ADOM is just too daunting.

[Amnekian]

All these talents, skills, spells. Equipment. Item destruction. Traps. Rivers. Two types of armor.


It's funny, because I read a post somewhere that said of the big 4, ADOM is the easiet to beat if you know what to do.

[AgingMinotaur]

To "know what to do", you need to read the (very spoily) guidebook In all earnesty, it is very comprehensive and a great resource to look up stuff you want/need to know. The game's manual is also quite good. Just to get started, I'd try a ranger or a spell caster (from orcish elementalist to elven wizard) and begin with the quest of the little girl in the village.

As always,
Minotauros

[Vanguard]

My understanding of ADOM, which could be wrong, is that it has a lot of problems where you either know the right answer going in, or you don't.  Like, problems where once you learn the solution, they aren't problems anymore for your future characters.

It's a very feature-rich game.  There a lot of ways you can get screwed, but also a lot of potential options to exploit.  I think it would appeal more to Nethack fans than Angband or Crawl fans.

[Eben]

I like playing a Troll barbarian who kicks down any closed door he/she sees. Not great survivability but a lot of fun and a great way to see early game content without worrying about any complex strategies.

[Darren Grey]

Dwarf paladin is a pretty rock solid start.  Or gnome elementalist if you want to go magic. Or high elven archer for missiles (which are the strongest thing in the game). These are good for new players, though experts don't tend to use them so much.

It has many options, but usually you don't have all of those options open. Only a few classes can uses magic well, for instance.

Oh, and don't do the tiny girl's puppy quest, it has a tendency to kill many characters. Also beware of the dungeon north-west of the first town described as the "small cave" - the first level of it can get very dangerous.

In general have fun with it and enjoy dying and learning. It's a big game, but it has a great atmosphere to it.

[Amnekian]

I've been playing as a Dwarf Paladin, but I get my Holy Symbol busted from fire damage. I cleared SMC/UD on my second attempt though, after submerging myself with spoilers. I found herbs but since I lacked herbalism I didn't payed much attention to them. Should I pick them even if I don't know Herbalism?

And it does have a great atmosphere. I'll be honest and say that the UCG ending is a large reason why I want to keep playing the game (yes, I've read the endgame text) even though it may take years.

[Darren Grey]

Holy symbol isn't that much use, so don't worry about it. Item destruction is fairly frequent in the game - you learn ways to mitigate it, but ultimately don't get too attached to anything and make use of things before you die. ADOM is mostly very safe to experiment with items - only a very few things will have horribly negative effects whilst going through trial and error.

Herbs you should pick even without herbalism. There is one dangerous one you should avoid eating (it makes you sick) but otherwise they're mostly good to keep, even cursed.