CIP Bookish Octopode Transmuter Edit: YASD

[iocanepowder]

Doctor the Insei started off on level 1 of the Dungeon of Zot, wandered into an odd hallway, and noticed a secret door. Inside he found 3 books: Warchants, Power, and Alchemy. This is going to be a fun run. Since I started off with 4 spellbooks, I'm thinking of training spellcasting and transmutation early, in addition to unarmed fighting. I haven't had too much luck with octopode transmuters post-temple, especially without evaporate, but I'm feeling good about this one.

Which god should I bring the good Doctor to? Sif Muna would give books and regeneration, Kiku'd give earlier access to lich form and some other nasty spells, and Chei would give ungodly stats at the cost of slowing down my movement. (Remember when Chei didn't affect transformations? That was fun.)

I really want this octopode to kick ass. What should I do?

Edit:

Found a ring! ID'd and... hunger. You go back on the floor.
Found an altar of Chei on D1. Hm.. I think I'll put that as *maybe* until I can get a controlled blink.
D3: -6 ring of Dexterity. No thanks.
D4: Killed a previous incarnation of the Doctor with a wand of lighting I found. Reached L5 UAF. I'm going to turn that off for a bit and develop my spells.
D7: Heheheh, take that Sigmund. LV 7.

[KoboldLord]

I would recommend trying an alternative to one of the standard caster deities this run. You'll get lots of chances to play more with them, but this time you get a whole lot less benefit from spellbook gifts because you already have four good books. Fullsome Distillation/Evaporate will be usable on transmutations you were going to have anyway, and they're strong enough to guarantee that you can cross-train into whatever you want from the other books.

It is my policy to recommend Ashenzari for everything, but I'd also be tempted to play Fedhas with a start like that. Fedhas provides useful support for a melee-biased character while also working well with poison clouds, and octopodes can make good use of the weather effects. This run is the perfect opportunity to try new things.

[iocanepowder]

I'd like to get a win under my belt before I start doing anything too unorthadox. Ashenzari might be interesting. How good is the skill boost?

Edit: Hey, I found a temple but I have no rings. Might as well have a look around.

Edit 2: Hm, it has all the gods. Eh, whatever, I'm going to go Ash.

[KoboldLord]

I'd like to get a win under my belt before I start doing anything too unorthadox. Ashenzari might be interesting. How good is the skill boost?

You'll need to find a total of five rings or four rings and an amulet to curse before you can get it, but if you've got some high-level spells to get online the jewelry bondage bonus ranges from awesome to holy crap that's better than Vehumet inside a slightly larger Vehumet. Ashenzari won't do anything for your unarmed combat, though, so if you go with her it's probably better to adjust your aim to head for Mystic Blast and Poisonous Cloud.

Makhleb and Nemelex are also generically good for everything, and if you get using them down that knowledge will be useful for many other types of characters, and with substantially worse luck on item generation.

[iocanepowder]

Killed by a stair mimic somewhere in Orc. Cheers.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=52iOkU3j_pw