Why Not VSFi?

[MainiacJoe]

VSFi is not a recommended character combination, but I'm not sure why. Here are the advantages I see, given that it's a melee-focused background:

1. You start with all your background attributes in STR and DEX boosts which increases the frequency of your bite attack.
2. All the quick weapons are one-handed (edit: except dire flail), so you may as well start with the shield you'll eventually use anyway. It is your best defensive aptitude after all.
3. High AC complements regeneration well.

What am I missing?

[Sprucery]

I guess just that the developers want to keep the list of recommended backgrounds and roles reasonably compact. There's nothing wrong with VSFi I think.

[jejorda2]

Yeah, "not highlighted" is not meant to be anything like "not viable." It's just not one of the very few things to show off how that race works or is different from other races.

There's no good reason that VSFi couldn't be highlighted, but then there would be too many things highlighted or you'd have to eliminate something else that would bring up the same question.

[rockygargoyle]

Fi isn't very good for VS since they rely a lot on mana to survive, and Fi starts with a very low mana pool.

[Rast]

Fi could be highlighted on just about every race.

[Sar]

you mean Be

[Pollen_Golem]

You start with all your background attributes in STR and DEX boosts which increases the frequency of your bite attack.

But stats have no bearing on attack speed.

[MainiacJoe]

You start with all your background attributes in STR and DEX boosts which increases the frequency of your bite attack.

But stats have no bearing on attack speed.

The Vine Stalker's anti-magic bite is a mutation-based auxilliary attack. My understanding is that whenever you make a melee attack, a (1 + STR + DEX) > 1d50 check is made to see whether you also bite. If this is correct, then to maximize overall bite freqeuncy you need both a fast weapon (frequent checks) and also high STR+DEX (successful checks).

[MainiacJoe]

Fi isn't very good for VS since they rely a lot on mana to survive, and Fi starts with a very low mana pool.

Ah. Now this makes sense! If you do go Fighter it would seem that you have to go with an Invocations-heavy god to get more MP. You could do Evo too, but you probably get a quicker return on your XP with Invo.

[tasonir]

Fighters can, and generally should, train spellcasting just as any other background that isn't Be should also train spellcasting They will probably train it somewhat later than most, although if I was a VSFi, I'd train it a little bit earlier for the mana, if I wasn't training invocations instead. Depends on exactly what your setup/god is, there are exceptions, etc etc.

VS is such a powerhouse that you could really recommend every background and it'd be viable; so they had to be pretty selective with the actual recommendations. Fighter's very strong but probably doesn't show off the mana pool + mana shield interactions well enough.

[ajon]

Does the bite roll on all attacks? Would an axe have a roll for each hit or just the main attack and not the cleave hits?

[tasonir]

I'm fairly sure you can only bite the direct target of an axe attack, and the chance of that is based on the usual factors, your stats, levels, random dice, etc. Someone had posted the formula somewhere but I don't remember it offhand.

[Lasty]

tasonir is correct about only being able to bite the primary target of a cleaving attack. The odds of trying to bite are (str+dex) in 50. Your ability to hit with the bite is influenced by Fighting skill, slaying, dex, str, and other effects that generally increase accuracy.

[WingedEspeon]

VS is such a powerhouse that you could really recommend every background and it'd be viable; so they had to be pretty selective with the actual recommendations.

CK is just bad and not particulary Viable no matter what your race is. (of course you can win CK. any combo an be won if your good enough and try enough times. But I like my odds of winning DEBe a lot more than my odds of winning TrCK)

Vs Fi is very strong. go Ely and you get MiBe level easy mode.