YAVP - OpFi transmuter 15 runes Hepl

[severen]

Won a 15 rune a few days ago with an unarmed focused OpFi. I purposely wanted to only focus on strength, not because I thought it was good but to see how much damage you do. Found book of frost early and did a hybrid summoner + hybrid buffed fighter through lair, also found ring of robustness on Lair6 which was great. I originally kind of wanted to see how massive melee damage in dragon form worked out with mahkleb but I just stayed Hepl instead. In extended I had 40/40/40 ac/eb/sh in statue form and dragon form could hit for 5! and regularly hit for 4!. The auxiliary attacks of either form would do ! or !! hits (Op gets offhand hits even when using shield and they happen more often than other species). I eventually got necromutation about 33% through Pan, lich form melee was decent, I could every once in a while get 4! but usually did !! or !!! hits. I could probably have killed most anything in lich form but since dragon form can two shot a pan lord ...

All in all due to auxliary attacks I think Op unarmed is roughly similar to Claws 3 (not counting constrict).

With 15 int I never really got lesser beckoning to a great range even with 18 translocations for cblink so it never replaced transference (isn't it a beam anyway? so it can't do the same thing?)

I opted for Hepl battlemage instead of Okawaru. Some Observations about Hepl:
-The BM is very helpful in the early game. He will often hit for !! with staff and since you hit for similar at best until your skills are high he is basically permanent finesse early on. At 19 with lajatang he gets !!! hits often so you need to hit better than this to have finesse overtake it
-Your buddy is not really a tank but you can use em to take a lot of pressure off of you for a small period of time which is really nice for species like Op or Fe
-Later in the game I started to hit a lot harder than him but transference is really nice on a mostly melee guy and hiding behind him while you send him at an nequoxec or OOF is nice for dealing with mutations or for blocking dispel undead. There were a number of times I simply grabbed a pan lord from behind 5 guys and killed him in a few turns to defuse things. Did the same thing with at least 50% of extended bosses, being able to grab mnoleg was nice although killing him in lich form took longer than I liked.
- I wouldn't say its ideal but Hepl is actually pretty good in extended for melee guys, I had a number of tools like controlled blink others might not have. If those are lacking its really rather nice.
- All in all for melee Op I think I would take Hepl over Oka every time

http://crawl.berotato.org/crawl/morgue//severenz/morgue-severenz-20161128-034905.txt

  Code:

 Dungeon Crawl Stone Soup version 0.19.1 (webtiles) character file.

12506717 severenz the Middleweight Champion (level 27, 193/301 HPs)
             Began as an Octopode Fighter on Nov 19, 2016.
             Was a High Priest of Hepliaklqana.
             Escaped with the Orb
             ... and 15 runes on Nov 28, 2016!
             
             The game lasted 1 day 03:13:20 (131011 turns).

severenz the Middleweight Champion (OpFi)     Turns: 131011, Time: 1 , 03:13:21

Health: 193/301    AC: 25    Str: 48    XL:     27
Magic:  43/54      EV: 28    Int: 15    God:    Hepliaklqana [*****.]
Gold:   14779      SH:  8    Dex: 24    Spells: 15 memorised, 13 levels left

rFire  + + +      SeeInvis +      - Unarmed
rCold  + + +      Gourm    .    (shield currently unavailable)
rNeg   + + .      Faith    .    (helmet currently unavailable)
rPois  +          Spirit   .    K - brooch of Shielding {Reflect SH+8}
rElec  +          Reflect  +    o - ring "Ruziynoa" {+Blink rF+ rC+++ Int-2 SInv}
rCorr  .          Harm     .    i - ring "Byuc" {rElec rN+ SInv}
MR     +++..                    g - ring of the Burgomaster {rF+ MR+ Dex+7}
Stlth  ++........               U - ring "Zoekh" {*Drain rC+ Str+3 Int+5 Dex+5}
                                O - +6 ring of strength
                                C - ring of Robustness {AC+8}
                                Y - ring of Sire {Wiz rF+}
                                E - ring of the Octopus King {rN+ AC+1 EV+1 Str+1 Int+1 Dex+1}

@: dragon-form, flying, very slightly contaminated, regenerating, hasted, very
quick
A: almost no armour, stealthy swim, amphibious, 8 rings, (constrict 8), reduced
essence, (tentacle spike 0), (camouflage 0), clumsy 1, strong 1, (gelatinous
body 0)
a: End Transformation, Recall Ancestor, Ancestor Identity, Transference,
Idealise, Renounce Religion, Breathe Fire, Evoke Blink
0: Orb of Zot
}: 15/15 runes: serpentine, barnacled, slimy, silver, golden, iron, obsidian,
icy, bone, abyssal, demonic, glowing, magical, fiery, dark


You escaped.
You worshipped Hepliaklqana.
Hepliaklqana was extremely pleased with you.
You were full.

You were a fearsome dragon!

You visited 18 branches of the dungeon, and saw 90 of its levels.
You visited Pandemonium 9 times, and saw 30 of its levels.
You visited the Abyss 5 times.
You visited 1 bazaar.
You visited 1 ziggurat, and saw 16 of its levels.
You also visited: Bailey and Wizlab.

You collected 21608 gold pieces.
You spent 6829 gold pieces at shops.

Inventory:

Armour
 y - the +10 large shield of the Eternal Fruit (melded) {Dex+4}
   (You took it off a daeva on level 4 of a ziggurat)   
   
   It affects your dexterity (+4).
 G - a +2 hat (melded)
Magical Staves
 a - an uncursed staff of energy
 b - an uncursed staff of wizardry
Rods
 B - a +7 rod of shadows (16/16)
   (You found it on level 6 of a ziggurat)

Wands
 n - a wand of digging (19/24)
 p - a wand of digging (16/24)
 w - a wand of teleportation (5/9)
 L - a wand of heal wounds (5/9)
 X - a wand of digging (16/24)
Scrolls
 d - 29 scrolls of teleportation
 f - 6 scrolls of magic mapping
 h - 25 scrolls of identify
 q - 16 scrolls of fog
 u - a scroll of enchant weapon
 D - 56 scrolls of remove curse
 I - 17 scrolls of fear
 Q - 5 scrolls of holy word
 R - 4 scrolls of summoning
Potions
 e - 2 potions of haste
 k - 4 potions of cancellation
 l - 11 potions of might
 m - 14 potions of heal wounds
 s - 5 potions of resistance
 t - 12 potions of agility
 z - 8 potions of ambrosia
 A - 5 potions of magic
 H - 11 potions of brilliance
 J - 12 potions of cure mutation
 N - 31 potions of curing
Miscellaneous
 j - a phial of floods
 T - 7 phantom mirrors
 Z - 8 boxes of beasts
Comestibles
 c - 29 bread rations
 r - 33 meat rations


   Skills:
 O Level 27 Fighting
 - Level 25.9 Dodging
 - Level 5.6 Stealth
 - Level 25.2 Shields
 O Level 27 Unarmed Combat
 O Level 27 Spellcasting
 - Level 4.8 Conjurations
 - Level 9.3 Charms
 - Level 8.0 Summonings
 - Level 18.1 Necromancy
 - Level 18.2 Translocations
 - Level 18.2 Transmutations
 - Level 8.4 Ice Magic
 - Level 15.1 Air Magic
 - Level 22.9 Earth Magic
 - Level 8.4 Invocations
 + Level 17.6 Evocations


You had 13 spell levels left.
You knew the following spells:

 Your Spells              Type           Power        Failure   Level  Hunger
a - Ozocubu's Armour      Chrm/Ice       #####...     1%          3    None
b - Shroud of Golubria    Chrm/Tloc      ######....   0%          2    None
c - Necromutation         Tmut/Necr      ######....   4%          8    #######
d - Controlled Blink      Tloc           N/A          4%          8    #######
e - Confusing Touch       Hex            ###...       1%          1    None
f - Statue Form           Tmut/Erth      ######...    1%          6    ####...
g - Summon Butterflies    Summ           #####...     1%          1    None
h - Deflect Missiles      Chrm/Air       ######....   1%          6    ####...
i - Dragon Form           Tmut           ######....   1%          7    #####..
j - Lesser Beckoning      Tloc           ######....   0%          3    None
k - Blink                 Tloc           N/A          0%          2    None
l - Regeneration          Chrm/Necr      ######....   1%          3    None
m - Shatter               Erth           ######....   9%          9    #######
n - Iron Shot             Conj/Erth      ######....   1%          6    ####...
o - Sublimation of Blood  Necr           ######....   0%          2    None



[severen]

Hah I was looking over this morgue and realized I killed my own OpFi ghost from back when I was focusing on making an OpFi of okawaru

[neverEnough]

Hah I was looking over this morgue and realized I killed my own OpFi ghost from back when I was focusing on making an OpFi of okawaru

Hah it's a gold satisfaction, i'm surronded every new try by lots OpEE's petrify. There are so many that i can barely survive d2~10. Pretty frustrating

[tasonir]

Transmutations and unarmed remains my favorite build, and probably always has been. If you want to boost your damage somewhat more you can add chei for the +15 strength, it's a noticable increase, but as you saw when you're already hitting 4!'s without chei, it isn't like you need the extra. Could also be all that +strength gear you had, but in any case, chei will make 5!'s more common.

[severen]

Transmutations and unarmed remains my favorite build, and probably always has been. If you want to boost your damage somewhat more you can add chei for the +15 strength, it's a noticable increase, but as you saw when you're already hitting 4!'s without chei, it isn't like you need the extra. Could also be all that +strength gear you had, but in any case, chei will make 5!'s more common.

I currently have an OpIE of chei but I put everything into Int (so completely different focus). OpIE of chei basically has the same str/dex as this OpFi but he has 60 Int as well vs 15.

Roughly speaking I could do the same plan of OpFi with chei and have like I dunno 55 or 60 str. I personally though kind of think but can't really proves that going much beyond the damage you get at around 35 or so strength in dragon or Op statue unarmed (because Op have superior auxiliaries I am differentiating) is actually not that helpful. Yes you do more damage but in Crawl you can always roll low. So if you reliably two or three shot most things pumping strength will of course make you do more damage and you more consistently see more 4! but you can still easily miss or just hit low.

Actually you can easily kill a Brimstone fiend in only a few hits with just Op unarmed in lich form with ~35 str.

The real difference is the large int and the spells, with two enhancers I can get Glaciate to max spellpower. So this OpIE of chei can clear out a zig way better. But even without Chei's stats a similar build will still kill pretty fast. Without chei this OpIE would have about 22 str and statue would still kill Antaeus in melee fine. The glaciate would still top out around 150 or spell power, the last 50 spellpower is so ridiculously stepped down.

Personally I feel that if you have statue at like str 20 on Op and get your defense to 40/40/40 (always do a shield for Op unarmed there is absolutely no downside). You are basically golden and I seem to get a decent amount of str eventually without even shooting for it. Also statue chei is move 3.0 and that is jsut a real killer if you are not careful. I use lesser beckoning and darkness and its fine, but that much move slow has to be respected.

Chei is fine and all I mean I have this guy currently with a 15 runes and one zigg done all 27 floors (I didn't clear 27 it was a pan lord floor so I left and I hadn't done extended runes). But all in all I believe that Chei is still a sub-par god for pure powergaming on an Op even with nice transmutations stat scaling. You can get both casting and melee to the right amount of damage and get other nice things like HP on kill or extra MP. The later floors of the zig were hard due to MP issues.

Since Op can't wear a robe of the AM that extra SP from chei Int is one of the main reasons I wanted to try this and compare. But in general I am sure you can do better with a different god and the right rings for your spell set. Still it can be very powerful.