ADOM Guidebook


Companions and slaves

0.11.1 Companions

Companions are allies who will help the PC, to a point. They can be obtained in several ways as outlined below. Companions are often referred to as pets if they are animals. One word of caution before attempting to create a powerful companion - they are fickle and will sometimes turn on the PC at the slightest provocation. Some types of companions have a distinct personality and bear careful watching. A high charisma score is very helpful when ordering companions about. Most companions (not undead like an Emperor Lich) can be healed using any of the normal techniques - casting Heal and throwing potions of healing, for example.

One problem that many players have with companions (or slaves) is that companions have a fixed speed. This means that as the game progresses and the PC gains speed via wearables, the Athletics skill, eating quickling corpses, etc., companions become slower and slower relative to the PC. This can become very annoying, with the PC forced to wait for companions to catch up. This problem makes many players reluctant to rely too heavily on companions.

Note also that companions cannot accompany PCs to D:50. Companions can be created on D:50, but they cannot cross D:49.

0.11.1.1 Scrolls of Familiar Summoning

These scrolls can be read to create a tame monster. The monster created is dependent on the danger level of the dungeon level. This means it is to the PC's advantage to read these in the most dangerous place possible. In the early midgame, the best place is probably the Dwarven Halls, since almost anything can show up there. Ancient karmic dragon, emperor lich and balor companions have been generated in the Dwarven Halls, for instance.

0.11.1.2 Figurines of wondrous power

These miniature statues are a relatively new feature in ADOM, implemented by TB in response to players' requests for pet shops. Figurines can also be found randomly in the dungeons. They generate a monster when 'u'sed; the type of monster corresponds to the name (i.e. a jackal figurine of wondrous power). If the figurine is blessed when 'u'sed, the monster produced is tame. As with scrolls of familiar summoning, it is best to use them in a dangerous place. The Small Cave is ideal, since newly generated monsters have roughly twice the experience level of the PC.

0.11.1.3 Taming monsters

This is a specialty of bards, but any PC with the Music skill can try to tame monsters by placing a musical instrument in the tool slot and 'u'sing it. Most PCs are not very successful at this until the Music skill level is in the 90s. The success rate is also dependent on the type of instrument used, with heavier instruments generally better than light ones. No PC can tame a pet if there are already three pets on a dungeon level. One or more pets must be led to a different level and left there. The PC can then return to tame more.

Beggars can be made into companions by giving them gold and/or food. The most recent report (December 28th, 2001) required about 8000 gold pieces and 10 cooked lizards.

Some monsters can be tamed by feeding them. Cave lions and wild cats can be tamed by giving them rat or giant rat corpses. This is very useful to remember if the PC wants the Ring of the Master Cat (see section 3.6). Cave tigers can also be tamed, but they refuse to eat rat or giant rat corpses. Instead, they like pieces of raw or fresh meat. Unfortunately, it takes more than five pieces of meat to completely tame them; this is out of reach for most PC's. Wild cats (cave lions? cave tigers?) can also be tamed with fish, which can be obtained from water squares in the wilderness (see Section 0.4 re Survival). Dogs can be tamed by giving them bones, which are readily available by killing skeletons. This can be especially useful with blink dogs. Tame a blink dog with bones, then get it involved in a fight. The blink dog will summon more of his brethren, some of which will inevitably be killed. A blink dog corpse will eventually be generated, which grants teleport control when eaten. This is particularly useful for lawful PCs. Since blink dogs are lawful, killing them will wreak havoc on a lawful PC's alignment.

0.11.1.4 Hawkslayer

The burly adventurer in the High Mountain Village will join a PC and act as a companion providing certain criteria are met: the PC must not be chaotic and the player (not the PC) must know a secret password ("Iceberg"). The only way to learn the password in ADOM itself is drinking from pools, and many players are reluctant to do so. Some players may remember Hawkslayer from the computer RPG "Bard's Tale III". The password is the same in that game. There is also an experience level requirement which is uncertain. Level 25 PC's have successfully gotten Hawkslayer as a companion, so that stands as a maximum level for the requirement at the moment.

Hawkslayer is not super-buff as companions go, but he is not bad.

On arriving at the HMV with a level 15 PC and using a blessed stethoscope on him, Hawkslayer was found to be:

You examine Hawkslayer, the burly adventurer. Diagnosis: Level: 1, DV: 24, PV: 15, Hits: 355, Attacks: 1, Damage: 14-50. Speed: 120.

A report from the Russian ADOM newsgroup on September 14th, 2000 described a PC who was very careful with Hawkslayer to start, training him in the upper levels of the CoC, proceeding to the Big Room then deeper into the CoC until he was able to take on molochs and balors. Using a blessed stethoscope on him at that point gave the following:

You examine Hawkslayer, the burly adventurer. Diagnosis: Level: 110, DV: 96, PV: 36, Hits: 805, Attacks: 11, Damage: 50-86. Speed:120.

Quite impressive.

Hawkslayer uses eternium arrows which can be retrieved for the PC's own use.

It is possible to equip Hawkslayer with items in ADOM 1.0.0. If the PC drops certain equipment to the ground next to him he will pick up the items and equip them.

Unfortunately he will not wear body armor, but will equip boots, cloaks, gauntlets and shields. Be very careful, however. He will not equip these items after he is the PC's companion. The items must simply be dropped next to him before giving him the secret password. This behavior will probably change in future versions of ADOM.

0.11.2 Slaves

Slaves are the undead created to serve a necromancer PC. They share some characteristics with companions. They will fight against a necromancer PC's opponents up to the point where injuries cause them to panic and become afraid of further combat. As with companions, a high Charisma score enables the necromancer to better control his slaves. Note that traditional methods of healing damage undead rather than healing them. The Bless spell also damages undead. Undead in skeletal form (skeletons and skeletal warriors) can be healed by giving them bones. Others must simply heal at their natural rate, which is often frustratingly slow.

If a necromancer manages to survive to a high enough level to find quickling corpses, especially higher-level quickling corpses, most of the problems with undead vanish. Quicklings are considered humanoid in ADOM and so their corpses can be animated with necromancy. They are extremely fast (this also means the problem with slow companions vanishes, see section 0.11.1) and regenerate wounds at a phenomenal rate. One particular quickling king skeletal warrior on record killed Nuurag-Vaarn, the Chaos Archmage, before the PC knew it had happened.

Note that slaves are not subject to the experience level 50 limit as PCs are. It is quite possible for slaves to reach experience level 100 and higher. Needless to say, they become formidable at those levels.

One trick necromancers can use to create out of depth slaves is to exploit the properties of the small cave (check section 1.2.3 for a general explanation of how the small cave works). In this scenario, a necromancer PC avoids entering the small cave at the beginning of the game, instead gaining early experience in the infinite dungeon or elsewhere. As the game progresses, a source of invisibility will eventually be found. It is rare for monsters that see invisible to be generated in the small cave. At the same time, many are humanoid and their corpses are usable for necromancy. If an experience level 20 necromancer enters the small cave while invisible, he can reasonably expect to leave or descend into the unremarkable dungeon with a couple of level 35 - 40 slaves. Very useful at that point in the game.

Below is a chart that shows the choices a level 50 necromancer has for creating undead. More detail will be added to this, indicating exactly what experience level is required for each undead type. Note that the mana cost to create some undead will be higher for lower level PCs.

Undead beingMana cost
Skeleton1
Zombie1
Ghul1
Shadow1
Corpse fiend1
Wight1
Wraith1
Mummy1
Skeletal warrior1
Ghost1
Spectre2
Vampire4
Shadow lord5
Lich8


Updated July 3rd, 2009