Wizard's guide (by gut)

gut is a regular poster in the ADOM Hall of Fame Forum, a great place should you have any questions about the game. With his Wizard's guide, playing a wizard is a walk in the park. Well, not exactly a walk. More like a run from a ferocious tiger called RNG... Anyway, reading this will go a long way to help you win the game!

(EDIT: Now it shouldn't look as hideous anymore...)

(EDIT2: SWEET MERCIFUL JESUS, FORMATING, WORK!!!)

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CONTENTS
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01. Introduction
02. Spells
03. Choosing Playing Style
04. Skills
05. Race Differences
06. Birth Month Considerations
07. The Talent System
08. Wizard Crowning Gifts
09. Equipment
10. Pesky Monsters
11. Wishing
12. Wizard Orientation
13. Limited Walk-through
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01. INTRODUCTION
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A wizard's guide for adom 1.1.1

I had some questions about writing a guide for wizards. I think the only players that would benefit from a guide, are the very new or unspoiled players. In my opinion, these are the exact players that should *not* play as wizards, but instead try maybe a trollish or drakish healer. At the very least play a character that has a high toughness stat, you will live much longer that way.

So why am I typing this guide? Because lot of new players *want* to play as wizard's! If you download a game with dragons, elves, dwarves, quests, and magic, of course you are going to want to go blasting your way through Ancardia with reckless abandon! It's just that, this particular game has a way of killing you, if you do that. Then players get frustrated because they keep croaking so fast, and having to do the same stuff over and over again, without getting any farther in the game.

I will focus on using magic effectively, and what kind of tactics to use, to keep your wizard alive longer. I will also mention good places to get books, as they are the main things that will make you powerful as a wizard. I will cover only that which is necessary to win a game. That means I will leave a lot out, I know, but some must be left to the player. If you want to get really spoiled, then read the official guidebook.
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02. SPELLS
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Before anything else, you must be aware of what spells are available to you, and what is their usefulness to you. Yes, even before race/class considerations, you must know what your arsenal will be. I will write a brief list of the most useful ones. Only the ones that will have a big impact on your survival chances, because a full list (of all the uses of all available spells) would be waaay to long.

[Offensive]
You will start every game with at least one of these, so know them well. I wanted to include approximate PP cost for each spell, and even for each race, but PP cost fluctuates so much, (based on cycle of the moon along with many other factors) that I have given approximations for all races in general.

Acid Bolt
This is very powerful, and therefore, quite expensive in terms of PP used per casting. It does not cause 'special damage' to any monster, but few monsters are resistant to it.

Lightning Bolt
This is powerful, and therefore, a bit expensive in terms of PP used per casting. It does cause 'special damage' to a few monsters, and few monsters are resistant to it. This spell has the ability to bounce off of walls, this means you can attack your enemies in creative ways, even around corners. It also means, you can accidentally kill yourself with it :)

Frost Bolt
This is somewhat powerful and is therefore reasonable in terms of power points. This spell does cause 'special damage' to fire monsters, this is balanced by the fact that more monsters have resistance to it. Frost bolt, when used over a water square, will create an ice bridge, capable of holding 2000 stones of weight.

Fire Bolt
This is also powerful, but not usually expensive in terms of power points. This spell does cause 'special damage' to ice and water monsters, this is balanced by the fact that more monsters have resistance to it. Fire bolt, when used over a corpse has a chance to cook the corpse.

Magic Missile
All by it's self. It is least powerful of all the bolt spells, also not expensive, usually about 8-10 PP to start out. This spell does not cause 'special damage' to any monsters. This is balanced by two things. First, no items laying on the ground will ever be destroyed by a passing magic missile. All other bolt spells will destroy items on the ground, though I think frost bolt only destroys books and scrolls and potions. Second, *NO* monster in the game is resistant to magic missile. This means that magic missile will be your only damaging bolt spell against a few monsters, so train it. This spell also has the ability to bounce off of walls, this means you can attack your enemies in creative ways (even around corners). It also means, you can accidentally kill yourself with it :)

Ball spells
These are also acid/lightning/fire/ice, and so follow the same damage and cost patterns of their bolt spell equivalents. They have three main advantages over bolt spells. First, if you're surrounded, they can attack all of the monsters surrounding you, bolt spells only attack in a straight line. Second, NO monsters can shrug them off, ever. Third, bolt spells can't go through doors or walls, ball spells can. You have to have a high Willpower stat to increase the radius of your ball spells to take advantage of that though.

Burning Hands
Much like ball spells, though a FEW monsters can shrug it off. It's fire though, so many creatures are resistant to it. You can consider it as a wizard's substitute for melee against most monsters . It will help you save your bolt spells, so it is nice to have it.

[Advantage Spells]
We're skinny little wizards, we need all the advantages we can get! These spells tend to even the playing field for wizards, when it comes to combat.

Darkness
One of the best, and most under-used spells in the wizard's arsenal. It gives %100 protection from some of the nastiest monsters in the early (and middle, and late) game. These monsters can not fight in the dark and will stupidly stand in one spot, and happily take punishment from you, until they die, or panic and run away. If a monster panics though, and they have no way to escape you they may then attack you, so be careful when dealing with panicking monsters. Also darkness doesn't work on monsters when they stand in doorways, even if the doorway registers as being in the dark, this may be a bug. Here is a partial list, (I know I will leave some out) of some monsters it can save your life from. Early game: Vortexes, mimics, ogres(lords, magus) and spiders. Middle game: animated trees, Snake from Beyond, berserkers (kings, emperors), Late game: doppleganger kings, titans (greater). For the most part humanoids, giants, and animals won't fight back in the dark.

Invisibility
Most of the monsters that can or can't see in the dark, behave the same with regard to invisibility, A notable exception is undead monsters (vampires, ghuls, etc...). Unlike darkness, you can not engage your enemy in melee with impunity, by using invisibility. They will hit you back if you melee, cast ball spells or burning hands. However you can use bolt spells or attack them with missiles without causing them to see you. Plus, you can shoot missiles while invisible, but not in the darkness.

Farsight
Normally monsters will see you before you see them. This is unfortunate because some monsters are very fast, strike from a distance or summon other monsters. With a limited field of vision these monsters can hit you or even have you surrounded, and darkness might not always be able to save you. Farsight allows you to see enemies before they see you. It can save your life, by lowering the chance that some monster (especially black wizards) will sneak up on you and start summoning monsters that can surround you. It's not necessary but nice to have.

Web
Your enemies get stuck in webs for a few turns, unless they are very powerful. Enemies can't attack you or use special powers, like summoning, when they are stuck in webs. It is a very useful spell against even some of the toughest monsters in the game.

Stun Ray
It inflicts no damage on enemies and so is not an offensive spell. It will most likely be shrugged off by most of the monsters you would LIKE to use it on. Other spells (and other means) usually work better to achieve the same end. So why am I listing it? You might find it early! If this is the first advantage spell you get, use it. It will affect most low level monsters, and so help protect your hit points. Stun ray is effective against some higher level monsters later in the game (most notably minotaur mages), but you can use a wand of stunning to the same end and save your PP's for offense.

Bless
Another under-used spell. Casting the bless spell, upon yourself, gives you the 'Blessed' status. This is the same status you get after being 'crowned' as the champion of your deity. Therefore this status is usually available to spellcasters much sooner than non-spellcasters. Specifically, it means that you have some extra luck, and lower food consumption, both very nice effects. After finding this book, your PC should not walk around unblessed in any dungeon afterward, the rewards are just too nice to miss. The more you cast it, the longer each casting will last. The castings also 'stack', like if one casting yields 100 gameturns of blessing, then two castings will yield 200, and three = 300 and so on. This is a good way of training your Mana stat, at least in the early and middle game. The 'blessed' status can be taken away (pretty rare though), if you enter a room that is "particularly unholy". These rooms are generated randomly, and it is a one-time effect, so all you have to do is re-cast the spell. If you are running out of castings though, save them for an important time in the game. Bless can also be used as an offensive spell to inflict damage on undead monsters. Once trained to high effectivity, it can inflict a lot of damage.

[Utility spells]
They are incredibly useful, and there are no real substitutes for them.

Strength of atlas
Does nothing more than increase your carrying capacity. But it does increase it! Your Mana stat times 1000 worth of capacity you'll get! This means you can carry a very large inventory of useful items, and make use of a few very heavy items. Non-spellcasters simply can't do the same. If you don't have the SoA spell, carrying a large inventory means having the 'burdened', or 'strained' status. These reduce your DV, 'to hit', and increase your food consumption rate, all bad. Strength of Atlas spells also 'stack', even more so than the Bless spell, because there are no room effects that will take it away from you. Once it is cast, it is cast. If you only cast a few spells, or walk in the wilderness for extended periods, your carrying capacity may fail you. This effect may crush you if you are carrying a very heavy inventory. The game gives you several warning messages before it fails though, so pay attention to those messages, and don't take chances.

Teleport
Maybe the most useful spell in the game. Even if you don't have TP control, gained by eating a blink dog corpse (it allows you to TP to whatever square you want to), it will allow you to escape dangerous situations that could kill you. Some levels, like boss levels, do not allow TP because it is so powerful. If a level allows TP, the only way a monster can kill you is if it can do so with one hit. You can use TP to create distance between yourself and your enemy, and continually use bolt spells to kill them. Creative use of TP will allow you to gain access to otherwise inaccessible places, and also some early access to some very good equipment.

[Healing Spells]
Self-explaining.

Cure Light Wounds
The most useful healing spell you will get. It's not the most powerful, but it will most probably be available much sooner than the others. It is cheap on PP's and therefore easily trained. Once trained it can yield 20-30 HP's per 2-3 PP's for casting.

Cure Serious/Critical wounds and Heal
If you train them, they can be useful, but potions will probably serve better. They are more costly in terms of PP's and you would be lucky to´find them early.
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03. CHOOSING A PLAYING STYLE
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Now that we understand a bit about our spells we need to think about gameplay. The most important thing about choosing a wizard is this, how many spell castings do you get from reading a book. This is primarily determined by your Learning stat. A troll wizard that starts with a book of fire bolt, may wind up with a castings score as low as 100 (note: this does not mean 100 castings. With each casting, your casting score decrements by more than 1.) A grey elven wizard may start with that same book and obtain over 1000. This means you have to decide.

What kind of style do you want to play in? There are two choices, a pure wizard, and a fighting wizard. A pure wizard would start with high Learning, Willpower and Mana stats and so rely on magic to kill nearly every monster in the game, only using melee and missiles as a fallback. Fighting wizards would prefer better physical stats to start and thus rely on non-magical means of combat, only using magic in tight spots, or when it's advantageous.

Reasons to play a pure wizard style:
High Mana means lots of PP, so you can depend on your spells heavily, and train spells quickly. High Learning stat means lots of castings available, this is VERY important, as you do NOT want to run out. Also you will be capable of learning very powerful spells right away. If you can find a way to increase your stats in the game, especially Strength, Toughness, and Dexterity, you will become a respectable fighter. Also finding (or smithing) good equipment will make you a very respectable fighter, regardless of class.

Reasons not to play a pure wizard style:
A low starting Toughness stat means you can die at any time in the early game, if you are unlucky enough to step on a stone block trap. There is not much to be done about it unfortunately. After you get a few levels up, it won't be such a problem. But at the beginning, every step could be your last! There are also a few monsters that are difficult to kill with magic, they are either resistant to elemental magic, or just really good at 'shrugging off' your bolts. For this reason you should train missile skills and also some melee.

Reasons to play a fighting wizard style:
You will likely have enough toughness to survive most trap accidents, though this is not guaranteed. You will still have ACCESS to spells, which other classes would not. Limited castings aren't a big problem if you're careful with them. Getting few castings per book isn't such a big deal if you have lots of books, and you will find many in the game. If you can find a way to increase your stats in the game, especially Learning, Willpower, and Mana, you can become a powerful wizard later.

Reasons not to play a fighting wizard style:
The Learning stat is one of the more difficult stats to train, if you start with a low one, you will be stuck with it for a while. The Mana stat is easier to train, just cast lots of spells, this will cause your PP's to constantly regenerate and thus train Mana. The problem with this is that if your Learning stat is low you won't have many spellcastings to work with. Also as far as fighting characters go, wizards are pretty lousy. The wizard class yields low HP, low healing rate, and a miserable fighting skillset.

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04. SKILLS
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Starting skillsets for all wizards consists of these skills.

Alchemy = Allows you get recipes to mix magical potions. Most are useful for all races, but longevity potion is very useful for short-lived races.
Concentration = Helps regenerate PP more quickly. Get this to 100 as soon as possible. This is the most important skill you have.
Healing = Helps regenerate HP more quickly. A high priority definitely.
Herbalism = Without it you only pick cursed herbs. A high score helps you pick more (and more blessed) herbs from each bush. Another high priority.
Literacy = Usually starts at 100 for wizards.
Stealth = Enemies won't always notice you as soon as your in their line of sight. Also at 100 helps you get the weird tome from the ghost librarian. Nice.
Ventriloquism = Maybe confuse your enemy for a turn or two.

Also all PC's get:
Climbing - At 100 you can enter the Rift.
Haggling - Worthless.
First Aid - Sometimes useful to fight poison in the very beginning of the game.

Skills that can be acquired in-game.

From Bart:
Backstabbing = Not as useful for wizards as other classes. Combine it with invisibility if you want to use it.
Tactics = Better modifiers from the tactics setting is good for dodging. This is a high priority once you get it.
Two Weapon Combat = Useless, as a wizard you need a shield.

From Yergius (he teaches and trains):
Climbing = His training in this is convenient.
Detect Traps = Press the 's' command to search for traps. Most players love it, but if you are familiar with the heavily trapped areas of the game you can do without it. You can use wands to the same end.
Disarm Traps = You have a spellbook to do this for you, if you can find one, and the spell works a lot better.
Pick Locks = Useless. Keys and the Knock spell work better.
Pick Pockets = Generates more items, so it's nice. Successfully using it about 20 times allows entry into the thieves guild.
Stealth = At 100 helps you get the weird tome from the ghost librarian.

From Guth'Alak
Herbalism = You already have this.
Gardening = You don't need this.

From Tywat Pare
Law = Worthless

From Yrrigs
Bridge Building = Frost bolt works better.

From the Old Barbarian
Courage = Helps out if your surrounded. Verdict...don't get surrounded and you won't need it.

From Glod
Smithing, it can be useful if you get the equipment: Hammer, anvil, and ore. To get the anvil you probably have to kill Glod or Kherab, and you have to dig the ore from walls using a pickaxe. If Glod is alive he will fix your broken pickaxes for a price. To use Glod's forge you should lead him off the level first by means of (':s') swapping places with him and leading him down the stairs. If Dwarftown is on D:11 use a couple scrolls of blessed scrolls of peace if you have them, it will eliminate background corruption. Some players love smithing but I never use it. Digging, plus repairing pickaxes, plus creating ingots from ore, plus the actual smithing process, is boooring. It takes a lot of real life time, a lot of game time, and a lot of game turns. Of these, the game turn length is the most important game effect. More game turns = lower score (which you probably shouldn't care about yet), and also corruption, if you don't have scrolls of peace. If you want the extra DV and PV and are willing to tough out the boredom, smithing can really give your PC an edge.

From Blup
Swimming, not too useful. Wizards usually have other ways of dealing with water.
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05. RACE DIFFERENCES
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Starting equipment for all wizards consists of these items unless otherwise noted. Armor = robe [+0, +1], sandals [+0, +0]. Weapon = dagger (1d4) or quarterstaff (1d10). Some torches, two rings, about 3 potions, about 2 scrolls, about 2 books, an offensive wand, about 150 gp, and an iron ration

Yes that's one, count it ONE point of PV for an average non-troll wizard. Trolls get more because of inherent Strength and Toughness, usually 3 or 4. If you get more than two points of starting PV, the RNG (random number generator) was good to you. Watch out, it can make up for that later :)

So what does each race bring to the table.
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Humans have standard equipment, except leather boots [+0, +0] instead of sandals
Their stats are:
I actually won't bother listing average stats.
For humans all stats are average, so I won't list any for humans.

They bring the following noteworthy skills:
Food Preservation = More monster corpses generated. Very nice.
Swimming = Not much. (Spellcasters usually have other ways of dealing with water.)

Pros = Humans are capable of playing either style, magic or fighting dependent. If you start with high Learning, the RNG was good to you, you can really take advantage of magic. Food Preservation is one of the nicer skills.

Cons = If you start out as dumb as a brick, you will run out of spells quickly and have to use melee or missiles. Trying to find some missiles and a decent melee weapons will be imperative. There is not really much about humans to make them stand out. Their lifespan is a bit short.

Summary = Just an average wizard with Food Preservation. If you like having a luck of the draw factor, choose humans.
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Trolls have standard equipment, except leather boots [+0, +0] instead of sandals.

Trollish stats are:
Strength very high
Learning very low
Willpower low
Dexterity low
Toughness very high
Mana very low
Perception low

They bring the following noteworthy skills:
Athletics = Help your physical stats increase a bit.
Food Preservation = More monster corpses generated. Very nice.
Gemology = More gems/crystals generated. Gemology could help you find Crystals of Learning that, when blessed and 'u'sed, raise your Learning stat. Nice.
Mining = Mines faster, and pick axes break less often.

Pros = Trolls make good fighting wizards. They are the easiest race to keep alive in the beginning. If you are willing to wait a long time to enjoy full use of your magic, you will have a strong character. Trolls level slowly, this can be a good thing. There are places in the game that have experience level restrictions, like perhaps a level 16 PC can enter a place, but a level 17 couldn't. This is good for trolls because they will be stronger at a given level than other classes would be, by comparison. Their skillset is really nice. Trolls heal very quickly.

Cons = Their Learning stat is abysmal. You won't get many castings from reading your books at the beginning of the game. You might consider book casting from them or storing them to read later. They have a very short life span, and should protect themselves from ghost bats/kings by all means. Switching tactics to coward and casting spells on them will help you destroy them without being aged. Trolls level up slowly, this can be a bad thing too. You will need ridiculous amounts of experience points to get your level up after a while. Trolls regenerate PP's slowly.

Summary = Trolls give you a good fighter that has ACCESS to lots of spells. Wizards and necromancers as classes, find waaay more spellbooks than any other classes. This means that even if you are a miserable wizard, you will still have many spells at your disposal, that can definitely save your life.
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High Elves have standard equipment.
High Elven stats are:
Learning high
Dexterity very high
Toughness low
Mana very high
Perception very high

They bring the following noteworthy skills:
Dodge = Enemies miss you more often. Very nice.

Pros = High Elves are great pure wizards. They have the ability to learn some of the most powerful spells in the game from the very beginning. They have a very long life span, you won't worry about ever being aged to death by anything. They get an extra bit of Dexterity that helps them be effective with missiles. Their dodging skill is very nice. High Elves regenerate PP's quickly.

Cons = Low Toughness on the other hand means that you have to be very careful with their HP. You must find ammunition for missile attacks, because wizards don't start out with any. High Elves heal very slowly.

Summary = A slight advantage in Dexterity and Toughness means they might be a bit easier to keep alive than grey elves. You might consider trying a high elf if your grey elves keep dying.
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Grey Elves have standard equipment, except a loaf of elven bread, which is very nourishing, and so nice to have.
Grey Elves stats are:
Learning very high
Dexterity high
Toughness very low
Mana very high
Perception very high

They bring the following skills:
Dodge = Very nice.

Pros = In my opinion, they are the most powerful wizards in the game. They will rarely encounter a book they cannot read successfully, even right from the start. They have the longest lifespan of any race in the game. Some talent with missiles, and good dodging abilities helps protect your HP. Grey Elves regenerate PP's very quickly.

Cons = Very low Toughness. Low HP means possible death around every corner, and therefore new players might have a hard time keeping them alive. Grey Elves heal very slowly.

Summary = If you think you can rely on magic to carry the day for you. This is the choice.
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Dark Elves have standard equipment except, leather boots [+0, +0] instead of sandals, spider bread instead of an iron ration and no torches at all.
Dark Elves stats are:
Willpower high
Dexterity very high
Mana very high
Perception high

They bring the following noteworthy skills:
Alertness = Helps you to evade traps and offensive magic. Very nice.
Find Weakness = Helps you to get critical hits on your enemies. Very nice.

Pros = The dark elven skillset makes them good at scoring damage on enemies in melee. A very high Dexterity stat gives them decent missile abilities, and nice Willpower and Mana stats make them effective in the (somewhat limited) magic castings they do get from reading books. Once they get some PV from decent armor they are quite powerful. They have very long life spans. Dark Elves regenerate PP's quickly.

Cons = Not really a lot of drawbacks here. I hate to count an average Learning stat against a race, but when it comes to wizards it really is that important. They will suffer from limited spellcastings scores. They suffer racial prejudice from dwarves, and thus get bad prices in the most important shop in the game, Waldenbrooks. Dark elves heal slowly.

Summary = If you don't want to put up with the drawbacks of The other races, and don't mind bad shop prices, dark elves are a good choice.
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Dwarves have standard equipment.
Dwarven noteworthy stats are:
Strength high
Toughness high

They bring the following noteworthy skills:
Detect Traps = It allows you to discover traps by using the 's' command. Nice.
Smithing = Nice if you have the equipment, but you can get this skill in game.
Mining = Pretty nice.

Pros = You have a good chance of staying alive do to good Toughness, and Strength. The Detect Traps skill is very nice in the beginning, before you find other means of detecting traps, and disarming them. This skill can save your life at the start. They have long life spans. Dwarves heal fast.

Cons = Their Learning stat is average , which can be time consuming to increase to high levels. That means limited castings and the most powerful spells will be off limits to you at the beginning. The skillset is nice, because of Detect Traps, but I'd rather have Food Preservation.

Summary = You get high Strength, Toughness, and heal fast. In exchange you don't have to give up much. If your a player that doesn't mind spending some time to beef your character up, and really dislike restarting, dwarves are a good choice.
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Gnomes have standard equipment, except gnomish boots(+1, +0) [+2, +0] instead of sandals.
Gnomish noteworthy stats are:
Dexterity high
Mana very high

They bring the following noteworthy skills:
Gemology = More gems/crystals generated. Very nice.
Mining = Nice.
Ventriloquism = A skill I have seldom used. Nice if it is successful though.

Pros = Gnomes lean more toward pure wizards. They have quite long life spans. Gemology is nice, if you know how to exploit it. They level up a bit faster than other races. They also get an extra starting talent, using it for, say, 'long stride' could give your PC an early edge. Gnomes regenerate PP's quickly.

Cons = They don't really stand out, elves are more magical. If you don't use the Gemology to help your Learning stat, the skillset isn't that great.

Summary = The main reason for a beginner to play as a gnome is if their elven PCs keep dying, or if they really want to exploit Gemology.
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Hurthlings have standard equipment, except no shoes and a cursed ring.
Hurthlings noteworthy stats are:
Strength very low
Dexterity very high
Toughness high
Mana low

Hurthlings bring the following noteworthy skills:
Archery = Gives a bonus to all your missile shooting endeavors. Nice.
Cooking = Almost useless to a wizard, the fire bolt spell will cook any corpse. Food Preservation = More corpses. Very nice.

Pros = High Dexterity plus the archery skill will help you stay alive. Your archery skill actually trains faster than weapon skills. So you will have something quite powerful in addition to your magic. They have longer life spans than humans, but not by much. They also get an extra starting talent, using it for, say, 'long stride' could give your PC an early edge. The Food Preservation is always nice.

Cons = They make lousy fighters until they find a good weapon, and increase their very low Strength stat. Training the Strength stat isn't too hard, just time consuming. You have to walk around at 'burdened' or ''strained' status, which reduces DV a bit. You have to find your missiles, wizards don't start with them.

Summary = Training Strength isn't fun, but if you have a healthy respect for archery they do have enough Toughness to make them a worthwhile choice. The cursed ring usually isn't too much of a problem.
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Orcs have standard equipment except leather boots [+0, +0] instead of sandals.
Orcish noteworthy stats are:
Strength very high
Learning low
Toughness high
Mana very low
Perception low

Orcs bring the following noteworthy skills:
Backstabbing = I don't backstab often, but it might be nice if you like it.
Find Weakness = Very nice.
Mining = Faster digging. Kind of nice.

Pros = Good physical stats and Find Weakness means better melee results. They're ok if you play them as fighting wizards, relying on magic only in tight spots. They have a lot of the advantages of trolls, but without the leveling difficulties. Orcs heal fast.

Cons = They have short life spans, beware ghosts. Low Learning and Mana stats hinder wizards, and orcs don't have the Gemology skill to help out.

Summary = You would consider them as an alternative to trolls. If troll leveling issues bother you choose 'troll lite'. And they do seem to regenerate PP much faster than trolls.
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Drakelings have standard equipment.
Drakelings noteworthy stats are:
Strength high
Willpower high
Toughness high

Drakelings bring the following noteworthy skills:
Swimming = Not too useful to wizards.
Alertness = Dodging spells and traps. Very nice.
Food Preservation = Yummy, more dead bodies.
Music = Use an instrument and tame those cats. Nice.

Pros = Both Alertness and Food Preservation. They make this a great skillset for wizards. They don't suffer from any major drawback in stats. All drakelings have acid breath, which can damage enemies. Acid breath also reduces your satiation level, and so allows you to eat as many corpses as you want, without becoming bloated for a long period of time. (This is nice because many corpses have stat increasing effects). They also enjoy increased speed if they become heated by way of environment or attack. Drakelings heal fast.

Cons = They suffer decreased speed if they become cold. They have lifespans about as short as humans. They suffer fire damage in the Tower of Eternal Flames, (after a certain amount of turns) no matter how fire resistant you are. Again, average Learning means average wizard, at least in the beginning. You'll need lots of books, missiles and luck in finding a good weapon.

Summary = Pretty good skills and stats. The drawbacks aren't bad if you're careful. I'd say chose drakelings if you think the stats you gain from corpse munching will offset your rather average magic abilities.
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06. BIRTH-MONTH CONSIDERATIONS
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Raven - notable effects for wizards:
+10 to speed makes it powerful. The rune covered trident being available earlier is nice, but it is a two handed weapon. That means if you use it you have no shield, which is bad for wizards. +2 Perception is nice.

Book - notable effects:
Not as powerful as you might think considering it gives "Increased chance to learn spells". That's basically all it gives. Still nice though.

Wand - notable effects for wizards:
This month is all about neutrality, 10% more PP and +2 Mana if you start out neutral. That means Humans, Grey Elves, Gnomes, and Drakelings can give it a look, but not the rest.

Unicorn - notable effects for wizards:
I love it for the +2 Appearance. Seriously, less corruption is worth thinking about. I would prefer other months though.

Salamander - notable effects for wizards:
Very powerful for wizards. If you are born in this month you are almost guaranteed of starting with a spellbook of firebolt. That makes the "20% cheaper PP cost for all fire magic" effect very nice! Once you find a fireball spellbook this effect is even nicer. The +3 Mana helps a little, but the '20% more PP always' effect is very desirable.

Dragon - notable effects for wizards:
I might be differing with popular opinion here, but I think this one is yet another excellent sign for wizards. This sign drains the Willpower stat and puts it into Strength and Toughness. This may seem like a very bad thing for wizards at first, but the Willpower stat doesn't have to be high to have powerful magic. Training your spells will net a much better increase in the power of your magic than 3 points of Willpower. The Willpower stat can be trained later, to make up what was lost, and you'll never know the difference. But the extra Strength and Toughness means your more likely to live. More dramatic tactics modifiers is good, if you don't want more extreme tactics then just don't bother switching them. It really just means better dodging as far as cowardly wizards are concerned. And combat magic is 10% cheaper in PP's. Nice.

Sword - notable effects for wizards:
+1 Learning, tempting but other signs are nicer. The tactics and melee skill marks bonuses are nice, they could help your character get a few more DV points from their shield/spear combo.

Falcon - notable effects for wizards:
Survival skill shmurvival skill. +2 Willpower, blah. The free talent...put it into 'strong legs'. Worthless.

Cup - notable effects for wizards:
Faster leveling = good. More spellcastings per book = good.
More skill advances = good. +2 Learning = really good.
Cup = One of the best star signs for wizards.
If you plan to play a PC that has exremely high Learning to start, and don't care much for increased spellcastings, this may not be for you.

Candle - notable effects for wizards:
Faster healing is not that good for wizards for these reasons: Wizards start with the healing skill, this give adequate healing. Once a wizard finds a healing spellbook, it renders Candle obsolete. Faster intrinsic healing can lead a wizard to carelessness with their HP's. More prayers might be nice for some. 1 free talent, could be used for +1 Learning, or whatever. Nice. This sign could be a help until you find your first healing spellbook, after that it's worthless.

Wolf - notable effects for wizards:
+3 Willpower, nice but not a difference maker.
+3 Perception, see +3 Willpower.
Food is more nutritious. Nice...I guess.
There are better months.

Tree - notable effects for wizards:
+5 Willpower, reminds me of Wolf but with less variety. If Willpower is important to you, then consider it. Otherwise no.

Summary:
Cup and Salamander appear to be the best for wizards. Book is worth a look too. Normally I don't care what star sign I get, I'll even take Falcon if I roll it. A funny thing about that is, that I have more game winning wizards born in the month of the raven, than any other birthmonth. So I'm ranking Raven near the top too.
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07. THE TALENT SYSTEM
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I'm not going to go into a lot of detail here. The strategy for what to invest in is entirely dependent on what playstyle you want. In general a pure wizard would invest in quickness early, then magic, then defense. A fighting wizard though, would value the missile talents, and maybe even melee, over magic. The talents are self-explanatory. I think that if the talent complements the way you want to play then it's worth getting.

The heir gift for a wizard is a wand of fire with 30 charges. Not worth it because you will have spells instead.

Treasure hunter. It's probably the best talent. You need Alert and Miser to get it, so pick Alert as your first talent. It's good to get it early but consider choosing a quickness talent before Miser.

Quickness talents = These mean being able to outrun most difficult monsters early on. Consider getting the Quick talent early. If you want more than one that's fine, but one should be enough. I consider Quick to edge out Long stride only because Quick opens up the quick shot missile talents.

DV talents = Good for every wizard early or late game. They won't make a big difference though, as the tactics setting, along with a lot of other means, will give you decent DV. Choose these if you just want every defense edge you can get.

PV talents = Nice for the beginning. Not so great for the later game, compared with the talents you could chose. Wizards should invest most of their talents elsewhere.

Magic talents = Potent, Strong, and Mighty Aura aren't so impressive, but they open up the rest. I highly recommend all the magic talents, especially Charged and Strong Magic. I don't recommend the Bookcasting talents though,they are just not that useful to wizards. That leaves ten worthwhile magic talents all together, that eats up 30 levels of increases if you get them all!

Missiles talents = If you plan to depend on missiles give them a look. The quickshot talents are really nice, but it takes a lot to get to Missile Weapons Master. Alert + Good Shot + Keen Shot + and 3 missile weapon affinities.

Melee talents = Most are useless to wizards, but the Basher talents yield impressive results, needing no pre-requisites. There are two weapons in the game that wizards can take great advantage of, if they have the Strength of Atlas spell. Big Punch = 800 stones and is a one-handed weapon, meaning you get great melee damage without losing much DV. Also the Axe of the Minotaur Emperor = 1200 stones, it's a two-hander but fantastic in damage and critical hits. Basher+Powerful Strike+Mighty Strike=(+6, +6) on any +100 stone weapon. They are worth considering after you get Big Punch.
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08. WIZARD CROWNING GIFTS
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Listed in no particular order.

Brannalbin's Cloak of Defense [+3, +3] Weight: 30 stones
It grants resistance to fire.
It grants resistance to cold.
It grants resistance to acid.
It grants invisibility.
It grants resistance to shock attacks.
A nice gift to get because using it doesn't take up a valuable item slot.

Ring of Immunity [+5, +5] Weight: 1 stone
It grants immunity to fire.
It grants immunity to acid.
It grants immunity to cold attacks.
It grants immunity to shock attacks.
Very nice gift because it is one of the nicest rings in the game.

Robes of Resistance (-4, -4) [+3, +12] {To+5} Weight: 60 stones
It grants resistance to fire.
It grants resistance to acid.
It grants resistance to shock attacks.
For those of us that don't care for smithing, this is great armor.

Staff of the Archmagi (+5, 5d2+2) [+9, +0] {Ma+10} Weight: 40 stones
It modifies your mana attribute by +10.
It grants resistance to acid.
It grants resistance to sleep attacks.
It grants resistance to confusion attacks.
Resistance to sleep attacks! Woo-hoo! When you reach exp. level 50, and enter the Small Cave and start hunting Jackelwares, make sure you have this equipped!

Staff of the Wanderer (+2, 3d8+2) [+6,+3] {To+6} Weight: 40 stones
It modifies your toughness attribute by +6.
It grants immunity to shock attacks.
It grants resistance to fire.
It grants resistance to sleep attacks.
Some features are nice, but it's a two-handed weapon. Not good.
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09. EQUIPMENT
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I think, for a wizard's early game, you should set your sights for good uncursed equipment, rather than trying on every thing that comes your way, in hopes of getting an extra PV point.

Head- In the early game do 'equip-identify' a helmet, a +1 metal helmet works fine. Later you will exchange this for a higher metal cap.

Neck- Marble amulet probably, if not try 'equip-identifying' amulets. Willpower +3 work nice. Later you will exchange this for an amulet of rapid healing, free action, or the ankh.

Body- Find some leather armor and probably stick with that for a while, unless it gets damaged. The studded variety is nice, but weighs 100 stones more. The heavier armors are only worth it if they offer really nice PV. Later you will exchange this for higher metal armor or the Ancient Mummy Wrapping.

Girdle- You should be careful about 'equip-identifying' these. A cursed girdle prevents changing armor. Later you will exchange this for a girdle of carrying or a higher metal girdle.

Cloak- A [+1, +0] cloak is realistic, but 'equip-identifying' cloaks isn't so bad. Cloaks get destroyed pretty easily. Later you will exchange this for cloaks of protection/defense.

Right Hand- An orcish spear is easy to find, just tease one out of an orc scorcher/chieftain or hill orc. Keep running away from them while they're next to you, or maybe one step away from you, they'll throw eventually. If you get a cursed weapon it will prevent you from changing your gauntlets and rings. Later you will exchange this for a higher metal weapon or an artifact.

Left Hand- I find wooden shields preferable to medium shields due to rust. Later you will exchange this for a higher metal shield.

Right ring- Don't 'equip-identify' in this slot, as the effects for the ring you wear will be magnified on the right hand. Rings of damage if available. Later you will exchange this for a ring of slaying.

Left ring- Do it here instead. Rings of cold and fire resistance are nice, unless you find an uncursed ring of damage. Any good ring should be a righty.

Bracers- Do 'equip-identify' any bracers you find until your happy. Later you'll be doing the same.

Gauntlets- Do not 'equip-identify' these because you can't change rings if they are cursed. Later you will exchange this for the Elemental Gauntlets, or thick gauntlets if you have poison hands.

Boots- It's unlikely to find good leather or light boots. If you find iron, heavy, or spiked boots, give them a try. Later you will exchange this for blessed seven league boots, protect these at all cost.

Missile weapon- I say 'equip-identify' one. If it's not cursed, stick with it until it's destroyed. Later you will exchange this for a bow of accuracy.

Missile- Cursed missiles aren't a bother.

Tool- Torches are useful for extending your field of vision. Use torches before moments like entering the Big Room in the caverns of chaos. Later you will exchange this for the Elemental Orb of Water/Fire.

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10. PESKY MONSTERS
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I know I won't get them all. I list mostly the ones that are pesky considering the experience level you will be at when you are likely to meet them.

Stone Golems: Resistant to acid and frost bolt and they see in the dark.
Greater Daemon: Sees in the dark, fire resistant, shoots fire bolts, drains your stats and to top it all off, he teleports. Geez!
Karmic baby (or not baby) dragons-Resists fire/ice/lightning/acid and you can't melee them without getting cursed or worse.
Ogre Magus: Shoots ice bolts, they can be deadly if you don't have darkness.
Mage Bane/Doom eyes: They drain your PP's. Only really bad in a group.
Mimics: If they get that first paralyzing hit on you it could be over.
Revenant: They regenerate, and are good at shrugging off bolts. Very pesky if you meet one early.
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11. WISHING
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Amulet of life saving, if Khelevaster is not saved yet. Maybe red dragon scale mail if desperate for fire resistance in the Tower of Eternal Flames. Possibly rings of ice for the tower. Seven league boots are a great choice. If there is a skill you like, Find Weakness, Food Preservation, or any other except Alertness. One more possibility is wishing for a chaos wizard. Chaos wizards summon writhing masses of primal chaos, and chaos warriors, that, when killed, give large amounts of experience points, allowing you to gain possibly several levels. The writhing masses and especially the chaos warriors drop really great items (eternium plate mails, boots, helmets, long swords, shields, and so on) thus ensuring some nice prefixes or suffixes on some of them. Unfortunately, they also summon chaos servants and greater chaos servants. If you kill too many of these they become super powerful. This is bad because you have to kill many of these later in the temple levels. If you try this, do so in a dungeon level that you won't need to visit again, later in the game. That way if the wizard summons servants, you can just lead him to a higher dungeon level, and leave the others behind. Some of the Tomb of the High KIngs levels work nice.
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12. WIZARD ORIENTATION
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Wizards are powerful enough to defeat some very powerful monsters early in the game because of their strong magic attacks. Gaining experience levels is a very good thing for wizards because Spellcasting gets cheaper by 10% at level 6, 20% at level 12 and 40% at level 18. At exp. level 32 they can recharge wands (once per wand). At level 40 they get a useless uncursing talent. And at level 50, they get knowledge in all known spells (except wish).

Sometime in the game you will run out of PP's, it happens. Then you decide if you want to cast out of your HP's. If you do this your Mana stat will probably be drained by a point. Only do this if there is no reasonable alternative. At some point you'll have to cast spells from your HP's. When your HP's get low you can heal yourself by casting healing spells from your HP's. I know this sounds too good to be true, but it's true. Cure Light Wounds costs little and gives lots.

Economy with your spells is important. Don't fire a bolt at every monster that comes your way, this is a waste, and will cause you to run out of castings. Before bolting monsters you should first run from them. If you are lucky, they will stop chasing you, allowing you to progress in the game, and use your spells on more powerful (and therefore experience point rich) monsters. If those pesky monsters don't give up, you will have to bolt them. But at least try to get the monsters chasing you to line up in a row, (just run away from them in a straight line) that way you can blast several monsters with one shot.

If your HP's ever drop below 1/3, movement energy points decrease, but only if you're tactics are set to coward. This is very useful for outrunning monsters. Sometimes you will want to run away from some hard hitting monsters. If your speed isn't good enough by it's self, try using a 'monster shield' tactic. Run from a powerful monster until you find a weak one, now run from both, towards a narrow tunnel. Only one monster can follow right next to you, there is a chance that it will be the weak one. If it is you can safely heal or find the stairs.

Teleportation is very good for wizards, spells are best. If you have no spell you can make do with a wand. There is a gauranteed wand in the Very Dusty Dungeon level. To get it, you need a scroll of magic mapping, or a wand of item detection to let you know where to teleport to. You also need teleport control. Just activate a teleport trap, teleport to the wand, pick it up, teleport back by means of the stairs, and you're done. Use booze to recharge it as needed.

Corruption is a factor for every class, but not such a big factor for a wizard. With a high spellcasting score on the teleport spell, you don't have to worry about running out. When you are in deep (therefore highly corrupting) dungeons, use teleportation heavily, to reduce the number of game turns spent in them. If you run out of PP's in a highly corrupting area, don't recover them there, find a less corrupting place to recover, then return. A wizard can use magic to fight monsters that have a corrupting touch, this means they can keep their tactics on coward the whole time, thus reducing the number of corrupting hits they take. Clearing tension rooms and vaults in deep dungeon levels can corrupt non-spellcasters severely. Think about it, if you have hundreds of monsters, even if you kill most of them with two or three hits, you'll still be spending a lot of game turns on a highly corrupting level. Wizards on the other hand can clear any room very quickly with spells, further reducing corruption. It is possible for a wizard to win the game without ever generating a scroll or potion of chaos resistance, and still leave the game with NO corruption.

When corruptions do kick in, use morgia and moss to help your stats. Thick gauntlets are the work around for the 'poison hands' corruption. If you find some means of chaos resistance, save it to undo the 'stiff muscles' or 'mana battery' corruptions.
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13. LIMITED WALK-THROUGH
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I will go through a good option of how to start out, quite in depth. (Maybe a little too in depth, after re-reading it). It's just one option (tried to optimize for benefits vs. risk) but as a wizard all starting scenarios are available to you.

Upon entering the Drakalor Chain you should enter Terinyo. Now read all your spellbooks until they disappear.(I know some opinions differ, but this is one workable option, and it's what I do). If your PC is an idiot, maybe read them a couple times, and then stash or carry them for a while, you can finish them off later. Drink all beneficial potions (except a potion of gain attribute, which should be blessed before drinking for dramatically better results), equip your rings (except ring of the fish, because it is auto-cursing) and equip your weapon (surely you didn't think your wizard would know how to hold a dagger, without being told, did you?).

While in Terinyo, buy some large rations from the shop. You can also talk to the villagers to open some quests. The village elder's quest and the druid's quest are mutually exclusive. As a wizard, you will most likely benefit more from the druid's quest, which can yield a spellbook of frost bolt. This quest is kind of hard, so you might want to leave it until later. Talking to the tiny girl opens the puppy quest, again it's kind of hard, maybe leave it until later too. Talking to the sheriff opens a quest to kill a Raider Lord in the wilderness, with your bolt spells he's no problem, but it's sometimes a pain to find him.

So what should you do now? Kill the crime boss in the neighboring town. This is a safe way to get 1000's of gp, about five experience levels, and after talking to the sheriff, an amulet of law. But before killing him, you should make a few other kills in Lawenilothehl first, and note your first kill specifically. If you run out of PP's at any time, exit the town and recover PP's in the wilderness, then re-enter. A smart player would lead a cloaked ratling named Skriek out of this unlawful town before attacking the crime lord. If Skriek is in this town when you attack Hotzenplotz, he becomes hostile. This is bad, because he sells keys, that can save a wizards life from trapped doors. Lead Skriek to Terinyo, there he will sell keys to you for the rest of the game, if you have the gold.

Killing the crime lord, and bodyguards is simple. Just repeat the process of: bolt, exit town, re-enter, and bolt again until he dies. An important thing to remember though, acid/fire/lightning bolts can destroy the gp's that he and his body guards leave, so don't destroy your gold. While in the crime town, talk with the master thief and consider becoming a member of the thieves guild. Check out the black market, there might be a good book to buy. Return to Terinyo, get your law amulet from the sheriff, get some food and leave, your done here for now.
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So what's next. Three words: The Infinite Dungeon
Hereafter referred to as 'the ID' cause it sounds cool.

The ID is such a powerful feature in the game that some think that using it is like setting yourself up for an easy win. I think that as long as you don't use it until your fingers start to bleed, it's a fine way to start out.

It might be controversial to recommend item scumming in the Id, but it is an effective way of getting books. The process involves going up and down the ID staircases, to generate an unlimited supply of new rooms, and therefore an unlimited supply of items laying in those rooms. If you do this for a while on say levels 1-2 to start out, then 3-4, and up to 8-9, you will have a good supply of books and items. Note that you can still die in the ID, it's just a bit safer than most other dungeons.

On levels 3 and deeper of the ID it is possible for Blink Dogs to appear. Blink dog corpses, when eaten, give you teleport control, which is extremely valuable. If a Blink Dog appears, make it hostile by attacking it as lightly as you can, you don't want to kill it. In fact name it using the 'n' command, this will help you keep up with it. Just run from him until he summons, kill the spares and repeat, until you get your corpse.

You should consider staying in the ID long enough to get one or two bolt spells, Darkness spell, and a few points of DV and PV. You don't HAVE to stay until you get the Darkness spell, (The ID can get boooring) but I highly recommend it. When you find equipment that looks like it might give some PV, consider 'equip identifying' it. It might be cursed of coarse, making it un-removable, so you don't want to try this with girdles or gauntlets, you might get stuck with them for a while. In most cases cursed items aren't too bothersome, even gauntlets of peace (auto cursing and (-15, -15) [+3, +3]) aren't too bad if you are relying on mainly magic. Potions of water appear on ID level 6 and below, these can be dropped on a co-alligned alter later for blessing (if your deity is 'very pleased' with you), this and scrolls of uncursing solves cursed inventory problems.
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Cavern of Chaos
I will not recommend visiting the BUGWIL first, because it requires careful tactics. You can die from one hit there. However, a wizard is capable of killing VERY powerful monsters there, thus gaining up to level 13. If you want to try the Bug Temple before the Caverns of Chaos, you can read the section on the Bug Temple and give it a try. But like I said, I recommend not.

Noteworthy dungeon levels:
Arena - I say fight many fights in the arena, to get lots of gold. Just don't become champion just yet.

Big Room - HERBS! Yay! Have full HP's and PP's before entering. Walk along the top first, running away from any enemies you see. Don't fight enemies right away, it slows you down, and more will just take their place (believe me). Remember where the stairs are, you can flee back down them if things get rough, this will get you away from the high monster generation rate of the Big Room. Your goal is to make 2x2 squares of herbs. Even if the 2x2 square is missing one herb, that's ok, it will regenerate. The most important herbs for wizards are morgia root (eating 2 trains Toughness and 4 trains Willpower = 25) and moss of morrelian ('u'sing 2 uncursed or blessed trains Dexterity = 25). You have to double all herb amounts to train stats beyond their potential maximums. Most other herbs are useful too, so try to stabilize as many 2x2 bush patterns as you can, but morgia and moss are the highest priority. You will probably wind up picking well over 100 morgia, to use all through the game. But you don't have to pick them all at once though. To find out what bush has what herbs, either apply the herbalism skill or pick from the bush.

Dwarftowm
There will be an alter generated on this level, either neutral or lawful, depending on your alignment upon entering the level. This is a very important alter in the game, so if you want it lawful, don't enter until your law amulet has done it's work. Upon entering the town first talk to Thrundarr about 'gate' and 'quest'. Your quests are as follows:

Kill a specific monster - Can be easy or very frustrating. Try to find it in the Big Room, as this will help you gather herbs, while generating lots of monsters. Make trips to Dwarftown to sell junk you may collect in big room. Spend the money however you like, training, shop items, piety, whatever.

Cross the animated forest - Easy because trees can't see in the dark.

Kill some ogres - They also can't see in the dark.

Become champion in the arena - Did I mention that ogres can't see in darkness.

Kill a greater demon - To kill him is hard, to sacrifice him is easy.
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Free the spirit of Griff Bloodaxe - You have to travel back east, find the little grey plus sign in the lower right hand corner. Kill all the enemies, on the outside with bolt spells being careful not to toast your items. Before descending the staircase, you might want to drop your inventory on the stairs. This will prevent item destruction due to the fact that the tomb is a heavily trapped area. If you have the Detect Traps skill, then you don't have to drop your items. First do an exploring trip through the dungeon, but don't try to beat it. This exploring trip lets you discover all the traps without risking your inventory. Now ascend the staircase, pick up your inventory, and re-equip whatever you took off. Now return to beat the level, your chances of setting off traps are greatly reduced because you've already discovered them. Utilize invisibility (probably potions), not darkness once you get to Griff and the necromancer. This will keep the ghuls and friends off of you, long enough for you to 'u'se holy water on the grave. That destroys Griff. The necromancer can't see in the dark, so use that to neutralize him, and invisibility to neutralize the others. Dig the grave to get a good sword, kill a bone golem to get good gauntlets.

Next job is to get the Ancient Mummy Wrapping from the pyramid. Enter before you reach exp. level 17. The pyramid is heavily trapped also, so consider using the 'stash your inventory' trick if you don't have the Detect Traps skill. Rehetep isn't difficult for a wizard to beat. If there is a karmic baby dragon, or some other annoying monster on Rehetep's level, try to avoid it if possible. Remember, you don't have to beat every monster. Before leaving the pyramid, search the first level and find a pickaxe and a climbing set.

Next is the Tomb of the High Kings to get the Ring of the High Kings. You need the frost bolt spell first (obtainable by way of the druid's quest). You might find some herbs in this dungeon, that's good because you might not have gotten all the bush types you needed in the Big Room. Eventually you will come to a red lake. Drop your inventory (because ice bridges only hold 2000 stones), make an ice bridge to the door, open the door and return to pick up your inventory. The Skeletal King will try to confuse you, if he does, DON'T keep trying to walk. You might fall into the lake and instantly die. Just attempt spells instead, even when confused you have about a 30%-50% chance of success. You can easily dispatch the Skeletal King with magic, but make sure you have some way of healing. Don't forget this next step or you will die, DROP your inventory again before crossing the ice bridge again to collect the ring.
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Caverns of Chaos Part 2
Get more herbs Finish whatever dwarf quests you wish, give bart the Golden Gladius, and dive deep into the caverns. First we talk to Khelevaster, thus killing him. Unless you have an amulet of life saving, or can wish for one. If you do, give it to him. If not, collect the wand of digging and stuff, and go on. If you wish very much to save Khelevaster, it might be worth it. The rewards are VERY nice, including a book of teleport and scrolls of chaos resistance. So if your PC is tough, or has the lightning ball spell, consider clearing darkforge before letting Khelavaster die. There are pools in Darkforge that MIGHT yield a wish.

Next is the graveyard, kill the undead and eat the wight and wraith corpses. This will draw your alignment toward chaotic though, so if you have high piety try not to convert. Dig through the far wall into the center room and descend.

The Water Temple
Ok now it's water temple time, this is ridiculously easy. No monsters in the water temple can see in the darkness. Not the water snakes/grues/demons/elementals, chaos servants or even the Snake from Beyond. You can even step on the alter in the darkness to collect the water orb, and not worry about being sacrificed. A note though, in the darkness you will not receive the message "do you want to enter the water?", you just enter it. So be careful and don't drown yourself ok. Also beware of monsters panicing in the dark.

Go a bit deeper, all the while using morgia and moss to continually train Your stats. You will come to a staircase you can't pass, that means you need The fire orb. So back to the surface again.
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Darkforge
Before tackling the tower clear darkforge. The steel golems are highly vulnerable to lightning, but they shrug off a lot of bolts. If you have the lightning ball spell, it's a breeze though, and you should consider clearing darkforge earlier, as the rewards are nice. You can use Big Punch to kill them in melee, just keep a VERY close eye on your HP's and don't take chances. Don't wear any thing that isn't fireproof while fighting them, it will get destroyed. Loot the weapons and armor room, and get the Steel Crown, and consider selling all the junk in Dwarftown. You can drink from the pools in darkforge if you wish, but you might get doomed. So if you drink, make sure you have a way of getting excellent piety fast, for doom removal.

The Tower of Eternal Flames
Before entering the tower you need: A blessed fireproof blanket, some means of fire resistance, a means of digging, food, some blessed potions of extra healing, some other means of healing (spells or spensweed), the frost bolt spell, some cursed potions of invisibility (curse them yourself with some unholy water), potions of blindness and confusion work to if you have them, some uncursed potions of invisibility (if you don't have the spell), some wands of door creation, about 200 HP's and the teleport spell (you can do it without teleport, but it's much safer with it).

It is imperative to limit your inventory! The more items you carry with you the faster your blanket will fail. You may take some items that you like, but do limit them. Wear only fireproof items, the rest will burn up. If you have a ring of ice, that's nice, but you really need to wear two blessed rings of ice to guarantee item safety. Kill the fire enemies with frost bolt, yes they will shrug a lot off, but keep blasting and you'll get them. When you run out of PP's exit the tower and recover in the wilderness, this is what the food is for.
The Ancient Chaos Wyrm is one of the toughest enemies you will face, considering your level, and equipment restrictions. Have Willpower, Dexterity, and Toughness all at least 25 before fighting him. You can equip the water orb and Sword of Nonnak for an additional 15 points of Willpower. First tunnel in and frost bolt the demons, grues and elementals. The only monsters that see invisible are the Ancient Chaos Wyrm and the chaos servants. The only monsters that can see in the dark are the Ancient Chaos Wyrm and fire demons.
Make sure that you 'wake up' the Ancient Chaos Wyrm before you run out of PP's, you will know he is awake when you get the message 'you feel some force attacking your mind', so you will exit the tower and recover PP's. When you resume the fight, your goal is to lead the Ancient Chaos Wyrm to the stairs. The temple level doesn't allow teleportation, but the level just below it does. Utilize 'monster shields' (fire grues and such) to prevent getting hit by the Wyrm's energy bolts on the way back to the stairs. Use your wands of door creation (it's a good idea to have created these doors in strategic locations before luring The Wyrm, and just close them as you pass) to keep The Ancient Chaos Wyrm from getting you in his line of sight. This prevents his confusion attack attempts. When your on the stairs, he won't immediately come to stand next to you. So you will trade bolts with him for a while, when you get hit, descend the stairs and heal. Ascend the stairs and repeat. If he confuses you, don't stumble around, just use the stairs. He will eventually stand next to you. Lead him down and teleport to get some distance. Equip your potions of blindness in your missile slot and teleport back. Blind him and unequip your potions (this keeps them from destruction). Use your bolt spells, and if you have them, ball spells now. If he recovers his vision and hits you, teleport away and heal, don't take chances. If he confuses you attempt to teleport a few times, but drink a potion of extra healing if you get hit. He'll panic soon and then you've got him.
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Caverns of Chaos part 3
Remember that wall of unpassable flames...now pass it. Also pass the Eternal Guardian by wearing the Ring of the High Kings.

The Casino
Upon entering the casino make a habit of equipping an amulet of free action. This gives protection from the guaranteed master mimic in the gift shop. If you have none then use darkness, but that means the mimic might get one free hit on you (it could be the death of you). Try invisibility plus the highest DV you can get. Gather all the items and identify them. Pick out what you like and notice how much it costs all together. Gamble at the slot machine that has a 24 gp price on it, get the gold you need, Also get an extra amount to ensure enough piety for crowning. When you get stunned at your winnings, don't stumble around, clean your 'E'ars instead. Get your shopping done, and travel to a desired alter, probably Dwarftown. You'll find the shortcut just a few levels down from the casino. Read all the spellbooks that you got from the casino on a non corrupting level. Then return.

Bunny Level
Message ="intense tension" = Dig Kill Leave

The Cat Lord
You will get a message "this level somehow seems to be removed from the rest of the world" upon entering his dungeon level. If you have killed no cats you talk to the Cat Lord and get a ring, otherwise you get a fight. You need to: see invisible (Ancient Mummy Wrapping), have potions of confusion or blindness (cursed potions of invisibility) equipped in your missile slot, and wands of paralyzation and poison are nice too. Lead off with the potions, they are 100% effective. Next utilize the wands if you have them. Then use magic spells to finish. There is no teleporting allowed on this level but you shouldn't need it.

The Air Temple
Another item restriction level. This time it's lightning that destroys items. Whatever. No regular monsters can see in the dark here. Not vapor rats, air grues/demons/elementals, or the chaos servants. In fact, only the chaos servants can even see invisible. Yulgash the Master Summoner can see invisible and in the dark. He is easily killed by standing outside of the door to his room and shooting magic missile bouncing around inside the room. Very easy.

The Earth Temple
This one is a bit harder. Most enemies here can see invisible and in the dark. Ball spells are useful but expensive in PP's because you really don't want to get surrounded by these guys (they hit hard!). Acid and lightning bolts are effective against the grues, but the elementals are really good at shrugging them off. You'll have to use acid or lightning ball spells like crazy, to kill the elementals and the Ancient Stone Beast. It might be worth considering, at this point, to sacrifice one or two points of Mana and cast ball spells out of your HP's. If you don't like that idea that's ok too, but it's a long way back to the surface, and your Mana points should regenerate soon anyway.

The Mana Temple
You should have a few wands of trap detection by now, so the traps won't be a problem. You should also have the Disarm Traps spell which is also useful. Once you navigate to the mana temple big room, just cast darkness and stand in the doorway shooting bolt spells into the room while in the dark. None of the monsters in here see in the dark, not the chaos wizards/warriors/servants/greater servants or the eyes. The wizards can summon writhing masses of primal chaos however, and they do see in the dark. The Archmage himself sees in the dark and in fact casts darkness himself. Every now and then cast light to see where every one is. Try to target your bolt spells to take out the wizards first to limit the summoning. The eyes will drain your PP's to 0. You will have to cast out of your HP's, goodbye two or three Mana points. Soon the Archmage will begin confusion attempts upon you. Now it's Archmage time.

The Archmage
If you have the acid ball spell: You need to have death ray resistance (Ancient Mummy Wrapping or amulet), confusion resistance, and a wand of door creation to battle the Archmage. Retreat into the corridor. When you kill all the monsters between yourself and Nuurag-Vaarn you can utilize a created door to keep his bolt spells from hitting you. Lock the door and use 'Willpower boosted' acid ball spells to kill the Archmage, while he stands on the other side of the door.

If you don't have acid ball: You need death ray resistance, human slaying ammunition, confusion resistance and potions of confusion or blindness/cursed potions of invisibility. Wands of poison and paralyzation are nice too. Retreat into the corridor. When you kill all the monsters between yourself and the Archmage you can utilize a potion to confuse or blind him, these are 100% effective. You can now exploit missiles or other weapons to dispatch him. Acid bolt is effective and magic missile, but he shrugs off a lot. If you use bolt spells just don't melt your humanoid slaying ammo if you can help it.

The Ice Level
Use a potion of uselessness in the missile slot to make yourself slide a space on the ice. This gets you a free artifact.

D:50
Goodbye to more Mana points, you won't have many PP's at this stage, and hanging around such a corrupting area to regenerate them, is a bad idea. Cast darkness and bolt most of the writhing masses of primal chaos to death first, because they see in the dark. Now angle some bouncing bolts up and downward to kill the chaos warriors. Cast light pick up any items you like and finish off the remaining writhing masses. Search for the hidden openings in the walls of the writhing masses room. Enter the tunnels and bolt the monsters to death in the dark. Try to kill the wizards first to limit their summoning. Do not handle the levers yet, and be careful to stay away from the wall that is near the center room. There is another secret door near the lever, that opens if you are near it, thus awakening the center room. Clear both secret tunnels this way. Now it's time to 'h'andle the levers, and stop the incursions of chaos into Ancardia.

Now if you have some wands of destruction you can handle a lever, destroy the lever with your wand, teleport, handle the other level, destroy it, teleport to the staircase and leave. You win. Some find this a bit cheap though. So if you don't have the wand, or if you just want some extra satisfaction, finish the game the thorough way. It is not dangerous, to kill all the monsters on the level, it just takes a bit of time.

Just 'h'andle the levers to stop the chaos. Some balors here won't like that so they will teleport to the levers and open them. Kill the balors by bolting them to death. Do the same for the greater balor. If they get close to you, just teleport away and resume bolting them. Yes this takes a while, but so what. If you have ball spells, and don't mind healing yourself more often, you can use those for possibly quicker results. Finally all the balors will be dead and you can tackle the center room.

The only monsters left that can see in the dark are the ghosts and some writhing masses that may be summoned by the chaos wizards. So you should once again employ some darkness usage. Awaken the center room by finding the hidden opening near one of the levers. This gives you a good bolt spell shot at most of the chaos wizards all at once, thus limiting summoned monsters. If the ghosts surround you use ball spells. Eventually you will prevail.

The White Unicorn Quest
Before leaving the Drakalor Chain, talk to the druid in Terinyo once more. This opens the unicorn quest. Near the Old Barbarian's glade, you will find him. Talk to him then go kill the greater black unicorn. Return and get all corruptions healed. Now leave the Drakalor Chain.
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Bug Temple
This is in no way necessary to win the game. So I will cover it only briefly, and partially. I use it for quick experience levels in the early game. So that is what I will describe, the rest I will leave up to you. You might try this with some newly generated characters before trying it with a character that is important to you.

No claw bugs can shrug off bolt spells, not greater or killer. Two bolt spells (acid/lightning/fire/frost) always kills greater bugs, and 3 bolt spells will kill killer bugs. Both types of bugs can sometimes travel 2 spaces in 1 turn, if your speed is about 100. Or they can travel 1 space and then hit you. For this reason, you don't want to bolt a bug that is just one space away from you. He might survive one bolt, move one space, and then hit you, thus killing a low level PC. If a greater claw bug is two spaces from you, and in line with a bolt spell, you can always kill it. It takes three to kill Killer claw bugs though. The Killer claw bug must be at LEAST 3 spaces away to safely bolt it once, and then leave the BUGWIL. Or five spaces away to bolt it to death. If more than one claw bug awakens on you at one time, simply leave and re-enter. Carefully make your way back to where you left, and you will see them again, only this time you will approach them one at a time.

Before entering the BUGWIL, light a torch. This extends your field of vision by a couple of squares. Now enter the BUGWIL, move down one space, now shoot a bolt spell north-westward, this should hit a greater claw bug. One more kills it. Move all the way to the top of the screen along the right hand side of the level, no bugs should awaken on you. Now move left until you get to the tree, and bolt a bug. Probably you will have to exit. When you re-enter just carefully move upward till you see it, if it doesn't line up with a bolt spell just exit and re-enter 1 more time, then it will.

The rest is pretty much the same, just carefully move left along the top of the map, exiting when you need to. When you start awakening the killer claw bugs, you might consider leaving. But if you decide to try the killer bugs you might get a couple more experience levels.

End