Archived from groups: rec.games.roguelike.adom (
More info?)
Al Puzzuoli wrote:
> Just wondering if anyone can offer tips as to the best
> strategies for identifying items? I typically like
> playing priests because of the detect item status skill.
> I tend to be the least fearful about trying blessed
> items, and paranoid about those that are cursed. But,
> the detect item status skill aside, what strategies can
> be used for example by a thief or fighter to keep from
> being stuck with a bunch of cursed items? Also, how do
> you go about identifying the piles of magical items you
> collect if you're afraid to use any of them until you
> know what they do?
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ID'ing items in ADOM is relatively easy compared to
NetHack and Crawl. Blessed scroll of identify *always*
identifies all of your carried items. To utilize this you
need three ingredients:
1. Literacy skill. Literacy 1 is enough in ADOM1.1.1, you
don't need any more if you only want to read scrolls. To
get Literacy you can:
a). Start with it. See ADOM Manual for races and classes
that start with Literacy. Also, any non-Barbarian,
non-Beastfighter char with Le of at least 10 will also
start with it.
(I'm not certain about Elven barbs/beastfighters, perhaps
someone who actually played them can clarify.)
b). Complete Thrundarr's first quest. The reward for
illiterate characters is the artifact potion of literacy,
which, when drunk, grants the said skill.
c). Eat a blessed dark sage corpse. Good luck with this
one, dark sages are rare and their - blessed - corpses are
even rarer.
2. Potions of holy water. Aside from finding them you can
create some by getting your piety to 'very pleased' at
least, then dropping your potions of water/unholy water on
a coaligned altar. Potions of water are easy to identify
themselves, they are always 'watery potions'. Getting
enough potions of water might be tricky, but Pick Pockets
skill should save the day. You can acquire this skill by
being non-lawful and talking to Yergius, the master thief
in Lawenilothehl.
You can also dip potions of water/unholy water into holy
water. This wastes a potion, though.
3. Scrolls of identify. To bless them dip them into holy
water. Identifying them: Barnabas in Lawenilothehl might
have some in his shop. If this is the case, your problem
is solved. Otherwise you might want to use-ID them. If you
still haven't identified them after completing the Terinyo
area, just bless and use your largest heap of scrolls.
They are likely to be either identifies or powers. If
they're not what you need, try the second biggest pile and
so on. Getting enough scrolls should be easy - they're
very common, and even more common with the aforementioned
Pick Pockets skill.
So mass identifying from early mid-game on shouldn't be a
problem at all. Of course, many characters really need
better armour/weapons in the early game to survive. If you
have found a coaligned altar, half your problem is solved,
just b/u/c-ID your items by dropping them on the altar,
then try them on. Once you've found a decent body armour,
consider sticking with it until you can mass identify your
stuff. Trapped/auto-locking ego clothes can be *really*
crippling. Be careful with gauntlets - gauntlets of peace
are rather dangerous for combat-types, be they fighters or
archers. Gloves are safe to try, though. Don't worry about
trying other pieces of armour - and weapons - these are
largely safe. You might avoid wearing unID'ed boots, but
nasty boots of slow shuffle seem to be extremely rare -
rarer even than 7LBs. (They also might be very useful
scumming for speed later in the game.)
If you can't b/u/c-identify: well, you can try a few
armours/weapons early on, but once you've got something
decent, be happy with it until you can find means of
reliable ID. Cursed stuff can kill you char (indirectly,
of course).
Only try wands in the wilderness. Wands of ball lightning
can be lethal when used in a dungeon. Generally, I'd
advise against trying wands at all, mass-ID is not that
far away, so don't waste those charges.
Use-ID'ing potions might be relatively safe, but I'd still
advise against ID. Sickness. Raw chaos (very rare, but
still...).
Only use-ID scrolls to find scrolls of identify - and only
once you've got enough scrolls to know which are common.
Don't try jewelry - it's not that helpful early in the
game, and there are some rather nasty items (although
they're uncommon too). Feel free to put on that glass
amulet, though, - it might be 'of light', and probably
won't kill you anyway.
There are great many methods of ID'ing items by
weight/appearance/something else, but in a normal,
non-challenge game all of those are superficial. Just get
your mass-ID engine running and you'll be golden.
Don't rely on Appraising, it can be very misleading.
Good luck.
Oh. And stop playing those Detect Item Status classes. Bad
habits are, well, BAD.
--
roy axenov