A character grows as he or she acquires experience and money. Experience builds his or her attributes and skills, and money builds his or her supply of "worldly goods": -- good armor, good weapons, and good magic items.
The key to growing is finding a place that generates lots of monsters that your character can routinely kill, or at least damage. When you find a place that suits your character, you'll know it because your character frequently comes to town loaded down with new treasure to sell at the store, and has lots of experience to allocate. When this is happening, you've found a "money tree".
A good money tree depends on several things:
The towns of Dereth are surrounded by "safe zones" filled mostly with rabbits. These safe zones keep pursuing monsters out of town, but they are also EP deserts. There are no money trees in town.
The roads are the next safest places in Dereth, roads are typically flanked with low-level drudges and shreths. These are good fodder for low to mid-level characters, and there are usually lots of other people working roads, so team attacking and take-up fellowships are easy to arrange. Traveling any road looking for trouble is a modestly good money tree for starting characters of all sorts.
One thing to watch out for: most roads have an "ambush point" on them. This is a place where higher level monsters come close to the road, and it is typically located near one end of the road or the other. This ambush point is a hazard for low level and slow characters trying to move from one city to the other, but it's a potential money tree. It's a place where higher level monsters regenerate fairly quickly and it's close to town so the loot from those high level monsters can be sold quickly.
Some examples of ambush points are:
"Mosswart Hollow" on the Hebian-to side of the Shoshu -- Hebian-to road. This is near a lifestone and the home of the Obsidian Enchantress. Mosswarts and medium level shreths will swarm the road.
"Drudge Picnic Place" on Zaikhal side of Zaikhal -- Craigstone road. A little picnic area that fast gens a pack of eight Drudge Robbers.
"Serengetti Plain" on the Zaikhal side of Zaikhal -- Al-jamir road. A "game park" of medium level stuff -- drudges, armadillos, shreths, gromnies -- that generates along the road just beyond the Crypt of Ashen Tears portal.
The nicknames are mine. This is just a sampling; just some places I have personally run into.
Dungeons are potentially good money trees. So good, that many lose value because there are too many heroes chasing too few monsters. Most dungeons have an easy upper level and more difficult lower levels. Some have a quest item at the bottom.
Teamwork is especially valuable in a dungeons. This is a place where creature and life mages can soften up high level monsters which toe-to-toe characters can then finish off, a tough armor character can block a corridor while light armor characters shoot monsters through him or her. A life mage can stay out of trouble while healing front line fighters... lots of possibilities.
Dungeons that have a valuable quest item at the bottom are attractive money trees. The quest item itself is valuable, but even more valuable is that the quest item is an excuse to put together a team which can generate a lot of EP and loot on the way to and from the quest item. It is common for a team to fight it's way down to a quest item, then the party will hang around beating down the quest item defenders time and time again while the members one after another pick up a copy of the quest item. This generates lots of EP and loot.
The deep wilderness has a rich feast of monsters. It is harvestable by mid-to-high level characters, but because most of the wilderness is so far from town, most is not particularly desirable as a money tree. The interesting deep wilderness spots are those close to some point of interest which can help the player dispose of his or her loot. This can be a peddler, a village or a portal to a town. Update: With the introduction of housing into the wilderness, wilderness has become much more interesting as an XP source. The dozens and dozens of housing portals can be used as rapid access to tasty wilderness hunting.
The easiest way to find a money tree is to watch other players. At some point everyone in Dereth looks for a money tree, and in fact, most people at any one time are looking for a money tree. If you're cruising along somewhere outside of town and you encounter a loose crowd of people standing around, it's likely you've found someone's money tree. Hang around for a while and see what pops up, or strike up a conversation and see what people are waiting for. If it's of interest, join in.
That's about all I have to say on money trees... right now. A money tree is a place where your character can rapidly gain wealth and experience. You can do this as a solo character, but you'll find it's a lot easier and more fun to do it as part of a team.
Your money tree will change as you gain experience. So take a break every so often from hauling in loot to explore this wonderful world of Dereth... and see if you can find an even better money tree!
Here are some money trees we of the Sunchine Monarchy have found. Another place to check for Money Trees is Doc's Favorite Hunting Grounds.
The Old Mine is filled with Lugians. Lugians are meleers and missile tossers, not magic users at all. This makes them attractive as an EP source, and they drop decent treasure as well. Old Mine is popular so there are always lots of heros about. Melee the Lugians as part of a "wrecking crew" until your character can stand up to them solo.
Obsolete as of Jul 02 with Drain spell nerfing: At the back of the mine is an "office" -- the small room behind two grates that leads to the "lich section" of the dungeon. There Life Mages can hang out and do wall work.
The Old Mine is located a long run southwest of Qalaba'r. It is also accessable via a portal at the bottom of the Arwic Mines. The latter is useful if your prime purpose is hauling out loot rather than building EP. Lifestone a low level "mule" at Arwic or Tou Tou lifestone, and have them run into the Old Mine using the Arwic Mines portal. Let them collect as much loot as they are able before they die, but death is not to be avoided entirely. For when they die they will come out next to the shops of Arwic or Tou Tou. Sell the goods, then run back in for more.
This is a tower in Blackmire Swamp that is filled with Mosswarts, mostly Barkers, a few Mudlurks and a Shaman. Barkers are tough, but slow moving, and they drop incredible treasure for their level (great armor, good weapons). These Mossies can be worked easily by archers, and somewhat less easily by mages and meleers. Watch out because when battle starts inside the tower, mossies from miles around will attempt a rescue, (but it's usually a feeble attempt.) The tower is close to Sawato, so treasure can be sold quickly. (There is a lifestone just east of Sawato town.)
Barker tower is due northwest of Sawato, about a minute's run beyond the end of the road headed that direction. Approach it from the south side.
Note: now more fun than productive. It's too far from town -- nearby Crypt of Ashen Tears is a better XP source.
It's a massacre: the town has been overrun by monoguas, and not a soul has survived. All you can do is pick up the pieces, and wipe out the Crude Monoguas that still infest the area. Crude monoguas are the 16th level upscale relatives of Outcast Monoguas -- faster, harder to kill, and a lot more dangerous. They can go in buildings, but they can't fit in some tents and complex twists and turns confuse them.
In the town there are plenty of firing points for mages and archers. The town is on the south end of a steep mesa, and the whole mesa is overrun with monoguas, so there's plenty of action for open space types, too.
Location: The hill is a non-descript mesa east of Zaikhal. Follow the road south out of Zaikhal, south of the forest containing the Craigstone portal, through a wide valley to where the road forks east and west, and there's a lifestone nearby. Looking east across the ravine from the lifestone, to the right of the road, is Crude Monogua Hill. Most of the cliffs are unclimbable, but there are several ways up on the northern end (the end facing the road).
The Lugain Hill I describe here is a memory... of what is was in the first months that AC was out. It has since been "nerfed" several times, and is now more Mountain Rats than Lugians. It's now attractive only to players who can deal with Mountain Rats easily.
This was probably originally designed to be a deadly ambush point on the Qalaba'r -- Yaraq road, but it turned out to be a most lucative money tree instead. It has everything: fast genning-high level monsters, good terrain, and a close-by town.
The heart of Lugian Hill is a large house with a deep basement. A dozen points in and around that house that fast gen 33rd level Lithos Lugians. The house is unusual in that it is all part of the wilderness dimension, not a portal into the dungeon dimension. As a result all the floors and the surface can be seen on radar from the surface, or from inside the house, and as a result life mages have a ball casting harmful spells at monsters on all three levels from niche points in and around the fort. It's life mage heaven.
Lithos Lugians are fast, mean, tough, and take a lot of damage, but they don't throw magic spells, and they don't resist magic too well. As a result they can be mobbed by dozens of fighters, shot at by dozens of archers, and cast upon by dozens of mages... and they will go down.... and all those that hit gain a piece of experience from a 33rd level monster.
There are lots of corpses on Lugian Hill, but the fantasic loot and EP keep players coming back for more.
Location:
Follow the road going roughly north out of Qalaba'r for about three minutes, you can't miss it. The lifestone -- and you will need the lifestone -- is northeast of Qalaba'r. Get on a line with "Main Street" running through Qalaba'r, and don't turn when the road does. The lifestone is about a minute run beyond the turn in the road. Lugian Hill is due north of the lifestone.
Once again, for more ideas check out Doc's Favorite Hunting Grounds.