Dungeon Master Forum

Have to say that my weapon of choice is the hardcleave. Absolutely love hacking away with it. Not really sure what I'd consider to be 2nd best, possibly The Inquisitor? Or is there a better sword out there like the Diamond Edge?

For armour I'm still a sucker for the 2 Mithral pieces, add to that the armet and Shield of Lyte. For "shoes" it's Greave Of Lyte with the Boots of Speed as a quick backup.

Pendant Feral around the neck and a rabbit's foot (if you have two is the effect cumulative?) somewhere in the inventory to finish things.

Interesting question! I usually play with one character, and I'm normally equipped with:

Weapon: first Sword, then Rapier, then Delta, and finally The Inquisitor. Plus a Vorpal Blade. Plus a few things to throw or put on a pad (a star, a dart, etc.).

Armour: first leather, then Mithral (if I'm not overloaded, if I'm then I'll stay with leather).

Head: Casque'n Coif (or nothing if I'm overloaded).

Shoes: first Elven Boots, then Boots of Speed.

Necklace: Moonstone.

Hmm right then, let's see...I normally take a duo around but that aside, let me see what I like best. Stuff like the Lyte armour is good, but even though it's not as heavy as, say, the Darc armour, it's not that light, and since I'm not the kind of person to sit around training, I don't normally have the strength to wear that kind of stuff. Mithral, though, I can normally wear, and maybe the chain stuff or whatever. Basically, whatever the highest "level" of stuff I can wear without putting me in the yellow, I'll take. I'm not really sure what difference armour makes, though, really, but some kind of headgear definitely makes a difference if you shut yourself in a door - I've tested this one...okay so the damage difference was only a few points, but meh . Elven Boots are pretty good as I think they increase your Strength, but Boots of Speed are the best because they make you move faster as long as the whole party is wearing some. In CSB, stuff like the Dex Helm and Flamebain and the Power Towers are good for the various stat increases they give.
Weapons...I'll use whatever I find (swordy things, usually) till I find the rapier, then I'll replace that with the Delta Blade, and finally replace that with the Inquisitor. If it's CSB then the Dragon Fang is the most uberest of weapons . Basically, it's becaue the "thrust" attack does loads of damage but has a really fast refresh time, unlike something like "berserk" which can do masses of damage, but takes aaaaages to refresh so if you miss with it, that's rather a lot of wasted time . Back when I tried to make dungeons, whenever I was playtesting a section to see if I'd done the mechanics right I'd take around a max-level character equipped only with a Vorpal Sword, because the attacks on that can kill anything, and my character was maxed out so basically did several hundred damage in a single hit and so could swipe mobs out the way pretty easily .
For miscellaneous items...I'll agree on the Pendant Feral - +1 Wizzy level ain't to be sniffed at . An Illumulet is okay early on when you don't have enough mana to cast enough light spells in one go to keep it light all the time - at least then it never gets fully dark. Then again, I normally manage to get light cast pretty quickly so I don't really need it so much. I think the Moonstone is okay as it gives you a few extra mana points...some of the other neck items do various things, I know, like the Eckhard Cross, whatever that does...but I tend to prefer wearing stuff that has a visible effect. As for rings, I never bother - I'd rather both my chars have a wep in the right hand, a flask in the left, and then readied Fireballs for chucking at any unpleasant critters that might happen to step in my way. Until, of course, something like a ghost comes along - then I have to rub out the Fireball and stick a Harm Non-Material Being up instead .

My favourite equipment is a suit of the "DARC".

Right Hand : Inquisitor
Left Hand : Shield of Darc
Neck : Cloak of Night
Head : Helm of Darc
Torso : Pate of Darc
Legs : Poleyn of Darc
Feet : Greave of Darc

Yeah, I'm Black Knight in "MONTY PYTHON HOLY GRAIL"!!

Me : "I'm invincible!"
king Arthur : "you're loony..."
Me : " "

Interesting. I never bother wearing shields (they are too heavy and not very helpful and I want to have a flask in my left hand) and I always try to carry the lightest equipment / armour I find. I prefer being light or being able to carry a lot in my backapck, so sometimes I'm still wearing the old good leather things at the end of the game.

"A scratch? Your arm's off!"

Lol yep Jan, that's pretty much me too - I refuse to go on if anyone's in the yellow, so I'll dump stuff if I've picked up too much to carry. My armour set by the end of the game tends to be a mismatched set of random stuff, usually including at least one piece of leather, and I never bother with shields - as mentioned I keep a flask in the left hand. In DM, most of my space is taken up with vast excesses of food. In CSB it's probably all those bloody keys .

Is it just me or is anyone else a hoarder when it comes to DM?

Every time I do a complete run at DM I end up lugging silly amounts of everything right up till the end of the game, which is when I suddenly realise, "why have I been dragging all this junk through all these levels?"

At times finding a chest makes me happier than picking up any other item because I can stuff it with all sorts of rubbish that I already have. So I end up with loads of packed chests, and after clearing a level I have to make a run back just to grab all my gear and bring it across (plus there's tons of stuff that can't be neatly stored in chests...). Luckily the latter levels have that nifty stairwell accessible by skeleton key that saves me the trouble of being a human camel in those stages of the game...

I mean I end up all those magical boxes that I have never bothered using earlier. I keep lots of those useless coins, gems, etc. I have all the pendants too, though I can only wear one... and end up only wearing one throughout the game anyway. Same with wands or staffs, I keep all of them yet never use any of them. Not even once. Then there's all those weapons that I just can't seem to throw away: "Oh look at this mace, should I keep it? Yeeeeeessss.". Bow. Crossbow. Arrows. Slayers. Darts. Poisoned Darts. The only thing I actually have managed to ditch are those ninja stars. Then there's all this armour. I mean you can only wear one piece of everything, but I still collect anything that looks semi-interesting. Flasks? Oh, I've got them all (and won't waste them on green/red potions). Food? Enough to feed an army.

I really would like to go through the game just once without hoarding junk throughout. Maybe next time...

You are not alone. I do the same in real-life, too.

it depends on the level you are on.
The Sword I rather like, but you get it at the stupidest spot in the game if you do not choose Sonja. One enemy later there lies an Axe..oh well.
Rapier is definitely cool. It is made for the worms..

I equipped my party of four with darc armor, lite armor for front fighters with hardcleave and inquisitor and vorpal backups. Jewel symal and what not.
Then mithral and plate for the backrow, with staves and also shields. The flasks (vi potions etc) I spread around; each champion 4 to 5 flasks.
rabbit´s feet goes to the front ranks.
I do not use illumulet, but hellion if I got it, because it has to do something if it is on level 13!!

anyways, I really like the bascinet and mithral mail, too!
THere are some truly cool weapons and items like fury, but game-technically it is -in comparison-not so a great weapon really
-----------------------------------------------
If you look at it, the potion stat boost abuse really makes some items less valuable.
(Statboosts from items you can boost with potions are not so important anymore)

aster wrote:I end up all those magical boxes that I have never bothered using earlier.

There is a riddle where you have to use a magical box to get to a secret area. I doubt you got all the flasks

I also hoarded everything but in the end it is all in vain.(maybe less so in real life)
This is something I really try to remedy. Not hoarding everything in any game, not only dm..but rpgs in general.
You cannot sell it or get components or have a nice overview(just a crammed viewport if you put everything on one dungeon tile)

I do use teowand´s unique spellshield action because it is so rare and you get better items later for the mages.

Is it just me or is anyone else a hoarder when it comes to DM?

I am sooooo guilty of this, i hoard everything and have even (on one occasion) collected every item i could find in the dungeon and used the large room (before the screamer regeneration room) on level 4 to store everything. Oddly though on finding an item i had missed (from checking the maps) i crashed the game when collecting the last item.... this is from memory and some time back. I think it was with the orriginal DM PC version but could have been the ST version (running in emulation).

oddly though i hardly wear much armor - perhaps mithreal mail or something lite, but generally v. little! and any weapon that allows me to mellee does the job as far as I'm concerned!

There is a riddle where you have to use a magical box to get to a secret area.

The first time I did this, I did it without a magical box.
It can be done. One of the great things about DM and
CSB is the ability to do things the hard way until you
learn the secret of the easy way. Difficult solutions
tend to hide the the fact that easy solutions exist. It
makes for great re-playability. The 'Boulder' and 'Worms'
in CSB is an outstanding example.

aster wrote:Is it just me or is anyone else a hoarder when it comes to DM?

We're all the same! I do exactly the same thing. It'd be normal in a custom dungeon where you don't know what lies ahead. But in a dungeon I've finished for a hundred times, it's just an obsession. I am 100 % sure that I'm not going to need all the coins and bows and gems and everything, but I always carry it anyway. I always end up with the same number of chests packed with food and useless junk (more than 100 kg in total) and one poor wretched champion able to carry ca 40 kg.

It must be some old habbit inherited from the societies of hunters and gatherers.

If playing a game for the first time, I tend to keep hold of everything unless it's really obviously junk (like rocks in DM, for example), in case I need it for a quest or whatever and end up having to go back for it. If I've played a game before then I know what I need or what I'll end up using and so keep that and leave behind (or sell, if applicable) the rest. I think last time I played DM I left the bow behind, because I never use it, then had to go all the way back and get it anyway after I got to the Riddle Room at the start of Level 6 and rather belatedly remembered that I did actually need it. Well, alright, I know you don't have to solve all four riddles, but I like to anyway .

playing the game the first time, i leave every item or scroll where it was found, carry nothing but keys (except if it is the heavy key adamski ) and flasks, and book if needed. this forces the ninja level ups, then when strong enough look for a sword or axe that can chop. when level is completed, the items are dragged to the next level entry. fighters are my fave

I just completed the game yet again and still couldn't resist hoarding almost everything that could be of use except for torches.

I think it's all to do with chests. There's no way I'd leave a chest behind (unless just temporarily)... and when I have a chest I obviously keep it filled up with junk. And so I end up going through the game all over again and - apart from the first hour of playing - carry so much weight that I'm always in the red (or yellow at times)...

P.S. Do creatures heal over time? I'm just a few hits away from slaying the dragon which is cake easy but am thinking of letting him rest for a while so that I can come back for some more ninja/fighter practise.

I am afraid, the creatures do not heal over time. So your dragon is close to pushing the daisies

Creature CAN heal over time, but only when they have an attack method that allows it... which the dragon doesn't.

So were are talkin about .. not original DM there?

which attack method would heal the monster
?

@Zoom: I was referring to RTC there (my bad for not saying it), and an attack method that fires an ACTION_HEAL_MONSTER.

Ultimately in a multiplayer DM game, dragons should regenerate! Needless to say, that is yet to come

think the movement attack heal prolly is best. it may bog down the speed of the game if the monster moves too quickly. should work on the dragon ok. movement attack actions seem to slow down RTC especially if it's a graphical spell with haze. also it's risky to put a flooritem on top of a flooritem if it has click use. can't have two clickable flooritems on the same position.

Even though I know it doesn't do a hell of a lot outside of weigh you down, I always build up towards the armour of Dark/Lyte. My theory is always that if it's that deep in the game, I gotsta have it.
Stupid part is though I usually hand down whatever armour the front guys are wearing to the chaps down the back. So I've often got a Priest/Wizard running around in full plate armour. It's really pointless, but what I do.

Weapon wise I'm a big sucker for axes (no matter what the game). I know a lot of the swords can end up better, but visually I love them (Executioner in CSB is always one of the first items I go for) I think early on I just clunk about with whatever till I pick up the Rapier & Axe on level 4, unless I have Stamm and can rock 2 axes. Oh the bliss

I don't usually worry to much about necklaces, just whatever I find and think looks prettier haha.

Like those above I always have way too much crap with me spread amongst my 4 characters. I usually clean house when I get to the Firestaff level and wind up with a little treasure pile and I come back and grab things as I need them

If I'm not speeding around like a clown with it's arse on fire, my favourite DM items are:

Diamond Edge (most efficient weapon on most monsters)
Mithril mails
Elven boots
Crown of Nerra
Cloak of Night
Rabbit's foot

The thing I don't like the most is the pendant feral - just makes it twice as hard to get the next level.

Interesting question. I was never that bothered about favourites in the way of Armour and acoutrements like necklaces and what-not. I do like the Boots of Speed particularly, because, like others have said, I'm so familiar with the games now that I don't level-up as much as a newbie might, so my characters don't get as powerful and strong as they could. Boots of Speed allow overloaded or weak characters to still move at normal speed. (Didn't manage to get all four pairs playing RTC this time round.)

Weapons though - first time I got hold of the Diamond-Edge Sword I was rather taken with it. The Jab (Stab?) attack was always quite quick, and, I don't know why, Chop was always my attack of choice. Definitely preferred it to Swing, and I rarely used Parry with weapons. The Inquisitor was awesome, but didn't look as cool as the Diamond-Edge. Hardcleave was also cool, (didn't find it this time round, playing RTC for some reason!), but not very Sleek!

The Blue Poison Darts were nice, but I didn't do much throwing or shooting this time round playing RTC either.

I like the Thrust attack best these days - good damage for a low delay. So rapier, then Delta Blade and finally the Inquisitor are my weps of choice.
The Hardcleave is on Level 10 (Scorpion level, /shudder), in a room that has two teleport fields in it up to the north of the level somewhere - I think the fields (or at least one of them) is activated by a red button on the wall. I think. Or maybe it's in a secret room around the corner from that room. Hrmm I actually can't remember, but I know it's in that Scorpy area up to the north/northeastern area of the level.

Ameena, I think what you're describing is the position of the

Spoiler

magnifier

. Isn't it? The Hardcleave is in the

Spoiler

small room opened by a button that's in a small room opened by a button in the Scorpion regenerating area

. I think. It's not easy to find and get it because of the

Spoiler

two tiny buttons

and all the stupid

Spoiler

scorpions and flying eyes

.

Yeah, Jan's right. The good news is the second area is beside that magnifer area, the bad news is you have to find that small button right by the beholder/scorpion maze first

Ahh, I knew it was in or near that room somewhere and involved pushing buttons to access, just couldn't remember the exact details .

This is the sort of thing I missed this time round. First time I played DM I mapped every single level, searching for every button and "bumping" into every wall to find false ones. Still not 100% sure how to get back to the top level though, as there's a door, (near to the "Test your Strength" bit), which closes every time I step on a pressure pad. I'm assuming I need the Boots of Speed to get through it, but a) I've only got three pairs, (I could kill off one of my characters and carry their bones through the door and then resurrect them, but can't be bothered), and b) I'm done with it now anyway. Maybe in another 10 years. Maybe, if I ever have kids, I'll wait until (s)he's old enough and introduce them to the game!

(Introduced a mate of mine to RTC, (he played it a lot 20 years ago), and he's loving it, showing his 7-year old daughter it too. I think that's nice.)

Have you tried introducing that door to a reasonably-levelled Fireball? It may not be necessary to open it before trying to get through . It's worth a try - I can't remember for sure which doors are fire/weaponproof and which aren't .