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[Quiller]

I've experimented a bit with Adventurer mode, and found that pretty much I die.  Sometimes it takes longer than others, but I've not found a combination or strategy that lets me get far.  If I bring a lot of NPCs, they seem to wander off by themselves and get attacked, if I try and wrestle I kill things slowly and get hit a lot while doing it, bows work pretty well, but I often can't see far enough to make them that effective, and they don't help much against gang tackling, throwing isn't bad, but when I made it my top item I started out with no weapons.  (Luckily you can find rocks)

So, any thoughts on best skill combinations?  Any thoughts on best early opponents?  Any thoughts on what to do when a goblin wrestles with you and breaks both of your legs so you can't walk?  Thoughts on what items you should loot and which ones aren't worth being slowed down by the extra weight?  Basically, if you've had some success in Adventurer mode, what strategies led you to it?

[polpoint]

I put a lot of skill in axes and just chop people up.

I have been seeing how it goes taking out one or two levels and putting them in shield or armor, but who knows how well that works

However, when I start hunting lots of lions like this, i either kill them pretty quick, or miss and get killed pretty quick

[Stromko]

Four skills. A weapon skill, a shield skill(unless you're a marksman), armor skill, AND wrestling.

Wrestling from what I understand makes you harder to hit, also makes you tougher or more agile I believe.

I have a hammerdwarf who balanced his points between those four skills and he just mows through everything. He has been scrapped up a few times but I've always been able to kill my adversaries so I can scurry off and heal afterward. Most if not all injuries will heal quite quickly in adventurer mode if you don't die right away.

When in combat, be sure to always stand up whenever you're knocked down. Being on the ground reduces your speed so that enemies get 3 to 4 attacks to your 1. Also, try to maneuver so that the enemy closes the last bit of distance and therefore you're the one that gets to initiate the first attack.

Note that the weapon, shield, armor, wrestling combination doesn't make you a juggernaut right away, you still have to be careful. For starting opponents, I recommend harpies, harmless-sounding wildlife (moles, etc), and also the things that you encounter in abandoned forts and caves. Goblins, troglodytes, those kinds of things. You have a fairly good chance of being able to take on opponents 1 by 1 in those situations, but if you find yourself against multiple targets try to disable or stun them one at a time then switch to a different target in order to limit the number of enemies hitting you at once.

Oh a few more things. If you do go marksman, ammo is hard to come by so be prepared to scavenge a new weapon and a shield anyway. Switching weapons is a bit tricky, just drop the things from both hands then pick up the weapon you want to attack with first so it goes to your dominant hand. Dropping takes no time, but you'll pass a turn when you pick something up.

Also, look around NPC dwarf forts, towns, fortress retreats etc for basic weapon NPCS. By that I mean, axedwarves, swordsdwarves, elven swordsmen, whatever. Talk to them and see if they want to join, if you want help. They help quite a bit, the only problem is they have a tendency to get the last hit in on monsters and therefore take your glory. By that I mean if you kill Ixthubiko the Cyclops your character gets a mention in the recordbooks, but if Jojunjim the Axedwarf gets the killing blow, then Jojunjim is mentioned in the legend instead of you!

[ August 22, 2006: Message edited by: Stromko ]

[ August 22, 2006: Message edited by: Stromko ]

[Zereth]

Alternative skill advice:

Buy lots of a wapon skill and armor use. Don't buy any Wreslting, as you can find a ruin, get a zombie, then use wreslting to break their shoulders and hips and start choking them. They won't die from this, and you can run away if anybody else shows up, then come back and do it again. This will make your Wreslting skill go way up, and armor and weapon skills are harder to raise. No shield, since you're going to want the free hand for gouging out eyes and breaking joints.

[Zonk]

I really, really like wrestling. While it's not that useful for direct-damage dealing, it can do amazing things if used properly against a single opponent, believe me.

[JT]

I've found that it's extremely important to have at least "Proficient" in Wrestling.  You'll then want to have one level higher in your main weapon skill, and you can spend the remaining points on armour and whatever backup weapon you'd like to use.

So far this works excellently for me.  My archer went into the fields with a swordsman and crossbowman, and though both were torn to shreds -- the crossbowman survived but was too injured to make it back to civilisation, and there's presently no way to carry your companions -- the archer emerged almost unscathed, with only a slightly injured lower leg from when one of the wolves bit him.

[Virtz]

A stealthy thrower with wrestling skills has proven to be the win for me (assuming you prefer to deal with kobold caves in the mountains). You see, kobolds and goblins have eyes glowing in the dark so you can see them from a distance. Not only does it make archery/throwing easier, but stealth also.

You can throw stuff at people and remain hidden. Thrown arrows work almost as well as when fired from a bow (and using a bow is a lot slower, so throwing is better). Spears are also good for throwing.

When the enemy is upon you at close range, wrestling comes in handy. You either should grab their weapon and use shift+i to take away their weapon and then clobber them with it or grab them by the throat, throw them down and then strangle to death.

I've completely exterminated kobolds in a 4 level cave with 3 characters using stealth, throwing and wrestling. My only issues were the over-powered lords and bowmen who happend to be waiting at some stairs to spot me sneaking on a different floor and kill me in one turn. :\

[Captain Mayday]

My character, who has a hydra and dragon to his name, started out with all points in wrestling.

You can level up wrestling pretty quick by taking a small band of allies to an ancient ruin, and fighting the undead, but not the weaponmasters unless you have a deathwish.
Using, say a bone for a weapon, will actually increase your wrestling skill, so that's easy. The higher your wrestling skill the better.
You can then move on to using a weapon. You have the advantage of being very hard to hit, and fighting undead allows you lots of attacks before they finally die, as they do not bleed.
You can also bolster your character by doing a lot of throwing practice. Throwing rocks is practically useless against anything strong enough to take you on after a point, but you can throw other, more interesting things.
Become strong, become agile, these are more important than toughness, since you can buy armour, but unless you're strong enough to move unhindered, then that's not so hot.

Also, gouge out the eyes of the living. Even if you have to abandon the battle, leaving you allies to die at the hands of the now-blind cyclops, when you return, he'll be experiencing so much agony he'll probably just pass out when you start fighting.

[John Gaden]

One of my characters has slain several dozen ettins and a handful of cyclops. He started with the majority of his points in Swords, 7 points if i remember correctly, in wrestling and throwing, and another point in ambushing.

The first thing i did was go find some ruins and practice throwing on zombies. Basically just pick up several tons of rocks and just go to town. Once i had throwing up to 15 or so, i would basically just carry 3 or 4 rocks around everywhere until i got some spears.

The general strategy for me was to sneak around and throw rocks/spears at a monster until i either ran out of ammunition, which dosnt happen because they're rocks everywhere, got tired of throwing stuff, or was seen. Once the monster finally saw me id charge him, and depending on what the monster was, either break some his legs and go back to throwing, or break arms then stab him, or just choke him out of i was alone and felt like working on wrestling.

This strategy actually allowed me to slay a handful of big monsters solo, and take a party of 3 or 4 others to assault really huge monsters with lots of friends.

If you want a really easy time, put some points into ambushing and go steal stuff from ruins. Sell those at human towns and youll be able to buy some nice equipment which'll extend the life of your character by a lot.  [/rambling]

[Quiller]

How do you break legs anyways, I've never seen any option on wrestling menu and I really wanted to do it when fighting a skeleton recently.

[Virtz]

First you have to grab some part of the leg, then apply a lock hold on that leg and finally break it.

[Zereth]

It doesn't work on averything, either. Also, grab the upper leg, that breaks the hip, rendering the entire leg useless.

[JT]

*nods* Know thine enemy.  Never try breaking limbs of supernatural creatures like mudmen, because their limbs are just spongiferous masses of goo held together by the cohesive force of hatred.  And dead puppies.

[Zereth]

quote:Originally posted by JT:
<STRONG>*nods* Know thine enemy.  Never try breaking limbs of supernatural creatures like mudmen, because their limbs are just spongiferous masses of goo held together by the cohesive force of hatred.  And dead puppies.</STRONG>

I find it doesn't work on _anything_ that's not a stock humanoid. (Or minotaur or cyclops, which are stock humanoids with horns and less eyes respectively.) Animals? Nope. Nightwings? Nope.

[Quiller]

So just so I'm clear here, there are no shops in Dwarf halls?  I've wandered up and down several of them and have not seen anyone to sell the junk I pick up from cave raids to.