The Beggars Opera or: What about Poverty Runs?

[Harpagornis]

Hello ADOM community!

After playing more than twenty years RPG´s like Baldurs Gate, Icewind Dale and Pillars of Eternity i recently stumbled upon ADOM.

As i am used to challenging stuff like no-reload, level-1-runs or even playing without any items i started with a Drakeling Monk using good old poverty. Except for quest-related-items he is using nothing more than bare fists and his Acid spit against aging or stat-draining monsters once i learned how evil their drains can be.

Going into ADOM more or less blind without guides was really tough and so far i have died dozens of times. From getting killed by the very first Bandit Leader or learning that the Small Cave can be a very dangerous place up to the problem that i am getting burned to ashes once i reach the Eternal Tower of Flames. However: With death lurking around every corner and thanks to my stubbornness the runs are still fun. At least most of the time.

My questions to the more experienced players around here are:

Is there any way to get my naked Monk through the Fire Tower or even through the lower levels of the Caverns of Chaos? As i have not yet found any thread about this one i assume that my poverty Monks will all be doomed. Are they?

Thanks for your help. May the fists of light be with you!

[Grond]

Is there any way to get my naked Monk through the Fire Tower or even through the lower levels of the Caverns of Chaos? As i have not yet found any thread about this one i assume that my poverty Monks will all be doomed. Are they?

There's hope! For Tower you'll want intrinsic fire resistance and the Immune to Pain talent. Although you'll still overheat, this will bring damage down to a manageable level. Healing can be covered with herbs (if those are allowed), Water Orb (quest item), and prayers. Lower levels of the CoC should be doable if you take advantage of your high speed to kite enemies. The remaining temples can be dealt with using some combination of kiting and the Fire Orb (quest item). Good luck!

[Harpagornis]

Thats good to know @Grond - thanks for that tip! There are so many things to learn in this game.

Is Monk the way to go or are you rating Beastfighters even higher with regard to poverty runs?

I have tried both but the lack of "Find Weakness" always let me return to the Monk...

Not to forget: Will corruption be a problem without protection items in the late game?

[Grond]

Beastfighter is probably worse for this challenge. The main benefit to Beastfighter would be better unarmed damage, but this gets offset by losing out on Find Weakness, unless you pick Orc or Dark Elf. Meanwhile, Monk gets better DV, better and earlier movement class powers, and an earlier swap class power.

Other than extra Chaos Orb usage, you shouldn't be getting corrupted notably more than a normal character would. There are a couple corruptions that pose serious problems: stiff muscles (breaks the kiting gameplan) and poison hands (terrible to deal with without thick gauntlets).

[Mobius]

There is a quest / challenge to win the game never having more that 100 stones carried at once. I forget the name.
Gives you some flexibility to pick up rings, potions, wands, etc. Just no crazy armor, etc.
And since some quest items are exactly 100 stones, you get to be naked while carrying one of those.

[Soirana]

Except for quest-related-items he is using nothing more than bare fists and his Acid spit against aging or stat-draining monsters once i learned how evil their drains can be.

There are no quest based food/pots... how you are dealing with food i such case? o_0??

In more serious note, if food is allowed spitting through the whole game has been done (probably without armor restrictions can't recall)...
http://www.adom.de/forums/showthread...spit-challenge

[Harpagornis]

Food is allowed @Soirana but cannot be bought. Using Acid Spit only sounds interesting but as the linked challenge weared all kinds of items and also casted spells i am not sure if spit alone will be strong enough with regad to poverty rules.

Further tests have to be done to prove me wrong.

[Jouni]

I believe it's possible, but really hard and tedious, and depends quite a lot on luck. I've managed to get to D:30, past fire tower, with following restrictions (flg here: https://ancardia.uk.to/adom_users/jouni/flgs/tias.flg):

* Right at the beginning, drop everything you start with and never pick up anything, except the orbs
* Picking up and carrying the orbs is allowed, but putting them into your tool slot or using in any way is not (with the exception of using them on the anomalies to get past D:48)
* Eating anything off the ground is allowed, but picking any food up isn't
* Using potions, scrolls, herbs, wands, etc. is prohibited, because those would have to be in your inventory in order to use
* If you get something put into your inventory (quests, eating gargoyle corpse), drop those items immediately
* Prayers, live sacrifices, acid spits, pool sipping, etc. are allowed, as long as it doesn't involve picking up any items

So basically any items you'll ever carry will be the orbs, and even those you can only use to advance through D:48. Other than the item restriction, any other tactics are allowed.

[Harpagornis]

Yeah, these are "nice" restrictions @Jouni. Level 30 CoC sounds quite nice - but - how do you dealt with the Ancient Chaos Wyrm?

[Jouni]

Drakelings suffer from some extra damage in ToEF (Tower of Eternal Flames), but they also get massive speed boost from the heat. Dealing with ACW gets quite a lot easier when you have 300+ speed . Plus monks get reduced movement energy cost as class bonuses, so that makes hit-and-run tactics even easier. If I recall correctly, I had kicked down several walls in the level in preparation to make it easy to run in circles around some walls with the ACW following me, repeatedly hitting him and running behind corner before he could hit me back.