I had what was unarguably my most promising OpTm run ended by the fact that I was starving and ate a ration. Apparently the character doesn't stop eating until they are completely finished. Yeah that makes sense. I got sliced to death.
I hate it when Saint Roka appears in Orc:2 when I'm trying to get to the shops. It's like I have to suddenly abandon the attempt if there isn't a sanctioned off area of the mines to lure him to. Saint Roka has way too much health. He should be as durable as a warlord or slightly less.
Reptisaurus wrote:My octopode wins were fighter (starts with a shield!) and Ice Elementalist (starts with the possibility of Ozus and a magic shield!)
I see transmuter as a challenge class; I've never come close to winning with one. So awesome job making it as far as you did! All the forms have significant drawbacks that remove escape options, you have relatively weak armor class for a fighter-type because you're rushing to get a 5th level spell online (in octopodes case this prevents you from using a shield till well into the lair, and I've found shields to be a huge advantage) - All of this means that transmuters are weak against groups of monsters in general.
Both times I won were with Gozag, so I got no better advice on God selection.
I honestly don't think that (say) Octopode figher or berserker is a tough win. You're so deadly up close that the early game is a breeze. But transmuter strikes me as a really, really tough combo. Good luck!
OpTm actually isn't terribly terribly difficult. You just have to be careful with how you manage your spellcasting failure rates. My strat was to get transmutations to 3.0 so that spider form was at 30%, but most importantly, not colored at all (not yellow, red, or dark-red). Then I trained up UC, Dodging, and Fighting, with UC getting twice as much exp as the other two (get them all to 10 and then stop). When Gozag showed I'd put some points into spellcasting, enough to get Spider Form to hungerless, and only then would I start pumping magic schools (though both of these I would sometimes do at the same time as UC, Dodging, and Fighting).
With proper tactics OpTm can melee anything D:1 (and not OOD) to death in a closed hallway with the exception of a jackal pack, for which it was slightly unreliable until the player hit level 2. Past that, early game strats would be to back out of range of any sleeping threats (so long as they're off the screen we're good) and spam Spider Form until it stuck. For some reason even with barely any stealth Op are surprisingly good at not waking shit up.
Spider Form is an AC bonus (from 1 to 2, lol) and Op still keeps all of its rings when transformed, even in Ice Form and especially Statue Form, giving OpTm incredibly strong transmutations with regards to other races. Spider Form also makes you super evasive, so it's really nice defensively, and it gives a to-hit bonus, further capitalizing on the fact that it injects deadly poison into whatever it hits. If you encounter things that are immune to poison, with the exception of gargoyles, you can still destroy them with what is effectively a normal unarmed attack but with a to-hit bonus and little chance of you getting rocked by an enemy attack. As a follower of Gozag this is a tremendous help in dealing with hungry ghosts, which would otherwise be a major threat instead of just a nuisance to my rations.
Make no mistake, Spider Form is fully capable of wiping almost anything pre-lair completely off the map (exceptions include gargoyles, Nergalle, Psyche w/ distortion, but there are still very few things).
Some things may be a little too tough for their level at the time (such as both phantoms and orc fighters at the very, very earliest point you can encounter them) and Grinder has killed me a few times from negligence, but with proper tactics and a bit of luck uniques like Duvessa and Dowan, Blork, and especially Natasha and Sigmund are easily able to be taken down. There are a lot of times where I could melee the very first orc fighter I ever encountered, provided it wasn't super OOD. I even took down Joseph once or twice, although I have to get into melee range and he can still mess me up really easily, so I do not recommend trying normally. I only bother if running away would be deadlier than fighting, which it often is if he's in melee range.
I think from a Sigmund kill I actually ended up being level 6 at the end of D:2 one time.
Mind you I'm not good with potion management so this is mostly without buffs. I did quaff Agility and Might a few times in nasty situations though.
By the time I get to lair Ice Form is castable in conjunction with S2S to take down black mambas and spiny frogs. I have to avoid hydras completely but once I soak up a large portion of the lair's exp they can be melee'd to death in Ice Form. Nothing else in lair is remotely a threat with proper kiting and luring. You can actually just mash tab against Yaks if you can fight them one at time, and late lair you don't even have to do that. Orcs is similarly simple. S2S is used to kill warlords this time. Howerver, stupid Saint Roka and occasionally Nergalle can make it a huge pain. You can actually just mash 'zb.' repeatedly if the opposing force is just fighters, knights, wizards, and a warlord, which it is at times.
For special levels, screw the bog monster ossuary (killed me twice because I always want the treasure). Minotaur is hard to take down normally, but when I'm not playing super cowardly, berserk takes him down fairly quickly, especially with S2S backup. Fire Volcano can be trouble without rFire. Ice Cave is nasty as usual, but certain variations (most notably ones with ice statues) are made significantly easier with Ice Form. Everything else is cake. Go figure an aquatic race has barely anything to worry about from the Sewer.
I haven't gotten to lategame yet because I'm dumb, but by then Octopode isn't much different than another race so long as they have statue form. I'll say this again: Op get 8, eight, e-i-g-h-t mothereffing ring slots with their transmutations. This is especially noticeable with Statue Form which is incompatible with armour normally, so Op gets statue form AC and normal EV with eight ring slots.
I have no idea how they take down tomb, but Gozag wrath is far from deadly when managed correctly, so it's a simple issue of finding the right god for the job. Gogogo TSO. Now if only he could bless deez tentaclez.
Oh, I actually didn't bring up Blade Hands at all. It's mostly unnecessary until like Depths or something, where its ability to take things out extraordinarily quickly makes it nasty. Hydra Form needs a buff, since there's no reason to use it unless you plan on fighting in water AND the enemy is too deadly to kill with Ice Form.
IMO, except for Berserker and possibly Wizard, Transmuter is all-around the best class in the game.
Tuesday, 12th April 2016, 06:36 
Any advice? I'm playing an Octopode so I'll take anything.