Random casters

[blunk]

I like the random charcter creation aspect in theory but oh my so many diffcult variations they create.
The randomness is probably what have kept me away from casters, I know better now but have yet to make any serious try with a caster.
A good example was the hurthling priest I rolled, it had a whopping 8 learning wich got me some good 40-50 castings when reading was successful....
Topped that off with IBM scroll and kobold tension room after first door in SMC.

Next got a decent gnome priest with book starsign, scare monster and magic mapping wasn't the starting spells I was looking for ....

Do you reroll until you get the über start you were looking for or have anyone had success with really scappy caster starts?

[Silfir]

The start doesn't really matter all that much on priests - the spellbook drop rates are similar to a wizard's, so they'll pick up useful spells pretty soon. Until then, they can fight perfectly well thanks to decent starting PV. 8 Learning sucks and I would probably reroll that, too, but above 10 it's not as much of an impediment as it may look at first glance. It just means you're going to have to keep spellcasting to a minimum until you can improve that learning, by only using spells on monsters that actually require it. The selection of spells you got - Scare Monster and Magic Map - wouldn't deter me one bit from throwing that Priest at the UD; he'll either get into a deadly scuffle early (so not much time is lost) or he'll pick up five spellbooks and come out blasting and ready to take on anything you care to throw at him.

If you're insistent on having useful starting spells and dislike random spells on character creation, simply roll a Druid instead. They might look unexciting from a class power perspective, they might not break the bank in the Learning department, but they start with a damage spell and decent armor and are just generally hard to lose with. (At least that's what it felt like to me the last couple of times I rolled a Druid. Or a Priest, for that matter.)

If you just want the best possible odds of winning the game with a caster, my money would be on a gnomish wizard. (Gray elven wizards are more fun, but also more balls-to-the-wall.) But a gnomish priest is only minimally inferior, really - priests are a close match for wizards in PP cost reduction as well as spellbook finding rates. They just have to fight in melee early game instead of relying on damage spells right away. Hurthlings are a poor fit for spellcasting classes in general because of poor natural PP regeneration or Mana, and their relevant strengths - toughness, mostly - are shared by gnomes.



You've mentioned you've learned a thing or two about ADOM from watching Hocus Pocus - have you seen my more recent Let's Play involving Cheryl the Elementalist? Elementalists are "safe" casters in that they don't need Learning to function, but also not the most powerful ones around later because they end up with limited spell repertoires, and you have to do something besides cast spells at everything for a while in the early game because they don't get that many castings and power points can be a problem.

[GordonOverkill]

I personally never ever rerolled any character in ADOM. Bad stats equals more of a challenge. More of a challenge equals more fame and glory if I win anyway ;-)

[Moeba]

If you're insistent on having useful starting spells and dislike random spells on character creation, simply roll a Druid instead. They might look unexciting from a class power perspective, they might not break the bank in the Learning department, but they start with a damage spell and decent armor and are just generally hard to lose with. (At least that's what it felt like to me the last couple of times I rolled a Druid. Or a Priest, for that matter.)

Druids start more smoothly because animals aren't hostile (unless from tension/threat rooms & Keethrax level). Friendly ants in PC:2, and so on. Slightly later, priests have identify advantage while druids are herbalism masters.

[blunk]

Yeah I've been following cheryl as well.
That Gnome did surprisingly well, considering no other spellbooks and rotten pv, a very nice d6+10 axe made him able to fight stuff on defensive.
Sadly he got cornered in a corridor by blink dogs both sides and "punch through defenses" finally got him, stairs was way on other side, no wands, potions, scrolls or prayers left to save him (he almost cleared them).

Rolled up a dark elf priest after that and even if ppl arent as lucky as I was I can see the difference ....
Elven chainmail is huge, statline is overpowered in general and certainly in my case, on top of that I got adic bolt, had some struggles when I did most of a jelly vault in late UD with rocks but ...(I got back later and cleared most of the rest)
Got a "a see invis" and a "+0+4 +5speed" ring from a shop.
The only bad luck was dwarf shopkeeper in hmw.

cleared druid quest and puppy cave and did detect trap quest, got swim from baby blue, read id and what did I find...
Preserver at lvl 13 before coc probably from that jelly vault.
33/24 in normal mode, 17 str 14 to (both at max potential).
got acid bolt, lightning bolt, magic missile, frost bolt, heal, cure light wounds and slow poison (and some other less useful).

Feels like cheating compared to a melee char.
Speaking about melee I'm using a adamantium longsword of hunting.

(I got a wish spellbook also)

[Silfir]

Welcome to the overpowered world of spellcasters!

[blunk]

have you seen my more recent Let's Play involving Cheryl the Elementalist?

Forgot to say I'm Anders on youtube, we've had some written chatter, youtube playlists among and some other snippets.

I decided the darkelf was too easy for now, got a gnome priest (book ss) through smc/ud with stunray as only offensive spell.

Am now pretty much the regular caster powerhouse but ....
I did that stupid thing again and used equip-identify.
So I'm sitting on a trapped mithril scalemail [-1,+6].

I've failed the 25% with the 2 items destructions scroll I got hold of.
What to do? back to pyramid, remove items and activate traps to try destroy it?
Edit: or swap align to get it turned to dust?

[Silfir]

I'm pretty sure acid can destroy mithril. So if you have a healing spell, strip naked and go to town on an acid trap. That, or piss off your deity to dust your items. I'm not sure if it's possible for acid traps to run out of acid; if it is, eventually your deity might be the last remaining option.

I'd hold off on either until you find armor that's actually superior to that - though I guess the ancient mummy wrapping qualifies.

[blunk]

I'd hold off on either until you find armor that's actually superior to that - though I guess the ancient mummy wrapping qualifies.

I did hold off until a few of dwarf quests were done (had to do pyramid before due to gnome fast exp) and got a black dragon scale with 11 pv, would be nice to use.

Edit:
The first trap ran out of acid after a couple of "showers".
The second needed 27 tries if I didn't miss any in the log, mithril is damn sturdy, gimme a mithril cloak dammit