Stats can increase or decrease for many reasons, some of which are detailed below. When a stat changes, the following messages are generated:
| Stat | Increases | Decreases |
|---|---|---|
| Strength | Your muscles feel stronger | Your muscles soften |
| Learning | You feel studious | Thinking seems to get tougher |
| Willpower | Your will seems inflexible | You feel soft-hearted |
| Dexterity | Your movements are getting swifter | You are getting shaky |
| Toughness | Your health increases | It seems that you are getting a cold |
| Charisma | You feel very self-confident | You feel reserved |
| Appearance | Your looks improve | You are growing a wart |
| Mana | You feel more in touch with the world | You are getting out of touch with everything |
| Perception | Your senses sharpen | You seem to get less perceptive |
0.6.1 Increasing stats
It is to any PC's advantage to raise stats to the potential maximum and beyond. There are several ways to do this. Stats may be increased to their potential maximum naturally by exercising the stat.
0.6.1.1 Exercising stats naturally
Examples of how to exercise stats naturally:
Strength - carrying around an inventory heavy enough to cause the PC to become Burdened or Strained will exercise the Strength stat. The downside is that carrying those heavy loads will make the PC slower and increase food consumption. Being Overburdened abuses the Dexterity stat.
Learning - reading scrolls and spellbooks trains Learning; PCs with an already decent Learning train it more by reading
Willpower - no known way to exercise naturally
Dexterity - throwing boomerangs trains Dexterity
Toughness - Toughness increases probably occur faster if the PC avoids Hungry and Starving status
Charisma - no known way to exercise naturally
Appearance - no known way to exercise naturally
Mana - book-casting spells is especially useful since it doesn't waste potentially valuable castings; use up some PP by book casting before traveling in the wilderness since they will have time to recover; creating undead slaves exercises the Mana stat
Perception - being Blind for long periods seems to train Perception
Note that all physical (St, Dx, To) stat increases are liable to be faster when they are low and the PC is gaining experience levels relatively quickly. The Athletics skill also helps raise physical stats more quickly and has a small effect on Appearance.
0.6.1.2 Training with Garth
The dwarven weaponmaster Garth, found in Dwarftown, can be paid to increase stats other than Appearance and Mana. The formula for how much to pay is $100 × stat value, doubled once for each 5 points over 15. This is a general formula that may vary according to the PC's race.
See section 2.5.5 for a bit more detail on training with Garth.
0.6.1.3 Training stats with herbs
Two of the herbs can be used in order to increase Willpower and Toughness to 25 and Dexterity to 27, perhaps slightly higher (see below). These are:
Morgia root - Willpower and Toughness (eat)
Eating 2 morgia roots, any status, will train Toughness. Eating 4 morgia roots, any status, will also train Willpower. If the stats are already at their potential maximum, 8 morgia roots are required.
Moss of mareilon - Dexterity (use)
Using 2 blessed or uncursed mosses of mareilon trains Dexterity. If the Dexterity stat is already at its potential maximum, 4 mosses of mareilon are required. Using cursed moss of mareilon abuses the Dexterity stat.
In any case, do not eat or use additional herbs until the stat increases have taken effect - this may take a while. Note that training stats in this way is more effective when the stats are low. Eating four morgia, for instance, may cause two or three increases in Willpower and Toughness if the stats are in the single digits. Once above ten, the stat increases seem to occur one point at a time.
Current understanding is that if this stepwise procedure is followed, Wi and To are limited to 25, Dx to 27. The game regards the stat as nontrainable with herbs after that. However, if a massive dose of herbs (30 blessed? 40 blessed? More?) is administerd when Wi and To are at 24, Dx at 26, therefore still trainable, stats will reach at least 27. The upper limit is not known, but can't be much beyond this.
If the PC is going to use Sickness or Starvation (see section 0.6.3), a massive dose of herbs at Wi, To 24 and Dx 26 is a waste of herbs.
0.6.1.4 Increasing stats by eating corpses
Many corpses have an affect on stats. Some simply increase a given stat, others will increase one stat while decreasing another. Some have a limit, that is, they will only increase a stat to a certain number, after which they will have no effect. Others affect stats regardless of their value.
The effects will be compiled here eventually. Until then you can browse Appendix J for the effects resulting from eating monster corpses.
0.6.1.5 Increasing stats with potions
There are five kinds of potions that increase or decrease the PC's stats directly: potions of -stat-, potions of potential -stat-, potions of boost -stat-, potions of gain attributes and potions of carrot juice. Rearranging stats is dealt with below.
Potions of -stat- behave as follows:
uncursed potion of -stat-: an uncursed potion of -stat- will increase the value of -stat- by one, and increases the potential maximum plus one
blessed potion of -stat- : a blessed potion of -stat- will increase the value of -stat- by two, and increases the potential maximum plus two
cursed potion of -stat- : a cursed potion of -stat- will decrease the value of -stat- by one, and decreases the potential maximum by one
Potions of potential -stat- do the same with your stat potential, which determines the natural maximum of your PC in that stat.
Potions of boost -stat- work like potions of -stat-, but give a bigger boost that is temporary. These are useful when you need to get some stat over a certain limit, such as the Wi: 32 border that allows for bigger ball spells. Another useful application is to use potions of boost learning just before a level increase, which will probably boost learning enough to increase the number of skill increases allowed.
Potions of gain attributes raise the value of a single stat by one if uncursed or all stats by one if blessed. Note that they do not raise potential maximums. They only increase potential maximums to the resulting value of -stat-, when necessary.
Potions of carrot juice can be used to increase Perception. Drinking a blessed potion of carrot juice will increase Perception by +1. Drinking an uncursed potion of carrot juice may increase Perception if the Pe score is very low; this needs to be tested. There is a soft limit of 20. After this, it becomes very difficult to raise Perception with blessed potions of carrot juice. The chance seems to be about 15% in the low 20s and most likely decreases further. When Perception is below 20, the message "Your eyesight seems to improve!" is generated. Above 20, the message is absent even if Perception is increased.
There is a special room effect "The air of this room is filled with the smell of carrots." which will cause a one-time +5 increase to Perception when a blessed or uncursed potion of carrot juice is consumed while in the room.
0.6.1.6 Crystals of knowledge
'U'sing crystals of knowledge has two possible effects: if the crystal is uncursed, a bit of the level layout around the PC is revealed. If the crystal is blessed, a +1 (sometimes +2) increase to the Learning stat also occurs. In ADOM 1.0.0+, there is a limit similar to that encountered with herbs: Learning cannot be increased beyond 25 - 27 or so with blessed crystals of knowledge.
0.6.2 Rearranging stats
0.6.2.1 Potions of exchange
Drinking a potion of exchange changes your stats, not taking into account any effects from corruption or equipment. A cursed potion of exchange swaps six stats randomly, an uncursed one twists five, and a blessed one swaps two stats around.
0.6.2.2 Potions of balance
Potions of balance can be very helpful. When the PC drinks one, the game calculates the average of all stats, rounds it down, and adds a number depending on the potion's status. For a blessed potion, it's +3, uncursed 0, and cursed -3. The stat changes are based on this final score.
If a stat exceeds this score, it's lowered by one. If it's below this, it's raised by one. If it's equal, it remains unchanged.
Therefore, a well-rounded PC with most or all stat scores close to each other who drinks a blessed potion of balance will receive an increase to most or all stats.
Potions of balance have a limit analogous to herbs in ADOM 1.0.0+: stats cannot be increased over ~25 using potions of balance. There is also another effect in ADOM 1.0.0+: alignment moves towards neutrality when drinking a potion of balance.
Note also that potions of balance take into account all stat-modifying elements including worn equipment, wielded equipment and corruptions.
0.6.3 Increasing stats beyond their usual limits
Certain afflictions will lower stats. While suffering from these, the PC can take advantage of this fact to increase his stats. Once the affliction wears off or is removed, the stat will recover and exceed the usual limit.
Sickness: -2 to several stats; -5 to Toughness
Starvation: -4 to Strength as soon as Starving status is reached. As time passes, Strength, Learning, Willpower and Dexterity begin dropping. They will eventually reach half their starting value (Strength reaches half the value after the immediate -4). While the stats are dropping, the PC is not in danger of starving to death. When the stats reach the halfway point, the PC is in danger of dying and should eat something. Since Starvation halves stats rather than simply decrementing them it is much more powerful than Sickness.
Rings of weakness: Decreases Strength to 2. Be careful to drop the PC's pack (and heavy worn equipment i.e. Big Punch) before using rings of weakness.
An extremely convenient scenario for these tactics is mining out a level that supports herbs. Morgia roots and moss of mareilon train Toughness, Willpower and Dexterity. Stomacemptia can be used for Starvation. Mining will generate crystals of knowledge for training Learning and Stone Giant corpses for increasing Strength. Even better if it is near Dwarftown. Most PCs will not have the Mining skill or an artifact pickaxe and will need Glod's help repairing pickaxes for 1500 gold pieces. This exploit should raise these stats into the 50s.
Garth (section 0.6.1.2) is a potentially endless source of stat increases for those attributes he will train. The limitless gold available from the Casino can be used for this.