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[Robsoie]

Farportal usually scale with your level.

Items i agree is not something that should be your target when going into Farportals, as i think in all the numerous farportals attempts i did, i only got 1 item that was superior to one i already have at my level (it was a generated 2 handed sword, though i found better in the Orc Prides few time after that).

My main use of a Farportal is to grind XP when i already cleared all the existing generic dungeon and still feel that my character is lacking a level (or a skill/talent) , Farportals are good for this, though you may need 2 or 3 of them to get that level you need.

Now the Farportal problem is those generated bosses. Most of the time , they're strong but beatable.

But as Graven said, if the randomness assign some skill combinaisons or near impervious defenses that by bad luck correspond exactly to the kind of damage you deal, you're going to face a boss you simply can't beat and that will surely kill you.
Here's an example of one i encountered with a level 43 Brawler.

And your only escape solution will then break the Farportal forever for this character, a pity there's no quest to allow you to repair it, as it's very annoying when it happens.

Now due to the scaling to your level, be warned that if you wait for when you're very high level, you may notice that most generated bosses are more powerfull than even the most overpowered campaign boss.
Though it's a fun way to keep playing once you completed the game and have nothing else to conquer and don't want to go into the Infinite Dungeon (post endgame ID is completely uninteresting as if you're not using an addon, your level 50 character will not be able to gain more XP and your level 5 skills will not get more levels, unlike if you started a level1 character in the Infinite Dungeon from the start).

[Robsoie]

My Lich Necromancer just managed to beat the Master (first time i have a necromancer that does that) and to my own surprise even managed to defeat the Orc ambush that happens when you leave Dreadfell.

During the Orc Ambush big battle, the Phase Door spell at level 5 proved invaluable (due to it being controlled) .
The minions were doing the fight, but even at the level i was, there were too many orcs for them, so even if i still had several souls in stock, i would not be able to replace them more than once.
And after it was going to be impossible.
It's where "Curse of the Meek" saved the day, definitively a spell a necromancer counting on minions must not overlook.

In a difficult battle in which your minions will die despite Surge of Undeath, it's very easy to run out of souls, and not being able to summon your minions anymore is a very very bad situation.
It's even more difficult if you already cleared the whole level, as you can't even go hunt for more souls.

Curse of the Meek is the cure for that, providing some "bunnies" that once killed by your enemy will give you some souls (70% of chances for each bunny killed), so you can summon some minions again.

The bad new is that my Lich is on his last leg, the lack of healing really made the game harder than usual, though i had to run through some farportals to level up a bit to prepare for Dreadfell (being originally a Cornac, and so not having experience penalties helped). Fortunately the minions are very good when Surge is available, they did a splendid work.

I'm not sure how that guy will be able to take on the East.

[DeKaFu]

Well, my Doomed managed to beat Dreadfell, not to mention (finally) unlocking Yeeks and (finally) unlocking Necromancers! I like Doomed.

So. Ah.
I'm in the Dark Crypt. Any idea why a Doomed who normally summons 4 shadows and has no negative status effects would suddenly only be summoning one, regardless of how many turns pass, even when sitting at 50% hate? I tried turning off and reactivating the sustain, and also tried leveling up, and it still seems to be happening?

[Robsoie]

I just lost my level 42 Lich Necromancer in one of the Pride (in a huge vault in fact), the one with all those teleporting elemental damaging orcs, it survived surprisingly for a longer time than i thought with no healing and on his last legs since Dreadfell.

The battle that cost the character his last life didn't seemed that hard (i had much harder battles) , but it was one in which my character was focused fire by the enemies basically ignoring my minions and my cursed bunnies.

Then before it was too late as damage was accumulating so much that even my high res were simply worthless ( resistance always feel worthless in this game as even at 70% you still take a lot of damage, probably due to everyone having some kind of res penetration in their damage.
I can't even imagine with less res how much one hit kill the game must be ) i control-teleported in a safe place.

But i noticed i was still taking damage. I gave a look to my character and noticed the "Impending Doom" on him, so basically a game over without any kind of hope at that point (i wish there was a big text popping up when you're hit by Impending Doom so you could teleport away  instead of staying and getting more damage, i always fail to notice when i'm hit by that horrible spell).

Conclusion : never again i'll play a Cornac Necromancer with the goal to turn it into a Lich, the bonuses are not worth losing every healing/regen (vampiric gift is not a solution because the sustain eat 250 mana ! and in the East due to how very high health everyone has, you need all the mana you can, 500 mana is eaten in a few turns during those battles, and with 250 less mana, you're going to run into more trouble).

I think if you want an undead Necromancer, better play a Ghoul or Skeleton then, because of their healing ability are actually very good .

Ghoul seems to be the better choice, because it does not have the Skeleton heavy experience penalty (Dreadfell with a Skeleton necromancer is hell, you don't have enough skills/talents points because you're not going to be at a good enough level, unless you grind a lot of Farportal, and probably die while trying to do so) and the Ghoul Retch is very good to heal all your minions while healing yourself, while damaging non-undead.

[Absolute Niro]

This game is really hard to get into. Died in the first dungeon.

[Graven]

I think you'll find it's the easiest non-commercial major roguelike out there

I've linked a beginner's guide earlier, also a file containing really detailed character advice for some classes, so you might want to take a look through that.

Other than that, "Died in the first dungeon" doesn't really tell us anything, because the first dungeon varies. Tell us class, race and reason you died and we could help.

edit : Doing it again, cuz I'm a cool guy.
Beginner's guide : http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3ajF8PRCNWg
Advice : http://pastebin.com/index/GqXnEfcA

I should probably keep these links handy. Also character advice by Random Posters on the SA Thread. I compiled it for my own sake, so I didn't bother to note the source, sorry!

[Frumple]

Can't offer advice without more info

Catchall stuff would be to use your inscriptions (regeneration infusion for most, shielding runes for others. Use both of them pre-emptively when possible, before you're at half health or below.) and give berserkers or alchemists a roll. The former, just max the berserker talent and pick up some combat accuracy and weapons mastery and you can mostly faceroll the first few dungeons just bumping into crap*. The latter, go 5/5/5/- into explosive admixture and you basically win a good chunk of the game. 2/2/- or so into the golem tree will mostly take care of the first few dungeons for you, too.

If you started with a shalore, note you can leave the dungeon and probably should. Just about anything can do their starting zone, but it seems to eat new players pretty easy. There's easier ones further north (you can start as something besides shalore or dwarf and start in them, if you want help findin' 'em). If you started with a dwarf, note that you can walk (well, run screaming like a little girl but either way ) past Brotoq while he's wailing on Norgan and just leave. You can combat later after you've killed Prox or Norgos.

*Though that's somewhat deceptive -- if you want to succeed in the longer term, you're going to have to be using your active abilities (such as stunning blow, death dance, rush, etc.) very much regularly. T4 has an active design goal of making it so you can't win just bumping everything to death. DG found that sort of gameplay (which is pretty endemic among melee characters in roguelikes) to be boring.

[Absolute Niro]

Oh, I made a dwarf berserker so I guess I started in the dwarf zone place thingy where you have to escort some dude. It might be because I insisted on exploring every single tile, but who knows.

[Frumple]

Nah, you should be alright to full explore that joint, though you don't have to -- it's got an interesting gimmick where you gain a level when you go down the stairs regardless. Well, I say gain a level, but it's more like set you to level two and three if you weren't there already. But yeah, you generally want to explore that place in hope of finding better equipment. Lot of classes rely on finding something useful in those first few floors to make Brotoq really bearable. Just rest up after each fight and remember to use your regen infusion and stunning blow. If you were using auto-explore, it rests for you.

More in general, should have made sure you had combat accuracy (which I think 'zerks start with a point in) and by and large let Norgan do the tanking. Dude can actually take most of the joint by himself, but some help doesn't exactly hurt.

Sometimes, though, the RNG decides to screw you and you'll get a particularly bunched up group of Orcs and Norgan dies. That can cause problems, but do note that Norgan dying doesn't really mean anything beyond losing a meat shield and a 'cheevo. Also be careful not to death dance the poor bugger

[Graven]

The video I linked is a Dwarf Bulwark, which is probably the safest start you can have, so you can try to play along with it

Also note that the dwarven starting area is unique in that you have a companion and level up when you descend a floor. You should generally explore every single tile, just because artefacts occasionally like to lay in a random corner and annoy you. Also you should play the tutorial, since it teaches important stuff.

[Robsoie]

Yes, as a Dwarf Berserker you really need to find a good 2 handed weapon in that starting dungeon, without finding one, the boss fight will be really hard (the boss prioritize you, and he's faster than your Dwarf Berserker).

And use Norgan, he's much stronger than you for the whole starting dungeon, you must avoid fighting the many orcs you'll see, at that point of the game they'll kill your character, so get Norgan to crush them, while helping him from the side.

For the boss fight, be sure to get Norgan helping you, don't solo the boss with your Dwarf Berserker , especially if you have not found anything good as items !

Now a dirty tactic for the starter Dwarf dungeon is to NOT explore each floor in the correct order but rush to the stairs until you reach the boss level.
The reason is that when you're climbing down a stair of that specific starting dungeon, the game will fill your experience bar so you gain 1 level.

So when you're at the boss level, climb back then explore the 2 floors you went from and kill everything with Norgan along you, chances are that you'll be able to gain in total 1 more level than you would be if you cleared the dungeon floors in the correct order.

And in ToME 4 , just gaining 1 level can make a very important difference between beating a boss or being defeated, as 1 level gives you more talent/skill/stat, making you noticably stronger

[Absolute Niro]

I see. Thanks for the advice, guys, hopefully I won't get brutally murdered by a rat once more.

[ranter]

I've been trying this game and the most succes I've had was with an alchemist. My tracks stopped dead when I was in the old forest against guys 20 levels above me and I found fire drakes. I had no problem with the guys before them, but once my bombs were useless, it all want downward.

What really puts me off about this game is that the loot is not as interesting and, more importantly, easy to compare with what you have equipped as in other roguelikes and that exploring is really, really dull. Yes, I know about the autoexplore button, but what's the fun on exploring when a button does it for you?

Still, is decent enough for me to go and try to beat it. I'll report my success and many failures as they come.

[Graven]

Well, I don't mean to sound harhs, but part of the problem is you haven't gotten anywhere. It's like saying "DCSS's first two floors are nowhere near as rich in enemies as other roguelikes I might've played to the end". It's true, strictly speaking, it's just not...right 

While, say, Crawl can generate insane randarts as early as D:10, Tome 4 has tiers of items. And tier 1 rares and uniques are far less interesting than tier 5, naturally. Only there is no way to get tier 5 early game. You could be lucky and get tier 4 in certain suspect circumstances, but DCSS can generate the Armor of the Dragon King in a shop on D:5. You couldn't buy it, of course, but you'd know it exists. And all in all the chance of you getting a nice randart early on is decent. This doesn't happen in Tome.

Also Tome has the most differentiated loot in any game I've seen, bar none. It's certainly got a greater variety than MedianXL, and believe you me that's saying something. A great deal of it [rares I'm looking at you] is not that useful, but uniques and... orange items? Are they artefacts? I never knew... can have an arseload of different properties, defensive and offensive stats. That's why it's not as easy to compare items as in other roguelikes, and that was a great problem to me [it kind of still is, even] but you can't say loot isn't interesting.

And exploration is dull, yes. You have vaults, but they're monster closets, through and through. Tome 4 is a hack'n'slash roguelike, not an exploration one. Its whole selling point is the pretty nice combat system, and after one playthrough that's what's going to haul you back, if such things are interesting to you, of course. And the East is a lot worse in this regard. If you're looking for interesting exploration please tell me if you find a roguelike that does it because exploration is my crack and I have none 

All in all, you are well within your rights to say you don't like the game right now, but you can't say "this and this is not interesting", because you haven't seen it yet.

[ranter]

I was just giving my impressions after about 4-5 hours into it. And while I could start and argument about how important is that a game hooks you from the first 5 minutes, I won't.

Also, I found some tier 3 equip and a tier 5 two handed mace with the alchemist. A pity the journey ended before I could get the golem to a strength where he could use it.