Some thoughts after a long absence

[nick]

1. Whats the deal with Vitality. I've heard a number of people on this board swear by it. I don't see the reason, as it has nothing to do with offense, what I like to consider. I don't really rest much in the game, I usually try to play without ever eating any non-monster food. I've read some posts, but I still don't get it. I'm currently using a party of Hissa, Gothmog, Chani, and Gando, all of whom have low Vitality, and I haven't had problems.

2. I really don't care for the low mana fighters. I started a game with Sonja and Alex out front, and at about dungeon level 4 or 5, Alex had about 50-60 more HP than Sonja because of all the Wizard and Priest levels he had(he was craftsman in both and she was novice in one and apprentice in the other). I think even Gothmog might have had more HP than Sonja at the time.

3. The best way to kill rock monsters is to punch them to death. It works really fast and builds ninja levels really nicely. I don't even bother with fireballs on them anymore.

4. I REALLY like Hissa, especially with Chani. I've started over a couple of times to find the team I liked, and find Hissa with the moonstone can nearly keep up with Gothmog and Chani in the magic department. That and his 58 strength is tops.

5. Gothmog can function as a front line fighter. He's weaker than the more dedicated fighters, but he has decent starting HP, 42str, and really high resistance to magic. That and he gives you a 3rd power mage. His extra mage levels over other fighters give him a nice hp boost.

6. Getting your back row mages fighter levels is pretty easy if you know how. Just jab with the rapier in the screamer room and you can get both of them up to craftsman fighter in about 10 minutes.

[THE Materializer]

ALWAYS use Hisssa and Gothmog, they have to be my top 2 favorite characters (actually I started playing at the tender age of 7 and I just thought they looked the coolest, didn't care about their attributes). I also usually get Zed, and then its a toss-up between Iaido and Stamm. Stamm's good once you give him a potion so he gets his mana bar. Then once you gain a wizard or priest level he has a permanent mana bar to work with. Another cool thing about good ol' Stamm is he can carry alot. But honestly, in this game you can pretty much get every character to the same point.

I'm not sure which rock monsters you're talking about.. but I usually kill the Rockpiles easiest with the poison foe spell (des ven). As for the Stone Golems, once you kill one and take his stone club, you can go on a slaughter-fest in the Firestaff level. Those stone clubs are strong as hell. Use lightnight bolts too. For ninja levels keep throwing heavy chests at doors. If you position the cursor in the right spot, you can just keep clicking without even having to move the mouse (I know I know.. I'ma big CHEATER)..

[Wil]

In my experience, the Golem clubs are ineffective.
I'm not sure at ALL, but maybe vitality allows you to keep awake longer?
Or maybe does strength play a bigger role. Anyway, sorcerers are notoriously fast tired. Once they have some ninja - warrior levels, they are OK. Gothmog also has the Cloak of Night, which he can give to a ninja / warrior. Against rocks, the poison cloud is the best.
Yeah, you can raise the HP of your sorcerer up to you warrior's, but with good and fair training for all, your warriors will of course have more HP.
Hissssa is too much. One day he will be king.

[PaulH]

Stone clubs are fantastic in the RTC version of this game.

A lot of people find Hisssa to be effective, but I always found his stamina drops far to quickly.

Stamm is my preferred warrior as his axe comes in very handy, plus you can give it to none fighters who can then 'chop' straight away!

[beowuuf]

IN PC DM too....they are just 'odd'
They give minimal damage alot of the time, but then can give 200 - 400 point hits every blue moon. I've taken out a golem with one blow..whcih i needed to, as i was backed into a corner playing king filius or return of chaos at the time!

[THE Materializer]

Yes.. when I had DM on the Amiga, I thought I remembered the stone clubs being heavy garbage that didn't work.. but I've been playing the RTC version of the game, and I did find they dish out heavy amounts of damage. Too bad they're so heavy.

[Lunever]

PaulH: When I played DM for the first time I had Hissssa and Stamm as fighters, but while Hissssa is still my first choice as a fighter because of his very good stat profile (and I never had any stamina problems with him), I do not choose Stamm anymore, because if you know the dungeon good enough you'll find a lot of fine weapons there and do not really need his axe, so I changed to Darouu as a second fighter first, and later I changed to Halk.

[PaulH]

I suppose it depends on the dungeon you are playing, how many people you are taking and your style of play. With reincarnated characters, the abilty to chop with no fighter levels can come in useful, and even with ressurected characters with no fighter levels. It all depends on your tactics. If you know the dungeon good enough then of course you know where the weapons are, but if you are playing a new dungeon and I see Stamm with his axe the I'll take him every time.

Hissssa has the best strength, but woeful vitality, and even some of the wizards and priests have more stamina than him. I find Daroou to equally have stamina problems, which annoys me as I like to move around quickly, and sleep minimally.

If I take one man, it will be Hawk or Leif, two persons then usually Stamm and Chani, or even Hawk AND Leif. I recently experimented using Hisssa in a race game and he was one of the worst choices I ever made! Gando faired better....

[Wil]

Yes, I reincarnated Hissssa (4 S please!) in an alt dungeon quite recently, and he had this problem. I don't know where it comes from! It seems hardcoded, because he's the first tired even when others have worse vitality. Gothmog has this problem too. Well, they are not human, who knows with those people?

Good weapons? Yes, but as PaulH says, an axe gives 'chop' immediately; I also believe the axe chop is more powerful than a falchion chop. Only the delta and of course the hardcleave are superior. You won't find them so easily (the same for the diamond edge).

Hissssa is the best if you mean to wear the darc armor.
As for HP, at high levels, a warrior should have 400, a wizard 300.

[meynaf]

I personnally used Hissssa a lot, along with Leif.
He is good in long-term games, but not for races.

But, whatever DM1 team I tested, I think I'll always
prefer my reincarnated CSB team.
They had minimums of 800 health, 999 stamina (maximum
allowed by the game), 300 mana.

So 400/300 health seems a little too low to me ;-)

Btw my CSB team is Tunda, Kazai, Mantia, Buzzzz.
I use Leif, Hissssa, Boris, Wuuf in DM.

I don't remember having any stamina problems
with Hissssa. I rather had dexterity troubles
(way more damage received than Leif).
But the darc armor is good...

Take care : in "alt" dungeons, characteristics are
often NOT the same as in standard (ftl) ones.