angband-doc 3.0.3.5 / var / games / angband / info / hints.spo

Well glad to see there has been a lot of response (nearly all good it
seems) about the Angband game. For those who might want to know and
for those who might have missed it before here is a list of
improvements and so on above the original moria game....

As an aside, a few people here at warwick have mastered it, i myself
have completed it the most with 15 genuine character completions (lots
of different classes.. i posted some of my completions here before)
but i just can't seem to complete the grossest class that everyone
else can.. MAGE! *smirk*. And we have a lot of games per completion.
it IS harder than moria.. we have a genuine untampered scoreboard here
where you need a good level 20+ character to get in the top 250.

Someone mentioned we told too much about the artifact and other unique
items in the .doc file released with the game.. WRONG! It is only
about half and the spoiler says that it is "a few that you remember".
Plus if i was you i wouldn't take what it says about artifacts
abilities strictly... i.e. don't whinge if it doesn't work quite like
you expect *cackle*.

Well the armor mana thing isn't a bug. As you wear more mana it
affects your abilities to cast spells so that you lose max mana...
I.E. for every point your basic unplussed armor exceeds 35 you lose
one point of max mana. Further more any spell casting (rather than
prayer) class such as mage ranger or rogue that wears anything on
their hands.. gloves gauntlets etc. has its spell casting ability
reduced by a 1/3,... this isn't a bug! It is an attempt to balance the
classes in what we feel is a realistic fashion!

Changes file
------------
Monsters
--------
Quest if to kill Morgoth (not morgoroth as Mr. Teague misspelled it..)
at 5000' (dungeon level 100). That is the only quest. BUT there are
about a hundred unique monsters that all appear at their own depths
and can only be killed once.... and morgoth can summon unique
creatures so it is advisable to get them out of their way. The unique
creatures are designed to present a challenge for the depth they are
met.. i.e. they are just a little harder than a typical monster for
that depth. Examples include Smeagol, Bullroarer the Hobbit, Glauring
Father of Dragons, Sauron, Saruman, all the ringwraiths including the
WitchKing... etc.  Most monsters have been changed... any monster that
would realistically be gregarious appears in groups (e.g. orcs usually
appear in groups.. except for orc captains of course) and so do wood
spiders, mumakil, trolls etc. Monsters have different letters too e.g.
'h' is demi humanoids (e.g. hobbits, dark elves etc.)

Monsters have many many more spells and abilities than in basic moria
e.g.  a Great Wyrm of Balance has the following breath weapons : sound
chaos shards and disenchantment... all do big damage (sound stuns you
or knocks you out in extreme cases, chaos mass polymorphs monsters and
confuses you, shards wound you and disenchantment reduces the plusses
on your equipment). This is just an example - Sauron's spells fill
nearly a page... including mass summoning of major undead, mind
blasting, mind searing, brain smash, teleport prey's level etc etc.
please read the monster descriptions- they took me days of boredom
slaving over a hot computer i hope someone appreciates them!

The Dungeon
-----------
Moving on, levels have been tweaked a little map wise... They have
slightly more rooms.. Treasure pits have been added .. i.e. they can
be almost as big as a standard screen and have several shapes, and
present a big challenge to an adventurer... they contain monsters and
treasures far better than is normally found at that depth. (in extreme
cases watch out for D's at 1000 feet in a weird shaped room)
Also when you go down the stairs in the dungeon it leaves an up
staircase you can escape up into should the need arise. (in nethack
fashion).

Items
-----
"Ordinary" items
--------------
Items have seen a massive expansion in depth and usefulness. "ordinary
items" now range into the league of such things as dragonscale armor
(e.g. multi hued which resists acid lightning cold fire poison,
shining (resist dark and light), power dragonscale(resist just about
everything very rare)), newer weapon types (blades of chaos,scythes of
slicing, scythes, mace of disruption etc. and newer flags such as
weapons of westernesse (+1 str dex con,free action see invis slay orcs
undead and evil),slay giant, slay troll to go with such old moria
favourites as holy avengers defenders etc. flametongues etc. Plus some
really BAD weapons called morgul weapons (they are hideous.. don't
wield them :)). Only one ring of speed will work now... but boots of
speed are *slightly* more common - plus their are hastes available in
other sources (e.g. a mace called taratol which activates for a haste
from time to time, Boots of Feanor (unique boots of speed which
activate for a permananent haste just like a potion of speed) and best
of all a 4d5 Longsword named Ringil which gives you a permanent haste
and does just about everything else you might want - i just got it
myself with a character at 1000 feet off of a player ghost :))
Speaking of ghosts, it remembers players who have died and will
sometimes place them on a level to attack you (or even on the home
level, where they get mad at you having interrupted their shopping
:)).. these will appear as say Geoff the Human warrior on the home
level (or whatever the class was) and down in the dungeon as Geoff the
mummified human or if high level will come back as a spirit
skeleton ,zombie ,poltergeist, ghost, wraith, vampire, master vampire,
lich with abilities appropriate to the type of 'ghost'.
Oh, back to items, sorry i rambled on i am writing this off the top of
my head. New armours are metal shod boots, shields of deflections,
steel helms, shadow cloaks, cestus, mithril chainmail, mithril plate,
adamantite plate mail and dragonscale armors (see earlier note). new
armor flags are telepathy (e.g. as in wiz mode) or light (permanent
light source), wisdom or intelligence bonus on headgear along with
cursed ones such as helms of weakness etc. Gloves gauntlets and cestus
can now be of Strength or Agility(plus dex) or of Power(big plus to
Str and a bonus to hit and damage) or slaying (as in moria). Shields
and body armor can be of elvenkind (basically like an armor of
resistance but with a bigger ac plus and a bonus to stealth). New
rings abound, e.g. rings of poison resistance, elemental rings such as
flames which give +15 ac and resist fire, slaying (e.g. about +8 to
hit and damage would be typical), ring of see invisible, ring of free
action, Rings of Damage (up to about +20), Ring of Accuracy (up to
about +20), Ring of Protection (up to about +20 AC). Amulets are
pretty unchanged, Wands, staffs and scrolls have been massively
expanded (e.g. staff of perceptions which activates for identify, wand
of annihiliation which does a LOT of damage to living creatures,
scroll of *acquirement* which creates a handful of very good
treasure! and many many more than i can be bothered to recount). Rods
are a new invention, they are like a staff(but cannot be burnt) but do
not have charges, instead they can be activated once every so often in
the same way as a wand or staff and then take time to recharge) e.g. a
rod of illumination activates for light room once every 30 turns,
right up to a rod of restoration which restores stats or life energies
but only once every 1000 turns. Potions, yet again have been expanded
- e.g. potions of life which heal everything and restore stat drains
and many many more new potions. Stat gain potions are commoner at 1500
ft Str, Dex, Con and 1600 ft for Int and Wis and 1000ft for Cha (note
this well stat gainers!) and furthermore Stat gains add 1 or 2 stat
points per potion and above 18 are now much more effective. becoming
less effective as you get nearer 18/100 where a potion will only add 1
or 2 percentiles each. A potion of self knowledge also exists which
will list your intrinsics and abilities (e.g. Your eyes are sensitive
to Infrared, Your weapon strikes at undead with holy wrath etc etc.).

Spell books - The standard spell books have been tweaked a little. new
spell books also exist which can only be found by adventuring in the
dungeon. I will not give away the fun of finding them , just list
their names for you here. 

Spell books : Resistance of Scarabtarices,
Mordenkaine's Escapes, Kelek's Grimoire of Power, Tenser's
Transformations, Raal's Tome of Destruction.

Prayer books : Ethereal Openings, Godly insights (it's got identify in
it btw), Purifications and Healing, Holy infusions, Wrath of God.

These books have some fun fun fun spells/prayers in them and are found
at differing depths and rarity ratings... Wrath of God and Raal's Tome
are as rare as a ring of speed if not rarer.


Artifacts
---------

There are many many unique items to be found.. They are only ever
found once per game, and if created on a level and not found by the
adventurer they will never occur again that game. They cannot be
destroyed by any ordinary means, being immune to monster's pick up,
fireballs dragonbreath and other mortal means of destruction - short
of throwing them at a monster (been done before!) or a wall.

They all do fun things, some good some bad, and only about half are
listed in the .doc file. Some are little better than ordinary but
others are truly awesome...

Rumours also exist of The One Ring, the ring to rule them all.


Artifacts have a chance of being created when ever an object of the
appropriate type is created by the game, SO to find deathwreaker you
need to find a high number of maces of disruption, thus it is very
rare except for at extreme depths....


Level Feelings
--------------

Sometimes when you enter a level you will be given a message such as:
You feel your luck is turning, You feel there is something very good
about this level and some others..

Every level when created is given a rating based on the number of
out of depth monsters and objects that are created on the level. The
higher the rating the better the feeling. A superb feeling is always
worth searching out as it will contain a number of very good items -
or monsters of course *cackle*.

If you get a special feeling it means an artifact has been created, or
a player ghost, or a pit of monsters (e.g. slime pits full of jellys
molds and so forth or a pit full of dragons demons or trolls, or a
graveyard (very dangerous indeed - black reavers, undead beholders
Dracolich's.... ) depending on the depth you are at).

So remember unless dropped by a monster you won't usually find an artifact
unless the feeling you have for a level is a special one - these are
the most fun levels, dangerous, and with the highest potential for
finding a _nice_ item.

Races
-----

I'll just list them..... 

Human - unchanged
Half-elf - unchanged
Elf - same but with Resist Light as an intrinsic
Hobbit - same but with sustain dex as an intrinsic and 7 sided hitdice
Gnome - same but with free action and 8 sided hitdice (awesome mages)
Dwarf - same but can never be blinded
Half-orc - same but resist dark
Half-troll - same but with sustain str
Dunedain - good fighting stats 10 sided hit dice, +80% exp per level
and sustain con
High elves - good stats (especially Int) 10 sided hit dice, +80% per
level, see invis and feather falling as intrinsics and infravision

For more details see the race notes in the man pages for the game.


Classes
-------

Fighter
-------
Unchanged except for inbuilt identify - this works that after a time
carrying a weapon or armor you get a feeling about it. I.e. if you
carry a sword in your backpack for a while it will say you feel there
is something good about the sword you are carrying in your backpack
This ability becomes faster as you raise levels and the feelings
correspond as follows :

Terrible:  cursed/broken artifact
Worthless: cursed/broken ego-item
Special:   good artifact
Excellent: good ego-item
Good:      normal item, with plusses
Average:   normal item, no plusses
Cursed:    cursed item
Broken:    broken item

This makes fighters a playable class as you know which items to
identify - and with staffs and rods of perception the lack of identify
is less of a problem.

Mage
----
Unchanged except for the spell changes (see elsewhere)

Priest
-----
Unchanged (but note, identify is available in a special spell book)

Rogue
-----
Now needs more experience per level, but has fighters in built
identify (but slower in use) Otherwise unchanged

Ranger
------ 
Ranger reduced to need same experience as mage, but has no identify
(until learned as a spell at about level 23)

Paladin
-------
Priest prayers plus inbuilt fighter identify (again slower), Awesome
(try a dunedain one).



A flask of oil is every low level character's friend.. 

You can throw it at a monster for 2d6 damage (no fire critical!)


Armor does not reduce mana until it exceeds 35 _WITHOUT PLUSSES_ and
the only real restriction is that you shouldn't wear antyhung on your
hands (which reduces your mana by 1/3 if you are a mage)

Armor now reduces mana based on weight

With the new max stats 18/100 bodily and 18/*** including item plusses
(18/*** corresponds to 18/220+)  Your max mana can be truly gross..
All monsters are damaged by meteor swam, hellfire etc.  Furthermore,
at high levels, mages can fight pretty damn good.. and with very high
fighting stats they can get a nice and friendly 6 attacks a round with
about 900+ max hp even for a hobbit mage.

Note, gnomes and hobbits both get a larger hit dice than in umoria.

By the way potions of invulnerability do not exist.  BUT mages can
get (in a special spell book) the spell globe of invulnerability,
which gives, for a short term, invulnerability (a very high level
spell.. 45th level in fact) which even further unbalances the game on
the sides of a mage, IMHO. Anyway you complained about AMHD etc. -
well mages can get more resists than any other class due to the
existence of a certain other spell book.. and in any case all classes
can obtain poision resistance fairly easily, negating many insta-deaths
from the old umoria game.

Oh and orb of draining is still gross... but at very high levels just
about every class including mages revert to hack and slash, with their
spells as backup.. i.e. a mage will go into a fight having cast
resistance, heroism, berserk strength, mystic shield, essence of speed
which tends to make them a good fighter....

Thing is... monsters have too many hp to spell attack them to death
except for with something huge like a priest annihilation or a mage
hellfire spell.... AMHD are way down the list now.. monsters exist in
ordinary play deep in the dungeon with an excess of 4000 hp

Hope this answers your questions

  Okay, folks, to avoid a lot of miscellaneous questions, here's some info:

* First, the artifact list in the angband.doc file is incomplete ON PURPOSE.
  It's only meant to tell you a little info about some "legendary" items.
* Second, in some places, the artifact description is (slightly) wrong.
  This reflects the "legend and rumor" basis for the descriptions (also
  reflects the fact that the angband.doc file is slightly out-of-date).
* Third, artifacts CAN appear on a level that doesn't give you the "special"
  message.  The "special" message only lets you know if there is an artifact
  (or other special feature) on the level when it's first generated.  If a
  monster is killed and drops an artifact, the only way you'll know about it
  is to ID it (or carry it a while, and hope for the "pseudo-ID" to tell you).
* Forth, there is now a Potion of Self Knowledge, much like the potion from
  Nethack, which can tell you what your resistances etc. are.  With judicious
  use of these potions, you should be able to tell what powers various
  artifacts grant you.  This should reduce people's reliance on spoilers to
  decide which of 2 weapons or 2 armors etc to use.
* Infravision allows you to see SOME invisible monsters (if they aren't
  cold-blooded).  This is not a bug.
* Mages, and other mage-type spell caster, lose mana for wearing gloves (or
  gauntlets or cestus).  This simulates the interference they cause with
  the intricate gestures required for spellcasting.  Priests and paladins
  don't have this problem, as they only invoke the power of their diety...
* All spellcasters are penalized for high ACs.  This is based on true AC,
  w/o any magical bonuses.  This simulates the general encumbering effects
  of heavy armor.
* Priests are penalized for wielding "non-priestly" weapons.  This comes
  from D&D.  Priests are basically restricted to maces, clubs, and
  other blunt weapons.   They should get a message ("You are not comfortable
  with your weapon" or something like that) if they wield a non-priestly
  weapon.  But this is a relatively minor penalty...   If you find Ringil,
  WIELD IT!
* Many duration spells don't provide much duration if cast again while the
  effects still last.  For example, casting haste self 10 times in a row
  isn't a very good use of mana...
* Many of mage spells are now adjusted by your level.  However, a lot more
  monsters are immune to frost/fire/lightning, so either you need a LOT
  of magic missiles, or haste up and hack-n-slash...
* Priests and paladins now need the right prayer book to learn spells.  In
  Moria, they didn't.  This was done so that the more powerful spells in the
  extra books wouldn't be given to a low level character (who can't cast it
  until he journeys deep in the dungeon and find the right book).  This can
  help you to learn the spells you want, if you drop all but 1 book at home
  before learning new spells.  (Don't forget to pick the books up again
  afterwards!  I lost a half-troll priest to a bunch of water trolls, since he
  forgot the book with 'portal' in it!)
* For all those PC people, I AM still looking into the tombstone problem.
  If you haven't already done so, please send me a description of your
  problem, and a brief description of you system configuration.  My email
  address is in the .sig, below)
* Farmer Maggot CAN be killed.  Just hit him a lot...
* Weapons "of Flame" are (FT).  "of Frost" is (FB).  "of Fire" does x3 fire
  damage like a (FT), but doesn't give you fire resistance.
* Orcs and troll can be fun to line up in a long corridor, and then blast
  with a wand of light!  (Not all types are susceptable...)
* Unique items, once missed, are gone forever...  If you get a "special"
  message, I suggest you use that Staff of Trap Detection, so you don't
  fall through a pit!
* Unique items should resist destruction by fire/frost/lightning/etc, and
  shouldn't be picked up by monsters, so you don't have to worry too much
  about some *&%&^ing green glutton ghost picking up an awesome item.
  Ditto with thieves stealing them...
* Unique mosters, once missed, come back again (until killed).  If you are
  having a LOT of trouble with one of them, run and read a WoR scroll.  Maybe
  he won't be on the level next time...  You can kill him later, when you're
  tougher.  I especially recommend this with "Mim, betrayer of Turin" for
  mages...  (You'll see why  :-)
* Oh, for anyone looking to get the game, it's available for anonymous ftp
  from ftp.cis.ksu.edu  The Unix source is in pub/Games/Moria/Angband and
  the PC src and exe are in pub/Games/Moria/Angband/PC
* PC users: "Abnormal program termination" means that you do not have enough
  free memory to run angband.  Try to free up as much memory as possible.
  If you need help doing so, I can email you a brief info file.  Just let
  me know you want it by emailing me at the address below...

Somebody posted a question about what races and classes do we play at
angband or whatever. At the moment i tend to play combinations i
haven't completed to try and get a full set (note: i have never used a
backup or fiddled anything to date) but here are a few hints you might
appreciate, or maybe not :)

Warrior : Half troll seems the obvious choice because of hp, but
dunedain is very playable as dex is so much higher, saving throws much
better, and the additional exp is not a problem as a level 34 warrior
is as good as a level 35 one basically (no levels for spells or
whatever). Aim here for an 18/70 str and a dex above 14 so as to get 2
attacks a round with a broadsword. High elves are not really worth it,
their str dex and con is not as good as a dunedain, but cost the same
exp.



Paladin :
Two options here, human or dunedain. Human is good because exp is low.
Try persevering for a couple of good 18's... e.g. 18 str and wisdowm
with good other stats. If you get 18/07 str then you can purchase a
lance and get good fighting for your efforts. Otherwise , try (again)
a Dunedain. Exp becomes a problem, but worth it because you can fairly
easily get an 18/20 str and 18 dex.. If you do, purchase a whip or
trident and rock the monsters with a nice 2 attacks a round. High
elves have a penatly to wisdom, so forget it. All the other classes
are restricted from paladin, or are crap hp wise.


Rogue
-----
Lots of options here. Personal favourites are humans (low exp).
Half-orc (high stats and hp - try for 18/20 str and a good dex but
don't worry about int) or High elf (try for an 18/50 int and good
fighting stats). I would mention Dunedain, but i completed 5 dunedain
rogues already....


Mage
----
Again 3 feasible options, human, gnome or high elf.
Human - try for 18 int with high str - low stats, need something useful
like cap of thranduil early or they are hard...
Gnome - Far better than the more obvious elf, same stats but better
str, intrinsic free action is an awesome advantage - try for str 8 and
18/50 int.
High elf - Another great option. Forget dunedain, go the whole way for
high elf if you want an awesome one, don't play anything less than
18/70 int with a str and con above 9.

Priest
------

Human - Not worth it except for the low exp.
Half-Troll - playing a half troll as a warrior until medium/high
levels is cool as they hit monsters hard, but wisdom above 16 with
good stats is rare, and this means minimum failure rates for prayers
will be about 10+ % until wisdowm is increased, making them hard.
Dwarf - By far the best option,good fighting and hp, don't take a
wisdom below 18/50. Dwarves in angband were born to be priests. Take
flasks of oil along with you to throw at monsters at low levels tho.
Dunedain - Too much exp, but worth it if you want a high dex.
High elf - -2 wisdom -> forget it!

By the way in angband, we made priests have a lesser penalty to str
than in moria. I managed to roll a dwarf priest with starting stats of
18/26 str, 18/52 wisdom, 10 dex and 18 con. Rather unsurprisingly he
died a rich old dwarf, with the crown of morgoth on his head.



   As I have had requests for the spell damages in Angband, here is a full
list (spoiler follows):



  A list of spells damage:
        Spell name              Attack type     Damage

    Mage spells:
        Magic Missile           Missile         2d6
        Stinking Cloud          Poison          10+(level/2)
        Lightning Bolt          Lightning       (3+((level-5)/4))d8
        Frost Bolt              Frost           (5+((level-5)/4))d8
        Spear of Light          Light           6d8
        Stone to Mud            Rock remover    20+randint(30)
        Fire Bolt               Fire            (8+((level-5)/4))d8
        Frost Ball              Frost           30+level
        Fire Ball               Fire            55+level
        Acid Bolt               Acid            (6+((level-5)/4))d8
        Cloud Kill              Poison          40+(level/2)
        Acid Ball               Acid            40+level
        Ice Storm               Frost           70+level
        Meteor Swarm            Missile         65+level
        Hellfire                Holy orb        300

    Priest spells:
        Orb of Draining         Holy orb        3d6+level
        Dispel Undead           Dispel undead   3*level
        Dispel Evil             Dispel evil     3*level
        Holy Word               Dispel evil     4*level
        Dispel Undead (WOG)     Dispel undead   4*level
        Dispel Evil (WOG)       Dispel evil     4*level
        Annihilation            Drain life      200

    Wands:
        Light                   Light           6d8
        Dragon's Fire           Fire            100
        Dragon's Frost          Frost           80
        Dragon's Breath         Fire/Frost/Acid 100/80/90
                                Lighning/Poison 70/70
        Acid Bolts              Acid            5d8
        Lightning Bolts         Lightning       3d8
        Frost Bolts             Frost           4d8
        Fire Bolts              Fire            6d8
        Stone to Mud            Rock remover    20+randint(30)
        Drain Life              Drain life      75
        Annihilation            Drain life      125
        Magic Missiles          Missile         2d6
        Lightning Balls         Lightning       32
        Frost Balls             Frost           48
        Fire Balls              Fire            72
        Stinking Cloud          Poison          12
        Acid Balls              Acid            60
        
    Rods:
        Light                   Light           6d8
        Acid Bolts              Acid            6d8
        Lightning Bolts         Lightning       3d8
        Frost Bolts             Frost           5d8
        Fire Bolts              Fire            8d8
        Drain Life              Drain life      75
        Lightning Balls         Lightning       32
        Frost Balls             Frost           48
        Fire Balls              Fire            72
        Acid Balls              Acid            60

    Staffs:
        Holiness                Dispel evil     120
        Power                   Dispel creature 120
        Dispel Evil             Dispel evil     60
        Starlight               Light           6d8

    Items/Artifacts:
        Blue Dragon Scale Mail  Lightning       100
        White Dragon Scale Mail Frost           110
        Black Dragon Scale Mail Acid            130
        Green Dragon Scale Mail Poison          150
        Red Dragon Scale Mail   Fire            200
        Multi-Hued Dragon SM    All of above    250
        Bronze Dragon SM        Missile         120
        Gold Dragon Scale Mail  Missile         130
        Chaos Dragon Scale Mail Missile         220
        Law Dragon Scale Mail   Missile         230
        Balance Dragon SM       Missile         250
        Shining Dragon SM       Missile         200
        Power dragon Scale Mail Missile         300
        Amulet of Ingwe         Dispel evil     5*level
        Narthanc                Fire Bolt       9d8
        Nimthanc                Frost Bolt      6d8
        Dethanc                 Lightning Bolt  4d8
        Rilia                   Stinking Cloud  12
        Belangil                Frost Ball      48
        Ringil                  Ice Storm       100
        Anduril                 Fire Ball       72
        Firestar                Fire Ball       72
        Theoden                 Drain Life      120
        Turmil                  Drain Life      90
        Arunruth                Frost Bolt      12d8
        Aeglos                  Frost Ball      100
        Orome                   Stone to Mud    20+randint(30)
        Cammithrim              Magic Missile   2d6
        Paurhach                Fire Bolt       9d8
        Paurnimmen              Frost Bolt      6d8
        Pauraegen               Lightning Bolt  4d8
        Paurnen                 Acid Bolt       5d8
        Fingolfin               Magic Missile   150
        Narya                   Fire Ball       120
        Nenya                   Frost Ball      200
        Vilya                   Lightning Ball  250
        

        Attack types light, rock remover, fire, lightning, acid, poison and
frost are all obvious.
        Holy orb does the damage given above *1.5 against evil or /9 against
anything else.
        Missile does the damage given against everything.
        Drain Life doen't work against demons or undead.





Just to tidy up a couple of points.. Someone said they found a halberd
{special} , identified it and it was a Holy avenger. Not so, holy
avengers are only {excellent} and not a named weapon (good tho they
are) - maybe they got confused but i just wanted to make it clear that
if you had a special feeling about a level and found boots of speed,
ring of speed, prayerbook of wrath of god, rod of healing, potion of
augmentation, power dragonscale armor, holy avenger mace of disruption
etc. NONE OF THOSE have any relation to the special feeling - as they
are NOT artifacts (altho you;d have one hell of a character with that
lot).

Secondly someone mentioned having a cursed thengel (it is a metal cap)
- it will not be cursed when you find it.. you must read curse armor
if you want to curse it.

And gorlim is not exactly a tragedy to have missed, it IS a cursed
helm, and a piece of shit too. I think the guy got mixed up - i just
wanted to clear things up for anyone who might be confused.

By the way at about 1500 feet nearly every special feeling will be an
orc or troll pit, but they ARE very nice experience, especially if you
get in the door way and cast dispel evil/use a staff of dispel evil..
instant 30k exp for a troll pit in about 10 dispel evils.

The Phial of Galadriel is what Sam(?) used to fatally(?) wound Shelob
when she attacked frodo, on Angband it's a light source, and once you've
identified it properly (with the spell or staff etc) you can activate it
to cast light room spells.

Btw, no, it doesn't do crap to shelob on angband!


A weapon artifact won't recharge as a secondary weapon...  This is
intentional, to stop abuse of artifacts... also if you have items
in your backpack they do not recharge either (except rods of course)



     There was a nice moria.man for all the Umoria games, and it listed in 
   brief form the type, object, and command arguments for the list.  I couldn't
   find a similar file for Angband, and the only info that I have gotten has
   come from the one-line display 'Usage: angband [-afnor] [-s<num>] [-u<name>]
   [-w<uid>] [-d<num>]' and from looking at the source itself.

I was wondering some of the same things myself (along with how to get it
to let me into wizard mode) and Sean helped me out.  I don't know where
any of the authors find the time for all of this...

Anyway, here's what I have heard/figured out:

 -a  Peek mode.  Tells you all object created on the level as well as
     uniques, artifacts, and pits.  Wizards only.

 -f  Fiddle mode.  Allows you to recreate characters and make them
     playable again.  Wizards only.

 -n  New character???  Not sure exactly, but it allows you to create a
     new character that will replace the one you were using.  Once you
     enter this option you are stuck with it.  You can't Ctrl-C out of
     the character generation process.

 -o  Original commands.  Toggles your prefered keyboard definitions to
     the original style.  Will stay in original mode until -r option is
     used.

 -r  Rogue-like commands.  Toggles your prefered keyboard definitions
     to Rogue-like style.  Again, will stay until -o option is used.

 -s<num>
     Show only top-<num> scores in score list.

 -u<name>
     Use character named <name>.  Allows for multiple characters to be
     played by the same userid (I think)

 -w<uid>
     Wizard mode.  The -w option, alone, puts you into user mode if your
     userid matches one of those in the /lib/files/wizards file.  The
     <uid> argument can be used to specify a different save file from
     your default save file.  Wizards only.

 -d<num>
     Delete score.  Deletes score number <num> from the scores file.
     Wizards only.


     Just half an hour taken off for one of the authors of the game to create
   such a file(based on moria.man) would make it a lot easier for many people.


That's what rec.games.moria is for ;).  Seriously, I'm sure all the authors
are constantly busy.  After all, look at how many people all over the world
are playing their games and have many questions to ask them.  Like I said
before, I don't know where the get the time for all of this.  Do any of
you sleep?


>1.	Does the One True Ring exist in the game?  Has anyone found it and
>found out what it does?

There seems to be some evidence that it may actually be a real artifact,
though it is of course very rare. Those who find it wield great power, but of
course they may not be able to control it, and if they get greedy and try
to gain too much power from it, it may turn against them and destroy them
utterly. It is rumoured to give the wearer the power to see those things of
the spirit realm which are usually invisible to the human eye, and to protect
its wearer from the paralysing spells of the more powerful wizards. The wearer
will find that all his wounds magically heal and that he can withstand the
breath of many of the great dragons without batting an eyelid. It is said that
so great is the desire it inspires in all who see it that no creature can
stand to see it on anyone's finger but his own, and it sometimes betrays
its wearers presence to his enemies at the most inconvenient moments. Once it
is worn, it is said that it can only be removed by cutting it from the finger
of its wearers corpse. It bestows upon its wearer the incredible combat skills
and wisdom of the mightiest of kings. Also it gives its wearer the power to
call down storms of pure magical energy to smite his opponents, and sometimes
in time of dire need, it can drive away all its masters enemies. But
beware, for if your thirst for power and destruction becomes too great the
ring will overwhelm you and turn its power against you, and once this happens
no power known to the races of Good can save you from its wrath.