History VideoGame / AncientDomainsOfMystery

* SavageSetpiece: NPCs in Villages are simply passive, only there for flavor, but can be attacked to turn them hostile. In older versions of the game, some of them were disproportionately powerful for their description.

* MundaneUtility: Drakelings and characters with a specific corruption can spit acid. This can be used as a makeshift ranged attack, but it can also be used to lower a character's satiation level to make gorging on stat-boosting corpses easier.

* AutoRevive: Amulets of life saving will automatically revive you if you're killed while wearing one. They work better when blessed. The Amulet of Resurrection is even better, functioning as an ''indestructible, infinite use'' amulet of life saving, but it's only available one day of the year.

* CriticalEncumbranceFailure: Played with. Player characters have a carrying capacity based on Strength, and exceeding that causes you to become Burdened, Strained, or Strained!, each of which come with movement speed penalties and stat abuse. Above Strained! is Overburdened, which prevents you from moving until you drop some of your items. [[spoiler:At a certain point above Overburdened, you will be crushed to death by your inventory. Thankfully, this only happens if your carrying capacity is suddenly massively lowered - for instance, if that Annihilator you're facing rips apart your girdle of greed...]]

** A girdle of greed increases your carrying capacity based on how much gold you're carrying. If you bless it, it will essentially make gold weightless. [[spoiler:Mind that it doesn't get destroyed - or worse, cursed...]]

** The Black Tome of Alsophocus can let you learn any spell in the game; pro. You can't pick, and you're locked in place while you read it; con. There's a chance you can learn a big spell like Death Ray; pro. It corrupts you when used OR carried; con. Most players leave it where it is, or use it as fodder in the main quest.

* GrimyWater: The red lake at the bottom of the Tomb of the High Kings. [[spoiler:It's packed with chaos piranhas that will rip you to shreds if you try swimming it]].

* GrimyWater: The red lake at the bottom of the Tomb of the High Kings. [[spoilers:It's packed with chaos piranhas that will rip you to shreds if you try swimming it]].

** The newer versions add the Ultimate Dungeon. Entering it requires you to close the Chaos Gate (read: win the game) while also completing a ''very'' long quest line, including intentionally screwing up the Rolf quest. At the bottom lies the ''[[BonusBoss Ultimate Balor]]'', who drops the Scroll of Omnipotence...[[BraggingRightsReward which nobody knows how to read or use]].

* ArtifactOfDoom: [[spoiler:The Chaos Orbs contain powerful magic, but the player is corrupted upon using them. There are many other artifacts that qualify; some literally "doom" the player, some corrupt the player merely by carrying them around, some do both and curse themselves on equipping to make it as hard as possible to get rid of them.]]

* GrimyWater: Do ''not'' swim in the red water — and beware of confusion that could make you stumble into it. Learning how to get across it is just one of the many mini-puzzles the game presents you with.

* InfinityPlusOneSword: [[spoiler:The Trident of the Red Rooster]] is probably the best artifact in the game. It's also required for one of the ultra endings and is a huge GuideDangIt.

* MetalSlime: Giant boars, oy. Required for the ultra endings, sadly.

* FragileSpeedster: Quicklings sport extreme Speed and DV, but pathetic defense makes them fall quickly once a strong attack (often magic) lands. Quickling Queens make matters much worse by [[StandardStatusEffects poisoning]] on successful melee hits. Stacks of poison, no less.

* GoMadFromTheRevelation: {{Downplayed}}. Just standing in front of the Chaos Gate and catching a glimpse of the [[EldritchLocation Chaos dimension]] can make you [[StandardStatusEffects heavily confused]] (the closest thing to being insane in this game). Played somewhat straighter with the {{IBM}} manuals, which will ''permanently'' confuse anyone who reads them.

* TooDumbToLive: Closing the Chaos Gate as a chaotic Chaos Knight snuffs out your existence as a reward for your betrayal. The guidebook refers to it as the "Most Stupid Follower of ChAoS" ending.

* ChestMonster: The perennial mimic. Annoyingly, for whatever reason there tends to be one in the shop on the Dwarven City level of the Caverns of Chaos -- many player characters have died in what one would normally believe to be a safe zone.

** And woe to the player who finds "trapped" armor, which uncursing will not remove...

** One of the most useful spells is Magic Missile. It's very cheap to cast, spellbooks for it are very common, it can kill many enemies at once, its range increases when trained, and it bounces off walls (so you can kill monsters in positions that other spells and throwable weapons can't reach). However, it's common for a player to make a typo and cast the spell towards a wall at a 180 angle in a narrow corridor. The spell will then hit the player and bounce off the opposite wall, hit the player again and bounce off the first wall again... Essentially, the spell will bounce and rebounce, always hitting the player inbetween, until it has reached its maximum range - at this point the character is usually dead. He's forced to watch a long cycle of messages about the Magic Missile rebouncing and hitting him, his HP steadily sinking, unable to do anything about it.

* DamnYouMuscleMemory: One horrible example within the game itself: saving the game and quitting the game are "shift+s" and "shift+q" respectively, and have the same "y/n" prompt after. Late at night, when cognitive functions take a backseat, players may lose very promising characters for no reason other than their own carelessness. Which is really no different from anything else in the game.

** Dragons also carry gold and a bunch of other items on them -- even hatchlings will typically drop about 1000 gp, and often something else besides, though the "something else" for them tends to be something fairly useless like a pile of rocks.
* Dual Wielding: The Two Weapon Combat skill lets you do this effectively, although the inability to use shields is a deterrent. Dual wielding the artifact daggers Sting and Needle greatly increases the damage and accuracy of each.

** [[spoiler: His level adjusts to that of the PC, but as higher level [=PC=]s are generally better equipped and have more HP, one will have an easier time at level 12 than level 8]].

* ElementalPunch: The Burning Hands spell (Baptism of Fire for religious classes) is essentially a fire-elemental melee attack... that never misses. It also gets stronger and slightly cheaper to cast as you use it.

** Inverted by the Insight spell, as well as potions of insight, which reveals hidden information about the ''player character''. This actually makes sense because the player can gain new abilities from various sources, such as corpses, pools and items, without knowing it.

* EverythingTryingToKillYou: Let's see: Swimming? Drowns you in four turns unless you have the right item or skill. Walking in the forest or mountains? RandomEncounters, plus starvation. Doors? Trapped. Any wild animal, including rodents? Will fight you to the death, [[GangUpOnTheHuman even while ignoring other human [=NPC=]s such as swordsmen.]] Merely walking around in dungeons? ''[[TheCorruption Gradually turns you into a twisted mockery of yourself]]''.

* ExtremelyDustyHome: The Dusty Dungeon Level (DDL) and the level below it, Very Dusty Dungeon Level (VDDL). They are pretty much InformedAttribute however, as the description doesn't affect gameplay.
* ExtremeOmnivore: By the end of the game, your PC will have munched his way through half of Ancardia's [[ImAHumanitarian human]], humanoid and animal population for the various [[AcquiredPoisonImmunity resistances]], the stat boosts, or just because they were hungry. Usually raw corpses, if they don't have the cooking skill.

* FallenHero: [[spoiler: The Ultimate Chaos God ending requires you to be Lawful or Neutral, to get the Trident of the Red Rooster, but to finish the game with fully Chaotic alignment.]]
* {{Fauxshadow}}: The [[spoiler: Red Rooster Inn, where you can find the Scroll of Omnipotence]] was first referenced in-game ''six or seven years'' before WordOfGod finally admitted that it was a RedHerring.

* FromBadToWorse: The first three levels of the [[LethalLavaLand Tower of Eternal Flames]] are hard enough, what with the constant fire damage, melting equipment, and monsters that are hard to take out in melee. You thought THAT was bad? The fourth level is ''hotter'', blocks teleportation, and [[spoiler: requires you to dig through a lot of solid wall to reach a horde of resilient fire elementals and demons, and THEN you can fight the boss, who sees through invisibility and uses [[TheCorruption corrupting attacks]], confusion, stat drain, high-intensity beam attacks, and has huge hitpoints and melee damage output.]]
* FullFrontalAssault: [[spoiler: True berserk, a slightly hidden game mechanic. Not wearing any armor (except of rage) while berserk damage and hit chance even further! It also removes the warning about accidentally attacking friendlies.]]
* GameFavoredGender: Female characters have an advantage, for a few reasons such as having access to an extra SideQuest, receiving cheaper keys from a certain merchant and in general having an easier time with stores due to relying on Appearance instead of Charisma for shop prices; Gray Elves for example start with a Charisma score of 8 and Appearance of 18 and increasing Charisma is far more difficult overall. That said, male characters do have an extra option to deal with the very lethal Banshee and unlike female characters the massive Appearance penalties caused by most corruptions doesn't affect them.

* GrimyWater: Do NOT swim in the red water -- and beware of confusion that could make you stumble into it. Learning how to get across it is just one of the many mini-puzzles the game presents you with.

** And figuring out what to do with a certain dying sage...

** Not enough? Start collecting items. You can wear [[spoiler: a crown of regeneration, the artifact amulet Preserver, bracers of regeneration, two rings of regeneration on your hands and one in the missile slot and wield two knives of endurance. That's eight HP healed 'per turn' through items alone.]]
*** Still not enough? One of the {{c|ursedWithAwesome}}orruptions grants another layer of HealingFactor. Don't forget to actually kill your enemies though.

* HumanoidAbomination: In the Steam version, [[spoiler:[[TrueFinalBoss Andor Drakon]] is shown as a fairly young EvilSorcerer with glowing purple eyes...and tentacles instead of feet.]]

* JokeCharacter: The Chaos Knight. You start out corrupted, most [=NPC=]s range from unhelpful to hostile whenever you play to type (forcing you to [[ViolenceIsTheOnlyOption murder your way past most of the quests]]), and if you convert from Chaos to another alignment, you lose all class powers and suffer from a burning gut until you die or fall back to Chaos. To drive the point home, [[spoiler: you can't get a normal ending either, unless you're redeemed; if you close the [=ChAoS=] Gate, you're immediately zorched for being a moron. If you ''are'' redeemed, you still perish, but at least it's a HeroicSacrifice.]]

* JokeItem: The si -- an artifact that multiplies, and cannot be gotten rid of easily.
** Actually it may be considered a [[LethalJokeItem lethal joke item]], as you have a supply of renewable projectiles as well as sacrifice fodder for your god. Even more mundanely, the sis make excellent VendorTrash. The "you can't get rid of it" applies to an area that you can never return to (e.g. the Infinite level dungeon which generates a different level each time you move up or down a floor).

* KaizoTrap: [[spoiler: So, you switched the Trident of the Red Rooster to another weapon in order to kill the TrueFinalBoss more easily - and he drops dead. Think you've won? Wrong. The AmazingTechnicolorBattlefield swarms you and turns you into a miserable chaos wretch on the spot.]]

* LastChanceHitPoint: While ADOM generally doesn't care a whole lot about mercy, depending on your luck and mana stat you may occasionally find yourself surviving an overwhelmingly lethal blow with a single hit point.

* LethalJokeCharacter: Bards don't have a set skill sheet - every time you roll up a bard, they get a random selection of skills. If you have the patience to roll and re-roll a Bard, you can create a fantastic set of skills. Combine that with excellent class powers and a great Heir gift, and you have a potentially devastating class.

* LevelGrinding: There are useful benefits to gaining a level. You're still not safe (you're NEVER safe), but you're less likely to die without warning. The game tries to avert this by refusing to give experience for killing more than a certain number of a creature, and by making creatures more powerful the more of them you kill. And just don't go to the small dungeon near the start at more than a few levels, because it gets harder as you get tougher, except ''much'' faster. (Although with enough resources at a sufficiently high level, particularly the ability to teleport when and where you like, it can become bearable again to at least run through.)

** A particularly rockstar one -- ''choking to death on your own vomit''. [[spoiler:Suffer an attack of fever whilst Sick and Paralyzed.]]

%%** [[spoiler: Also, the [[GoddamnBats Goddamn Cats.]]]] [[invoked]]
** [[spoiler: And giving a (very rare) amulet of life saving to Khelavaster will grant you the [[InfinityPlusOneSword best weapon in the game.]] Eventually.]]

*** There is more than one way to start with three or more talents. The maximum number is ''six'' talents, for which you have to be a hurthling or gnome farmer, bard or merchant with 17+ Mana, Candle or Falcon as starsign, and some completely unrelated luck (you get a bonus talent if the sum total of your stats is divisible by 7). This would allow you to get Treasure Hunter and the truly game-breaking SevenLeagueBoots, at level 1. Yet - while gunning for extra talents is one aspect of min-maxing, it rarely does more than make the start a little bit easier. Also, while in this particular case you maxed the crap out of your running speed, you sadly happened to min your combat prowess.

* MultipleEndings: There are many ways to win -- some have a better outcome than others.

* NintendoHard: In ''VideoGame/NetHack'', there's an endless debate over being able to identify items by their unique weight because it makes the game easier. In ''ADOM'' it's an almost necessary survival tactic. Unfair GameBreaker debates start at far worse.

* NoPointsForNeutrality: Averted; neutral characters can be of extreme alignment (N=), crowned champion of their alignment, and [[spoiler:win with an ultra ending]]
* NPCRoadblock: Used by shopkeepers and one or two important {{NPC}}s. This can be turned to your advantage when you're low on health -- run into a shop, pick up something then walk around until you heal.

** Another important example is Death magic. The good news is, players can actually obtain the Death Ray spell and use it on enemies. The bad news is, [[AwesomeButImpractical death rays usually miss except against the weakest of foes]]. The very bad news? [[spoiler: Enemy spellcasters can do it too. You better hold on to that amulet of death ray resistance.]]

** Put off entering the Pyramid or the Minotaur Maze until you have better gear? Oops, they close up once you reach a certain level. Talked to a certain NPC who immediately died? No Ultra Ending for you! An even crueler example resides at the end of a particularly painful sidequest. After you defeat a nasty BonusBoss, you get a unique scroll to take to a NPC to get the InfinityPlusOneSword. The scroll can be destroyed like any other inventory item. If you read it, you can use a rare item to rewrite it. If you didn't... goodbye, Ultra Ending.
** The [[spoiler:Sceptre of Chaos, required for Ordinary Chaos God endings,]] is found in the Infinite Dungeon's SIL - a one-time level that disappears when left. This is referenced in-game, as failing to obtain it generates a special message: "You feel you leave an essential part of [[spoiler:Chaos]] behind...forever".
** In the Infinite Dungeon, finding [[spoiler:Filk the bard and leaving him alive but hostile]] prevents the player from ever completing [[spoiler:the quest to kill him, essential for an Ultra ending.]]

* PlanetHeck: Features in the [[spoiler: [[MultipleEndings Ultra endings]]]].

** And then there's [[spoiler:the IBM guild manuals, which take this to the logical extreme: reading one makes you ''permanently'' confused.]] The only thing you can do at this point is pray.

* VillainProtagonist: Your character is fully capable of worshipping Chaotic gods and performing quests in evil ways... and there is a specific ultra ending just for evil characters. You [[spoiler:go to the Chaos Plane and fight the Ultimate Chaos God]] just like in the goody-good ultra endings... and then [[spoiler:[[YouKillItYouBoughtIt kick his ass and take his place]].]]

* {{YASD}}: You will suffer this in ADOM if you just Attack Attack Attack, but even veterans aren't immune to forgetting to equip a weapon after dropping it on an altar. Other [=YASDs=]: accidentally using Fireball on your vastly more powerful companion; fighting ghuls without paralyzation resistance; coming across a greater mimic and trying to melee it; stepping onto a chaotic altar when an intelligent chaotic monster is nearby, kicking stairs to train your strength (no, seriously) and [[http://groups.google.co.uk/group/rec.games.roguelike.adom/browse_thread/thread/2e71604b9c927738/9a7e403341d4557d?lnk=gst many, many more]].
%% YetAnotherStupidDeath is on this page as YASD %%

* GameFavoredGender: Arguably female characters have an advantage, for a few reasons such as having access to an extra SideQuest, receiving cheaper keys from a certain merchant and in general having an easier time with stores due to relying on Appearance instead of Charisma for shop prices; Gray Elves for example start with a Charisma score of 8 and Appearance of 18 and increasing Charisma is far more difficult overall. That said, male characters do have an extra option to deal with the very lethal Banshee and unlike female characters the massive Appearance penalties caused by most corruptions doesn't affect them.