Hello everyone,

If you're getting this, you should have requested a copy of my ToME strategy guide. If you haven't, then, well, here's an unsolicited ToME strategy guide for you.

Currently, the guide is a 240k (or so) text file, which means it's about 60 pages long. Since .txt isn't the most web-friendly format, I hope that someone will HTMLize it in future or something (hyperlinks to different parts of the Guide would be really cool).

Despite its length, it still isn't comprehensive, so changes and alterations to it are welcome. Since I'm probably not going to be involved with the process beyond this point, I'll give Maylith and Neil and company control over what needs to be added and what doesn't.

I hope that somebody finds it helpful.

Lord Dimwit 7-11-04

Contents

  1. 1. Disclaimer and Greeting
    1. 1.1 Welcome
    2. 1.2 About this Guide
    3. 1.3 Read this First
  2. 2. Character
    1. 2.1 Races and Subraces
    2. 2.2 Stats
    3. 2.3 Skills
    4. 2.4 Gods
      1. Eru
      2. Manwe
      3. Yavanna
      4. Tulkas
      5. Melkor
    5. 2.5 Knowing Thyself
  3. 3. Combat
    1. 3.1 How Not to Stab Yourself in the Eye
    2. 3.2 Fighting Effectively with Magic
    3. 3.3 Fighting Monsters that Summon Stuff
    4. 3.4 Fighting Monsters that Breathe Stuff
    5. 3.5 Fighting on Special Levels
    6. 3.6 Monsters that can Make Your Life Miserable
    7. 3.7 Battlefield Control
  4. 4. Equipment
    1. 4.1 What Not to Wear
    2. 4.2 Prioritizing
    3. 4.3 Weapons
    4. 4.4 Equipment and Magic
    5. 4.5 Sample Equipment lists of winners
  5. 5. Inventory
    1. 5.1 23 little slots
    2. 5.2 Stuff you want
    3. 5.3 Stuff you really want
    4. 5.4 Stuff you need
    5. 5.5 What to do when Your Backpack Explodes
  6. 6. The World
    1. 6.1 Another warning
    2. 6.2 On the Surface
    3. 6.3 Places that are Important
    4. 6.4 Places that can Help You
    5. 6.5 Places that can Kill You
  7. 7. The Quest
    1. 7.1 Yet another Warning
    2. 7.2 Bree to Orc Caves
    3. 7.3 Orc Caves to Mirkwood
    4. 7.4 Mirkwood to Dol Guldur
    5. 7.5 Dol Guldur to Angband
    6. 7.6 Endgame
  8. 8. The Void
    1. 8.1 What the Void is and how it can Work for You
    2. 8.2 Potential Races and Classes
    3. 8.3 Planning and Preparation
    4. 8.4 Hacking Your Way Through
  9. 9. Hints by Class Type
    1. 9.1 Warrior
    2. 9.2 Archer
    3. 9.3 Rogue
    4. 9.4 Mage
    5. 9.5 Priest
    6. 9.6 Loremaster
  10. 10. Miscellenary
    1. 10.1 If the Game Starts Driving You Nuts
    2. 10.2 If You Just Want to Win
    3. 10.3 Player Ethics
    4. 10.4 Where to go for More Help
    5. 10.5 Credits
    6. 10.6 Note by DarkGod
  11. 11. Changes

1. Disclaimer and Greeting

1.1 Welcome

Hello, good evening, and welcome to the ToME Advanced Strategy Guide. You probably didn't come here for idle chit-chat, so I'll get right to business.

1.2 About this Guide

This Guide is being provided to satisfy the needs of people who simply want to become the best ToME players possible. Some of the strategies provided herein might apply to other roguelike games as well, but it's designed especially for ToME. Here you'll find strategies for managing your character, surviving at mid to late levels, killing nasty monsters, the whole shebang.

Since this is probably the final word I'll have on the game, I would like to encourage others to add to or change this guide as needed, ESPECIALLY if new versions of ToME come out that contradict what I say here. Just adjust the credits list at the end accordingly.

*/ I checked the total length of the guide, including formatting like line and paragraph breaks, and it's about 60 pages long right now. That's quite a bit of stuff, but there's still room for improvement. ToME is a big game, and covering all of the ground that needs to be covered is a monumental task, one that's certainly too big for just one person /*

I should also note here that this guide is intensely opinionated. Specifically, parts of it may very well seem shortsighted, obtuse, misguided, or outright wrong in the head. No part of it should be taken as doctrine, or really as anything other than how I feel about any one issue (and at any one particular time, for that matter).

This guide is current as of 1 August 2006.

1.3 Read this First

This isn't a guide for beginners. It's designed to provide people who are relatively good at the game to become good enough to win. If you can't get to level 25 or so on a fairly regular basis, this is not for you. I'm not going to explain to you why three hits with a Dagger are better than one hit with a Two-Handed Sword or which stats to choose for a Ranger or whatever. You should know this already. If you don't, then go out and familiarize yourself with the game for a while before coming back.

By the same token, this guide contains some spoilers, especially for the late game. Specifically, it mentions a lot of artifacts and what they do by name, goes through ToME's basic plot with some detail, and clues you in on a lot of dungeons, monsters, items, and other things that would take a considerable amount of time to find on your own. I'll warn you about some of these things before you see them, but be aware. If you think you've got a good handle on these things, then you're good to go, if not, come back later.

Got all that?

Now, if you're still reading, you either ignored my warnings or you're a fairly proficient player. Congratulations! Read on for advice, abuse, and other amazing things.

2. Character

2.1 Races and Subraces

The primary thing that I ALWAYS look for in a character of ANY class is hit points. You need hit points. Hit points prevent you from dying. It doesn't matter if you can deal 1000 damage per hit with your Slaughter Axe of Insane Annihilation--if you've got only 300 HP and that Great Wyrm of Chaos decides that you would look better stuffed and mounted on its wall, there's not much, besides dumb luck, that will prevent it. So I tend to play races with better hit die and more HP.

*/ Hit die are listed in the ingame help and represent the amount of HP you will gain per level at average constitution. Hit die can be modified by subrace and class; a Human Mage has 10, for instance, while a Human Hermit Mage has 7 and a Half-Ogre Axemaster has 21. This means, with a little quick calculation, that the Human Mage will have an average of 250 HP at level 50, the Human Hermit Mage will have an average of 175, and the Half-Ogre Axemaster will have an average of 525. This is BEFORE the CON bonuses kick in, mind you, so the actual figures in the endgame will (ideally) be much higher /*

Then I tend to look at intangibles. Does a race get any bonus resistances? How useful will the race's skills be in the early and late games? Will I be able to survive at early levels with this race? I consider all of these points to be second to hit points. Finally, I look at stats. Bad stats can be rectified completely (if you have maximize off, which I always do) later in the game, so I try not to sweat over lousy stats during character creation. I just want my stats good enough to carry me through those first difficult levels. I especially like a good CON because, you know, hit points.

In my opinion, the most playable races are the following, in no particular order:

Other races are still pretty easy to win with, such as High-Elf, Dunadan, and Thunderlord, but the disadvantages of these races (usually high XP penalties, though I'm hardly impressed by the Thunderlords' stealth) aren't great enough to win me over to their side.

Three of these races have excellent (10+) hit die, and the other two (Dark Elf and RohanKnight) have great innate abilities (a modifier to the Magic skill for Dark-Elves, an insane speed boost and Weaponmastery modifier for the RohanKnight). Ents have great hit points, strength, and constitution, making them an attractive choice for almost any class, despite the speed penalty. Petty-Dwarves and Half-Ogres strike a good balance between toughness and passable stats, with good constitutions and hit die. The Dark-Elf is the lightweight of the group, but the innate benefits the race affords more than offsets the lousy hit points.

Basically, if you're going for a fighter type, I would try a RohanKnight, an Ent, or a Half-Ogre. For mages, a Dark-Elf, a Petty-Dwarf, or a Half-Ogre.

Comments on other races: The Human and the Half-Elf are pretty underplayed, probably because they lack the impressive stats, resistances, and bonuses of some of the other races. However, they compensate for this by having very low EXP penalties... and you can beef them up a little by selecting subraces. If you're playing a Vampire RohanKnight, you've got a 200% EXP penalty right off the bat... this can seriously hamper you, especially in the early levels. If you have trouble leveling up to the point where you can handle the baddies at your depth, you might try one of these.

The Yeek has an even lower EXP penalty, but Yeeks have some other problems (low stats and HP being perhaps the main ones). Still, not all races rely that heavily on these two attributes (the Monk and Possessor come to mind), so if you want to get to level 50 by the time you reach Mordor, the Yeek might be viable.

Gnomes and Hobbits are also often overlooked for many of the same reasons. They're best suited for the Mage and Rogue professions, but this doesn't necessarily have to be the case. A Gnome Warrior, for instance, doesn't have as many HP problems as you might expect (due to the large class bonus), and having innate teleportation is a great benefit for someone who doesn't use magic.

While we're on the subject of innate teleportation, the Dwarf's "find secret passages" ability is perhaps even better for these puposes; it works like Probability Travel minus the "instant up and down stairs" ability, and can be used to get yourself out of a sticky situation in a *hurry*. You can even use it on a group of monsters lurking between yourself and a wall to teleport yourself past the monsters and onto the other side of the wall (something that Probability Travel won't give you). Innate blindness resist is also very nice.

Subraces. The default is Classical, and I usually choose this when I don't want or think I need any other advantages. However, if I'm playing a weaker character, I often bolster myself with a subrace. For races that could use some extra hit points (a Wood-Elf Archer, for example), I often choose Zombie, which gives you 3 extra hit die and some valuable abilities. I choose Skeleton if I don't need hit points, but am worried about resistances later in the game. Having Shards resistance as an innate is very helpful. I run the occasional Spectre if I want the fun and excitement of being able to walk through walls, though I tend not to get very far with these because of the huge HP cut. I consider Vampire to be the strongest subrace, however, and if I'm running a character that's so weak that I'm not sure if it's feasible, I'll choose this. The mild weakness of being unable to travel by day is easily offset with the fairly common Light resistance, and the innates that Vampires get are great.

Barbarians and Lost-Souls I don't play that much. Lost-Souls are good for a larf sometimes, but they're really a different kind of character that I never really appreciated. I won with a couple of Lost-Souls, but didn't really like it; all of the fun is taken out of the early game.

And then there's the wretched Hermit, the weak, puny, pencil-neck geek that everyone chooses when they want to torture themselves. I wouldn't really recommend the Hermit as anything but a handicap, though it might be feasible when running a magic-using character with good hit die and poor INT/WIS (such as an Ent Mage). Fact is, the -3 to hit die generally don't compensate for the extra stats and mana boost you receive. This applies especially to Mages, who have HP troubles anyway...

I hope this gives you a good idea of how to build a strong character from the sometimes intimidating ToME race/subrace pool.

2.2 Stats

Now let's be realistic for a second. To win the game you've got to kill stuff. And there's really two ways of doing that: with magic and other distance attacks, or with good old-fashioned elbow grease. Therefore, when picking stats at the beginning, I go for characters that are either very strong and dextrous OR very intelligent and wise--fighting types versus spellcasting types.

STR and DEX for fighters. These are your most important stats. You should have tons of HP even with a relatively low CON, so this stat can be relegated to third priority. What you need is killing power. Go for the multiple blows; boost your stats so that you can get multiple blows even with heavy weapons. Don't worry about INT, WIS, and CHR--they're of minimal use to you for most of the game, and you'll be dumb as a rock at the start anyway.

INT or WIS and CON for spellcasters. Listen. The two most important stats for a Mage are not INT and WIS but INT and CON. I would place CON even above INT in this case. Your hit points are lousy and you NEED TO STAY ALIVE. So long as your INT is decent (18+), you should have enough offense to suit you, but you can never have too much HP. I've won with mages who wore Hammerhand several times, just for the +3 CON. Boosting your Magic skill will increase your mana, but more CON is the only 100% reliable way to get more HP.

Basically, you just need to ensure that you're healthy enough not to get breathed on and killed by a Red Dragon Bat before you start indulging in the offensive arts. I'll no doubt say this many more times over the course of this guide: hit points keep you alive. If you don't have them, you don't really have anything.

Gaining stats over the course of the game is one of the most important--and tedious--tasks of a good ToME player. Search for those potions and stat-boosting eq, kill a million Novice Mindcrafters, yaaaaawn. I would say in this case that you don't need to make sure that your stats are perfect, just good enough. Enough stat increasers will fall through your fingers in the later game for you to be a little easygoing in the middle. If you've got enough HP and feel confident in your attacking abilities, feel free to head down deeper in the dungeon and take on tougher monsters. Just because your INT is at 18/118 and not 18/120 is no reason to spend another two hours scumming the Sandworm Lair for stat-gain potions.

2.3 Skills

Skills are, of course, different for each character, so when starting out you should take note of which skills your character could invest in that are particularly desirable, and, more pointedly, what sort of multiplier each of those skills has. An Assassin, for example, has a whopping .5 multiplier to Disarming, meaning that you'll have to pour a million skill points into it to get anywhere. However, an Assassin also has a 2.0 multiplier in Stealth, meaning that only a few points in this category will help a lot. Still, you should also note that gaining a level of about 10 in Disarming with an Assassin is as effective as level 35 or so with a Warrior, since an Assassin, as a rogue-type class, gets much more benefit from the skill. Just FYI.

Note that now powers like Stealth and Searching are largely controlled by skill points. Races with a lower Stealth (like RohanKnights and Thunderlords) get a penalty to the relevant skill to begin with, but they still get the same multiplier. This means that a Thunderlord Necromancer is still going to wake the neighbors whilst moseying across the room to pick up that intriguing Phosphorescent Potion, but a RohanKnight Assassin is much more feasible.

No matter what race and class I am, I *always* try to put skill points into Magic-Device. All of my winners have at least a level of 30 in this skill except for those devoted to Antimagic, which forbids use of devices. The reason for this is that its benefits are just too great not to take advantage of. Not only will Magic-Device make using wands, staves, rods, and artifacts much, much easier, it'll also increase the power level of the spells contained in some of these devices. Having an extra 10 points in Magic-Device could mean a level 15 rather than level 5 Manathrust contained in your wands, or let you rely on your Rod of Healing in the heat of battle rather than reaching for a potion. Magic-Device is great.

If the option is open to you and you're a fighter or archer type, I would maximize one of the weaponmasteries (sword/hafted/bow/crossbow etc.), and ignore all the others. These skills will give you huge combat bonuses with the appropriate weapons. You should also plan on putting at least some skill points into Weaponmastery or Combat--it might seem useless, but later in the game when you become accustomed to missing 27 times in a row while fighting a level 110 Great Bile Wyrm, every point will count. Weaponmastery and/or Combat are essential for non-warrior fighting types (like Possessors) as well.

Mages of all kinds will need to max out Magic and devote points to either Sorcery or school magic; from there they can go with other auxillary skills like Prayer or Necromancy, or just dump more skills into Spell-Power, which is always helpful.

If you're a Mage, I would suggest maxing out Fire and/or Mana; you need attack spells. I usually go for around level 6 in Water for Ent's Potion as well, and a respectable level in Nature for the recovery spells. Conveyance and Divination are also essential. Priests, if they play their cards right and do all the God quests, should only have to devote a few points to Prayer. From there, they can pump up Spirituality, go for Weaponmastery, or take a more mage-like route with points put into magical skills. I tend to run fighting priests, and put my points into Combat and Weaponmastery so I can boost my extra blows and other combat skills.

It really helps to have a plan for where all your points are going to go; if you run a character in debug mode beforehand just to see how many skill points it'll take to max out certain categories, you can plan more effectively for when you actually spend those points. Get the important stuff maxxed out first, and then go for the extras.

*/ Note that boosting Spirituality is one of the ONLY ways to increase your character's saving throw; it won't get better as you gain levels or stats. However, since it takes a LOT of points in Spirituality to even notice a difference, I would only recommend this category for Priests /*

As for abilities (like Extra Max Blow or Tree Walking), you can go with them if they're part of your grand plan for your character, but some of them (like Touch of Death) can only be gained through lots and lots of skill points put in the right places. For fighting Loremasters and Priests, at least, I like to have some extra blows under my belt, and I try to invest in Necromancy and get Undead Form for Sorcerers without many HP. I also get Spread-Blows if I have over 8 blows or so and enough Weaponmastery. The other abilities I don't consider too useful.

2.4 Gods

Well, I'll lay my cards on the table with respect to Gods right away: I think the best God for warriors and hand-to-hand combat types is Melkor. I think the best God for Mages and magic types is Melkor or Eru. I think the best God for archers and pseudo-fighting types (like Possessors) is Manwe. I'll tell you why as we break these down God by God, but first a note on piety and prayer.

A common point of obsession among semi-experienced players is lack of piety. People worshipping Yavanna or Manwe bite their nails as their piety descends below zero, and relentlessly try to keep it high while still devoting time to the quest. My advice to these people is not to sweat it. Since most gods who have severe piety-reducing restrictions reduce piety per round and according to your WIS, you won't get high piety until you get a higher speed and WIS, or, in other words, until later in the game. So, unless Manwe starts hating you so much that your speed starts going down, don't worry about it.

Now, prayer. There are two kinds of God worshippers: those who go all the way and bring Prayer up to a high level, and those who just don't really care and worship a God just because. Eru, Yavanna, Melkor, and to a lesser extent Manwe are good for the former type, while Tulkas and perhaps Manwe are good for the latter. The benefits of many Gods only come out with Prayer, and unless you're willing to devote skill points to it, you should reconsider worshipping them. On a related note, if you decide to do the high Prayer thing and get those benefits, you NEED to do the God quests. Completing all of them is the equivalent of dumping 30 skill points into Prayer--that'll almost max out the Prayer level of a priest, and put even a casual believer halfway to some real advantages. If you hate the god temples (I do), then just hold off on doing them until you can find some Potions of Enlightment or learn Vision or whatever--wizard light makes the temples really easy.

The Gods (Much more info on gods is available in the Priest section of hints by class type)

Eru

Eru offers impressive benefits and great drawbacks. He's of VERY limited use to fighters (except Haftedmasters) due to his rules concerning blunt weapons, and anyone who prefers fighting to magic might be better off looking elsewhere. However, those willing to devote enough prayer points to his worship are very well off; Eru has probably the best God Spells (See the Music, Listen to the Music, Know the Music, Lay of Protection) of any God, and the traditional magic he gives you (Mana and Divination) is very good too.

Mages can do pretty well by forsaking the Mana and Divination schools entirely and just pouring points into Prayer and Spell-power; if you do all the god quests as well, this is a very cost-effective way to go. Lay of Protection is *great* once you get it up to radius 2, whereupon it becomes one of the most powerful anti-summoning techniques possible. Cast the spell and all of your liberties vanish, just like that. */ See the part about liberties in the "Dealing With Monsters That Summon" part /* The mana bonus and possible resurrection are very nice as well.

Manwe

I think Manwe is a better god for fighters than Tulkas. Part of the reasoning for this is Manwe's Blessing, which, if you've got enough Prayer skill, can raise your hitroll by as many as *50* points. You also get Wind Shield, which helps with AC and protection from evil If your Prayer is high enough, you also get Avatar, which turns you into an insane fighting machine. And the +7 speed is nothing to sneeze at either.

Regardless of feelings as far as fighters are concerned, though, I think that Manwe is far and away the best Archer god, with the great +hit bonus giving you a much better chance of nailing that distant Lich with an arrow. Combining multiple shots with the speed bonus is also very cool. And his Conveyance boost gives you the ability to phase around and use hit-and-run tactics as well. Good stuff.

Yavanna

I've only won a couple of characters worshipping Yavanna, and it's not just because she's really touchy as far as piety is concerned. You need to dump a LOT of skill points into Prayer for Yavanna to be effective; she provides very few benefits to those with a low Prayer level, and almost none of her abilities are offensive, meaning that you're pretty much on your own as far as killing is concerned.

The good news is that Yavanna can provide a powerful magical boost to those willing to invest in her prayers. Mages might have little use for them, but Warriors appreciate the Stone Skin ability provided by the Earth school and the Healing spell given by the Nature school. Water can also give some interesting abilities. A Warrior who can cast Tidal Wave? Now that I like!

*/ Note that it IS possible, through manipulating Yavanna and Melkor worship and maxxing Prayer, to learn Genocide with a Warrior. This consumes most of the character's available skill points, however, and results in a very bizarre winning character (I've done it with a Demonologist). This is somewhat more feasible with a Ranger. /*

Tulkas

I'm very skeptical of the value of Tulkas worship. He's effective as a God if you're unwilling to put any skill points into Prayer at all just because of his STR and CON boost, but his God spells are weak, even at high levels, and his benefits pale in comparison to some of the other Gods' abilities.

Tulkas's main virtue, I think, is Stone Prison, gained when you get your Prayer level above level 30 or so. This is an immensely useful spell, especially for Warriors. For the most part, however, I regard Tulkas as a "better than nothing" God, one to worship when you don't want to worry about Gods.

After using Tulkas a few more times, I've become a little more favorably disposed toward him; he's very undemanding (piety is really easy to get) and low maintenance. The damage bonus is nice, as are the stat boosts, and Wave of Power can be an effective substitute for long-range attacks if you pour enough skill into Prayer. All the same, it doesn't quite stack up to a high-level Avatar spell (and doesn't come anywhere close to a high-level Curse spell). So I guess my feelings on Tulkas have changed a little, from mild disgust to cautious optimism. Still, I'd prefer Manwe.

Melkor

Ahhh... Melkor. Perhaps the most misunderstood and underappreciated God out there, the big evil guy is tough to get used to, but his benefits are amazing. You don't really start noticing them until your Prayer level starts getting high, though, so don't go for Melkor worship unless you're willing to pump up Prayer. Mind Steal and Corpse Explosion are just parlor tricks, and he only grants you access to the useless Mind school, but these shortcomings are overshadowed by his advantages.

Melkor provides Udun for Mages (with the irritating condition that he reduces your INT and WIS). Why should you care about Udun? Well, it'll allow you to cast a couple of crappy spells and a couple of really, *really* good ones, namely, Drain and Genocide. Genocide really requires no explanation: get in trouble, cast the spell, no more trouble. One of the most useful spells out there. Drain will, if you've got some good Rods in your inventory, almost act as a bottomless Potion of Restore Mana if you use it correctly. Get down to 100 SP, cast drain on that Mithril Rod of Capacity, now you're at 420. Rest after the battle to let the rod recharge, and you're good to go again. However, since only Drain and Genocide are really worth learning, I would put a max of one or two points into Udun and let your high skill in Mana and Nature magic take care of the rest.

It's in the sphere of hand-to-hand combat, however, that Melkor really shines. Not only does he boost your STR and CON like Tulkas (the INT/WIS penalty is less important for Warriors), he allows you to take a minor HP hit by sacrificing at his altar to increase your damroll up to around +4 per hit (an amount depending on your WIS; you get +4 or maybe +5 dam at maxxed WIS, I think). Got 100 extra HP? Give 'em to Melkor and you've got 40 extra damage per hit. Not bad at all. It's Curse, however, that really makes Melkor worthwhile. You can autocast it after you get Prayer above about 5 and piety above about 5000, but it's not too effective at first. Once you get your Prayer level really high, though (level 35+, I would say), it becomes absolutely devastating. It reduces the AC and attack power of the cursed monster, and also reduces speed, an effect that currently works EVEN ON UNIQUES. If you curse something 3 or 4 times a round (very possible with the autocast), you'll soon be moving about 10 times as fast as your foe, allowing you to defeat even extremely difficult uniques without breaking a sweat. I've killed Sauron with a Melkor worshipper who suffered only TWO rounds of attacks from him. You really have to see a high-level fighter using Curse to believe it. It's insane.

Some people have, in fact, brought up the notion that Curse is *too* powerful for high-leveled Warriors. This is true in a lot of cases, though not all, I think; if you're already powerful enough to kill most monsters in a couple of turns, Curse will just seal the deal, while for others (a Mimic, for example), it might make killing those high-level creatures with melee feasible for the first time. I guess you have to rely on your player ethics; if Curse is going to take all the fun out of the game for you, well, don't use it.

Melkor also gives you fire immunity and invisibility. Not bad, huh?

2.5 Knowing Thyself

I think that, more than anything, the indicator of my success when playing a character is whether or not I know exactly what that character can handle. This allows me to gauge which enemies I can defeat and which I need to watch out for, what I'm comfortable doing in any given situation, which items I still need before I can start taking on certain monsters, etc. If you have a better "feel" for your character, you can better control your character.

For example, Jenna the High-Elf Polearm-master is trudging through the Sandworm Lair when she gets hit by a Disenchantment Ball trap. Ouch! Suddenly she's got 14 hit points left. Now, I've been sure to keep Jenna's CON nice and high during the early game, and this is the closest she's come to death so far. So I heal up, shoulder my pack, and head out again.

The next level holds a vault, which has lots of tasty items and some nonthreatening monsters interspersed. However, Jenna's not too good at disarming, and that trap that almost killed me gives me pause. In this case, I would skip the vault until I got some more Magic-Device skill and a Rod of Disarming.

Later on, a much more prosperous Jenna is fighting a bunch of Vrocks and taking quite a drubbing. A quick Phase Door saves her hide, but I don't head back into the battle right away. Instead, I take a more conservative course, luring the Vrocks one by one out of the room they're in and killing them as they appear.

In Moria, Jenna fights a hair-raising battle against a group of Vibration Hounds. Though she manages to kill them without much incident, not having sound resistance is making her nervous. She decides to leave Moria alone for a while and head off to Mirkwood to gain some experience.

Still later, Jenna's hit a bit of misfortune: the Great Wyrm of Law she's fighting has summoned a Great Wyrm of Thunder. However, she's been fighting Ancient Dragons for a while now, and can dispatch them without too much trouble. So instead of pursuing an escape route, she just knuckles down and keeps hacking away at the dragons.

These are simplistic examples, but they serve to illustrate the same point: get to know your character, know what you're capable of and what's still outside of your scope. It'll increase your chances of survival.

3. Combat

3.1 How Not to Stab Yourself in the Eye

The thing in your hands with one sharp end and one blunt end is a sword; if you're a fighter-type, you're going to have to learn to use it or something like it with some degree of skill. The easiest way to conduct yourself is just to charge screaming into battle, but a little subtlety--even if you're a Troll--is always helpful.

The rule for fighters is One At A Time. Fight one monster at a time if at all possible, and don't leave yourself exposed to nasties by charging out onto open ground if you can help it. This can spell the difference between this 

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and this 

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########.############

In the first situation, you're surrounded by trolls and are taking a lot of damage. In the second, trolls are coming at you one at a time, and you can kill them much more easily. The only disadvantage of the second situation is that you've boxed yourself in; you can't really run away. This is one of the reasons why you should a) always be sure you can handle the monsters before you decide to fight them, and b) always have a means of teleportation handy.

However, it's important not to panic just because you're surrounded by monsters. OK, so you've goofed somehow and now you're surrounded by Dreads. But you've got an armor class of 211 and 1300 HP and those Dreads are doing 30 points of damage per round to you. Do you teleport away or just keep hacking away at them? Once you start losing a significant percentage of your HP per round, though, or if you know that one of your enemies has the potential to take your HP down quickly, don't hesitate to get out of there. The motley association of molds populating the dungeon won't be impressed if you fight those creatures rather than run, so just swallow your pride and teleport out. Better to be a coward than a corpse.

A large part of success as a fighter is manipulating the surrounding terrain to give you the advantage against your foes. If you can do that, all that you need otherwise is plenty of killing power and some magical backup. If the monsters you're fighting are weak and you're sure you can even kill them all at once, you can be a little less discreet, but remember that if you're deep in the dungeon, it's easy to leave yourself exposed. While you're fighting those Trolls, an Archlich could come ambling through the walls, and if that happens, the player in the second situation will be in much better shape to handle it.

If you've got long-range attacks (whether with wands, arrows, etc), I would encourage you to avoid the "grassy knoll" setup: 

#####################
#......TTTT.....#####
#.@...TTTTT.....#####
#......TTTTT....'....
#.......TTT.....#####
#...............#####
#####################

So you've got your bolts and heavy crossbow and are ready to take out these trolls. So you start shooting, and before long, you get this: 

#####################
#..T{T$.........#####
#.@TTT{T..T.....#####
#.T{T~${....T...'....
#...$T{.T.T.....#####
#...............#####
#####################

Great work, genius. Now you've killed a few trolls, but the others are swamping you, and all your bolts are scattered around the room. Try this instead: 

#####################
#......TTTT.....#####
#.....TTTTT.....#####
#......TTTTT....@...
#.......TTT.....#####
#...............#####
#####################

Now you can nail the trolls with bolts to your heart's content, and if you don't kill them all off with your ammo stockpile, you can fall back into the corridor and fight them hand-to-hand. So the One At A Time rule applies to archers to an extent as well. Now, there are some monsters (such as Zephyr Hounds) that won't charge down a corridor to meet you like the aforementioned trolls. Instead, they'll lurk in a nearby chamber, waiting for YOU to come out and attack THEM. Whereupon they'll gleefully all breathe at you and then do the old dogpile thing. 

##############
###........###
##..........##
#............#
#............#
#............#
#............#
#............#
#..........Z.#
#...Z....Z...#
#..Z.Z.....Z.#
##..ZZ...Z..##
###.Z..3..Z###
#######'######
#######@######

Edgar the Hobbit Assassin knows that there are hounds in the room to the north, but whenever he steps on the square marked "3," they all mob him at once. If he stays where he is, the hounds steadfastly refuse to come out and play. So what's he to do?

Here, Edgar has several options. If he's got a reliable ball attack, like a Wand of Noxious Cloud, he should just aim it at the squares surrounding 3 and watch gleefully as the hounds choke to death. If he doesn't have a ball spell, but does have arrows or other bolt attacks, he can do this: 

##############
###........###
##..........##
#............#
#............#
#............#
#............#
#............#
#..........Z.#
#...Z....Z...#
#..Z.Z.....Z.#
##..ZZ...Z..##
###.Z.....Z###
#######'######
######..@#####

Tunnel out one or both of the walls to the left and right, then move back and forth between the spots. This should throw the hounds, which move somewhat erratically, off target and allow him to pick off some of them. Once they're gone, he can go in and clean up. If, however, Edgar only has his trusty Main Gauche, he has to go into the room and take some hits until he's lost some percentage of his hit points, then lure the hounds back into the corridor. The hounds will follow him if he's wounded; it's just a question of leaving just the right amount of blood on the floor.

For most of the game, damroll is the important thing to have with fighting-types. Rings of Damage and Slaying can help to increase this, as can certain gloves and amulets, good strength, a good weapon, and skill in one of the weapon masteries. How much damage is enough? Well, a general rule is that you can never have enough. Some winning warriors of mine could do over 2000 damage a round in damroll alone, before considering weapon die. However, only about a total of 1000 damage a round is desirable for winning. This shouldn't be too tough; maxxing out a weapon mastery will give you +25 per hit, a good weapon will give you another +20 or so, strength will kick in for 10-20 more, and that's already about 60 damage a round. Multiply that by around 9 blows a round or so, and you've got over 500. Equipment will boost that ability more.

In the late game, however, a good high hitroll will become almost as important, if not more important, than damroll. Monsters in the late game (in Angband, where they're levelled) get some pretty insane armor class boosts, and if you don't have a high enough hitroll and skill in combat, you're going to have to become accustomed to missing your enemies almost 100% of the time. You can fix this by boosting hitroll sufficiently (over 110 or so will allow you to hit most things in Angband) or by pumping more points into the Weaponmastery and Combat skills. If you can get your Combat skill (on the character subscreen) up to around "Legendary [50]," you should be good (hitroll raises this skill, as does skill points in the areas mentioned above). Some winners I've run have hitroll about 200, but that's excessive unless you're headed for the Void.

On a related note, there are a number of items and abilities that can increase your fighting ability temporarily. Most of these deal with hitroll (berserk, for example, will boost your +hit by 20), though others (stone skin, Wind Shield) increase armor class. Usually warriors who have specific weapon masteries are powerful enough hand-to-hand not to need these enhances for the bulk of the game (once you start fighting leveled monsters in Angband, though, extra hitroll *really* helps), but other pseudo-fighters like loremasters and priests might need the extra help.

So here's a few ways to boost your fighting ability without placing skill points in the appropriate categories:

Mindcraft is a very nice ability for a warrior to have, since it'll provide you with almost all of the above: a speed boost, a hitroll boost, and an armor class boost. It'll also give you temporary resistances to some of the elements, which can be a huge help (see the part on breath attacks).

Usually, when fighting a monster that's tough enough to concern me, I'll use a speed enhancement, a hitroll enhancement, and an armor enhancement if I have one. Other, more excessive measures I save for really, really, really tough uniques.

One more comment on warrior equipment: I've noticed a high percentage of fighters on the ladder and elsewhere using the Ring of Flare. Now, Flare is nice if you lack fire immunity or have really lousy stats, but in my book it takes a back seat to other rings that offer you +slaying ability or extra attacks. Here's why: virtually all of Flare's abilities can be duplicated by other equipment. The coat of Trone, for example, will give you better stat boots, fire immunity, and a bunch of other nice things (reflection!) without consuming a ring slot. However, there are *no* body armors that will give you +hit, +dam, or extra blows. That means that you must rely on your ring slots to provide these things for you. A character who uses a good Ring of Slaying and Trone will be better off than a character who uses Flare and, say, Hithlomir. If you're a warrior and really need fire immunity in the late levels, use Narya--at least that gives you a small boost to hit and damage.

The one unique ability of Flare is its "switch positions" ability; I haven't used this too often, but other people swear by it. Still, if you really like this ability, I would advise you to keep Flare in your inventory and wear it only when you need to swap positions with a monster--in other situations you should be wearing something that helps you kill stuff. 'Nuff said, I suppose.

This largely applies only to warriors, I should note, and other melee-based characters. Spellcasters who don't give two rips about +hit and +dam or extra blows might appreciate Flare's stat bonuses and abilities; for them, it's probably a much better bet.

3.2 Fighting Effectively with Magic

It might seem silly to talk about strategy when you cast a Manathrust on anything that moves, but the fact is that you can get much more out of your spells by combining them than just holding down your macro key and hoping that your mana holds out. Let me give you an example. 

^^^^^^..##....
^^^^^^..##..Z.
^^^^^^.W##Z.Z.
^^^^^^..##.Z..
^^^^^^..##...Z
^^^^^^..##Z.Z.
^^^^^^..##.Z..
^^^^^^@.##ZZZ.
^^^^^^..##.Z..

Here, Elspeth the Elven Mage, adventuring in Erebor, is fighting a Nightcrawler advancing down the corridor toward her from the north. On the other side of the east wall are a bunch of Chaos Hounds that would be happy to kill her given the chance. Because of the chance of phasing into the room full of Hounds, Elspeth doesn't want to blink once the Nightcrawler gets next to her. So she has two options: either nail the Nightcrawler with Manathrusts or Fireflashes until it's right next to her, or else cast a Tidal Wave followed by repeated Manathrusts. If she plays her cards right, the Nightcrawler will be pushed backward by the wave several times before finally fighting through it, and by that time Elspeth will have had several more Manathrusts--and maybe another Tidal Wave--already cast.

Likewise, it's far more effective, when stuck in a room with a group of Vibration Hounds and an Ancient Red Dragon, to cast a Noxious Cloud on the Hounds and start Manathrusting the dragon than trying to kill all the Hounds with Manathrust. If you've been cornered by a Pit Fiend and you don't want to fight it, you could try teleporting it away... or you could also try a Strike spell to distance it from you followed by a Stone Prison spell to protect yourself.

In any case, don't just think of what spells can do on their own. Think of what they can do if you pair them with other spells. If you know twenty spells and only use two of them, you could stand to gain some flexibility.

This is not to say that every spell is useful; on the contrary, many are useless (such as, in my opinion, those in the Mind school), and won't be of much interest to anyone. But if you're not using a spell and feel that it could be useful, try using your imagination. Some of my favorite things to do with spells:

*/ I originally developed this strategy to deal with Melkor in the Void, and it worked amazingly well. Runes around you prevent summoning, while the jumpgates keep your opponents from getting too close. Don't use Fireflash in conjunction with this or you'll nuke your runes. This tactic works so well against summoners that it almost feels like cheating. /*

3.3 Fighting Monsters that Summon Stuff

OK, so one of the HUGE advantages that most monsters have over most characters is the ability to summon immense numbers of foul monsters to do their bidding an unlimited number of times. Try hanging around Bone Golems, Gelugons, or Great Wyrms of Chaos and you'll see what I mean. Someone summons Greater Demons, you panic and either try to kill them all or teleport them all away, and just when you think that you might have things under control, they summon MORE Greater Demons. Or, more commonly, something summons Greater Demons which have the capability to summon more Greater Demons, and pretty soon you're buried. You need a technique to handle this.

First, a few words about LOS and liberties. LOS stands for Line Of Sight, and indicates everything that you (or monsters) can see. If you're in the monsters' LOS, they can cast spells (including summons) at you. If they can't see you, they can't cast spells at you. 

#####
#...R
#.###
#@###

Boromir is out of the Giant Salamander's LOS. 

#####
#.R..
#.###
#@###

The Giant Salamander is now in Boromir's LOS. He could hit it with an arrow now, if he were so inclined. However, it can't see him yet, so it can't retaliate. 

#####
#....
#R###
#.###
#@###

Boromir fears the Salamander and decides to run from it. However, he is now in its LOS, so it could cast a spell or breathe on him.

A very important tactic is learning how to disrupt your enemies' LOS to protect yourself from their spells. 

##################
#...............##
#..Q...........z##
#..............@'.
#...............##
#...............##
##################

Galstaff the Human Sorceror has discovered an unpleasant surprise upon entering this room: a Rotting Quylthulg! It's summoned a Zombified Kobold next to him. 

##################
#.###...........##
#.#Q#..........z##
#.###..........@'.
#...............##
#...............##
##################

Galstaff disrupts the Quylthulg's LOS by targetting it with a Stone Prison spell. The Quylthulg can no longer see him, so it can't summon (since Galstaff has spent a round casting this spell, one would hope that he's robust enough to survive at least one round of the kobold's attacks). 

##################
#.###...........##
#.#Q#...........##
#.##............'.
#...@...........##
#...............##
##################

After dispatching the kobold, he can destroy the Q easily by tunneling away one of the corners of the prison and Manathrusting it; it can't see him even though he can see it. 

##################
#.#...%#....%...##
#..Q#%..%#......##
#..%..%..%.....@'.
#.....%#........##
#...............##
##################

Galstaff could accomplish much the same result with Shake. The Q can no longer see him, so he can sneak up on it. */ In the above situation, where you're dealing with a weak, immobile summoner like a rotting Q, it might be better just to Manathrust it without bothering with LOS tactics, but you've got to walk before you can run. /*

Another thing about summoners: they can only summon creatures into an area of 20 squares surrounding you, that is, a two-square radius surrounding your character: 

..........
...***....
..*****...
..**@**...
..*****...
...***....
..........

Monsters can ONLY summon into this space if you can see it and it's clear of obstruction. 

#.#......
#.#**....
#1#***...
#2#@**...
#3#***...
#.#**....
#.#......

The spaces marked "1," "2," and "3" are within the bounds, but you can't see them, so no monster summons there. The category of "obstructions" includes but is not limited to other monsters, walls, chasms, trees, spiderwebs, mountains, and runes of protection.

These summoning spaces are called your liberties, and it's your job to make sure that they're all full of something, usually walls, whenever you're fighting a big summoner.

Now, time-honored practices dating all the way back to before ToME was even PernBand call for the creation of an anti-summoning corridor. This practice is still effective today and should be used whenever convenient. Here's the situation: 

#####################
#####################
#####################
#####################
#####################
..........@.........#
###################.#
#######.....U.......#
#######.............#

Thor the Dwarven Haftedmaster has detected a Pit Fiend (capital U) lurking on the other side of this wall. Now, Thor, being a wise, well-traveled Dwarf, recognizes the Pit Fiend to be a powerful summoner. If he charged along the corridor and met it head-on, he would be here: 

#####################
#####################
#####################
#####################
#####################
...................@#
###################U#
#######.............#
#######.............#

Now, Thor might be able to kill this Pit Fiend at close range, but note that now four of his liberties are now open and visible. So there's a good chance that next round the scene will look like this: 

#####################
#####################
#####################
#####################
#####################
.................UU@#
###################U#
#######...........UU#
#######.............#

In addition to the Pit Fiend, poor Thor now has to contend with four additional greater demons, one or more of which might ALSO be Pit Fiends! And if one of those happens to be a Balrog or a Nycadaemon, it'll chew up the walls around him, freeing up even MORE room for summons.

Now let's say that instead, clever Thor decides to take his Orcish Pick of Digging and tunnel out the northern wall like so: 

#####################
#####################
################.####
###############.#@###
##############.######
....................#
###################.#
#######..........U..#
#######.............#

Now all he has to do is lure the Pit Fiend north (maybe by digging out another block to the northeast and moving there), and he's in this position: 

#####################
#####################
################.#@##
###############.#U###
##############.######
....................#
###################.#
#######.............#
#######.............#

Note that NONE of the squares in a two-square radius surrounding Thor are open and visible; there's one square two squares to the west that's empty, but Thor can't see that square, so the Pit Fiend can't summon. Neat, huh?

There are also ways to create makeshift anti-summoning corridors. Try surrounding yourself with runes using Eru's Lay of Protection, casting Stone Prison on yourself, using Grow Trees repeatedly, quaffing a Morphic Oil of Spider and spinning webs, or using Geomancy's Grow Barrier spell. None of these are perfect, but they work.

Anti-summoning corridors aren't strictly necessary, but they work very well. The important thing to remember when fighting summoners, though, is to KEEP YOUR LIBERTIES FROM BEING EMPTY AND VISIBLE! Never fight a summoner out in the middle of an empty room; you're just asking for trouble there. At least fight them in a corridor--then you'll have only about four (rather than twenty or so) liberties open and visible. Keep those squares occupied at all cost, that's the important thing.

Note that, if you're fighting a big summoner and are also surrounded by weak monsters, it might be to your advantage to ignore the weak ones and shoot straight for the summoner. Example: you're fighting a Greater Titan and it summons a pack of Cave Orcs. It'll take you only one Fireflash spell to nuke the orcs, but as long as they're next to you the Titan can't summon anything else. In this case, it might be more effective to simply let the orcs be and focus on the real threat. You can also surround *yourself* with otherwise useless pets just to take up space; someone who's got a Summoning skill of 1 (likely from Fumblefingers) can still conjure up a couple of rats to fill in the holes in his or her liberties.

Let's talk about ways to deal with big summoners who don't move and therefore can't be lured into anti-summoning situations. We've all been in this situation. 

#####################
#...................#
#.....####.####.....#
#....##.......##....#
#..###..Q...Q..###..#
#.##.............##.#
#.#.......p.......#.#
#.##..Q.......Q..##.#
#..###....Q....###..#
#....##.......##....#
#.....####.####.....#
#............@......#
#####################

That stupid Princess somehow manages to get herself trapped by five Greater Draconic Quylthulgs (or worse) and it's your unenviable task to rescue the whiny little tart.

*/ The scenario pictured above is actually the *easiest* one; sometimes it's sixteen Master Quylthulgs or something. /*

In any case, you step onto one of the entry squares to the chamber, two or three monsters see you, squeal with delight, and surround you with Great Wyrms of Law before you can even reach for your Long Bow of Lothlorien. So how do you deal with summoners who summon at you before you can even get a shot at them?

The only real way to do this is to keep them from seeing you. No, I don't mean invisibility, I mean LOS disruption. In this situation, a Morphic Oil of Spider will win the battle quickly. Quaff it while outside the chamber, spin webs that cover the whole area, then walk right through the webs and attack the Qs. Since they can't attack you over the web, they essentially can't retaliate until you're right next to them--and by that point all of your liberties are full of web. A staff of Shake or a Wand of Stone Prison will also work in this situation, though not quite as well--fill the inside of the room with rock, then tunnel through it to reach the enemies. At all cost, don't just blindly charge at the summoners hoping that they won't summon--they will. 

#####################
#...................#
#.....####.####.....#
#....##.......##....#
#..###..Q...Q..###..#
#.##.............##.#
#.#.......p..+....#.#
#.##..Q.....++Q+.##.#
#..###...+Q++++###..#
#....##..+++++##....#
#.....####+####+....#
#.........++@++.....#
#####################

Those + signs are webs, and the Qs can't see through them. So by using them for cover, you can approach the Qs with little danger. They can still escape with their blink spells, however, so be sure to kill them quickly or else use the Anchor of Space-Time or other anti-teleportation measures to freeze them in place.

There's another way to do this, though it's more time-consuming and a little less fun. You can use ball attacks (Fireflash, Pulverize, Noxious Cloud, etc.) to cause splash damage to things outside of your LOS. In this situation, for example... 

#####################
##########.##########
##########@##########
##########.##########
##########.##########
#########...#########
########.....########
#######.......#######
######.s.......######
#####...........#####
#####...........#####
#####...........#####
#####################

Fladnag the Maia Geomancer has detected a druj in the chamber to the south (good for him for using detection spells!). He doesn't have any means of LOS disruption, but he does have a radius-4 Fireflash spell. 

#####################
##########.##########
##########@##########
##########.##########
##########.##########
#########...#########
########.....########
#######.......#######
######.s..1....######
#####...........#####
#####...........#####
#####...........#####
#####################

By targeting the space marked "1," Fladnag can nuke the druj with Fireflashes to his heart's content, and rest up safely when and if he runs out of mana.

Note that this is a fairly time-consuming (and more disingenuous) means of killing monsters, kind of in line with killing them on the other sides of walls using Thaumaturgy Area spells, or across glass walls using splash damage from ball spells. Since it's somewhat scummy, I prefer other methods--if you can kill every enemy without *any* risk, the game becomes pretty boring. Still, and again, you should let your own ethics guide you (see the final section of this guide for more).

Don't expect your own summoned monsters, if you're the type that likes pets, to automatically prevail. Your pets, despite their many virtues, don't know anti-summoning techniques, and they'll probably just get you in trouble.

If something does get off a summon on you, don't panic. In fact, don't do anything right off. Examine the monsters. What are they? What level are they? Are they monsters that you kill routinely or are they new and exotic? Are you wary of any of them? It's easy to get intimidated when eight Ancient Dragons surround you, but if they're all Ancient Blacks and Blues and you have double resistances, it might be worth it just to ignore them. If they're harmless and you can shoot over their heads, you can just put them on hold while you attack whatever summoned them. If they're dangerous, phase door out of there and lure them onto more advantageous ground.

3.4 Fighting Monsters that Breathe Stuff

Breathers are never very fun. There are lots of elements out there, and even if you have resistance to all of them, there are some irresistible attacks, and some that do enough damage to make resistances not even matter that much.

But, in any case, resistance is key. Most important are the cardinal resists (acid, elec, fire, cold), and you should definitely have these by the time you start encountering mature dragons. They're fairly easy to get.

Poison is the only high resist (i.e. a resist that's not cardinal) that's absolutely necessary. Fortunately, it's pretty easy to find (Amulets of Trickery and The Serpents will afford it, among other pieces of eq), and can also be gotten from many of the undead subraces. But you need it. Once you start encountering Ancient Green Dragons without poison resistance, you should stop diving and start searching elsewhere for it.

> From here on, we have to prioritize resists as far as what monsters breathe each element, how common they are, and how much maximum damage the element does. Here's my valuation of the high resists: Most Important

Less Important

There's also Fear and Blindness resistances, which don't really prevent damage. Fear is essential for fighting-types, but Blindness I usually don't fret about too much.

The best way to handle big breathers is to have plenty of practice battling similar monsters; this will give you a good idea of how much damage they can do to you. If you're not sure, though, or if you're fighting something that you think could cause a lot of damage to you but you're not sure how much, I would observe the 600-hit point rule. This rule states that no monster can do more than 600 damage to you in a single round, owing to caps placed on breath damage by the game. So just heal yourself up every time you dip below 600, and you should be golden.

There are, however, a lot of caveats to the 600-hit point rule:

*/ A few more words on traps might be appropriate here. In the early game, if you've got fairly good hit points, traps should be more an annoyance than anything else. However, in the mid to late game, traps are a huge concern. Traps can curse your armor and weapons, drain your piety and speed, even kill you outright. This is why you need a reliable means of detecting and disarming them. Pumping up Magic-Device and toting a rod of Detection is a good means of finding them if you haven't got the spells to do so, and if your Disarming skill is no good or if you don't know the spell, a rod of Disarming is also in order. If your HP is good enough, you can be somewhat lax about traps until you hit the Sacred Land of Mountains and afterward, but for Erebor, Mount Doom, and Angband, you really need a reliable means of detection and disarmament. Since trap power is based on dungeon level, this statement goes double for the Nether Realm. Accustomed to getting hit by six Seeker Arrows or Broken Daggers when you hit missile traps? Well, how'd you like to get hit by forty-eight of them at once? Or maybe blunder across a Mana Ball trap that does 1700 damage in one hit? This is what traps will do to you in the Nether Realm. So detect reliably and often, and find some way to disarm those traps, sucker. /*

These techniques are how I deal with creatures like Great Wyrms of Law and Nightcrawlers, monsters that breathe unusual elements. You also have to watch out for monsters that breathe the cardinal elements, but have so many hit points that their breath is dangerous even with resistance. I'm talking about monsters like Greater Balrogs, Dracoliches, Shamblers (in Z monster set), and Great Bile Wyrms. Even if you have all the cardinal resists, these creatures can deal almost 600 damage to you by breathing acid, elec, fire, or cold at you. Immunities (granted by artifacts and some other things) will reduce damage from these attacks to 0, allowing you to fight them without fear. However, if you don't have immunity, the best you can do is go with temporary resistance from a Potion of Resistance or some other such source. Temporary resistance, unlike other types, is cumulative with permanent resistance, so if you drink a Potion of Resist Heat while wearing a Shield of Resist Fire, damage done to you by fire attacks will be reduced to not 1/3 (the resistance provided by either the potion or the shield), but 1/9 of its original total. So if you're fighting a Great Bile Wyrm and don't have acid immunity, gulp down that Potion of Resistance just to be safe.

*/ This rule ESPECIALLY applies to Great Ice Wyrms and a few other cold-crazy monsters, which will absolutely eradicate your potions if you're not immune to cold. Before you decide to fight them with only single cold resistance, consider whether you'd rather lose one Potion of Resistance or eight potions of *Healing*. Brrr.... /*

ALSO bear in mind that there are some elements that cannot be resisted; there are only a few of them, and they don't do nearly as much damage as the more ordinary elements, but you should nonetheless be aware of them. The only time when they're really dangerous, in my experience, is when you run into a big huge group of monsters that can all breathe an irresistible element and they all decide that they don't like your hairdo. */ Read: Gravity Hounds /* So watch out for those gangs.

3.5 Fighting on Special Levels

Special levels require extra care because you can't teleport yourself or monsters around, you can't genocide monsters, and you can't pass through walls or use any other fancy escape methods. For this reason, you must make sure that the battlefield is prepared to your liking *before* you get there. Unless you're sure you can win the battle before you arrive, you're likely to get surprised and killed.

A combination of three things should get you through special levels: good detection, careful progress, and a reliable means of LOS disruption from a distance. Cast detect all the time to figure out what's on the horizon, and approach it with caution. If it looks like something you can't beat and you don't want to walk right into a room with it, then hoist high your Staff of Shake or gulp down your Morphic Oil of Spider. Using these items, just turn the room ahead into a big soup of granite or spiderwebs, imprisoning the monsters, then walk through or proceed slowly along, watching for the monsters and killing them as they come.

The big thing with special levels is that you want to keep the area around you filled with stuff that can disrupt your enemies' summons, or they're going to dredge up a bunch of Ancient Dragons that you can't teleport away from. So be prepared to deal with them without using many of the methods that should be familiar to you.

3.6 Monsters that can Make Your Life Miserable

A partial list of monsters that I hate and how I usually deal with them. This doesn't include any Z or Cth creatures, though I play with them on, because I know that almost nobody uses them anymore.

Note that just reading this list is in no way a substitute for getting out there and fighting monsters on your own. Perhaps the most effective way to keep a monster from killing you is to know what to expect from it. Build up your monster memory, get an idea of which monsters are dangerous, then worry about how to kill them.

The more of a monster you kill, the more you'll know about it and the better you can handle them. As a general rule, though, monsters that are most dangerous have the following attributes, in order:

A good rule is to treat everything that you haven't fought before with care. If it looks powerful, be sure that your HP is high during every round you're fighting it (powerful-looking things often have the words "greater" or "arch" in front of their names, and their description usually sounds intimidating too. Once you've killed it once, you'll have less trouble killing it again.

If you see something that looks really tough and don't want to fight it, then don't. Head back to the town and look up the monster in the bestiary shop, get an idea of what you can expect from it.

Some monsters that I really, really hate:

Any Nazgul can present a threat, but those that can summon are much more powerful. Watch out for the Witch-King, Khamul, Dwar, and Akhorahil--I've had the most trouble with these.

3.7 Battlefield Control

I guess as far as combat is concerned, the biggest piece of advice I can offer you is to always meet the enemy on your own terms. If you can see what's coming, identify it, and think of a good way to deal with it, then you can usually handle it. It's just when things surprise you, or when you don't have enough time to prepare, that you start losing battles.

So, when you're ready to fight, make the monsters come to you. Don't let them dictate how the battle's going to go. Find the best spot, dig yourself in, and hit them hard when they come. Just don't be afraid to make tracks if things start going their way. You can always plan another fight if you run away, but if you keep fighting and die, you'll just get regrets.

4. Equipment

4.1 What Not to Wear

OK. Unless you've got lots of crazy innate abilities, you're going to rely on your equipment to provide a lot of things. These things include, but are not limited to, resistances, immunities, speed, stats, HP and mana bonuses, attack speed, reflection, armor class, searching, stealth, luck, light, hand-to-hand and missile killing power, and other stuff. You should, once you've got the gold to do so, *Identify* all of the artifacts and ego-items that you're considering using. As you learn more about individual items, you should get more of a feel for which ones are useful and which can be recycled for scrap iron.

At the mid-upper levels, you can discard or destroy the vast majority of what you find. You don't need to drag everything back to the town, identify it, and sell it; gold becomes immaterial after a while. In addition, the large amount of random artifacts and normal artifacts out there should provide you with all the money you need to win the game. This means that, once ego-items start becoming common, you only need to pay attention to a small amount of them. I always look for the following in the mid-game:

The following are very rare, but very useful, and I keep an eye out for them in the late midgame / endgame:

The latter category are probably the only ego-items that I would consider wearing instead of artifacts... And there are no hand-to-hand weapons, shields, body armors (exluding DSM), helmets or crowns and such on the list. Some of these are only useful for characters of the appropriate class (what good are Gloves of Combat to a Mage?), but all of them warrant attention.

4.2 Prioritizing

What it all boils down to is what you want your equipment to provide. Resistances? Certainly. Speed? Well, yes, who doesn't like speed? Extra blows? Extra mana? Extra pluses to hit and dam? Extra stats? If you know what you're looking for, it's much easier to make decisions.

Now, what I look for with fighting types is ALWAYS more blows/round and more damage per round. Unless my Warriors have a really glaring weakness (like lack of resistance to both Confusion and Chaos, or a speed of +8 at level 40), my rings will always be ones that increase blows or +hit and +dam, and my amulet will always be Elessar or an Amulet of Weaponmastery if I haven't found that yet. Warrior-types, who have few options beyond hacking something to death, have to rely on their close-range killing ability more than anything. If you don't have that, you really don't have anything. At very high levels, I'll usually use Rings of Power, since they give those combat benefits as well as all sorts of other nice stuff, but you'll never catch me wearing something like the Ring of Flare or a Ring of Protection with a warrior otherwise. Rings are almost the only equipment besides weapons that will increase your extra blows / +hit and dam, so why should I sacrifice that opportunity to get something that I could get from body armor, helmets, shields and such instead?

*/ Note that randart rings that give lots of extra attacks are a big deal with me. See the ethics section for more /* My other "semi-warriors" follow much the same scheme; a Rogue might sacrifice some +hit and +dam equipment for some that increases speed or stealth, while an Archer might eschew a Ring of Slaying for one of Accuracy (+dam doesn't affect missile shots, except for pluses on your shooter or missiles). But that's sort of a blanket rule.

That's my ultimate objective with the fighting class: get as many hits and as much damage as possible. However, if my equipment kit hasn't reached the point yet where my defense is up to snuff, I'll sometimes put off the extra blows and damage for more protective gear.

If my winning warriors don't have the following:

Then I'll often shuffle my eq to compensate, even if it means reducing killing power. Combat skill is great, but all the damage-dealing capability in the world won't help you if you're dead.

Mages and other spellcasters have a little more flexibility; they don't have to devote those ring and weapon slots to big damage-dealers, so they can indulge in Rings of Speed and other equipment that raises stats. I might use the Ring of Flare with a Mage, but I generally prefer something like a good Nazgul ring that gives not only extra stats, but some exotic resistances and perhaps extra speed. You can dig up some Mage Staves of Wizardry (or better still, randart Mage Staves) to wield to boost your spell power and mana, as well. Amulet is usually one of the Magi, Trickery, a randart, or Toris Mejistos when I find it. Just remember that constitution is of huge importance,