I just picked up ADOM v1.2.0 release 60 during the holiday, and started out as a Mist Elf Wizard...I did read the wiki and prepared myself with decent amount of knowledge.
I thought it would be a great idea since Mist Elf can summon golems as tank, while I blast the enemy with fire ball (probably got that idea from some RPG I played) and I was sadly mistaken.
Apparently bolt spells can only fire in straight lines in 8 possible directions from the character. It also hit EVERTHING and that include my own companion, who would turn on me and try to kill me if he's still alive. and when I leave an area, my companion doesn't follow if he's not in a space that is in direct contact with me.Worst of all, I dont get experience when my companion last hit...only he does.
From there on I just forget about "white necromancy" and firebolt my way through early game. I started the game with a spellbook for firebolt, and found 2 more spellbook very early on. So I [l]earn to get more spell knowledge until I detroyed the spellbook.(In hindsight, I should have kept one book to bookcast spell infinitely...but I thought it was EASY to get more spellbooks)Fire Bolt works great in clearing monsters after I lure roomful of monsters into long corridor. For monsters that resist fire, I just use Acid Ball (which is my second starting spelbook).
The major problem I found was my lack of HP. My toughness potention was only 7, and I didn't find any potion for tough toughness, none from monster or shops. after a near death experience from a trapped door that also exploded my best gears at the time(didn't get any knock spell early, now I have too many of these), I decided to get more HP.
The only solution I found was the HP potion from Healer Jharod by "showing mercy". I used the trick from wiki, wand of Trap Creation and lured monster over. However the monsters tend to die immediately, and the traps only last a few rounds. Then, I came up with a brilliant idea using the observations I found through the game: monsters would fight each other it they are not hostile toward me. I used the wand of Monster Creation to make 2 monsters, and use Calm Monster on one of the two, then I can heal them as they fight each other allow the battle between monsters continue and get potentionly infinite amount of potion from Jharod! Grey ooze wins and kills goblin instead.
Then I discovered that the friendly ooze now leisurely multiplies, at the cost of half of its current HP. So... it turned into a ooze farm where I get 2 potion for healing them whenever they multiplies. I drank 30+ potion and got my HP to 100 and continued on my way.
Found a cursed amulet of life saving. useless since iron items (slowly) kills Mist Elf, so I give it to Khelavaster. In Dwarven Hall, I found a large room full of karmic dragon. Killed them using help from wiki: just go invisible and they cant see, then use magic missile since they are element resistance. Level up 4 time in a row there, so it must be something that's not supposed to happen...water temple and banshee was easy, preparing for Tower of Eternal Flames now.
Right now I have Strength of Altas activated at all times due to overused of the spell to train mana and spell efficiency, and I am wearing eternium cap, eternium scale mail, eternium shield, and etc... oh, and a mithril spear of mayhem that does more damage than the two-handed eternium halberd I got. Most of the times, I feel like I'm playing a warrior class that can go invisible and teleport to help me better reposition myself, melee range spear stab to kill the weaker foes, and only use spells for stronger enemies. Burning Hand and Ball spells (both melee ranged) seem much more reliable than bolt spells, since enemies can continuously shrug off multiple bolt spells, even when they are vulnerable to that element.
I also at one point got the "You have become very light" corruption at one point, which give me -6 To. So... I had a level 20 Mist Elf with Toughness of 1. I had no way of curing corruption until I got scrolls from saving Khelavaster.
I keep wondering what would happen if I had toughness of 0? Do I die? my toughness wasn't always at it max 7, since sometimes it falls to 6 and 5, and I have to train with Garth to bring it back up. I had no luck with herb at all, only spenseweed curaria mancox and alraunia antidote stable patches, all useless except making hilarious fail alchemy explosions. I have level 100 Alchemy, and I can make potion of attribute gain, if only I have one of its main ingredient: potion of cure curruption.
So the main thing that bothers me is that other that getting HP potion from Healer Jharod (which feels kind of like cheating if he truely have infinite potion to give us), Being a Mist Elf seem to spell disaster. I almost one shot suicide even with all that extra HP when my Magic Missile bounced in corners beyond my vision, And I also had a couple of mishaps that would kill me if I didn't get more max HP(confused is the worst status I have encountered) How is a Mist Elf normally supposed to be played?