I gave in today and picked up this game. I was excited for it before it came out, then the negative reviews started pouring in...

After the patches, it sounds like the things I care about are mostly taken care of (soundtracks don't matter to me - I generally play games muted since my office is right next to my baby's room, and I really don't care about furniture - the Automap is what I really cared about!). So I'm fishing for starting up advice from any of you that have stuck with the game. What did you learn from your adventuring that you could pass on to help a guy with limited game time?

To save yourself a lot of needless walking, make sure before you go east of fargrove that you've picked up the moonstone!

I dunno what everyone else thinks, but I decided to go pure magic user and I think that was a mistake. While the spells sound powerful and some of them are, in a single player game you're contantly fighting for seperation so you can cast without interference, and you have limited numbers of each spell.

Of course I'm probably playing it wrong, I never bothered to read up about the different spells and what they do, preferring to experiment instead.


If I play again I'm going to be a thumper, I'd guess that will be fairly straightforward and satisfying.

Thanks for that, Thoran! I was wondering about going magic or melee - in the demo magic seemed neccessary and I couldn't hit anything in melee. I think I'll try to go for hybrid class of some sort, but I'll have to read up on the class progression. At first glance I didn't see anything real descriptive in the manual.

Magic is vastly overrated in DL. You can get around the need for separation by casting a spell and quickly hitting "E" to go into your equipment screen; as long as no one hits you in between times, the spell will be cast.

I've found might to be the way to go in this game. Missy Hissy, who's made her way up to Deathlord, just dispatched all of the fire drakes in hand-to-hand combat. And that without a severe drain in her healing capabilities, either ;) She did as much as 68 points of damage in one swing of her sword... I can't think of a spell that does that much damage.

The moonstone advice is good... as is to hoard your healing potions and buy a couple crystals of healing every time you get a chance. Set 'em in your quick spells, and in the middle of combat, you can easily pick up some extra "juice".

Learning bonuses from class progressions stack up. Missy, who started as a fighter, became a marauder, and then a deathlord, can pick up level 10 Heavy weapons for about 6000 skill points because of all the learning bonuses. Level 8 Inflict Wounds, however, will cost her over 600,000 skill points. It does matter...

Unfortunately, the manual doesn't go over the class progression linkages well. GameBanshee has a good listing that shows how you get to which classes.

Oh, one other thing: Like W&W, there are certain options that are only available to female characters. You may want to play the fairer sex...

There are also some race-related options too; specifically, magical weapons you can rent. The Elven option was quite handy :D

Have fun, and let us know how you're doing!

Thanks for the advice - I'm about to start it up after I get it patched tonight. I was actually thinking Deathlord might be the way to go - dual medium weapons sounds like a nice bonus. Either that or crusader eventually...

Will there ever be a furthering of the Chronicles of Missy Hissy now that she's moved on to this plane of existance?

Hmmm... an interesting thought, Marathon. Perhaps I will... but it may take a while. I'm getting ready for a high-travel season for me, and I won't have much time to game until October :(

Since Z is planning to close this forum down, it might also be a wee bit tricky. But I'll see what happens...