God choice for Melee Felids

[tasonir]

I'm playing around with felids more lately, and I'm having a hard time picking a god for a melee felid (caster felids would fit well with sif or vehumet as usual). The stealthy, actually using claws type of felid doesn't really seem to match up with too many gods.

I want to use some spells, so I'm not interested in Trog.

Even I don't feel like playing Chei on a race with natural speed is a good idea.

Jiyva would be awesome but is difficult to start with; if I could find an altar, sure.

Makhleb's healing is strong but I feel like when I only have 40 hp through most of the early game I'm either at full life or running away. I'm never really at a "75% health but I'm okay with that and will keep fighting for healing" stage.

Elyvilon is super strong as always but as stated I want to be stabbing things, not training invocations to 27. Could still be an option.

Okawaru seems like probably the best choice, although I have two reservations: Obviously I can't get any gifts, but the main problem is really just I'm bored of picking Okawaru for all of my fighters From a power perspective, he does still seem like the best choice though.

How does Ashenzari's "boundedness" work for felids? If I bind jewelry I get the jewelry boosts, but I can't ever get boosts for weapons/shields? Can I get an unarmed boost? Given that I'm tired of Okawaru I feel I might be heading in this direction.

[Sar]

Chei is not that hard if you have ranged spells.
Fedhas is probably good.
FeCK is fun (and you can abandon Xom for Jiyva if you find an altar near Slime entrance).
Lugonu can work too.

[rchandra]

Even I don't feel like playing Chei on a race with natural speed is a good idea.

This is backwards imo. Not that I'd like chei felid because chei and felid HP both punish errors, but fast races actually get to move in combat with chei. Ce is my favourite chei race by far. (Tr is probably my second). Piety is no trouble, after you kill a few bats/bees everything is faster anyway.

try out ash, or wizmode it, and report back if you get stealth/dodging bonuses (nobody can get UC bonuses).

Fedhas and xom are probably the best ideas for variety.

[tasonir]

Fair enough, i'll give chei some consideration later on. Have an ash FeMo in lair, we'll see how it goes. No amulet to curse yet...

[crate]

chei felid is pretty bad

chei centaur is very good though

the only god I would personally ever use on a "melee" felid is Trog

[Magipi]

the only god I would personally ever use on a "melee" felid is Trog

I misread your post, reading 'the only god I would personally never use on a "melee" felid is Trog', and I nodded emphatically, agreeing

[yogaFLAME]

If you intend to actually win, yes, Trog is basically the only choice. For "melee."

[rebthor]

Fedhas is good, Yred might not be terrible. Lucy could probably be good too.

[tasonir]

I got my current felid to the temple, fully intending to try chei, but chei wasn't there, so I checked the thread again and saw crate's use Trog post...he's definitely right. I resisted because I wanted to eventually be able to abuse spells like statue form, haste (if not chei), controlled blink, regen, etc...but it's a long time before you get those spells and you can start the game with berserk, and find regeneration (Trog's hand) by d:4 every game. It's the way to go.

Not getting weapon gifts makes it easy to store trog piety and that is downright overpowered. I hate summoning brothers on non-felids because it kills your piety quickly when you start at 5 *'s, on felids I can summon 3 and stay in 6 * piety.

[WalkerBoh]

I played a FeFi that found Chei at xl1, so I took it. It was literally the most miserable crawl experience I have ever had. I made it through lair and orc without dying once (somehow), then the difficulty ramped waaaay up and I ended up dying before getting a rune.

Long story short, you should choose Chei.

[tasonir]

I definitely intend to, just for laughs, the problem is my felid of trog hasn't died yet. Or rather, has died 5 times, but manages to still have lives left. eventually

[bjourne]

How does Ashenzari's "boundedness" work for felids? If I bind jewelry I get the jewelry boosts, but I can't ever get boosts for weapons/shields? Can I get an unarmed boost? Given that I'm tired of Okawaru I feel I might be heading in this direction.

You only get jewelry bonuses.