Are vile spirits too strong?

[sylph]

I love the concept of vile spirits, but are they too strong?

BTW, I have tried to take care of the power of player ghosts: There are checks in place to
prevent unseemingly dangerous encounters,
limit ghost powers somewhat,
make ghosts a rare and exciting but not totally unlikely encounter and
provide some early experiences with player ghosts.

Playing in the latest prerelease, I've encountered the same ghost in 3 of my 4 characters. Fels the uncaring, a dark elven ranger. She has a PV of 'far too much for a level <7 character to hurt' (elven chain?), drains strength on almost every attack, and does about 16 damage per attack. She's making it impossible to get past the extremely early game...

[Blasphemous]

My experience is that if you encounter a vile spirit, while playing a character of roughly the same level as the one whose death gave rise to the spirit, you will lose.
They are much more powerful than the characters who gave them existence.
When you return a little later, around lvl 12 with some 15-20 PV, they are laughable.
I'd say they should adjust in power instead of having fixed stats.

[_Ln_]

I've yet to get damaged by my ghosts; they are a good source of equipment!

Realistically though, I find them not polished enough. You get an awesome description hinting at what powers it uses. In the end only the St-drain and phasing seem to be a feature. Only a ghost of my thief surprised me by stealing stuff. If I get the time, I'd sketch a full table of what powers can be attributed to what combos - these powers should be much more pronounced per race/class.
They should also scale on level at death.

If anything, I think Strength drain should be removed. Also, power adjustment doesn't really makes sense; however, ghost of level 50 character should be something incredibly hard to kill.

[mike3]

My experience is that if you encounter a vile spirit, while playing a character of roughly the same level as the one whose death gave rise to the spirit, you will lose.
They are much more powerful than the characters who gave them existence.
When you return a little later, around lvl 12 with some 15-20 PV, they are laughable.
I'd say they should adjust in power instead of having fixed stats.

So how would the OP avoid dying from them and get further into the game?

[Blasphemous]

Avoid them early on, it's that simple. Their appearance is preceded by a unique message.
The way I play, I just skip that dungeon and return later or check if the staircase is close by.

[adom-admin]

I love the concept of vile spirits, but are they too strong?


Playing in the latest prerelease, I've encountered the same ghost in 3 of my 4 characters. Fels the uncaring, a dark elven ranger. She has a PV of 'far too much for a level <7 character to hurt' (elven chain?), drains strength on almost every attack, and does about 16 damage per attack. She's making it impossible to get past the extremely early game...

For R52 ghosts will be rated as somewhat more dangerous. See http://www.adom.de/forums/project.php?issueid=3394

[Elcs]

I still dislike the idea of them being in the game at all. Just lost my first character to one.

[AlterAsc]

You can turn them off if you don't like them.

[littlebrather]

Since I playing almost only spellcasters, Player Ghosts were never a problem even for low lvl elves. Mb because of their intention to go melee and having really pity spellcasting ability, even comparing with kobold shamans.
As for me, Player Ghosts smell much like Dungeon Crawl SS. Not sure if this is the ADOM i liked ten years ago.

[Pentarion]

You can turn them off if you don't like them.

How do you do that?