ToME: the Tales of Maj'Eyal

I think I have an idea what might have happened. When I tried to power my artifact, the game, instead of giving me the menu to empower it, asked me what kind of staff I would like to create, just like when I created the staff of wizardry. I had no idea what I was doing, and, as I wanted to add spell power, I asked to make a staff of spell. I don't know why I was given this option, but my guess is that this is why the thing went haywire. The result is the staff of most ridiculous power.

To make a legitimate +100 mage staff (if that is not an oxymoron), create a mage staff of wizardry. Keep it open. Then kill lots of things. Give it Searching (very cheap to increase) and when you increase Searching, Power and Mana also go up.

Created an alchemist, went into the water below Bree, killed a naga (level 9) with my potion of detonations, and got to level 8. Then YASD with a black harpy on sword quest on Barrow Downs 1.

Alchemists are very difficult to play early on. They have no bonuses that help them kill monsters or survive monster attacks. You have to baby them along.

When i am playing an alchemist I never enter a dungeon until I was level 20 or so and had some decent equipment. Instead I use the swamp or the mountains east of Bree to up my level. I also try to use the potion of detonations to kill a young dragon in the mountains- that gets me much more experience than a naga.

Another thing to do is to get a lot of money and buy stuff from the black markets. A relatively low level alchemist can make torches of fearlessness using essences of light, which sell for a ridiculous amount. The ultimate money maker is exploding ammo of venom- one batch normally sells for hundreds of thousands of gold pieces.

A better way to go about this is to sell your potion of detonations, buy some manathrust & noxious cloud wands, WALK, don't travel to the shallows south, and kill a couple of things. Put a couple of points into Magical Device, then kill some 3 headed hydras. You will be level twenty in a matter of minutes, especially if you play a Yeek. Walking between Bree and Gondolin will net you all the money you need to continue this path by making torches of fearlessness, which have a 0% fail and no curses.

I lost my Alchemist with the nasty Mage Staff in a hard drive crash, but made a new one that got to level 36 in 24 hours. This involved some risky business for the last couple of levels (tossing potion of detonations at Fasticolions) but that was because I was impatient. Most of those levels came from Lizard Kings and 3 & 4 headed hydras south of Bree.

Speaking of which, when playing a Yeek Alchemist, turn OFF maximize stats.

A young dragon kill will put you over 20 in one shot.

A relatively safe way to get to level 40 or so with any character with a distance attack is to teleport to the bottom of the Paths of the Dead with a pile of ? of Summon Unmoving Pet. Set up a place where you won't be disturbed and summon until you get a druj. Arrange things so that you can see it but it can't see you and then blast it to death. Repeat until bored. It takes a bunch of ! of Detonation to kill a skull druj, by the way, but the results are impressive.

Wow! That is pretty awesome! Safer than scumming deep water too...

Although I still prefer the shallows to the mountains, but that is just like the difference between preferring milk or dark chocolate. Both are great ways to level up in no time at all. Your way does not require the magic shop to be carrying wands, so I suppose it is better for lack of things out of your control.

heh, I (barely) managed to kill an eye druj with a lvl 1 lost soul death mold sorceror, it is very effective for leveling up, if you can do it at level 1.

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Some of my tools for helping make talents:
Melee Talent Creator
Annotated Talent Code (incomplete)

Wow! I am surprised that it was even possible.

I once killed a greater Q with a low level lost soul sorceror. I came onto a level that had only one free non-vault space, which was right beside the stair I was on. There must have been a friendly monster in a vault and the Q blinked out and landed beside me. There was no free space to summon to and no place to blink or teleport to. I just kept zapping it while it cast hundreds of futile spells.

It barely was, I got lucky with a good Thaumaturgy spell (can't remember it now, but it was slightly better than manathrust), and just barely recovered mana faster than it recovered HP. I still had to stop to cure hunger a few times though.

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Some of my tools for helping make talents:
Melee Talent Creator
Annotated Talent Code (incomplete)