There are various resistances available. These are:
Damage types: fire, cold, acid, shock
Special attacks: paralysis, petrification, poison, confusion, death rays,
sleep, stun
Remember that resistance does not equal immunity in ADOM, i.e. being hit by a death ray while resistant will not kill the PC instantly, but will still deal a significant amount of damage.
Some of the resistances can be gained by eating an appropriate monster corpse:
Intrinsic fire resistance can be gained by eating the corpse of fire-related creatures. The game generates messages related to this:
Fire beetle (50% chance of gaining fire resistance):
You suddenly feel very hot! (whether or not resistance has actually been granted)
Fire lizard (10% chance of gaining fire resistance):
You suddenly shiver. (fire resistance granted)
This stuff cools you down! (fire resistance not granted)
Larger fire creatures, e.g. fire drakes, red dragons, etc. seem to grant fire resistance every time.
There are further considerations about fire resistance in the Tower of Eternal Flames. See section 2.19 for more explanation.
Cold resistance can be gained by eating a white dragon corpse.
Acid resistance can be gained by eating ankheg, ant or black dragon corpses.
Shock resistance can be gained by eating lightning lizard or blue dragon corpses.
Poison resistance can be gained by eating giant centipede, snake or spider corpses. Be aware that this both poisons the PC and grants resistance, so the PC will have to endure a brief period of poisoning.
An interesting test conducted by Petri Sihvola regarding petrification by a gorgon's breath:
> I did some testing and there's an approximate 50% chance of dying
> to a gorgon breath without resistance. However, if DV is high enough
> the chance is drastically reduced. This one shows my DV and how many
> times I died:
> DV:23 10/20
> DV:44 8/20
> DV:53 1/20
> DV:69 0/20
> This was also without the alertness skill.
Immunity to the four basic damage types is possible: fire, cold, acid and shock. Immunity means that the PC will take no damage from the corresponding elemental attack. However, creatures which deal elemental damage can still harm the PC, due to their ability to deal physical damage. The PC is only immune to damage from the elemental attack.
Dooming or Cursing, as might be expected from the names, is generally to be avoided. They result from committing acts that are very contrary to the PCs alignment. For example, robbing shops with a lawful PC may cause both cursing and dooming. Robbing a shop with a neutral PC may cause only cursing. Robbing a shop with a neutral PC and killing the shopkeeper on the way out will quite likely cause both dooming and cursing. They are also quite commonly obtained by drinking from pools. Cursing makes the game nudge all the die-rolls against the PC, generate more monsters which hit harder while the PC's hits become weaker. Dooming is a more severe form of this. Dooming makes traps more difficult to avoid, greatly increases the frequency of wilderness encounters and makes it much more difficult to pray for divine help.
Nevertheless, there are ways to exploit these intrinsics. These techniques are not for the beginner, of course. Since monsters become tougher, they are worth more experience and carry better items. If the PC wants to achieve Grand Mastery in a weapon class, becoming Doomed in the wilderness is the only way to do it in a reasonable time frame.
Dooming and Cursing can be removed by sacrificing at an aligned altar. It may take considerable sacrificing to remove the Cursed/Doomed intrinsics, since they are only removed at the "very close" level of piety. Praying while the PC is already at very close status also may remove dooming and/or cursing, although these intrinsics make it more difficult to appeal for divine assistance, as noted above. Removing Dooming (only) results in the message "You feel a terrible gloom being lifted from you." Removing Cursing (only) results in the message "You feel relieved." Removing both Cursing and Dooming simultaneously results in only the "You feel a terrible gloom being lifted from you." message.
Another trick for exploiting the Doomed state is as follows: If a PC finds an altar early in the game, ideally before the Si level so that zero or very few artifacts have been generated, the PC should purchase or acquire plenty of food (cooked lizards and/or stomafillia herbs), become Doomed by eating a Dooming corpse (daemons and quasits spring to mind) or wearing a ring of Doom, and then exploit the heavy monster generation by sacrificing the monsters on the altar. This can quickly lead to very close or even extremely close status. After the Dooming is removed, by removing a cursed ring of doom or through reaching very close status, the PC can be crowned or precrowned.
Dooming also has an effect in dark rooms: if a Doomed PC wanders into a dark room, there is a 1 in 1000 chance for an instakill every turn "You are likely to be eaten by a grue." (this only applies to Doomed characters).
Deliberately playing in a Cursed or Doomed state is dangerous and should be reserved for those players who know exactly why they are doing it.
There is a game bug that causes fireproof blankets to be positively affected by the Cursed and Doomed intrinsics. It makes them last almost forever in the ToEF. It is probably not worth the cursing or dooming to make the blanket last. The ToEF is usually difficult enough in a Blessed state.
The Lucky and Fate Smiles intrinsics are the good counterparts to the Cursing and Dooming intrinsics, respectively. They cause the game to nudge die-rolls in the PC's favor. The effect is not as dramatic as the Dooming and Cursing intrinsics. It should be noted that all four intrinsics may be present simultaneously. The negative ones are considerably stronger.
The Lucky and Fate Smiles intrinsics are naturally gained by PCs as they sacrifice on coaligned altars; the messages are:
"You feel an inner strength lifting your spirits!" - The Lucky intrinsic
"You feel very close to -deity-." - The Fate Smiles intrinsic
0.12.5 Teleportitis and teleport control
Teleportitis is a "disease" that causes your PC to teleport around randomly. It is obtainable from pools ("You feel jumpy"), corruption ("your close attunement to corrupted astral space allows teleportation"), from eating the right corpse (pixie) and items (helm of teleportation, cloak of Oman). It can be useful for escaping tight spots such as being surrounded by monsters (though it never seems to kick in when needed ;), for shoplifting and for reaching areas that are usually inaccessible.
Teleport control allows you to choose the destination when teleporting your PC. It works whether the cause of the teleportation is teleportitis or deliberate, such as zapping a wand of teleportation or casting the Teleport spell at the PC's current location. Mindcrafters always get teleport control at experience level one, others have to rely on eating the right corpse (blink dog), drinking from pools ("you feel like jumping around") or wearing items (amulet/ring of teleport control).
Controlled teleportation is important in the game. There is a guaranteed wand of teleportation in the VDDL level of the Assassin's Guild. It can be found using any of the item detection techniques. The wand and potions of booze are then on-demand teleportation. Teleport control is not guaranteed but if necessary, the PC can stair hop in the Infinite Dungeon between I3 and I4 until blink dogs are generated.
The night you were born....
...the local undead were seen packing up and moving away.
Your character will gain (or is born with?) the "natural enemy of undead" intrinsic. This makes undead flee from you periodically.
...your long lost brother showed up.
Greater chance of special locations generated in dungeons (hives, shops, pools, etc.)
...a two headed calf was born.
10% less experience points are required for an experience level increase.
...a falling star killed the village elder.
10% less experience points are required for an experience level increase.
It is possible to gain the water breathing intrinsic by eating Blup's or Shyssiryxius' corpse. The message "For some seconds a strange liquid seems to fill your lungs." is generated.
Elementalists receive water breathing as an intrinsic class power at experience level 25. Certain items and wielded weapons grant the intrinsic. The most common items are probably the helm of water breathing and amulet of water breathing.
Other items which grant this ability include:
rings of the fish - AUTOCURSING; 1 blessed or 2 of any status stop drowning
damage, if the PC is not cursed or doomed.
the rune-covered trident - when wielded
the Trident of the Red Rooster - when wielded
the Medal of Chaos - when worn