[CiP] DrIE and the way of the daemon lightsaber

[torrenera]

Hi everybody,

I love draconians, and the fact they change colour and the color never match the magic school you've choosen.
This time I've been lucky (1) as my IE revealed to be a white draconian.
Then I've been lucky (2) to find a shop on level 8 with a lightsaber...ehm a daemon blade of electocution at 500 golds (yum, lucky (3)) and a staff that seemed amazing in the same way (it has a name but now I cannot remeber but I remember it had vamp, archmage, Int+6 MP+6...) at 1k gold (lucky (4)).
Now the first thing I know about this game is that you shouldn't think what could happen when you have 1k gold but you have to think what happens when you - right now - have 500 gold and I grabbed the daemon blade, I enchanted it to +8, I raised my longblade skill to 14 and killed everything in Lair.
A few step ahead now I don't know which route to take: I feel like my firepower with the daemon blade is limited, monsters start to hit like trucks and draconian cannot wear armours. On the other hand Sif-Muna has started releasing his books collection and I have freezing could as well as glaciate (I know, its a long run).
I'm in swamp, with all the nice hydras and leeches and stuff. I have to kill the learnen buddy.
What are your opinion? What shall I do? Seems like I'm in one of this situation were my spells are not powerful enough and my weapon skills are not those of a warrior so I'm the f*ing master of none...
thanks for any hint.

[4Hooves2Appendages]

Well, generally speaking, that weapon is certainly strong enough for the rest of the game. And it won't cost you any additional XP!

One of the nice things about Draconian, in my view, is that you get AC without encumbrance and without training armour skill. That makes Draconians excellent sturdy spell casters.

Therefore, it makes most sense to increase your power by adding useful spells. Given your, likely, existing investment in ice and conjurations, Freezing Cloud will be a great addition to your character. Nothing particularly stops you from spending a large part of your remaining XP to get glaciate. Do continue to use summon ice beast as well, it's a strong spell pretty much in the entire game.

I would suggest to go with freezing cloud initially, pick up a few other useful low-level spells (blink, apportation, butterflies, etc.), train some dodging, fighting, evocations and then go for glaciate.

That staff is the Majin-Bo I believe. It's really nice for casting sells, but vamp makes it a bit annoying in my experience. When you get to the point where you mostly kill enemies with spells that benefit from spell power (freezing cloud is not one of those), and you have at least some leftover permafood, then you could give the staff a go.

[VeryAngryFelid]

That "vamp, archmage, Int+6 MP+6" staff is a trap for new players, never use it unless you are with Makhleb.

[torrenera]

thanks a lot guys, as always you are light in the fog!
Just out of my curiosity: why makleb with the staff? To sinergize the vamp gain?
Why leftover permafood? Isnt the gourmand amulet enough to keep at bay vamp?
4Hooves: how much do you think should be enough dodge and fight? 10 seems to be not enough at the moment looking at the damage I'm getting while meeleing.

Hope to get back to the tread with a victory post ^^

[Majang]

Just out of my curiosity: why makleb with the staff? To sinergize the vamp gain?

Each cast of Majin Bo has a hefty HP penalty on the caster. For Makhlebers that's no problem, as they get their HP back through kills.

[4Hooves2Appendages]

I think the staff hurts you every time you cast a spell. Makhleb can offset that nicely. Gourmand also works fine for managing vamp. I think it's 'only' 1 HP per 1 MP spent. Not exactly crippling, but still, it can add up in longer fights.

I can't really answer the question about how much dodge/fight. I train depending on how fragile/strong I feel. Generally, from around the midgame, I keep my fighting, dodging (or armour with other characters) quite close to XP cost as my main attack skill, with a slight bias towards fighting because I value HP quite a lot.

[Siegurt]

I would suggest fighting dodge and a shield if you feel like things are hitting too hard.

[torrenera]

thanks again everybody.
The staff can stay at the shop getting dust as far as I am concerned.
Cheers!