Wilderness Encounters in ADOM

Introduction

Wilderness encounters can be dangerous, since in the wilderness you mostly encounter monsters in large groups, and there is nowhere to hide so it's easy to get surrounded. However, if you can manage to kill the monsters, they are a useful source of experience, weapon skills or spell effectivity, equipment, and corpses to eat (this last is particularly important if your character lacks the Survival skill). Here are a few general tips on wilderness encounters.

Get to know the types of encounters your character can handle and the types they must flee from. I'll point out a few particularly dangerous encounters later on in this spoiler. It's better to flee from a dangerous encounter as soon as possible, because if you get surrounded, you may not be able to.

Being surrounded is also bad for your fighting ability, especially if you don't have the Courage skill yet. If you're close to being surrounded, back off in Coward mode. In fact, it's a good idea to stay in Coward mode except when you're attacking a monster physically. A little tip from the manual: if you're very badly wounded (1/3 of maximum HP or less) and in Coward mode, you can run away faster (you're fleeing in panic).

Magic users have the advantage over fighters that they can kill many monsters with one bolt spell. Since they often don't have many HP and are weak in melee combat, they should probably stay in Coward mode and rely on their spells. Sometimes they should back off to give their power a chance to regenerate or line up more monsters for a bolt spell.

Tables of Encounters

Monsters which a level 1 character can encounter in the forest, on the plains or in the hills.

Monsters which a level 1 character can encounter, but only in the swamps or on the road. Several of these encounters are more difficult than those in the previous table.

Encounters which have a minimum level requirement.