Recommend a character to play

[ThreeInvisibleDucks]

Please recommend me a species and a role that isn't:

• A deep elf conjurer of Vehumet, although Fire Storm is fun
• A stabby vine stalker or a SpEn
• An octopode of where's my statue form
• A human, my only win, although I love the versatility and the ability to wear anything

[Sprucery]

MiAK

[Magipi]

Minotaur berserker.

Or any other berserker with no obvious flaws (so no Fe or Fo or Mu or anything like that).

[ThreeInvisibleDucks]

MiAK

MiAK it shall be. Never played a minotaur, nor an abyssal knight. Any tips or recommendations?

[daggaz]

MiAK

MiAK it shall be. Never played a minotaur, nor an abyssal knight. Any tips or recommendations?

Just because you are stupid and probably wearing plate, doesn't mean you can't get low and mid-level utility spells online especially if you are doing extended.

[Sprucery]

AK maybe a bit hard to get going, but being a minotaur helps with that (being a good fighter). Once you get Banish online, you really start rolling. Just banish everything dangerous (uniques, centaurs, orc priests, ghosts) you don't want to fight. Banishment power maxes at about Invocations 11 (10.5 maybe). You can easily banish anything with MR:#. You can also banish some creatures with MR:## (depends on the actual MR value which is not shown to the player).

Corrupt is the next big thing. Corruption takes care of hard vaults including rune vaults and you can use it even for dealing with dangerous uniques.

Gating yourself to the Abyss is an instant escape button but personally I haven't ever had to use it.

You don't have to use a weapon of distortion if you don't like it. It's very powerful but blinking monsters away can be annoying too. Luckily with Lugonu you can easily swap between disto and other weapons.

[ThreeInvisibleDucks]

Just because you are stupid and probably wearing plate, doesn't mean you can't get low and mid-level utility spells online especially if you are doing extended.

Thanks, a retaliotary headbutt is on me.

How do you use Lugonu though? Blink is a given, but what about her other abilities?

[Sprucery]

Just because you are stupid and probably wearing plate, doesn't mean you can't get low and mid-level utility spells online especially if you are doing extended.

Exactly. My MiAK went for three runes, wore a +8 ring mail and had these:

  Code:

 Your Spells              Type           Power        Failure   Level  Hunger
a - Repel Missiles        Chrm/Air       ###...       4%          2    ##.....
b - Regeneration          Chrm/Necr      ###.......   10%         3    ####...
c - Summon Butterflies    Summ           ###.....     1%          1    #......
d - Apportation           Tloc           ####......   1%          1    #......
e - Phase Shift           Tloc           ####......   8%          5    ######.
f - Swiftness             Chrm/Air       ###.....     4%          2    ##.....

[ThreeInvisibleDucks]

A good overview of Lugonu

Thanks, that was exactly what I was wondering about.

[Sprucery]

Also, later on you can train more Invocations again, because it affects Corrupt power.

[Zwobot]

Banishment: Early on Orc Priests. Enemies with dangerous weapons (elec/disto) unless you want them yourself. Hydras, Catoblepas, basically everything that's remotely threatening/annoying to deal with.

Bend Space and Corrupt work in tandem. Depending on Invo you end up surrounded by neutral Abyssal monsters yourself - but you can just blink a few times and then walk away. (Teleport, then Corrupt may be better though)

Corrupting is Elf:3 is a Very Good Idea. Elves have low HP and you can actually clear the complete vault with one use if you're lucky. Corrupting Tomb:1 is a good idea to create a shortcut. Corrupting V:5 is a good idea.

Early on a distortion dagger will just murder melee threats (e.g. Death Yaks), but with a MiAK you probably won't need it. Later on a fast distortion weapon is useful against anything tough you want out of the way/dead.

  Code:

Elf:3 corrupted
Vaults:3 corrupted
Vaults:5 corrupted
Tomb:1 corrupted
Tomb:3 corrupted
Depths:5 corrupted
Hell corrupted
Dis:7 corrupted
Geh:7 corrupted, Asmodeus
Coc:7 corrupted, Antaeus
Tar:7 corrupted, Ereshkigal
Zot:2 corrupted
Zot:5 corrupted
Abyss:1 Dispater, Gastronok, Mnoleg, Rupert, Serpent of Hell


[byrel]

GrVM, play it like a fighter with extra options. You have mephitic cloud for confusing your ranged enemies (centaurs, orc priests etc.) You have sting for poisoninf people and running away. You have Cure poison in case the Lair gets uppity.

I don't really recommend worrying about leveling poison magic enough to get venom bolt working well. Focus more on your weapon and defenses after getting mephitic cloud working, and if you find heavy armours, go back and raise your skill to keep mephitic cloud working.

Adapt if you find other good books, good gods, etc. Basically anything but Trog, sif muna and vehumet would work fine. Kiku is nice if you're thinking of going more casting, as it gives you access to necro spells and a guaranteed pain brand.

[tasonir]

If you're still taking more suggestions for after your MiAK, none of your listed characters you're done with used any ranged attacks, so I'd try a ranged character. CeHu is certainly the classic choice here, and are very strong at all points during the game. Taking okawaru is probably the default, for ammo gifts and his helpful actives. Can be a bit annoying while you're low on ammo in the early game, but you're fast and can afford to train a melee option with your bows being at +3 aptitude.

Other good ranged options: Ogres with large rocks, halflings and slings (this one is just nice theme and I do like slings, although they are low powered and halflings have low hp). High elves are another good bow choice if you want to mix bows and magic, but they're more physically frail then centaurs.

[pickled_heretic]

OgHu. Ash is what you are looking for, but Oka/Trog and lots of other gods work fine. Ash makes casting level 6 spells practical, but you can still do it with other gods.

[Sar]

why would you go Ash on an OgHu though

[pickled_heretic]

for skill boosts?

sorry to be rude, but to explain a bit more, I think ash synergizes with ogres pretty well.

Find your GSC on d3-4 and it's your endgame weapon, no need to waste scrolls to switch weapons.

increasing bondage level for armor is pretty easy as well, since you only have 3 slots. Piety is quick to earn in the early game for this reason and the GSC.

The skill boosts are mainly there for magic, although it helps for everything. I think I already mentioned that it makes level 6 spells practical for an ogre in a 3 rune game, and that's a playstyle that I enjoy.

[Sar]

I actually confused this thread with "best character for 15 runes thread". Whoops.

And uh, I like Ash but in the early game he doesn't do anything and later he'll pretty much be a bad Oka until you pick up some spells - and even then it's questionable if he's worth that. Also OgHu of Dith is very fun!

[The Ferret]

My favorite, the versatility special:

Kobold Warper

• Kobolds are awesome. They have good aptitudes for everything except sword+board+heavy armor melee; none of their aptitudes are below -2, which is quite manageable. Small size limits their weapon selection a little bit, but for practical purposes you can use anything except axes. And on the plus side, small size gives a +4 racial EV bonus, which is very nice in the early game. Best of all, they're carnivorous, so you can cast at will and abuse high-hunger things like berserk, Sif channeling, rods, etc.
• Warper is a neat start that plays well with the kobold's versatility (I have no idea why KoWr is not a preferred background). The Book of Spatial Translocations is ridiculously useful; all of its spells are good throughout the game.
• As a KoWr you adapt to what the dungeon gives you. You can go melee, ranged, or spell-heavy; you can worship pretty much any god except Trog or Gozag.
• Seriously, they're fun!

[ThreeInvisibleDucks]

Thank y'all for ideas. As tasonir commented, I haven't really used ranged attacks with my chars so I rolled an OgSk with the intention of using GSC and large rocks for damage. Skald because I like Spectral Weapon and thought it'd pair nicely with the club, and Regen is always great.

Not sure about which god to go with.

• Oka helps from the get go and would gift large rocks (?) and possibly an artefact GSC that's hard to get otherwise. No obvious drawbacks.
• Ash is great later on and would help to get Haste and other utility spells online earlier. Using large rocks cursing even the main weapon would be fine for a skill boost.
• Dith's shadow mimic + large rocks sounds powerful on paper, but is it noticeable? Not being able to use lamps of fire and some good rods is the main drawback here.

I wonder if training throwing high is a valid investment without Oka's gifts, as I imagine getting a big enough stash of large rocks might be hard without her.

[Sandman25]

  Code:

You throw a large rock {=f}.
The large rock {=f} hits the stone giant!!(damage 35)
The stone giant is severely wounded.
Your shadow throws a large rock.
The large rock hits the stone giant!!!(damage 66)
You kill the stone giant!

[The Ferret]

Dith shadow mimic is very noticeable, to the point of arguably being overpowered.

Remember that it's also an implied ammo gift - at full piety your shadow mimics your ranged attack 50% of the time, meaning that you effectively have 33% more ammo. It's unbranded ammo, but that's not a concern for large rocks.

No fire isn't a terribly restrictive conduct most of the time.

Umbra is neat too. Free stealth and (effective) evasion is quite nice.

Contrary to popular belief, Dith is not "the stabber god". Dith is a good generalist god for anyone who isn't a FE or whatever; it also happens to be good for stabbers.

[Sar]

Gods are allowed to be strong. Remember, you are giving up Finesse/healing on kills/being slow for that.

[byrel]

Gods are allowed to be strong. Remember, you are giving up ... being slow for that.

The snail god would like a word with you Sir.

The easiest god choice is undoubtedly okawaru. No worries about ammo, two great simple buffs.

The best god choice, as usual, is the first one you run across that will work well with you. For an OgSk, I'd take Ash, Dith, Oka, Yred, Ru...

(As an off topic, I'm playing Ru for the first time, and I'm quite happy with his power level. It's more than worth the sacrifice, and his powers are very generalist.)

[WingedEspeon]

DEBe. You lategame will suck, so you won't have to worry about getting super bored lategame

[and into]

Abyssal knight is fun. As you find heavier armors, wear the armor that gives the best AC, at least in the early going. Start off training your weapon (polearms probably the best for MiAK), but I like to pause the weapon training and put all my experience into invocations once I am at ** but feel that I am getting close to *** piety, which is when Banish comes online. About 5 or 6 levels of invocations lets you quite reliably banish almost anything dangerous (or just annoying) in the early game. Piety is scarce so don't spam it until you are comfortably in the **** region. Anyway, once I have between 5 and 6 invocations, I start training other skills focused, but leave invocations on in the background. That tends to get a suitable distribution without too much fuss. Then I cut invocations off quite a bit later, when it hits 14 or 15.