Re: Clams?
Clam of Pearls, a Water/Nature item that produces 1 Astral gem per turn. They'll pay for themselves after two-three dozen turns or so, depending on if you would have used the gems as nature/water gems or alhemized them into astral. They're a slow strategy, and won't pay off if you get killed, but will give you tremendous advantage if you manage to pull it off and stay in the game.
It can also be done with Blood Stones (Blood/Earth, earth gems). It produces the same kind of gems you need to forge more of them, and you'll have easier access to Dwarven Hammers (which are essential any way, but you don't have to rely on trade), and it's relatively easy to get Blood even if you don't find any mages with it, but Astral gems have more uses than Earth.
It also used to be possible to produce ever-growing army with Soul Contracts (blood/fire, produce one devil/turn). One devil costs 7 slaves, so the 80 or whatever slaves for one Contract will pay off in about dozen turns, or much faster with Dwarven Hammers/forge bonus. I'm not sure if that's used as much nowadays.
Both items have been doubled in price since DomII, where these kinds of strategies were much more effective.
|