I started to cascade into a series of failures; which in this game means death. Each and every time I got past the 11th level of the Forest Dungeon I would meet my doom at the hands of some fell creature. When I wanted to run from an encounter I would fail in the attempt each time which inevitably led to my death and it was only then that I had what you might call an “aha experience” with the game.
In my last Moria update I had felt that joining the Wizards Guild would be a better choice. The benefit of joining this guild is that you are suddenly granted a spell that allows you to teleport back to the city from anywhere within a dungeon. This is a very valuable spell. I was not wrong; I still feel that this benefit is too good to pass up. The mistake I have made with Moria is in my character development.
There are four character attributes in this game: cunning, piety, wizardry, and valor. I was focusing all of my attention on valor and wizardry (the more you use an attribute the higher your attribute score increases). I was focusing on valor because it allows you to hit creatures easier and do more damage. I felt the higher the valor the better right? My wizardry attribute would naturally increase quite a bit because I was and am constantly using a Passwall spell to help aid in the mapping of the dungeon. There are 4 major dungeons in Moria with 60 levels in each dungeon. I was not interested in Tricking the monsters using my cunning ability nor was I interested in Praying for Minor Miracles using my piety attribute. Boy was I wrong!
In Moria your combat choices are: F which stands for Fight. This used to be my go to choice in combat and it is self explanatory. In your quest to find the ring in Moria you may also find magic weapons such as the Sword of Death or a Staff of Power. Who wouldn’t feel more invincible with a Sword of Death? Your other combat option is T which allows you to trick the monsters into allowing you to kill them. On paper this seemed rather stupid to me and I didn’t try it very often. As a game mechanic however when you choose T for trick it can automatically kill your opponent. This seems to happen 50% of the time too which suddenly makes it a more powerful option than fighting. The more you trick your opponents too the higher your cunning attribute becomes. The higher your cunning attribute becomes it gives you a greater chance of success when you choose R for Run. When you choose this option you simply get to run away from the fight. The monsters will still remain there however so that perhaps the next time you take them on in that particular square you’ll have greater success. Now that the Run option works so well; every time my Vitality moves below 50 now I generally choose to Run as an option and come back later.
Your other options in combat are C for Cast Spell or P for Pray. In a future Moria update I’ll delve more into the spells available in the game but I want to use this blog post to concentrate on the one aspect of the game that I had ignored before, much to my detriment. When you choose P for Pray, one of the spells you can choose to Pray for and cast is Holy Word. Holy Word will destroy or completely obliterate one of your enemies. So much like tricking your opponent, this seems to work half the time and is an extremely powerful spell.
Armed with this information on game mechanics; my approach to character development has completely changed and I am seeing the benefits of that now in the game. Que the Rocky music. Khelben is my newest character incarnation named after Khelben Blackstaff from the AD&D Forgotten Realms setting. I have been purposefully trying to build up all of my character attributes equally. I then use fight, trick, cast, or pray depending upon the opponent I am facing and I now suddenly find myself on Level 22 of the Forest Dungeon. This is the deepest I have ever been in the dungeon thus far and it surpasses any previous success I have had in the game. I am hoping that I have now turned a corner using this strategy and that I can continue to grind out levels. My ultimate goal is to get to level 56 and look for the ring which may be hidden there.
I have the Rocky theme song playing in the background, I’m doing pushups , and I am eating a Quest Bar. Wish me luck as I once more venture into the unknown. Below you can see the progress of my character as I slog through the dungeon levels.
