CIP - OcBe Yeah that's right baby, OCBE WOO!

[pleasedpig]

I love mountain dwarves. I love them so much, I decided to learn the bastard species that took their place. And now I love octopuses. They're so awesome it almost makes up for the loss of my beloved Md. Constrict a bat for the first time and you'll feel it too. It's a warm feeling in your pants that can't wear armor besides a cap...

When I first saw the info for octopodes, I thought "woo! +20/+40 slaying with a quickblade! Who needs spells or defense?" That's the (bad) theory at least. So I'm going for a non-casting Octopode win.

Several dozen dead cephalopods later, I've got a winnable game cooking. It actually feels a lot like KoBe's, except with picking up the fruit. I've done lair, orc, and snake 1-4. On rings I've got 9/6 slaying total now, and a handful of neat resists. I got relec on a ring, which was a worry of mine for the late game. Trog summon spam has saved my ass a dozen times. Okawaru would be useful for the hat/shield gifts, but the summons are required for survival. Death yaks don't like octopuses...

I'm looking for input and discussion on stupid octopuses. Here are a few specific thoughts/questions:

- Large shields? Assume max shield skill, I can picture choosing between medium shield with a resist and large without.
- Go for 5+ runes, or grab 3 and call it a day? The mighty OcBe may hit a wall when its offense can't overcome the minimal defense. But I won't know the limit till I hit it, so how far would you press an OcBe?
- God swap? Trog will drop off once the summons die in 1 round and I've already got enough anti-magic flails. I'm thinking TSO if I'm going to sniff at over 3 runes, because I will be tight on resists.
- I got NINE shops on orc5... ZERO jewelry shops. I guess there's no best bet to gathering rings, but any thoughts on maximizing chances? I'm saving acquirement scrolls until I've identified most/all jewelry.

And of course I'll get 2 shotted by a dragon or something, so this is likely all moot. But until then, WOO OCBE !
(I had a +1 cap that got acid'd)

  Code:

 Dungeon Crawl Stone Soup version 0.10.0 character file.

Gus the Spry (Octopode Berserker)                  Turns: 44134, Time: 03:06:02

HP 117/117       AC  1     Str 16      XL: 17   Next: 78%
MP   4/4         EV 32     Int 11      God: Trog [******]
Gold 3756        SH 31     Dex 24      Spells:  0 memorised, 16 levels left

Res.Fire  : x . .   See Invis. : +    f - +4,+8 elf quick blade (antimagic) {god gif
Res.Cold  : + + .   Warding    : . .  e - +1 dwarf shield
Life Prot.: . . .   Conserve   : +    (helmet restricted)
Res.Acid. : . . .   Res.Corr.  : .    x - amulet of conservation
Res.Poison: +       Clarity    : .    D - ring of protection from magic
Res.Elec. : +       Spirit.Shd : .    J - ring of see invisible
Sust.Abil.: . .     Stasis     : .    T - ring "Sawi" {cTele rC+ Acc+6 Stlth+}
Res.Mut.  : .       Ctrl.Telep.: +    N - +3,+6 ring of slaying
Res.Rott. : .       Levitation : .    l - ring "Zepresm" {Ice +Blink +Rage rElec MR}
Saprovore : . . .   Ctrl.Flight: .    W - +4 ring of dexterity
                                      b - +2 ring of dexterity
                                      h - ring of poison resistance

@: extraordinarily resistant to hostile enchantments, quite stealthy
A: almost no armour, amphibious, constrict 8, -10% mp, camouflage 1, tentacles
3, AC +1, Dex +1
a: Burn Spellbooks, Berserk, Trog's Hand, Brothers in Arms, Renounce Religion,
Evoke Blink, Evoke Berserk Rage


You are on level 4 of the Snake Pit.
You worship Trog.
Trog is exalted by your worship.
You are not hungry.

You have visited 4 branches of the dungeon, and seen 31 of its levels.
You have visited 4 portal chambers: sewer, bailey, ice cave, volcano.

You have collected 3873 gold pieces.
You have spent 137 gold pieces at shops.

Inventory:

Hand weapons
 f - a +4,+8 elven anti-magic quick blade (weapon) {god gift}
 n - an uncursed spear (quivered)
 t - a -1,+0 orcish dagger of returning
 y - a +6,+5 elven short sword of speed {god gift}
 F - the +0,+13 sabre of Disaster {god gift, flame, Dex+3 Int+4}
   (Trog gifted it to you on level 3 of the Orcish Mines)   
   
   It emits flame when wielded, causing extra injury to most foes and up to
   double damage against particularly susceptible opponents. Big, fiery blades
   are also staple armaments of hydra-hunters.
   
   It affects your intelligence (+4).
   It affects your dexterity (+3).
 M - a +1,+3 dagger of venom
Armour
 e - a +1 dwarven shield (worn)
 o - a -1 cap
Magical devices
 d - a wand of disintegration {zapped: 3}
 q - a wand of polymorph other {zapped: 1}
 G - a wand of fireball {zapped: 1}
 I - a wand of digging (5)
 O - a wand of lightning (9)
 R - a wand of cold {zapped: 1}
 Z - a wand of teleportation {zapped: 2}
Comestibles
 c - 6 bread rations
 i - a chunk of black mamba flesh
 k - a royal jelly
 B - 5 meat rations
Scrolls
 g - a scroll of magic mapping
 j - a scroll of recharging
 p - 7 scrolls of teleportation
 r - 5 scrolls of fog
 u - 5 scrolls of remove curse
 w - 9 scrolls of identify
 E - 4 scrolls of blinking
 K - 5 scrolls of detect curse
Jewellery
 a - an uncursed ring of protection from magic
 b - a +2 ring of dexterity (on tentacle)
 h - a ring of poison resistance (on tentacle)
 l - the ring "Zepresm" (on tentacle) {Ice +Blink +Rage rElec MR}
   (You found it in an ice cave)   
   
   [ring of ice]
   
   It insulates you from electricity.
   It increases your resistance to enchantments.
   It lets you blink.
   It lets you go berserk.
 m - an uncursed amulet of warding
 s - an uncursed ring of teleportation
 x - an amulet of conservation (around mantle)
 D - a ring of protection from magic (on tentacle)
 J - a ring of see invisible (on tentacle)
 N - a +3,+6 ring of slaying (on tentacle)
 T - the ring "Sawi" (on tentacle) {cTele rC+ Acc+6 Stlth+}
   (You found it on level 9 of the Dungeon)   
   
   [ring of teleport control]
   
   It affects your accuracy (+6).
   It protects you from cold.
   It makes you more stealthy.
 V - an uncursed ring of magical power
 W - a +4 ring of dexterity (on tentacle)
Potions
 z - 9 potions of curing
 A - 4 potions of might
 C - a potion of agility
 H - 4 potions of speed
 P - 2 potions of invisibility
 U - 5 potions of heal wounds


   Skills:
 - Level 11.6 Fighting
 - Level 15.2 Short Blades
 - Level 3.0 Axes
 + Level 19.6 Dodging
 - Level 1.2 Stealth
 - Level 8.0 Stabbing
 - Level 15.0 Shields
 - Level 4.0 Traps & Doors
 - Level 7.2 Evocations


You have 16 spell levels left.
You don't know any spells.

Dungeon Overview and Level Annotations

Branches:
Dungeon (15/27)            Temple (0/1) D:5             Orc (4/4) D:7
    Elf (0/5) Orc:3          Lair (8/8) D:13          Swamp (0/5) Lair:5
  Slime (0/6) Lair:8        Snake (4/5) Lair:4        Vault (0/8) D:14

Altars:
Cheibriados
Elyvilon
Fedhas
Okawaru
Vehumet
Yredelemnul
Zin
Beogh

Shops:
D:11: %  D:12: *  Orc:4: /!!?/[%!(


                    Innate Abilities, Weirdness & Mutations

You cannot wear most types of armour.
You can wear up to eight rings at the same time.
You are amphibious.
You can use your tentacles to constrict many enemies at once.
Your rubbery body absorbs attacks (AC +1).
Your skin changes colour to match your surroundings (Stlth).
You have a mass of large tentacles instead of arms.
You are agile (Dex +1).
Your magical capacity is low (-10% MP).

[Mattchew]

Nice. My son's most successful character to date is an OcBe. He thinks they're underrated for melee, and I think he might be right. Constriction is def fun.

Of course, I've just splatted about a dozen OcCjs in a row. They're hard to get off the ground.

Me, I'd probably just go for the 3 runer. Maybe I'll feel bolder if I get one rolling a little bit.

[Happy Corner]

I've scored a 5 rune run with berserkers before, so it's probably doable with octopodes.

I wouldn't switch gods if that's all you're going for. If you DO want to try for an all-runer, TSO is what lots of players go with (and TSO's summons are even better for the endgame). Just be warned that Trog's wrath can be harsh. A berserk stone giant or titan is no joke, especially if you're in the middle of recovering from some other massive fight, and you won't be able to outrun them at normal speed. Keep plenty of blink/teleport scrolls handy, just in case.

As for jewelry, I see you haven't cleared the Vaults or Elf Hall yet. Those can have shops, and the treasure vaults at the bottom of both branches often have at least a few pieces of jewelry. You also haven't finished the main dungeon, so there might be some more shops to come. There's usually jewelry in the Slime Pit vault, too, but it's going to be a while before your character is ready to take on THAT challenge. Other than scumming Pandemonium or the Abyss (not recommendable), I'm not sure what else you can do right now to find jewelry.

[pleasedpig]

Woo! I cleared elf to 4 and vaults to 7, finding lots of shops but zero jewelry shops or noteworthy rings. But I got a treasure trove on like elf3 with 8 speed potions as the cost. It was a jewelry vault!

Best thing in it was (Hunger- rC+ rN+ MR), which is nice. But no damage Mostly it let me identify like 8 more jewelry pieces so one day I can go for acquirement.


It seems like artifact rings can really dump on stats more than artifact armor. Plus the ability to mix and match without being locked into a slot allows you to use "lesser" artifact rings, instead of the best. And with like 30 evade and 30 shield, I'm not missing AC... yet.

[Rapigel]

I just five runed (Shoals, Swamp, Vaults, Tomb, Slime) an OcFi of Kiku. This was mainly a melee build (pain trident + shield), with necro spells (and skill) just to provide punch to the pain trident and zombies/abominations for support, meatshields and escape. Like you, I didn't really notice the low AC fighting one-on-one with a big shield skill. The ring drops were ok, had lots of slaying, but only basic resists covered. Still, had no trouble with Zot 5. I found this build much, much easier than caster OCs that have I tried.

[pleasedpig]

It's strangely powerful. Either AC is that bad, or evasion is that good. Armorless doesn't feel squishy at all... I makes me rethink melee builds in general.

[TehDruid]

Actually yeah, I noticed that running with a large shield wielding lightly armoured MiMo (had around 60 SH and 30+ EV). He was barely taking damage in late dungeon and Vaults:8 in contrast to my heavily armoured characters. Evasion on its own is VERY fickle though, I believe. I've had a run with a Phase Shifting Spriggan with the ring of Shaolin (over 60 EV) where I still were getting my ass handed to me in melee. A mix of defensive stats is always the best way to go, I think.

[pleasedpig]

One change I've noticed is that snake5 is a BITCH with nagas having constrict.

It's really rough on Octpocraps because it goes past evade and shield, and the zero ac makes it deal straight damage. I could take on a dozen nagas at once, and 90% of the damage was coming from one constrict. I had to teleport out, and elf5 seems easier.

[dk]

had some fun with OcBe too. But if you get a strong character running, the only rings you`ll find `till Lair:8 are controlled flight and hunger, obviously...