YAVP: Jack, the Hurthling Assassin.

[Panda_Lord]

This is my second win in ADOM. My first was with a Drakeling wizard. I decided it wasn't worth posting about, though.

I really liked this race/class combo. Hurthlings are small and sneaky (which is vital to being a true assassin), although I don't know if her race had any in-game effects on stealth. I did spend a bit of time grinding herbs and buffing her strength up with a Ring of weakness, and that, in some people's eyes, may make this seem like less worthy of a win. I feel, however, that since the resources were available to me, I might as well use them. Perhaps, in later games, I might put restrictions on myself.

Things started off pretty simply with this character. She had a lot of options open for the early game, because of her race/class combo. She started with a boomerang, and lots of throwing knives and poison, as well as 4 levels in both thrown knives and thrown rocks. She was capable of picking up a lot of different stuff and just chucking it! It made the early game go by really easily. The black druid died to two berserking poisoned throwing daggers. If a character doesn't start with either herbalism or healing, I tend to try for herbalism; I feel that the spenseweed will aid me significantly more in the healing department later on than the healing skill will. Stomafilia for precrowning is also nice.

This character started out as one who was striving for an ultra. However, several things went awry, due to my carelessness. The fact that she suvived them all with barely a scratch on her pride made my mind scream that she was a winning character. First of all, I made a mistake with alignment juggling pertaining to the demented ratling and the old crone. I managed to feed the 6 artifacts to the ratling without a problem. However, I thought that I had talked to the crone and attained her first quest while I was in chaotic mode. Under this assumption, I went ahead and used stomafilia to be crowned a champion of balance. I got Serpent's Bite, which served me well. Of course, this character hadn't even been to the High Mountain village yet, and I was mistaking her for some other character. That mistake right there shattered all hopes of getting an ultra, because now I couldn't go chaotic without becoming a fallen champion! As I was hastily and carelessly exploring a part of the CoC, I accidentally backstabbed a friendly orc. This turned me chaotic, and a fallen champion. The spectres that came for my character were very easily dispatched, however (losing a toughness point in the process).

I grabbed up a group of blessed stomafilia and sacrificed it to the neutral god (after becoming neutral again, of course). In a stroke of irony, the neutral god removed the cursing and dooming she had put upon me for being a fallen champion and was "very close" for, basically, the rest of the game. I sacrificed some casino gold later to keep relationships high.

Not only had this character attained Serpent's Bite, but she also had quite a few weapons of penetration on her person as well. Thus, I could switch to those for higher PV opponents (such as a few greater molochs that came her way), and keep Serpent's bite for lower PV opponents. She found an emperor lich threat room, which was threatening, but she managed to avoid it without problems. She found two greater vaults: red dragons and giants. The red dragon vault had executor but I preferred Serpent's Bite and penetration knives (and her axe skill was at 0 while her knives skill was way up there). It also had Nature's Companion (a great boon when my red dragon scale mail got destroyed in a bit of a "divine mix-up". I hadn't taken the proper precautions before trying to convert a white altar to gray via gold saccing). Before I engaged the giant vault, however, I attained two daggers which I have wished to attain for quite some time: Needle and Sting. Using a orcish knife of penetration and quite a few potions of extra healing, the ancient blue wyrm died, and the AKW gave me one of them. The Assassin prince died in one hit, giving me the other.

I proceeded to rape the entire mountain chain with Needle and Sting. None could stand in my way after I had shoveled down giant corpses with a ring of weakness on for a bit of a strength boost, increasing my damage with the aforementioned pair even more. I question the effectiveness of my tactics when it comes to that sort of thing, which is why I started a thread about it not too long ago. After closing the gate, the black unicorn died in one hit, and I was purged of all corruption. Jack left the Drakalor Chain and became the Assassin Queen! Hooray!

[Panda_Lord]

Jack          St:69  Le:23  Wi:23  Dx:32  To:39  Ch:41  Ap:22  Ma:23  Pe:27 NC
DV/PV: 61/42   H: 879(896)    P: 273(273)    Exp: 50/30848289   DrCh  Sp: 121
Burdened
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----------------------------------------------------------------------------
                            Background Information
----------------------------------------------------------------------------

Name: Jack                Race: female Hurthling    Class: Assassin
Eye color: brown          Hair color: black         Complexion: light
Height: 2'7"              Weight: 66 pounds         Scars: 3
Age: 52 (grown-up, 8 years of unnatural aging added in)
Star sign: Salamander     Birthday: 15/Salamander (day 135 of the year)

YOUR HISTORY:
        Your parents were poor people. They loved you and cared for you,
 although you had to hunger more than once.
        During your childhood one of your uncles taught you a lot of things
 about the history of your people. Your vast knowledge on the legends and
 the lore of your people made you very popular with your friends because of
 all the exciting stories you knew.
        During your youth you embarked on many small journeys to nearby
 towns on behalf of your parents. You learned to know lots of people and
 made many friends.
        Your young adulthood was characterized by hard and long work. You
 had decided to study under a renowned master. To your great disappointment
 you had to find out, that he was a hard, unjust and tyrannic man,
 embittered by his old age. Your apprentice years were quite terrible.
        You decided to become an Assassin.


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                                  Inventory
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Total weight: 33483 stones                Carrying capacity: 40281 stones

He: uncursed crown of leadership [+2, +7] {Ch+18}                     [65s]
Ne: uncursed amulet of petrification resistance                        [3s]
Bo: uncursed fine leather armor (named) (+2, +0) [+2, +8] (+15 spd)  [120s]
Gi: blessed girdle of carrying [+6, +0]                               [15s]
Cl: uncursed cloak of adornment [+0, +3] {Ap+4}                       [40s]
RH: uncursed black rune-covered dagger (named) (+8, 3d4) [+4, +1]     [10s]
LH: uncursed black rune-covered dagger (named) (+8, 3d4) [+4, +1]     [10s]
RR: blessed ring of damage                                             [1s]
LR: uncursed ring of slaying (+6 melee damage, +6 missile damage)      [1s]
Br: blessed bracers of toughness [+0, +0] {To+6}                      [10s]
Ga: uncursed studded gloves [+0, +5]                                   [6s]
Bo: blessed seven league boots (+1, +1) [+4, +3]                      [30s]
MW: uncursed long bow of accuracy (+8, +5)                            [30s]
Mi: bundle of 12 uncursed arrows (+1, 1d6)                            [24s]
Tl: heap of 176 blessed spenseweeds                                  [352s]


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

Total weight: 32766 stones   Carrying capacity: 40281 stones

Lots of Stuff (Having a high Strength rocks)
It included AoLS, spears/knives of penetration

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                                Weapon Skills
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Melee weapon           Lvl   Hit   Dam   DV   Level          Required marks
---------------------  ---   ---   ---   --   -------------  --------------

Daggers & knives        13   +16   +10   +4   Mastery              5340
Pole arms               10   +10    +6  +12   excellent            924

Missile weapon         Lvl   Hit   Dam   Ra   Level          Required marks
---------------------  ---   ---   ---   --   -------------  --------------
Bows                     9   +18   +13   +3   excellent            49
Thrown daggers           4    +8    +6   +1   skilled              43
Thrown rocks & clubs     4    +8    +6   +1   skilled              35
Boomerangs & scurgari    2    +4    +3   +0   basic                16

Shields                Lvl   DV               Level          Required marks
---------------------  ---   ---              -------------  --------------
Shields                 11   +22              Mastery              2937


Damage caused with your melee weapons:
--------------------------------------
Right hand: +240 bonus to hit, 3d4+118 damage
Left hand: +241 bonus to hit, 3d4+118 damage


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

She was plenty skillful, but these two skills helped a lot:

  Concentration ............100    (superb)       [+3d3] (wishing for this made bookcasting a lot easier)
  Literacy .................100    (superb)       [+1d3]


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                                   Spells
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She found quite a few, actually. With ~20 Learning and 100 literacy, she made good use of these three:
  Farsight         :   173,  17pp     (Effectivity: +1)
  Strength of Atlas:   152,  10pp     (Effectivity: +1)
  Teleportation    :    58,  31pp     (Effectivity: +3)
   
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                              Her further life:
----------------------------------------------------------------------------

After she leaves the Drakalor Chain she is welcomed by her people with great
honors. They acknowledge her noble deeds, her valor, her cunning and her
great skills that helped to prevent the complete destruction of the world
she knows. She returns to her lands victorious and is hailed as a great
leader. Eventually she becomes queen and rule your subjects with an iron
fist for a long and peaceful time, allowing her people to prosper and grow.

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              Her achievements during her adventures:
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Jack, the hurthling assassin, saved the world with her brave efforts and
became a great ruler while saving herself 15 times.
She scored 13372220 points and advanced to level 50.
She survived for 0 years, 72 days, 3 hours, 57 minutes and 36 seconds
(140946 turns).
2 companions were killed during her adventures.
Jack visited 109 places.
Her strength score was modified by +60 during her career (<3 giant vaults and weakness rings).
She was unnaturally aged by 8 years.
She was the champion of the arena.
She was a member of the thieves guild.
She made a little water dragon very happy.
She defeated the arch enemy of a mighty karmic wyrm.
She saved Khelavaster from certain death.
She left the Drakalor Chain after completing her quest and became a great
leader and famous heroine.
5819 monsters perished under her attacks.
The following artifacts were generated during her adventure:
  the heavy crossbow "The Far Slayer" (giants)
  the obsidian quarrel "Thunderstroke" (red dragons)
  the scorched spear (red dragons)
  the rune-covered trident
  the black rune-covered dagger "Needle" (Oh)
  the black rune-covered dagger "Sting" (Yeah)
  the fine leather armor "Nature's Companion" (red dragons)
  the jet-black battle axe "Executor" (red dragons)
  the ring of immunity (Don't know, actually)
  the medium obsidian shield "Protector" (red dragons)
  the crown of leadership (giants)
  the shining long spear "Soaker" (Don't remember how I got this one. I think it might've been a precrown to give to the ratling (or use, if it was a good artifact))
  the emerald dagger "Serpent's Bite"
She had the following talents: Affinity with Daggers & Knives, Alert,
Ambidextrous, Beast of Burden, Good Shot, Hardy, Immune to Pain, Iron Skin,
Keen Shot, Lightning Shot, Master Packager, Miser, Porter, Quick, Quick
Shot, Steel Skin, Tough Skin, Treasure Hunter.
She had a final speed score of 121 (final base speed: 111).
She was a messiah of Auroree.
She asked for 11 divine interventions.
She was neutrally aligned.
She was a fallen champion. (I think this is a cool intrinsic; winning with a fallen champion just makes it cooler!)

The following monsters were vanquished:
      Plenty (which included cats :( )

[pblack]

holy crap... nature's companion, executor and protector from one single vault. that's incredibly good loot. And far slayer + crown of leadership on the giants vault probably wasn't a bad thing either =P.

[RndmNumGenerator]

Nice one. I always like seeing people play through with unusual combinations, rather than the traditional wizard/archer/fighter builds.