How to raise abilities:
See 'help abilities'.
First off, all abilities have a maximum of 100. Most forms and some items (e.g. Uniques or thunt equipment) give you bonuses or drawbacks to various abilities.
Archery:
This raises fast, even for necros. Grab a bow (elvish bow or small bow is good to start) and some arrows, then 'nock arrow', 'shoot (target)'. With most NPCs, you can shoot them a few times before they will attack you. There is a 1 second delay before you can shoot again (once per combat round).
Use elvish bow up until you get to archery 60 if you get one, then use Marika's fine long bow. The best bows are the dark bow from Carcera and the unique silver longbow from Lelyia.
Click here to see posts about archery and thrown weapon.
First Aid:
Go to the Hospital in Drakhiya (sw nw of East Gate) and buy some bandages. They basically work the same as medicinals, but your First Aid ability raises when you use these.
Unlike medicinals, bandages only raise your health points. This also means you can't use them when you have full health.
Fishing:
Go buy a fishing pole or hand seine from Salty John (2e, n from X), examine the water in Tantallon harbour (it should say 'You see dark shapes, swimming about in the water!" or "You see a dark shape, swimming about in the water!" or "The water is empty."), then 'fish' (for poles) or 'throw/toss net' (for seines). You can fish in almost every body of water, including the ocean. To get to all parts of the ocean, you'll need a boat or a canoe. Boats can be hired from Marcus (2e, d, n from X) and canoes can be bought from Agalo in Norton.
Eventually, you'll pull a fish in. You kill it (they're not that hard, unless you are a newbie or it is a giant squid), then salt it (buy salt from Dermott, or a ranger could gather some) or cook it (using a frying pan and fire) to preserve it.
The Bugbears in Dalair carry a fishing pole each.
Salty John sells three sizes of fishing pole, two sizes of bait buckets, lures and a lucky fishing hat (+10 fishing ability when worn) that can help you fish.
Dermott can help, and not just by buying your fish and selling salt.
Pottery:
Go to the pond in Hopkins' Gardens (16n, 5e, 3nw, 2sw, nw from X) and 'get clay'. You can then examine the clay for further instructions. Basically, you type in 'shape/mould (clay/shape/player name)' and after a few seconds, you get a clay figurine. Then you 'crush clay' and start again. See 'help shapes' when holding the clay for a list of shapes.
There is a reasonable delay before you can get more clay, but you could get a friend to help. Spamming in the commands won't raise it faster and there's a delay between typing the shape/mould command and actually producing the finished product.
Prospecting:
This raises maddeningly slow. You've been warned.
Go to Dubo's Trading Post in the north part of Norton and buy a gold pan. You'll need to sell him some pelts to get positive credit. You can also find gold pans in regular shops if another player sells it there.
Go to a river or creek (the one outside the Trading Post is nice and close) and type 'prospect'. You'll need to wield the pan (in two hands). Lines of text will pop up every few seconds that describe what you are doing, and at the end you'll find out whether you've found anything (unlikely that you have, but there are a few 'motherlodes' out there for those with patience). Then you get to type 'prospect' and go through the fun again!
Sometimes you'll fall into the river/creek. Just swim or wade back to where you were.
I haven't spent much time doing this (Sharn is a Reptile primary), so I can't give any hints, but I can tell you that spamming or scripts do not work (I haven't used scripts (Hi Law Team), but the bit where you fall into rivers, among other things, prevents cheating).
Seduction:
This is an interesting ability and it allows you to do some interesting things to various Drakhiyan NPCs.
The most popular way of raising this is to go to the dancing girl in Drakhiya (normally in the tavern ne se of the west gate, where she performs, but also visits the baths and her house) and use feelings (such as smile, hug, kiss, tickle, etc) on her. Spamming commands is useless as there is a time delay involved. I'll let you figure out what she likes *wink*.
Thrown Weapon:
Buy any weapon from the weapon seller in Dalair, 'throw at ' and watch your thrown weapon ability go up slowly.
The most popular thrown weapon is in a quest, so I can't tell you about it, but there are other thrown weapons about. The turqoise dart from Ravel is also a thrown weapon, but only low-levels can throw it. The barbed dart from the Weapo seller lowers the targets dex by 1 if it plunges in without breaking when you throw it.
Hunga-mungas do the most damage, and the standard 'dart' is the cheapest. The flasks of oil (a good low level club) will burn the target for a round or two (if you hit them), but require you to 'light flask' before throwing. They're good fun against Frost Giants, if you can survive the fight.
You can throw one weapon per round (i.e. every second when not in combat).
Click here to see posts about archery and thrown weapon.
Tossing:
Scythe Camp Games Area (9w, 5s, walk, w, s, pay, all s). Read sign at Gorg for prices.
As part of this game, you grab various creatures (Elves, half-elves, hobbits, gremlins, chickens, dogs, cows), swing them about your head, then throw them as far as you can down a field. The trolls place a marker and remove the creature from the field.
Commands: 'play', 'grab (creature)', 'swing (creature)', 'throw (creature)'.
You can swing the creature up to three times, but have to wait until you 'lose momentum' to swing it again, otherwise it will fly uncontrollably into a tree. Spamming in 'swing (creature)' really fast isn't the best way to do it.
Strength and tossing ability enable you to throw better, as does the rhythm of your 'swings'.
Traps:
All Treasure Hunts have a chest, coffer, strongbox or other container that you search for after killing all the nasties in the second room. For the higher-level Hunts, the container will probably be locked and may also have a trap (so smashing can be VERY painful or even fatal). Some fine tools from Bort in Neville (13n, 3e, 3n, 3w, enter curtain) will allow you to disarm the trap, which raises your traps ability. Then you can smash/lockpick/open the container and grab the loot.
Deathly has suggested using a shifter in rock form (even yourself) to disarm a chest, as they might take less damage. The fine tools will need to be on the ground for the rock to use them.
Weaving:
There's a lady in Arcadia that will give you free lessons on her loom that will raise your weaving to about 29. From there, you could try mending hand seines with a mending fid, or there's the easy version.
Get a newbie (or yourself, if you are a newbie) to go into the Bayberry Thicket (17w, 6s, ne, crawl into thicket) and wander around collecting spider silk ('get web' about 10 times in each room). You can get around 250 strands and weave a number of different items with these ('examine silk' for a list). I think the most effective item is the ring, as it is easy and only takes 2 strands. You can raise your weaving about 20-40 points with 250-odd strands of silk to begin with.
