 days, 11 hours, 9 minutes and 50 seconds
(215021 turns).
1 companion was killed during his adventures.
Ahkmor visited 226 places.
His strength score was modified by +44 during his career.
His learning score was modified by +50 during his career.
His willpower score was modified by +53 during his career.
His dexterity score was modified by +46 during his career.
His toughness score was modified by +50 during his career.
His charisma score was modified by +43 during his career.
His appearance score was modified by +50 during his career.
His mana score was modified by +52 during his career.
His perception score was modified by +34 during his career.
He was unnaturally aged by 145 years.
He was the champion of the arena.
He was the head of the thieves guild.
He made a little water dragon very happy.
He brought an infamous raider lord to justice.
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 saved Khelavaster from certain death.
He ended his adventuring life in the palace of Andor Drakon.
12758 monsters perished under his attacks.
The following 34 artifacts were generated during his adventure:
  the si
  the scythe of corruption "Moon Sickle"
  the potion of literacy
  the golden gladius "Death's Sting"
  the ancient claymore "Death's Blade"
  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 heavy crossbow "The Far Slayer"
  the lead-filled mace "Big Punch"
  the girdle of the emperors "Celestrix"
  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 hammer of the gods
  the Crown of Chaos
  the Medal of Chaos
  the Chaos Orb of Elemental Mana
  the black rune-covered dagger "Needle"
  the black rune-covered dagger "Sting"
  the fine leather armor "Nature's Companion"
  the robes of resistance
  the ring of immunity
  the emerald dagger "Serpent's Bite"
  the Trident of the Red Rooster
  the weird tome
  the rune-covered halberd "Wyrmlance"
  the axe of the minotaur emperor
He possessed the following intrinsics:
  He was fire resistant (also through an item).
  He was poison resistant.
  He was cold resistant.
  He was acid resistant (gained through an item).
  He was lucky.
  Fate smiled upon him.
  He was sleep resistant.
  He was able to control teleportation.
  He was invisible (gained through an item).
  He was stun resistant.
  He was paralyzation resistant.
  He was resistant to death rays (gained through an item).
  He was shock resistant (also through an item).
  He was able to see invisible things (also through an item).
  He was immune to shock attacks.
  He was immune to fire attacks (gained through items).
  He was immune to acidic attacks (gained through items).
  He was immune to ice attacks (gained through items).
  He was able to breathe water (gained through an item).
He had the following talents: Affinity with Daggers & Knives, Alert, Eagle
Eye, Far Shot, Good Shot, Greased Lightning, Healthy, Keen Shot, Lightning
Shot, Master Packager, Miser, Porter, Quick, Quick Shot, Stealthy, Strong
Thrower, Treasure Hunter, Very Quick.
He had a final speed score of 215 (final base speed: 179).
He was a messiah of Anssaria.
He asked for 11 divine interventions.
He was a holy champion of Balance.

The following monsters were vanquished:
[Heavily edited]
    375 ancient blue dragons
      1 ancient blue wyrm
[Yep]
      1 Ancient Chaos Wyrm
     *snip*
     50 dark orcs

[!!!]

     *snip*
     17 diamond golems

[!!!!!!!!!]    

      *snip*
     
     12 emperor liches
     
[!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!]

      *you know the drill*
      
      64 frost giant jarls
      7 will o'wisps

[unusual number of these as well, I never find them normally]

    
Dispatched the legendary goblin Huckree.
Dispatched the legendary lizard man Grakkus.
Dispatched the legendary bandit Alessa.
Dispatched the legendary fire vortex Mar the Fiery Kraken.
Dispatched the legendary goblin berserker Gregor the Mighty.
Dispatched the legendary black wizard Roland, Last of the Old-Mobbe.

----------------------------------------------------------------------------
                               Playing Time
----------------------------------------------------------------------------

You played for 35 hours, 21 minutes and 54 seconds.

[A lot of that I just had my computer on]

----------------------------------------------------------------------------
                             Version Information
----------------------------------------------------------------------------

Ancient Domains Of Mystery
Release 52
Windows Build: Nov 2 2014 18:03:59

I've also attached the unedited .flg for your viewing pleasure. Enjoy!

[Joe]

Congrats on a nice game =) Funny to see you never used a bow in the whole game

[Dogbreath]

Thanks! And yeah, I'm pretty big into RP and I couldn't really see my assassin sneaking around a dungeon and then whipping out a longbow. Same reason I never used 2HS, axes, maces, etc. The marks are from Bart.

[plllizzz9]

AoTME is a great weapon, but not very thematically fitting for an assassin, so I refused to use it

it is for one crowned with Death's Blade

congrats, though I'd say the contest for the name of 'best weapon' in the game is one between AoTME and ToTTR, with Justifier [in hands of a paladin] being a strong second place, maybe even first place contender [the fact I did not initially name him one can give you an idea of the absolutely insane output of AoTME, which atm is imho -too- strong for a guaranteed weapon. Though guaranteed artifacts in ADOM have the tendency to be quite strong, damage-wise - Moon Sickle, Big Punch and RCT are all capable of delivering serious pain]

[Dogbreath]

it is for one crowned with Death's Blade

I can just imagine "Ahkmor the Dark Elven Barbari... er... I mean, Assassin sneaks up on the fiendish monster... and then charges forward screaming bloody murder and swinging around his giant Claymore!"

congrats, though I'd say the contest for the name of 'best weapon' in the game is one between AoTME and ToTTR, with Justifier [in hands of a paladin] being a strong second place, maybe even first place contender [the fact I did not initially name him one can give you an idea of the absolutely insane output of AoTME, which atm is imho -too- strong for a guaranteed weapon. Though guaranteed artifacts in ADOM have the tendency to be quite strong, damage-wise - Moon Sickle, Big Punch and RCT are all capable of delivering serious pain]

Actually, as I noted in another thread, Needle+Sting has a higher effective damage output than AotME for Assassins. I'll break down the reasons here:

My average base damage for each dagger was ~125 (weapon base damage +50 bonus, +weapon skill bonus, +strength and dex bonus, etc).
My base critical hit chance with each dagger is 45%. That's 5% intrinsic, %20 from FW, %20 for being an Assassin.
With backstabbing at 100%, Stealth at 100%, the Stealthy talent, invisibility, and very high Dx, I went undetected by virtually every monster. So somewhere around 99% of my first attacks counted as backstabs.
Backstabbing with a dagger as an Assassin gives you a 5x damage mulitplier. It also increases your critical hit by 25%.
With a critical hit chance of 70% on both weapons, I had a 49% chance of doing a critical with *both* daggers, a 42% chance with one, and only 9% chance of not scoring a critical. This equated to ~2500 damage 49% of the time, ~1875 damage 42% of the time, and ~1250 damage 9% of the time.
And it only costs me 1000 energy points to hit with both daggers, which is the same amount that 1 swing from the cow axe costs.

Now the AotME has a better critical chance at 85% base chance, or 100% when backstabbing. But IIRC the average base damage is around ~100 for an assassin of my strength (maybe a little more), so that means about 800 damage with a first attack. (x2 for the guarenteed critical x 2 for backstabbing x 2 for assassin class power) Which is roughly what I was doing with Serpent's Bite, which had a lower base damage but higher multiplier. (and also had the guaranteed critical)

That being said, I had only a handful of monsters that survived a single attack from Needle+Sting. (Fisty was one of them) But even in protracted fights without the Backstabbing advantage, N+S does more base damage in the same amount of time. Serpent's Bite admittedly lags a bit behind AotME after the first hit, but not by that much. And with the way I played, I wouldn't do more than one hit with SB - I'd either 1-hit the monster (most of the time), or run away and let the poison do it's work.

[plllizzz9]

Actually, I did similar calculations a while ago [since I also played an assassin, though mine recieved the dreaded claymore...] and generally, AoTME proven to be more desirable. For one, I do not think that daggers or any double wielded weapons can in fact backstab twice - as far as I experienced it, only the first attack counts, and you still recieve a x4 multiplier on the axe. That gives sort of an edge to the daggers, but not quite. As for attacking speed, at Grand Mastery both attacks with daggers will take nine hundred something energy points, compared to a single swing of the axe standing around 550 [two attacks somewhere around 1100-1200 mark] - it's a difference in speed where daggers only gain on the axe after about four strikes [and what you gonna need four strikes against?] - once again, of course we're speaking about the two being compared on same Mastery, Speed and Strength bonus levels. As a last thing we need to consider something I call the 'PV fall off threshold' which is basically the fact that against dual-wielded daggers, the PV of all opponents you face is effectively doubled. It doesn't really come to light in backstabbing, but in open combat sure does, with the difference between both dagger attacks and -single- axe strike becomes very small.

Now, as far as damage-over-time goes, daggers are marginally better, but only when considered against opponents with massive HP values and middling PV, which would emphasize on their dps greatly. But I can't honestly give an opponent like that off the top of my head, everything in late game has between 20-30 PV, with some outliers [like greater molochs/titans] clocking way above that. I think some of the greater elementals have really low HP.

@edit

I actually find it kind of funny that we need to compare -both- dagger hits with -one- axe hit for this to even be a comparision. Makes you realize how retardedly powerful AoTME is.

@edit2

that mentioned, Assassin isn't actually best class to compare, since his own stacking bonuses to critical hit makes the axe actually lose some of its advantage [when backstabbing you get about 105% crit chance, so 5% are kinda 'wasted']

[Dogbreath]

Both dagger hits take 1000 energy even with grand mastery. I just set the dynamic counter to "LE" because I was curious when playing.

I count the daggers as one because they both hit in the same turn, as opposed to the axe. i.e, no matter how fast or slow your opponent is, they don't get a chance to hit you in between dagger strikes. The same isn't true for 2 swings of the axe.

But even with only the first strike counting as a backstab, the daggers give you a significant amount of damage. (though it's harder to calculate due to different critical chances)

Roughly:
First hit 1250 damage 70% of the time, 625 damage 30% of the time.
Second hit 250 damage 45% of the time, 125 damage 55% of the time.

It varies between 1500 and 750 damage, so even the low end of your first strike is comparable to the AotME.

With a 31.5% chance of 1500, a 13.5% chance of 875, a 38.5% chance of 1375, and a 16.5% chance of 750, that's pretty good. Someone smarter than me can figure out what that averages out at, but with a 70% chance of doing over 1000 damage, they're still better than the Cow Axe.

Also, the +50 to hit on the daggers is nice too, it essentially means that you never miss.

Edit: We can all agree though that the AotME is ridiculously overpowered. The fact that N+S are the only weapons that (arguably) even come close to it say a lot about just how strong it is. I'm not one to argue in favor of balancing everything in a roguelike, but I think it really needs to either get rid of the +critical or have it's base damage drastically reduced. None of the other weapons with +critical have very high base damage, and for good reason. It's just insane.

[Dogbreath]

Edit: We can all agree though that the AotME is ridiculously overpowered. The fact that N+S are the only weapons that (arguably) even come close to it say a lot about just how strong it is. I'm not one to argue in favor of balancing everything in a roguelike, but I think it really needs to either get rid of the +critical or have it's base damage drastically reduced. None of the other weapons with +critical have very high base damage, and for good reason. It's just insane.

On second thought, maybe a good solution would be to set the base energy cost for the AotME to 1500 or 2000? Or even better, make it dependent on your character's strength. So a character with St: 45 could wield it with no penalties, but a character with St:20 would cost like 2250 energy points and have a -25 to hit for the weapon. (-50 energy and -1 To Hit for every point of strength below 45) This would balance out the problem of the maze, somewhat: it would make the Axe an extremely desirable reward for Barbarians and fighters, who have a very difficult time with the maze, but a mediocre reward for spellcasters who can just magic map and teleport through the maze.