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» Contents » (0) Quickstart » (1) Introduction » (2) Installation & setup » (3) Creating a character & starting to play » (4) The world » (5) Item and flag details, elements » (6) Monster details » (7) Character details » (7.4) Races
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(7.4) Races ----------- Depending on your race, you might need different amounts of experience to gain a new character level. You also might have certain intrinsic abilities. For Beginners a powerful yet simple race/class combination like Half-Troll, Half-Orc or Dwarven Warrior is strongly recommended. (Warrior being by far the most straight-forward and most forgiving class in the beginning.) The Maia race is not recommended for beginners due to its complexity. The Yeek race is not recommended for beginners because it's extraordinarily weak in all fields (its only upside being that it needs the least amount of experience of all races to gain levels). The Vampire race is not necessarily recommended for beginners due to its various quirks that you'll need to pay attention to (feeding, light sources, certain healing/curing effects that instead damage vampires). List of all races (make sure to read the paragraph about your race, when you create a character!): --------------------- - Human Humans are allrounders with no special weaknesses or strengths. Humans have no experience penalties and tend to go up levels faster than most other races. No racial adjustments or intrinsics occur to characters choosing human. Humans get a large bonus on 'Climbing' and 'Interception'. - Half-Elf Half-elves tend to be smarter and faster than humans, but not as strong. Half-elves are slightly better at searching, disarming, saving throws, stealth, bows, and magic, but they are not as good at hand weapons. Half-elves resist light intrinsically. They get bonus on 'Bow-mastery' and 'Interception', a small bonus on the 'Nature' and 'Spirit' and a small malus on the 'Shadow' school. - Elf Elves resist light effects intrinsically and see invisible creatures. Elves are better magicians then humans, but not as good at fighting. They tend to be smarter and faster than either humans or half-elves and also have better wisdom. Elves are better at searching, disarming, perception, stealth, bows, and magic, but they are not as good at hand weapons. Elves get bonus on 'Bow-mastery', 'Magic', 'Stealth', 'Dodging', 'Calmness', 'Sneakiness' and the magic 'Water' and occult 'Spirit' schools, a large bonus on the magic 'Nature' school and a malus on 'Shadow'. - Hobbit Hobbits have their dexterity sustained. Further, they get a dexterity bonus from not wearing shoes! Hobbits, or Halflings, are very good at shooting, throwing, and have good saving throws. They also are very good at searching disarming, perception, and stealth; so they make excellent rogues, but prefer to be called burglars. They are much weaker than humans, and no good at melee fighting. Halflings have fair infra-vision, so they can detect warm-blooded creatures at a distance. Hobbits resist black breath somewhat. They get bonus on 'Sling-mastery', 'Sneakiness', 'Dodging' and a large bonus on 'Stealth'. Note: Since hobbits have low hit points you might consider training the skill 'Health' to make up for it, depending on which class you choose to play. - Gnome Gnomes are intrinsically protected to paralysis effects. Gnomes are smaller than dwarves but larger than halflings. They, like the hobbits, live in the earth in burrow-like homes. Gnomes make excellent Warlocks & Sorcerers, and have very good saving throws. They are good at magic, searching, disarming, perception, and stealth. They have lower strength than humans so they are not very good at fighting with hand weapons. Gnomes have fair infra-vision, so they can detect warm-blooded creatures at a distance. Gnomes receive bonus on 'Crossbow-mastery' and 'Magic' and a large bonus on 'Dodging' and 'Digging'. - Dwarf Dwarves can never be blinded and at level 30 they gain intrinsic 'Climbing' allowing them to travel mountain regions easily. Dwarves are the headstrong miners and fighters of legend. Since dungeons are the natural home of a dwarf, they are excellent choices for a warrior or priest. Dwarves tend to be stronger and tougher but slower and less intelligent than humans. Because they are so headstrong and are somewhat wise, they resist spells which are cast on them. Dwarves also have very good infra-vision because they live underground. They do have one big drawback, though. Dwarves are loudmouthed and proud, singing in loud voices, arguing with themselves for no good reason, and screaming out challenges at nearby foes. In other words, dwarves have a miserable stealth. They receive a bonus on 'Axe-mastery', a huge bonus on 'Digging' and 'Climbing' and a large malus on 'Swimming'. - Half-Orc Because of their preference to living underground to on the surface, Half-orcs resist darkness intrinsically. They make excellent warriors and decent priests, but aren't good at magic. They are as bad as dwarves at stealth, and horrible at searching, disarming, and perception. Half-Orcs are quite ugly, and tend to pay more for goods in town. Half-Orcs do make good warriors and rogues, for the simple reason that Half-Orcs tend to have great constitutions and lots of hit points. They get a slight bonus on 'Backstabbing', a large bonus on 'Weaponmastery' and a bonus on 'Necromancy' and occult 'Shadow' magic and receive penalties on 'Spirit' and large penalties on 'Magic', 'Sorcery' and 'Swimming'. - Half-Troll Half-trolls have their strength sustained. They are very strong, but also very stupid and slow. They make great warriors and iffy priests. They are bad at searching, disarming, perception, and stealth. They are so ugly that a Half-Orc grimaces in their presence. They need to eat often but they also regenerate hit point especially quickly (1.5x as fast as from 'regeneration' flag, doesn't stack with any regen items) and even keep regenerating while still suffering from cuts. Thanks to their thick skin, they also get an (albeit very small) bonus to armour class. Half-Trolls get bonus on 'Blunt-mastery', 'Health'. They receive a large penalty 'Climbing' and huge penalties on 'Critical-strike', 'Magic', 'Sorcery', 'Archery' and 'Swimming'. - Dunadan Dunadain have their constitution sustained. Dunadain are a race of hardy men from the West. This elder race surpasses human abilities in every field, especially constitution. However, being men of the world, very little is new to them, and levels are very hard for them to gain. A Dunadan gets bonus on 'Combat', 'Archery' and 'Interception' and a small bonus to 'Magic' and a large bonus to 'Swimming'. - High-Elf High-Elves can see the invisible and resist light and the flow of time intrinsically. They are a race of immortal beings dating from the beginning of time, masters of all skills, strong and intelligent, although their wisdom is sometimes suspect. They do very well in all professions. There are few things that they have not seen already, and experience is hard for them to gain. High-Elves receive boni on 'Bow-mastery', 'Magic', 'Stealth', 'Dodging' and the magic 'Nature' school, a large bonus on 'Calmness' and 'Swimming', a slight bonus on 'Spirit' occultism and a malus on 'Shadow' occultism. High-Elves also recieve boni on 'Light' and 'Mana' runecraft. - Yeek Being weak and losing many childhood fights, they have learned the ability to float gently to the ground. They have intrinsic feather falling. Often having to escape from precarious situations, yeeks are able to pass through dense forest quickly. Yeeks are the least powerful of all the races. They suffer disadvantages in all stats and have attributes similar to humans. However, to compensate Yeeks learn, and thus gain levels, extremely quickly. Yeeks don't receive boni or mali on any skills except that they are very good at 'Swimming'. Note: Since yeeks have low hit points you might consider training the skill 'Health' to make up for it, depending on which class you choose to play. - Goblin Goblins have a decidedly mixed reputation. They are almost always grinning, and more often than not you cannot tell whether or not they are eyeing you like a side of meat. They are as sturdy as Dwarves and are quite agile making them good fighters, rogues, and mimics. Being creatures of the night, Goblins have natural resistance to darkness. They receive bonus on 'Boomerang-mastery', 'Stealing' and occult 'Shadow' magic and a malus to 'Spirit' and all four holy schools. - Ent The Ents are a powerful race dating from the beginning of the world, eldest of all animals or plants who inhabit Arda. Spirits of the land, they were summoned to guard the forests of Middle-earth. Being much like trees they are very slow but strong and do not have to feed as often. Because they consist of wood, they are quite susceptible to fire and they don't drown in water (unless overloaded by items). As the Shepherds of the Trees, they can learn to sense the presence of others, such as animals at level 10, orcs at 15, trolls at 20, giants at 25, dragons at 30, demons at 40 and all evil-minded creatures at level 50. At level 4 Ents learn to see invisible things. In general, they accumulate experience very slowly and they do not eat normal food but they are able to consume liquids. Trees will slightly bend aside to let ents pass through. Ents are able to slowly replenish their nourishment by rooting themselves into the ground by entering 'R'esting mode, provided it's natural ground such as grass, earth, mud or water. Their food state will go up to 'Full' that way. They cannot eat normal food but will feed greatly from drinking potions that provide nourishment. They can never be gorged though. Ents intrinsically resist the force of unleashed water and their bark skin provides a small bonus to armour class. They get bonus to 'Health', a slight bonus to 'Spirit' and a large bonus on 'Calmness' and on the magic schools 'Earth', 'Water' and 'Nature'. They receive a huge penalty on 'Fire' school, a large penalty on 'Axe-mastery' and a penalty on 'Sword-mastery'. They cannot train 'Climbing' or any blood magic at all. - Draconian These humanoid half-breeds of dragon and man surpass common humans in all ways, except that they are really bad at moving stealthily. Similar to dragons, they can eat firestones to temporarily boost their powers. (See (5.9) for firestone details.) Draconians need a very long time to gain further experience and need to eat often. They have feather falling instrinsically from birth. At level 5 they gain intrinsic telepathic powers (ESP) to spot dragons anywhere on the level. At level 6 this power advances to additionally being able to notice all nearby creatures that have a mind and the radius expands as the Draconian gains levels. At level 30 they learn how to levitate. Unlike other races, draconians are susceptible to the void connecting void jump gates and may get hurt by it when they travel through it, perceiving it as "cold" even if they resist or are immune to normal frost. The greater the gate distance, the higher the damage from 'going between'. Armour can help to mitigate this effect somewhat. Draconians possess a certain lineage trait from birth, providing them with intrinsic resistances and an elemental breath (learned at level 8) which they can use if they have sufficient stamina (costs 3, accessible with 'm') and which is a physical ability of theirs, not a magic spell. 'Breathe element' inflicts damage equal your current hit points divided by 3 and capped between 350 and 500 depending on your element, with the basic element types doing the most damage and shards and sound doing the least. This breath weapon cannot be used while polymorphed, except if the form is a reptile (including Hydras) or an actual dragon (including dragonriders). The resistances and other abilities obtained from a trait remain active even while polymorphed. Thanks to their scaly hide they receive a small bonus to armour class, especially the metallic lineages - bronze, silver and gold. Draconians receive a bonus on 'Polearm-mastery', 'Attunement', 'Nexus' runemastery, 'Magic devices', a large bonus on 'Aura of Fear' and 'Swimming'. Table of their traits: Lineage Breath Resistances/abilities -------------------------------------------------------------------------- Blue Lightning lightning, brand (5), aura (15), immune (25) White Frost frost, aura (15), immune (25), susceptible to fire Red Fire fire, immune (25), susceptible to cold, hit point regeneration Black Acid acid, immune (25) Green Poison poison, immune (25) Multi-hued Any of the lightning (5), frost (10), fire (15), five above * acid (20), poison (25) Bronze Confusion confusion (5), paralysis and electricity (10), reflection (20); a small extra AC bonus Silver Inertia cold (5), acid (10), poison (15), reflection (20); a small extra AC bonus Golden Sound fire (5), acid (10), sound (15), reflection (20); a small extra AC bonus Law Shards shards (5), paralysis (10), sound (15) Chaos Chaos confusion (5), chaos (15), disenchantment (20) Balance Disenchantment disenchantment (10), sound (20) (*) Multi-hued lineage can use specific breaths in the 'm' menu. Hint: Make sure to set your breath attack to a hotkey when you learn it. - Kobold These somewhat smallish dog-faced humanoids who tend to live in lairs and often make up for their size by laying out clever traps resist poison intrinsically. They are able to take most roles, being somewhat better at archery than close combat. Their intelligence is somewhat suspect, and although they do not pick up careers as mages or other very elaborate professions, they can become shamans or druids. They can see in the dark thanks to infra-vision, have extraordinarily sharp senses, and can move very silently, making them hard to spot. They are also good at disarming traps. Kobolds receive a large bonus on 'Trapping' and 'Digging', a huge bonus on 'Swimming' and a slight bonus on 'Sneakiness'. - Dark-Elf Dark-Elves dwell below the surface in huge caverns of their underground city. The children are already drilled to become sworn enemies of most other races of the underground, and also of the hated Elves and High-Elves who live on the surface under the burning light of the sun. Overthrowing rivals by treachery and murder are acknowledged ways in their society, as long as noone is left alive who might bring charge against the victors. Dark-Elves are good fighters and sorcerors, but also decent priests. Dark-Elves intrinsically resist darkness, but are susceptible to light. At level 20 they learn to see the invisible. They get bonus on 'Stealth', 'Dodging', 'Sneakiness', 'Backstabbing', a large bonus on occult 'Shadow' magic and a malus on all four holy schools and the occult 'Spirit' school. - Vampire These powerful undead creatues move out in the night to hunt living prey and suck its blood to sustain themselves. Vampires resist darkness, but are susceptible to light and certain purifying and anti-evil effects, be it on items such as scrolls, on magic devices, or on equipment such as weapons and light sources (which may drain their hit points if equipped, even if the vampire acquired resistance to light). Vampires fear the sunlight and any kind of items giving off powerful light (radius of 3 or more, artifact lights, or light sources that are blessed, evil-slaying or undead-slaying or give off pure white light). Asides from light sources aside they fear all items that are blessed or *slay undead*. Any such item that is adverse to undead will burn them, draining their hit points, or draining their mana if worn on head or hands. Exceptions are cursed items, chaotic items and the "Stone of Lore", these are always safe. Vampires start with a mummy wrapping, because it can protect them from the sunlight. If they are moving on the world surface (meaning not in a dungeon or tower) while it's day, the sun will burn them if they don't resist light or wear a mummy wrapping. They don't actually need a light source, since they are able to determine their close surroundings even in complete darkness thanks to an intrinsic trait exclusive for vampire race characters: Darkvision. This ability grows when the vampire rises in character-levels, starting at torch-wide radius and growing to lantern-wide radius already when reaching level 10. Regarding items, Vampires do not suffer a hit point drain from wielding a spectral weapon. They are even able to wear or wield heavily cursed items such as Morgul weapons and benefit from them, turning their negative boni into positive ones! The only exception are weapons of Nothingness, which won't do them any good either. Since Vampires are immune to Black Breath, using a Morgul weapon will not pose a problem to them. Heavily cursed randarts will even get rerolled mostly, see the end of (5.12) for details, although some randarts may fail and remain cursed and useless. Vampires are good fighters and decent mages. However, they are unable to conjure holy fire (Fireflash spell) or utilize magic of water or nature school. Neither can they make use of mimicry techniques (with the exception of vampire bat and vampiric mist, see below) or holy or spirit spells. As a specialty, vampire istari are able to learn the occult shadow school and unlife school, which are not accessible to istari of other races. These two schools are not affected by Sorcery though, so they have to be trained separately. Vampires are unable to train in anti-magic in order to suppress magic, but they can make use of items that provide anti-magic effects. Aside from darkness they also resist sanity-draining effects somewhat, cold, time, nether, they're immune to poison and it's hard to drain their life force - this is also true for life force drained by items a vampire has equipped: Those will drain exp at only half the normal rate. As they aren't living, they cannot be infected by continuous diseases. Vampires have a high chance to resist the adverse effects of encountering an eldritch horror (see (7.3) under 'Saving Throw' for details on those). They also intrinsically have partially life leeching (vampiric) attacks (see '(5.13) Vampirism' for more information) which they can further improve by training in both Necromancy and Traumaturgy (see skill details). Being undead, vampires don't drown as easily as other races, but the water still has a somewhat damaging effect if they cannot swim at all. At level 20 they become able to turn into a vampire bat (mimicry code 391). Vampire bats are fast, can fly (basically as effective as 'levitation') and are more resistant to sun burn than the humanoid vampire form, making them useful for travelling, although they move slightly erratically. While vampires are in bat form, their mana pool is greatly reduced though. As a specialty, vampires can use their full equipment in vampire bat form but cannot fight or cast well while transformed (reduced BpR and MP pool). At level 35 they can become able to turn into vampiric mist (mimicry 365). In mist form, they can pass closed doors, traps without triggering them, have maximum stealth and be granted a shivering aura (or have their existing shivering aura boosted). They will also gain the 'invisibility' effect (as from items) against monsters, but not against other players. (Note: This invisibility effect will not result in the usual purple colour of the player's symbol, it's still there though.) Last but not least once mist form is learned, vampires can pass through walls of houses they have legal access rights to, even without the player explicitely changing into vampiric mist. However, Vampires cannot perform a lot of physical actions in mist form, such as fighting, and the creeping mist moves slower than they would in their normal form. Vampires can use their full equipment in mist form too. Vampires cannot eat normal food, instead they need to feed off living creatures. This means that you need to kill monsters in melee range (though not necessarily by using melee attacks - spells or arrows work fine too) in order to satisfy your hunger, which might be quite easy for melee classes but sometimes a hassle for ranged/caster classes. On the plus side, a vampire won't get gorged by drinking too many potions. In fact, Vampires can never get gorged, their 'feeding' will stop just below that threshold. Items that provide 'Slow Digestion' do work for vampires. At level 40 they will also start to need less and less food to sustain themselves. Vampire royalties will require the least amount of food, independant of their level, enabling them to survive a very long time without feeding - even an item granting 'Slow Digestion' will not improve this any further. Vampires hate 'Blunt' weapons, are very bad at 'Swimming', cannot use certain magic schools at all as described above, get a large penalty on 'Divination' magic but receive a bonus on 'Mental Intrusion' and 'Mind' and a large bonus on 'Shadow', 'Unlife', 'Necromancy', all aura skills and a small bonus on 'Traumaturgy'. As undead, Vampires gain a moderate skill bonus for 'Nether' runes but in turn find it extremely hard to improve in 'Light' runes. Hint: In case you lose your mummy wrapping and the general store doesn't have one in stock, you can order one there (press 'o' key in the store). - Maia The Maiar are lesser spirits who are associated with one or more Valar, the greater gods. Being of divine origin they can shape themselves in fashion of elves or humans as they see fit, often acting as powerful wizards to guide elves and man by gaining their trust. Appearing in such shape, their abilities will seem somewhat superior in all aspects and they also possess infra-vision. Maiar have a choice of ascending to enlightenment, or submit to corruption of the promise of demonic powers. To determine their fate, they must kill either a candlebearer, a servant of good (to become corrupted), or a darkling, a harbinger of demonkind (to become enlightened) before reaching level 20 or they will lose the ability to stay in the realm and their physical form will be destroyed by indecisiveness: "Your indecision proves you aren't ready yet to stay in this realm!" Maiar who kill both, a darkling and a candlebearer, before initiation at level 20, will see the message "Your presence in the realm is forfeit!" and also meet their fate and be destroyed by indecisiveness at level 20. You can verify your current status anytime either by checking your monster list with ~ 2 or by using the '/ex' chat command, which will give you one of these status messages if you are a Maia: - no harbinger killed yet: "Your destiny in the realm is still undecided." - killed a darkling: "Your are treading on the path to enlightenment." - killed a candlebearer: "Your are treading on the path to corruption." - killed both types, oops!: "Your presence in the realm is forfeit." After they underwent initiation at level 20, they may just kill all of them indiscriminately, same as any other monster, without consequences. At level 13, maiar will get a reminder if they haven't killed any darkling or candlebearer yet: "We all have to pick our own path some time..." At level 19, there will be another reminder, as it's now their last chance: "Your soul thirsts for shaping, either enlightenment or corruption!" Maiar start with a low profile skill chart which gets boosted on initiation depending on their alignment. Their skills will be adjusted on initiation so that they remain as close to their previous values as possible while the character gets back any skill points that are freed up due to higher skill ratios after the initiation took place, see (7.2a) for details. Using but their mind Maiar can easily perceive both good and demonkind telepathically. The servants and harbingers of those factions that Maiar need to slay occur from dungeon level 12 to 20 (which correspond to -600..-1000 ft in dungeon 'Barrow-Downs' for example, since that dungeon starts at level 1). In the IDDC, they appear from level 10 to 20. If a Maia generates the dungeon level, there will be a guaranteed spawn, so if you are in a party with non-Maiar, make sure you are the first one taking the staircase so you generate the level. Maiar are able to train in the 'Astral' school, an exclusive divine magic which has spells of different effect depending on the caster's alignment. Some astral spells use intelligence for determining their spell failure rates, some use wisdom. Initiation to either enlightened or corrupted beings, or during their first few character levels the lack thereof, will decide the effect of astral spells. Maiar can be any class that can utilize mana. They get the best shop prices of all races since they are either greatly respected or feared by all other creatures. They gain experience extremely slowly, and rarely need to feed before initiation (intrinsic slow digestion). Afterwards they have no more need for any worldly food at all (and they cannot become gorged either). Likewise, when initiatied they become immune to the lingering damage effect of any continuous disease. Maia get a bonus on 'Sneakiness' and 'Stealth' no matter the alignment. Hint: Since all Maiar start with a point in 'Astral Knowledge' skill, you should buy a spell scroll of Power Bolt I right away from the bookstore, because you will already be able to use it. Here is a table showing boni/mali of the different races: Race STR INT WIS DEX CON CHR HP die Exp% Infra-Vision Di MD ST St Pe Sr Fi BT (caps at 200 ft) ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ Human 0 0 0 0 0 0 10 100% 0ft 0 0 0 0 10 0 0 0 Half-Elf -1 +1 0 +1 -1 +1 10 110% 20ft 2 5 3 1 11 6 -2 5 Elf -1 +2 +1 +1 -2 +2 9 120% 30ft 5 9 6 2 12 8 -5 15 Hobbit -2 +2 +1 +3 0 +1 8 115% 30ft 15 12 18 4 15 12 -10 20 Gnome -1 +2 0 +2 +1 -2 9 125% 40ft 10 18 12 3 13 6 -8 12 Dwarf +2 -2 +2 -2 +2 -3 11 130% 50ft 2 9 9 -1 10 7 15 0 Half-Orc +2 -1 0 0 +1 -4 11 115% 30ft -3 -3 -3 -1 7 0 12 -5 Half-Troll +4 -4 -2 -4 +3 -6 12 135% 30ft -5 -8 -8 -2 5 -1 20 -10 Dunadan +1 +2 +2 +2 +3 +2 10 160% 0ft 4 3 5 0 13 3 15 10 High-Elf +1 +3 -1 +3 +1 +3 10 200% 40ft 4 20 20 3 14 3 10 25 Yeek -5 -5 -5 -5 -5 -3 8 80% 0ft 0 0 0 0 10 0 -7 0 Goblin 0 -1 -4 +4 +2 -5 10 120% 30ft 2 -3 -3 0 8 2 12 -5 Ent +8 -4 +2 -4 +8 -4 14 280% 0ft -4 0 20 -6 4 5 0 -20 Draconian +4 +2 +2 +1 +3 +2 12 300% 50ft 0 7 10 -5 10 10 15 5 Kobold -1 -1 0 +2 +2 -2 8 110% 50ft 10 5 4 4 15 15 0 10 Dark-Elf 0 +2 +1 +3 +1 -6 10 140% 80ft 7 3 6 4 6 10 15 15 Vampire +2 +2 -1 +2 0 +3 11 240% 150ft -2 3 20 2 13 -4 10 -10 Maia +2 +3 +3 +1 +1 +2 11 400% 100ft 3 20 3 0 5 1 5 5 (Di:Disarming, MD:Magic Device, ST:Saving Throw, St:Stealth, Pe:Perception (sight range), Sr:Searching, Fi:Fighting, BT:Bows/Throw)
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