ToME Wiki
Alchemist Maxes
This is for version 2.2.7
Damage, accuracy, and AC cannot be modified by making artifacts, so they should be maxed first. You can always add speed to a ring of slaying, but you can't add slaying to an artifact ring of speed!
Some artifact rings you can find might be better than your own creations; the ring of phasing comes to mind. I haven't tried making the one ring better. (-;
WARNING: ring damage/AC values may change when they're made indestructible. This is a bug, present in version 2.2.2 to 2.2.7 as far as I know.
Rings
The best ring of damage you can make is +23
The best ring of accuracy you can make is +23
The best ring of slaying you can make is (+17, +17).
The best ring of protection is the ring of lordly protection for +25 AC
The best ring of speed you can make is infinity!!! It's +10 + (roll for 50% chance of +1. If you get it, roll again!). The limit really doesn't matter since you'll take any item with a good AC/DAM/to-hit/activation, and add speed with artifact creation to no end.
The best ring of +critical hits is ... can't find the code in object2.c
Weapons of Slaying
Sometime number of damage dice just double, that's it. That's usually best. But sometimes it's a random thing:
There is no limit to dice improvement and it isn't influenced by alchemy skill or luck stat - it's purely random! Lower dice number and strenght yield better improvements; for example a whip can go (5d8) with many tries but a mace of disruption(5d8) will rarely go over (6d10) or (7d9).
Don't forget to keep track of the number of attacks you'll get; calculate how much +STR and +DEX you'll need to get the maximum number of attack for the weapon. A double ego whip is more useful until you max out STR and DEX.
I don't know what's best to enchant in existing artifacts, but a great hammer (4d6 = average 14) is the favorite one-handed - the alternative being the two-handed mace of disruption(5d8 = average 22.5 and slay undead already on it). The mace of disruption isn't an automatic favorite because the bonus isn't that great because it's 2-handed only and that interfers with the extreme convenience of the shield as first artifact (see the shield section for why). Many players base their decision on whatever they find first instead of some carefully planned strategy...
Just remember that adding a second ego after "slaying" may cause slaying to be added twice, which is considered a cheat. Slaying should be added as the second ego.
A *thanc dagger is rarely better than making your own weapon(at least when you're leveling other artifacts)... and they are too random anyway to make sure they're better. Getting a +32 to dam on a *thanc has been done(rarely!!), but remember a *thanc is 1d4 to start with!! Other sentient weapons may be better. For an eru follower, the alchemy-made weapon is always better (in version 2.2.7 and 2.3)
Other weapons
Blade of chaos (6d5 = average 18) is nice damage, but the chaotic effects are quite annoying. Even if you didn't find vampiric weapons to *ID* and want vampiric effects from chaotic, you're still making a suboptimal choice you'll have to live with. You'd better keep it ego and artifact something else while you seek your artifactable weapon...
Shadow Blades are also nice (4d4 = 10 ave), and automatically gains stealth. Demonblades can also be wielded by alchemists (4d6 = 14 ave), which have slay demon brand.
Shield
The best shield (of deflection, this is a normal item) starts at 10 AC, and when you add "of reflection" is a good candidate for your first artifact. The max AC bonus it can have is... not calculated yet
First artifact strategy here: First Artifact
Armor
Dragon-type armors have nice activations. But you can't however add polished ego in 2.2.7 and 2.3 so you'd have to live with inferior AC unless you FIND a perfect armor to start with - unacceptably unlikely!!
Adamantium something(?) is AC 40 to start with. You can find multiples of this armor and enchant then double-ego repeatedly until you think your AC is high enough. My record is +57 and I don't know what the hardcoded max is.
Boots
Gloves, handgear
Gloves of slaying appear to be maxed at (+6, +6) while gloves of power are maxed for sure at (+5, +5).
Cesti and gauntlets are probably maxxed the same, but alchemists need gloves for alchemy so the 4 AC improvement isn't worth it because of the loss of convenience.
Light Sources
The maximum additive light range a character can have is +5 no matter what; so never choose your alchemy-artifact for the light slot for its light range. You can add +5 to it anyway (or +1 to 5 different artifacts). This spot should be choosen for nice activations and powers. But until you can artifact something you should stick with "of brightness" or some nice artifact. You can get +1 light range from fire branded weapons(+1 for your melee weapon and +1 for a boomrang).
"of the magi" lights have unknown maximum. Could someone code dive deeper than me and find out?
enchanting with scrolls
Enchanting for AC, to-hit, or to-dam is maxxed to 15 (you can get up to the first 10 from the shops based on your level). The step from 14 to 15 has about 0.1% chance of occuring, so make use of "*enchant armor*" scrolls instead of ordinary "enchant armor" and keep a pile of 99 *enchant* scrools ready to use before you even add the first ego.
The to-dam of your main and last weapon ever is much more important than AC, so do use huge piles of *enchant weapon* scrolls on it before you try to max-ego it, and make many attempts with identical weapon bases to get something that you can live with forever!
resist disenchant is your friend
This resist is extremely important so your now-artifacted [40, +57] armor doesn't become a lousy [40, +27] armor... something a mere warrior wears... artifact can never be AC/to-hit/to-dam increased again unless it's under +15 from disenchant damage...
This is why artifacted items should always have the disenchant resist. Put it on multiple artifact to avoid situations like lacking disenchant due to some temporary equipment change (traps, etc).
===================================== Wyrmnax - as of 2.3.2, there are Slaughter Axes, that are 5d7 and 1 handed.