ADOM Guidebook


Skills - description and usefulness

There is an excellent section in the ADOM manual on skills. Be sure to take advantage of it. Some additional tips are provided here.
Alchemy            - One recipe is gained for each ten points in this skill.  The last recipe gained
                     at skill level 100 is always for potions of gain attributes.  The keystroke 
                     shift-r brings up the recipe list.  Ingredients can be potions and herbs.  The 
                     available recipes are always for: blindness, booze, cure poison, deafness, 
                     extra healing, gain attributes, insight, longevity, poison and youth.  The 
                     order is random except for gain attributes.
Alertness          - Very helpful for evading bolt spells and undiscovered traps.
Appraising         - Opinions vary.  Cursed items can be rated as good, a nasty surprise.
Archery            - Obvious benefits.
Athletics          - Nice +8 bonus to speed at 100.  Very powerful combination with Raven birthsign.
Backstabbing       - Very powerful when combined with invisibility.
Bridge Building    - If you must build a bridge it is obviously essential.
Climbing           - Manual omits the fact that this must be at 100 to enter the Rift.  
                     Training with Yergius makes this much easier to achieve.
Concentration      - Critical for wizards and necromancers.  Get this to 100 ASAP.
Cooking            - Useful for preserving the corpse of orb guardians.  
Courage            - Nice to have, some ignore it entirely when going for an ultra ending.
Detect Item Status - Nice but not necessary.
Detect Traps       - Very important unless you can recharge wands of trap detection indefinitely.
                     There are several heavily trapped areas in the game.  Very useful for detecting 
                     trapped doors as well.  'A'pply this skill towards any door whose trapped vs 
                     untrapped status is unknown.
Disarm Traps       - Nowhere near as important as Detect Traps.  Once detected, traps are easily 
                     avoided.
Dodge              - Very nice DV +10 at skill level 100.
Find Weakness      - Very nice increase to critical hits.
First Aid          - All PCs have this.  Can restore (some) recently lost hit points, but perhaps 
                     more importantly, can be used every turn to fight sickness.  This can be a 
                     life saver.  First Aid also works for poisoning.  Apply the skill every time the 
                     game generates the message about "poison coursing through your veins!"
Fletchery          - Wait until skill level is high, ideally 100, to use it.
Food Preservation  - Important for all, essential for necromancers.
Gardening          - For farmers, of course.
Gemology           - Gems are found and some identified solely depending on this skill.  
                     Without it, gems will not be found when mining.  Exploitable.
Haggling           - Somewhat useful for all, essential for merchants.
Healing            - Very important for all PCs.  Get it if you aren't born with it.
Herbalism          - Very useful for all PCs.  Willpower, Toughness and Dexterity all go to ~25 
                     with herbs.  All herbs picked without this skill will be cursed.
Law                - Marginal.  By the time this skill informs you of the criminal nature of some act, 
                     the PC has already committed it!  Does inform of lawful acts.
Listening          - All PCs have this.  High skill level may train perception.  Trains naturally, 
                     don't waste level advances on this.
Literacy           - Essential for spellcasters, most of whom are born with high levels anyway.  
                     Less important than it used to be, since reading scrolls does not require 
                     high literacy.  
Metallurgy         - Essential for weaponsmiths.
Mining             - High level in Mining helps stop pickaxes from breaking.
Music              - Essential for bards, of course.  Very high levels are needed for good effectivity.
Necromancy         - Necromancers, of course.  Get this to 100 as soon as convenient.  Do not 
                     believe the manual about very slow regeneration of mana.  Using the skill 
                     trains the mana attribute.
Pick Locks         - Useful for thieves.  Must have thieves' picks.
Pick Pockets       - Useful for all.  Occasionally a truly outstanding object can be pickpocketed. 
                     Proving the PC a successful pickpocket allows entrance to the Thieves Guild, 
                     a means to receive very useful training.
Smithing           - Useful for all PCs, the specialty of weaponsmiths.
Stealth            - Useful for all PCs.
Survival           - Useful for all PCs, especially trolls and rangers.  All PCs born in the month of 
                     the Falcon receive this.  Applying the skill while Bloated on a non-water square 
                     causes plant seeds to be gathered, which have some nutritional value and can be 
                     given to farmers for a small lawful boost.  Doing the same on a water square causes 
                     fish to be gathered, which can be used to tame a variety of monsters (see Section 
                     0.11.1.3).
Swimming           - Nearly essential for all PCs in later gammas and 1.0.0 that include rivers (at 
                     least those without a means of casting Frost Bolt).
Tactics            - Useful for all PCs, increases modifiers from the tactics settings.
Two Weapon Combat  - Useful for all PCs.  Two words:  Needle.  Sting.
Ventriloquism      - Opinions vary.  A means of confusing monsters.
Woodcraft          - Nearly essential if the PC is going to chop trees.
0.4.1 Guaranteed ways of acquiring skills

The following skills can be taught, or trained by Yrrigs and Yergius, providing alignment restrictions are met (see section 0.2.1).

Backstabbing      - Bart
Bridge Building   - Yrrigs
Climbing          - Yergius
Courage           - the Old Barbarian
Detect Traps      - Yergius
Disarm Traps      - Yergius
Gardening         - Guth'Alak (under special circumstances, see section 1.2.1.6)
Healing           - Jharod
Healing           - Kranf Niest
Herbalism         - Guth'Alak
Law               - Tywat Pare
Literacy          - Thrundarr
Pick Locks        - Yergius
Pick Pockets      - Yergius
Smithing          - Glod
Stealth           - Yergius
Swimming          - Blup
Tactics           - Bart
Two Weapon Combat - Bart
0.4.2 Non-guaranteed ways of acquiring skills

Potions or scrolls of education can grant a new random skill or increase proficiency in an existing random skill. Skills can also be wished for; the exceptions are Alertness and Healing.

0.4.3 Training skills

In the sense meant for the sake of the following table, "training" means actions that will cause a skill to spontaneously increase, *without* the player deciding to increase skill proficiency when gaining an experience level. This is different from Yergius' training, which can change the potential maximum for a skill (how high the PC can raise it) and the dice roll (how fast the PC can get it there). The value of Yergius' training can only be taken advantage of when gaining an experience level or after successfully applying the skill elsewhere in the game.

Skill                  Training method
=====                  ===============

Alchemy                successfully applying
Alertness              spontaneously discovering a trap (not using the Detect Traps skill) or evading 
                       a spellcaster's bolts
Appraising             evaluating many items
Archery                using missiles (apparently including scurgari and boomerangs but not other thrown 
                       missiles) and *only* when successfully firing a missile into the red zone
Athletics              automatic
Backstabbing           attacking unsuspecting monsters due to invisibility, Stealth or a nonhostile 
                       monster - always results in the message "You stab the -foo-..." or "You splatter 
                       the -foo-..."
Bridge Building        successfully applying
Climbing               mountaineering, climbing out of pits
Concentration          regenerating power points
Cooking                successfully applying
Courage                fighting more than one opponent
Detect Item Status     evaluating many items
Detect Traps           successfully detecting traps, whether the skill is applied or with the search 
                       command
Disarm Traps           successfully disarming traps
Dodge                  successfully dodging spells and missiles
Find Weakness          when the PC scores a critical hit "...with full force" *unless* this is due to a 
                       slaying weapon
First Aid              applying, even if unsuccessful
Fletchery              successfully applying
Food Preservation      carrying corpses or other food items susceptible to rotting, probably by killing 
                       monsters as well
Gardening              successfully applying
Gemology               whenever the PC or a monster destroys rock; the game checks whether a gem is 
                       generated
Haggling               successfully applying
Healing                automatic when wounded
Herbalism              successfully identifying an herb bush
Law                    whenever the PC receives the PC receives the "You feel as if {behaving in proper 
                       form|transgressing some law}." messages
Listening              automatic when sounds are present
Literacy               reading spellbooks, gravestones, fortune cookies and (at least non-magical, if 
                       not all) scrolls
Metallurgy             evaluating many items; may also be trained when the PC is on a level where 
                       digging is occuring (determining whether ore is present, and which type)
Mining                 mining, i.e. only using pickaxes against stone
Music                  when a monster is successfully tamed using the skill
Necromancy             successfully applying + level dependent for Necromancers
Pick Locks             successfully applying
Pick Pockets           successfully applying
Smithing               successfully applying + special considerations for weaponsmiths
Stealth                automatic
Survival               successfully applying
Swimming               moving through water: dungeon rivers, wilderness water squares, Shyssiryxius' 
                       cave
Tactics                fighting with tactics settings other than normal and switching often
Two weapon combat      successful hits when dual-wielding melee weapons
Ventriloquism          successfully applying
Woodcraft              automatic when traveling through forest squares in the wilderness or animated 
                       forest; also by attacking trees in the animated forest

Updated September 29th, 2002
© Copyright Andrew Williams 2000-2002