Best Newbie characters + backgrounds?

[mentira]

Someone told me a Berserker's the way to go, but I like to cast stuff. Any recommendations? Links to guides are cool too.

[Amnesiac]

I always played DEWz of Vehumet when I was new, because I like their Int and aptitudes and a huge mana pool and my first win(15 runes) was with this build. You could also do something like DrWz and decide on what schools to learn, after you get a colour. Oh and there is a midway class - stabber. Confuse or put to sleep your enemies with spells or turn invisible and stab the whole room of sleeping monsters. Playing just a plain assassin and then look for ways to increase your chances to stab is very fun even without spells, too, but I'm not sure it's an easy class to play for a new player.

[mentira]

I played as a DEWz yesterday and I agree it was fun, though I died early on because Blink kept putting me beside enemies

I don't understand, would Blink level up to the point where I can pick where I'll go? Because the first time I encountered Blink it was in the form of a scroll and I chose where to go

[Amnesiac]

You can only choose the general direction if you have a spell or evocable controll teleport. And there is a controlled blink spell of 7lv. Spell power doesn't matter, all that matter is the chance of successful cast. Use mephitic cloud a lot and retreat when you have a low mp. Block ways with conjure flame. Some stupid or beefy enemies step into it and you can block their path your self if you have enough protection or put a new flame on the tile they will move to in the next turn. Burning zombies and skellies this way is great. You can even burn very strong enemies by putting conjured flames before them and in some situation a lucky blink can help you with that.

[Klown]

Deep Elf Conjurer of Vehumet is a very accessible choice.

Not needing to run away every ten seconds due to another resistant creature appearing is really nice.

[Turukano]

I played as a DEWz yesterday and I agree it was fun, though I died early on because Blink kept putting me beside enemies

DE are a good start for a newbie caster as their aptitudes are great. Nevertheless playing Wz is a bit tricky in my opinion. So I would go for a DE with focus on destructive magic, so either conjurer (already mentioned) or fire elementalist is a good choice.

You might consider a venom mage too, poisoning foes with sting is very strong in the early game.

Concerning gods: Both Sif Muna and Vehumet are popular but for a beginner I'd recommend Vehumet.

Good luck!

[some12fat2move]

Good builds for beginners are very specialized ones. This is because a really specialized build doesn't have to be flexible to what the dungeon gives you - for example, a Berserker finding a spellbook doesn't have to consider "Is it worth investing experience to make use of this?" whereas other builds might have to make a tough call. Specialized builds are also great for learning the game because they focus intensely on one set of mechanics at a time: DeCj for instance emphasizes blasting and MP management without involving so many other facets of the game. With that in mind I would probably recommend MiBe*Trog, DeCj*Veh, CeHu*Oka, SpEn*Ash, and TrMo*(Ely, Mak, or Nem). If you win with each of those you will be pretty familiar with most of the mechanics in the game and can then intelligently experiment with whatever builds catch your interest.
Disclaimer: I'm an idiot so listen to me at your own risk.

[Frelus]

To the one above me:
You forgot SpEn*Nemelex.
As a general strategy, I would refer you to this:
http://crawl.develz.org/info/inline.php?q=hyperbolic
If you play Trunk (or Stable Webtiles beta, i.e., .13), Start with Stealth to 10 and Short blades to 6, this is what I am doing atm and it works quite well (This is because stabbing was removed in .13 and is now the average between your weapon skill and stealth skill).
For Nemelex, just sacrifice everything you find, except maybe some weapons (As you will get mostly Decks of Destruction if you sacrifice all those weapons lying around).
Use decks (of Destruction or Summoning) liberally.

[1010011010]

I recommend new players to pick low maintenance gods.

Mage gods
Vehemet takes no Invocation training and is full of passive abilities.

Fighter gods
Trog also requires no invocation training and has few rather straightforward abilities, but requires no magic which can be seen as simplifying.
Okawaru requires some Invocation training and only two abilities.

stabber gods
Ashenzari is not super straightforward but gives more leeway for skill management and has a see through walls ability which makes unfamiliar vaults less dangerous.
Kikubaaqudgha is strictly necromatic magic god but necromancy can help when stabbing fails, requires necromancy skill instead of Invocation but you get a whole magic school from that (a good school too!), also get to pain brand a weapon which goes nicely with short blades.
Nemlex is powerful but not that easy of a god, requires evocation training rather than invocation. This god helps you help yourself with decks of cards and you won't see an immediate power increase from this god until he starts dropping ornate decks. summoning and destruction require little explanation but to make the most of this god you'll find yourself looking up what cards each deck contains and what cards do (?/ can describe an object, monster, card and other things). If you do go with Nemlex, make sure to have a good deck of escape on hand, not all draws are good.

Not sure why I included gods for stabbers since the whole stabber game contains a few shift in gameplay. This list from Vehumet to Nemlex is just my opinion and only a few gods you might want to try, gods to avoid would be Zin, Fedhas and Cheibriados.

[and into]

Not sure why I included gods for stabbers since the whole stabber game contains a few shift in gameplay. This list from Vehumet to Nemlex is just my opinion and only a few gods you might want to try, gods to avoid would be Zin, Fedhas and Cheibriados.

Well... The gods you listed are good for stabbers, but they aren't stabber gods, there's a perhaps subtle but important difference there. Those are strong options for gods when you have a stabbing playstyle, but they are also very powerful options for lots of other characters. Ashenzari, for instance, is nuts on lots of heavy spell casters, because majorly spell-centric characters have so many more skills to train relative to fighters who dabble in magic or even hex-based stabbers do, so the passive boost to all you skills once you get cursed enough is amazing.

Makhleb and Yred, the latter of which you can begin game with, are great choices for new players as well (maybe you will have a hard time gauging when to use the spectral clone ability (actual name escapes me at moment) of Yred, though). Abyssal knight is awesome fun too IMO but whatever.

The gods you recommend avoiding for newer players are reasonable, but there would be nothing wrong with giving them a shot if someone is curious, especially if an altar for one of those gods spawns really early. The reasons for avoiding aren't quite the same, though. To clarify: Fedhas is actually very very powerful early game, but I could see how getting best use of some of his abilities might be difficult for a new player, and with occasional fruit costs you do want to get the most out of the uses unless you got really lucky with drops. (Still worth a shot in my opinion.) Zin can be quite powerful but doesn't offer a ton of immediate rewards in terms of early game survivability, so not great god to start with for new folks. Chei can be very powerful but has a very rough conduct, so that's why he is difficult to recommend for new players.

So, hopefully that fleshes out a bit more about *why* those might not be ideal gods. I didn't want you to think they were simply bad or not worthwhile in general. Really, all the gods are worth trying once, at some point. The religion system in Crawl is really great and one (inter alia, of course, but still) of the major draws of the game compared to other roguelikes.

[drywall]

I really would not recommend DE for new players - they are very fragile and leave little room for mistakes (especially if, like most new players, you don't put any points into fighting or dodging). Wizard is also pretty inaccessible because all of the tools are very different and are kind of a lot for a new player to juggle vs say, Fire Elementalist which is very straightforward.

If you want a blaster-type try a Dr or a Ds Conjurer of Vehumet - they are still good but won't die in 3 turns to a centaur warrior when you're still trying to figure out about how much damage fireball does.

[Amnesiac]

I don't think it's all that bad with DE. DE have lower hp, but higher mp, which means that they can cast more spells and not let enemies close. They also have better aptitudes in magic. While it might be harder to win them(I don't know about that, as I have DEWz wins but not DrWz) that doesn't mean that they have a much harder start or they are bad for learning the game. In fact less HP means that you have to be more careful, which means that you will have to learn how to take less damage faster. I mean, I'm probably not as good as some blue names, but I managed to win a challenge game with no defence skills, which means that having low hp is not all that bad, considering that I had even lower hp without fighting skill.

[Gunthar]

If you play 0.13 you can consider GrFi of (Oka or Trog) a newbie character also. It provides some resistances, an AC bonus and some more stuff. The only backdraw is the low HP. Pick some early daggers and clubs for throwing to soften incoming enemies and then kill them when they reaches you.
Tactical play will help against the worst threat: the smiting orc priests. Just not letting the throwing skill growing ahead of the highest melee weapon skill as long you are a follower of Okawaru. Else you will receive a lot of throwing weapons like darts or so instead of melee and armor stuff.

[ackack]

Death Knight doesn't get enough love as a good starter background imo. While Trolls are easy, the lack of slots and reliance on claws would lead me to suggest a different race. Mi, HO, Gr, even Mf (if you like doing the polearms-behind-allies thing) are all reasonable choices.

CeHu, as somebody suggested, is quite easy. So it may be good if you're interested in seeing a lot of dungeon, or just winning. I think playing a high speed ranged attacker is likely to be difficult to extend to other types of characters, though.

If somebody genuinely new wants to play a blasty caster, I would probably recommend Dr as the race. Lots of HP and some intrinsic AC make the start considerably easier.

[BlackSheep]

While the speedy races may provide new players with a built-in escape mechanism, it won't help them learn to evaluate threats on sight. If you misjudge a situation with a spriggan, you can walk away from nearly everything in the middle of a fight. This can introduce some bad habits, like running toward everything you see and only thinking of retreat once your HP or MP are nearly depleted. Certainly speed makes the game easier, and thus exposes players to more of the game. But in terms of general tactics, I think players will learn better from a hill orc, draconian or even human than a spriggan or centaur.

[Siegurt]

Gr also make good newbie blaster types, GrCj is a good newbie starter kit, no serious weaknesses, simple direct blasty play, gives you resistances and AC. I'd probably recommend GrCj over DrCj for a novice, simply because you get to learn the effects of body armour.

[and into]

Death Knight doesn't get enough love as a good starter background imo.

Yred is pretty great, that's why I recommended him, above. The fact you can now do inter-floor recall is awesome, and enslaving rupert or erolcha or the like is pretty amazing. It is the closest you can get to making Crawl into a buddy-cop movie.

Just not letting the throwing skill growing ahead of the highest melee weapon skill as long you are a follower of Okawaru. Else you will receive a lot of throwing weapons like darts or so instead of melee and armor stuff.

Throwing skill will only net you ammo, and only if you get it above skill level 8 (IIRC). Ammo gifts and weapon/armor gifts are on separate timers, so getting ammo gifts do not compete with other gifts.

Throwing is not the best ranged option, usually, once other options are available (i.e., beyond early game), so if you do want to get a ranged combat option going then pick up a bow (upgrade to longbow at first opportunity) or a crossbow. (Some people still don't like fiddling with ammo even after some changes made it a bit easier. From a purely survival standpoint, having a solid ranged attack of some kind available is better.)

If you do really want to use throwing for whatever reason, then get a good blowgun (also uses throwing skill), hoard javelins, and pump strength. (Note: Strength also increases bow damage considerably, something to keep in mind.)

[Sandman25]

Ammo gifts and weapon/armor gifts are on separate timers, so getting ammo gifts do not compete with other gifts.

I believe it is not the case for 0.12-0.13 where there is only one timer.

  Code:

static void _gain_piety_point()
{
    // check to see if we owe anything first
    if (player_under_penance(you.religion))
    {
        dec_penance(1);
        return;
    }
    else if (you.gift_timeout > 0)
    {
        you.gift_timeout--;

...

    }


[Gunthar]

I was getting the dart god gifts even with throwing skill around 7 while the weapon skill was around 6.

The target is to get hand axes and javelins. I heard that there are now stackable hand axes (tomahawks) available in the 0.13 (0.14?) Blowguns are IMHO not really necessary. You can rely on branded darts as well. Branded darts are quite common to attain as loot from monsters and lying around.

Throwing is considered a supplement to help getting char level 10 more easy. When you have decent armor at level 10 then you can step back a bit with throwing. But if you still have horrible armor better stay with throwing to soften the enemies.

[and into]

I was getting the dart god gifts even with throwing skill around 7 while the weapon skill was around 6.

The target is to get hand axes and javelins. I heard that there are now stackable hand axes (tomahawks) available in the 0.13 (0.14?) Blowguns are IMHO not really necessary. You can rely on branded darts as well. Branded darts are quite common to attain as loot from monsters and lying around.

Throwing is considered a supplement to help getting char level 10 more easy. When you have decent armor at level 10 then you can step back a bit with throwing. But if you still have horrible armor better stay with throwing to soften the enemies.

From what Siegurt posted and you say here, it seems some of the gifting mechanisms were tweaked since I last ran a lot of Troglodytes or Okawarriors, so it seems I can't speak to that, apologies if I unintentionally spread some outdated info.

Except for dispersal brand, which is fairly rare, darts are really quite bad outside of very early game. Blowguns are awesome, though if you only plan to use them for poison needles and curare, you don't need to invest much in throwing in order to make good use of them.

Throwing is very nice early on, in general. You can stick with javelins, of course, but longbows are basically guaranteed not too long after Lair and Orc, and are better. Of course any of those avenues is viable, use javelins if you like them, but launchers end up being stronger for several reasons.

[Siegurt]

Gods still only gift missiles if your skill is >= 8 and you are carrying a launcher for said missile (except for thrown items):

  Code:

static bool _need_missile_gift(bool forced)
{
    const int best_missile_skill = best_skill(SK_SLINGS, SK_THROWING);
    const item_def *launcher = _find_missile_launcher(best_missile_skill);
    return ((forced || you.piety >= piety_breakpoint(2)
                       && random2(you.piety) > 70
                       && one_chance_in(8))
            && you.skills[ best_missile_skill ] >= 8
            && (launcher || best_missile_skill == SK_THROWING));
}

Incidentally the whole "Missiles don't reduce the frequency of other gifts" thing is actually just a slight misunderstanding (the code hasn't changed there)
this bit:

  Code:

            if (forced && (!need_missiles || one_chance_in(4))
                || (!forced && you.piety >= piety_breakpoint(4)
                    && random2(you.piety) > 120
                    && one_chance_in(4)))
            {
                if (you_worship(GOD_TROG)
                    || (you_worship(GOD_OKAWARU) && coinflip()))
                {
                    gift_type = OBJ_WEAPONS;
                }
                else
                    gift_type = OBJ_ARMOUR;
            }
            else if (need_missiles)
                gift_type = OBJ_MISSILES;
            else
                break;


basically means "gift a missile only if the player needs a missile (As determined by that first chunk of code I pasted) and we failed the random check to give them weapon or armour and would give them nothing if they didn't need missiles"

Which it was mistakenly interpreted to mean "getting a missile gift doesn't take away from other gifts" what actually happens after the gift is given, regardless of gift type, the gift timer is raised, missiles raise the timer less than other gifts, but still raise it, which deprives you of the opportunity to get more shots at getting a weapon/armour gift, which is why you get fewer of those in net (Of course you get more *total* gifts including missiles, but that's another story entirely).

We crunched the math in some forum thread a long time ago, and discovered that the impact was very significant, if you want to check it out, you can forum search just as well as I can

[and into]

Thanks Siegurt, that makes a lot of sense! (Yes I already hit the thank button but it was very helpful and deserved a post too!)

My advice would still generally be, raise skills that are useful and that you are using. Only in the rather extreme case that you absolutely know that you don't want to keep throwing stuff or shooting a bow or whatever, after a certain point in the game, be sure to turn off that skill before it hits 8. (For instance, you've run a ton of bow-using characters recently and you are sick of them, so even if piercer drops later on, you ain't touching bows past early game and don't want them to be central to your character once it is established.)

Otherwise, don't worry about gift-skewing too much regarding your skills. Raise your skills as you otherwise would without gifting, because the main purpose of skills is to make you better at the corresponding things, usually things you'll be doing hundreds or thousands of times in a game, rather than trying to "trick" the handful of relevant instances of directed item generation.