From: bshields@tartarus.uwa.edu.au (Bill Shields)
Newsgroups: rec.games.moria
Subject: Re: Any Suggestions??
Date: 12 Oct 1992 15:55:33 GMT
Organization: The University of Westrn Australia
NNTP-Posting-Host: tartarus.uwa.edu.au

hennes@blade.stack.urc.tue.nl (Hennes Passmann) writes:

>Andrew Bennett (roabennett@halls1.cc.monash.edu.au) wrote:
>: Hi all!
>: 
>: I am currently a 35 level Halfing Mage, and I am sitting at 2750 Feet. I was 
>: just wondering if anyone out there had any suggestions on the future of the 
>: character...what should he do and what does he need (??? of Speed would 
>: be handy but where!!) Does anyone think that this guy could kill the Balrog 
>: as is??
>: 
>: Also how do you gain the next levels?? The highest Experiance creature is 
>:  ~3000 and I need to gain 10's of thousands...any quick ways?? Does this get 
>: worse as I go up to 36 etc??
>:
>: [ Deleted some stuff (Actually a lot of stuff) ]

>There are more powerfull creature that give you more experiance, e.g. the
>EVIL IGGY (approx. 25.000 exp.)

>BTW. potions of gain experiance  add 100.000 experiance, nice, isn't it?

>Avatar , lvl 37 cheater 
>         lvl 31 unix "a little" cheater
>

Basically Mages are a losing option but you've spent the time to get him
(it?) to level 35 so you may as well finish the game...

Some important items to have:

1) Two Rings of Speed (as far as rings go, there is no substitute)

2) A Defender Sword (it has [DF] in it's name).  This is an absolute
must, particularly because you are a halfling mage and have few hit
points.  It allows you to see invisible and gives you resistance (half
damage) to cold, fire, acid and lightning.  And this is not all!  You
regenerate hit points and mana points much faster.  My 39th level priest
used this as it meant that if the Balrog came up behind him and breathed
on him he did'nt die (he just lost 300 of his 400 hit points).

3) Holy Avengers and Dragon Slayers are very useful.

4) Wands of Clone Monster (to close those Mature Multi-Hued Dragons).
Some of you may wonder why not clone Ancient Multi-Hued Dragons?
Because it is STUPID.  If they decide to breathe gas you are DEAD and
there ain't anything you can do about it.  I have NEVER been killed by
an MMHD, they give you a decent amount of XP and they produce up to 12
items when they die.  Cloning Evil Iggies is also a completely
worthwhile option (25 000 exp and 16 items) but you must be able to go
faster than them either temporarily or permanently.

5) Enough Potions of Gain Stats to get you a few 18/00's especially in
INT (for spellcasting), STR/DEX (so you can get 4 attacks a round with
that Beaked Axe [HA]) and (most importantly) CON (for those hit
points!).  This is why I don't like mages (low hit points).  Rangers and
Priests are much more worthwhile options.  They have lots of hit points
(often getting 400 and above with 18/00 CON and level 37+) and good
spellcasting abilities (when you have 150 Mana it just doesn't matter
that a ranger has a higher cost of casting spells).

6) With the older versions of Moria, you're secondary abilities (hit
points, mana points) weren't backdated to level 1 like they are in the
later versions.  An easy way around this is to find a Grape Jelly and go
back to level 1-5 and then drink the requisite amounts of Potions of
Restore Life Levels.

7) Boots of Speed are nice but they're SO rare (I think they're the
rarest item in the game).

8) Good armour.  This may seem obvious but so many characters that I
have seen have crappy stuff.  My priest got his AC down to 112 when
wielding a Defender with Ribbed Plate, Steel Helm, etc.

9) Plenty of finite-charge items like: Scrolls of Rune of
Protection/Teleportation/Enchant Weapon or Armour, Staves of Mass
Polymorph (those rooms of Giant Black Lice are
useful!)/Speed/Teleportation/Curing and Potions of Restore Mana/Restore
Life Levels/Healing/Haste Self/Gain Experience (a MUST).

Oh well, hope it helped.
Billy Shields

P.S. On the IBM version (I don't know about the others) Potions of Gain
Stat are most common at 1250 feet and Holy Avengers and Rings of Speed
are most common at 2500 feet.