You can start the game with maxed HP; just move your mouse to your Hit Point stat and the mouse cursor will look like a (computer) mouse with + and -. Just press the button corresponding to + to start the game with more HP.

Unfortunately, there is no way to ensure maximum HP rolls once the game has started for real.

By the way, I am playing with max magic pow and monster difficulty, but minimum poison strength. On the other hand, I *have* enabled enemy spell casting, so we'll see what happens.

Constitution bonuses from rings do not appear to be retroactive.

What I am saying is that this restriction does not appear to be implemented in Dungeon Hack.

That's exactly how I started with 18 in all stats (and I don't feel ashamed, I pretend to be super-lucky with rolls). However, I couldn't adjust HP same way (mouse cursor didn't change, and clicks weren't changing HP number).

Edit: when i rerolled character, I was able to increase starting HP. Strange, maybe I was tired and kept missclicking.

In my first playthrough I used a cleric. It was pretty simple. In my third playthrough I used a fighter/mage/cleric and did not get the improved identify spell. So I could only use those scrying glasses, when I happend to stumble across one. Not very satisfying....

I always found it funny how dungeons were generated here (I played Dungeon Hack long time ago). There are 2 types of monsters on floor and 1 floor master. I had Troglodyte as floor master of 1st floor (out of 25), and on 2nd floor Troglodytes are standard monsters already.

Got level drained from the boss, so I reloaded. I don't know if it is possible to exploit level drain/gain and reloading for extra HP. (Best to test with low level cleric with level draining item and Restoration scroll.)

Also found Book of Exalted Deeds, which level drains my True Neutral character when read. (In testing, it was a fighter level, along with way more than half her fighter XP, that was drained.)

On later playthroughs, I may choose to use the cheat to learn certain spells (Improved Identify comes to mind) if I get unlucky.

Lots of the Gold Box games let you do this as well. The reason being was it was intended so that you could easily recreat a character you rolled in the actual pen and paper game. I don't think they stopped to consider that people would use it to cheat. Hence why it's gone in newer things like Baldur's Gate.

Of course, in Baldur's Gate 2, if you enable cheats, you can start with all 18s (including 18/00 strength, regardless of class) and can then subtract stats from there, so it is there in some form (even if it is clearly a cheat).

Then again, even Dungeon Hack has a cheat mode that lets you do things like easily reach max level or walk through walls.

What I am thinking is more along the lines of the following:
1. Reload a level drain until you lose only 5 HP.
2. Reload a level gain until you gain 14 HP.

Can this be used to get arbitrary high HP? (Remember that this won't work after level 9/10 depending on class.)

This smells more like cheating, though I thought about using it after using Tome of Constitution (which didn't add HPs retroactively).

5th level in my current dungeon: The common enemies on this floor are:
Cockatrices, which petrify (= instant game over, good thing I'm not playing Death Real)
Wraiths, which level drain (= instant reload, Negative Plane Protection only helps against one hit)

I have plenty of extra HP from Vampiric Touches, but HP doesn't help against petrification or level drain.

There doesn't appear to be any spell in this game that blocks petrification in this game.

Magical Vestment doesn't stack with Bracers or Robes of protection.

Found a ring of wizardry, but it doesn't seem to do anything.

If it works like the one in Baldur's Gate, it should grant a mage +1 spell per spell level.

Flynn

If your character was a fighter/cleric then that would be apropriate. Otherwise it should have done nothing.

Book of Exalted Deeds is useful for Good aligned clerics only (+1 wisdom & level), harmful to non-Good priests and mages & thieves of any alignment.

Book of Vile Darkness is similar, but for Evil charcters.

Edit: Unless of course it didn't influence your xp in all classes equally. Then that would be a bug.

The Level Drain only affected my Fighter experience. (My character is a Fighter/Cleric/Mage.)

One thing that seems to be a balance issue:
Mages need to find a scroll of a spell before they can memorize and cast it. These scrolls are rarer than I would like. (I only have 1 4th level spell, and it isn't one I've found a use for yet.)
Clerics get all their spells automatically when they reach the appropriate level. (This is part of the reason that Clerics seem to be the easiest class to play.)

That's a feature of AD&D. Clerics get access to their entire selection of spells, but the DM is supposed to sometimes dictate which spells a cleric really gets when (s)he prays for spells (due to the god testing the cleric, preparing for a specific challenge, as punishment, or something else). Clerics also have to adhere to a certain religion or they will lose all/some of their powers until they atone, which can restrict their actions in various ways: "You have to spend time helping with the preparations for the upcomming festival", "You need to attend mass more often", "Why haven't we heard of any new converts from the places you've travelled to" etc.

None of that applies to mages, and some of the mage spells are stupidly broken. Limiting mages access to spells by requiring them to find and study scrolls/books is part of the balance in PnP games. It also means that the DM can more easily prevent access to the broken stuff.

A lot of stuff that simply won't apply to a game such as this. Except for mages still having to find scrolls to get spells.