First Time Ogre player - Need helps and suggestions

[psitank]

Hi there,

Found out about this fantastic game about a week ago. Been testing it with various species, and got as far as D10 I think with a troll Berserker.
I've always been a huge Fan of Monstrous Species in any games, especially the Muscled brute with a brain (Jon Irenicus anyone?).
So i'm really tempted to start a Ogre Magi. I've heard ogre is a very difficult Species to play due to terrible aptitude,
food and severe lack of clothing options.

So the question is, should I beat the game first before trying to tackle this difficult race? If not, what type of Ogre should
I play that will give me a good chance of beating the game (ie. good enough that I can beat it under, say, 100 retries haha).
Would a pure fighter ala berserker, a Hunter for mixed range + melee, a Melee + caster, or a hybrid of meleeing AND casting AND throwing
be good?

Any other help / suggestion is welcome.

[Katak]

Hi there,

Found out about this fantastic game about a week ago. Been testing it with various species, and got as far as D10 I think with a troll Berserker.
I've always been a huge Fan of Monstrous Species in any games, especially the Muscled brute with a brain (Jon Irenicus anyone?).
So i'm really tempted to start a Ogre Magi. I've heard ogre is a very difficult Species to play due to terrible aptitude,
food and severe lack of clothing options.

So the question is, should I beat the game first before trying to tackle this difficult race? If not, what type of Ogre should
I play that will give me a good chance of beating the game (ie. good enough that I can beat it under, say, 100 retries haha).
Would a pure fighter ala berserker, a Hunter for mixed range + melee, a Melee + caster, or a hybrid of meleeing AND casting AND throwing
be good?

Any other help / suggestion is welcome.

Ogres are great in the current trunk version 0.9.0. You'll want to try an Ogre Hunter to get the feel for them, I think. Also, ogre berserkers who end up using a large shield can be pretty tough.

Although they can make for passable spellcasters, I prefer to start as non-caster classes and then learn spellcasting later, once they are tougher.

[psitank]

Thanks for the quick reply. I was giving a Ogre hunter a whirl before I made my post. I realized I can't play him like a troll Zerker, hahaha.
What god do you think is goes good for a Ogre hybrid of range + spell, with melee as backup?

[Katak]

Thanks for the quick reply. I was giving a Ogre hunter a whirl before I made my post. I realized I can't play him like a troll Zerker, hahaha.
What god do you think is goes good for a Ogre hybrid of range + spell, with melee as backup?

Makhleb. He gives a great 'power after killing' ability which will keep your health and mana relatively stable in long fights (assuming you meatball things with spells and club fast enough).

[FlyingPants]

Ya i'm trying an ogre wizard and it seems fairly nice, instead of having to do funny things turning skills off, the casting skills train slowly(which isn't too bad, just gotta grind a little) but spell casting starts at 3, and has +3 aptitude so you always have plenty of mana. Found a book with summon butterflies and imps and hydras at D2, i think i'm set for this game :> Also +3 aptitude for fighting to get HP up.
Trying to decide which god to pick, probably vehumet, and maybe switch to makleb later on.

[psitank]

haha wow, painful experience so far. Lost at least 10 Ogres. I think i'll switch to an easier race for a while to stop the pain.

[tcjsavannah]

My Ogre win was a Chaos Knight (now defunct) but Makhleb was definitely the way to go with him. The giant spiked club can be a winner if you can last long enough to get it swinging quickly.

[sigfried von murdock]

Hi there,

Found out about this fantastic game about a week ago. Been testing it with various species, and got as far as D10 I think with a troll Berserker.
I've always been a huge Fan of Monstrous Species in any games, especially the Muscled brute with a brain (Jon Irenicus anyone?).
So i'm really tempted to start a Ogre Magi. I've heard ogre is a very difficult Species to play due to terrible aptitude,
food and severe lack of clothing options.

So the question is, should I beat the game first before trying to tackle this difficult race? If not, what type of Ogre should
I play that will give me a good chance of beating the game (ie. good enough that I can beat it under, say, 100 retries haha).
Would a pure fighter ala berserker, a Hunter for mixed range + melee, a Melee + caster, or a hybrid of meleeing AND casting AND throwing
be good?

Any other help / suggestion is welcome.

Ogre is a defacto hard race at the moment. Trunk version they are much stronger with Maces/Flails and fighting. Not an easy race to start with unless you know how to survive with very little AC and EV.

Yes, Jon Irenicus. Baldurs Gate II. That is... Joneleth Irenicus. "Jon the Shattered One." -
"I cannot be caged! I cannot be controlled! Understand this as you die, ever pathetic, ever fools!"

I am a BG nut. And for a Mage he is absolutely beastly. = )


I would reccomend trying a minotaur, very similar in style, except they can use armour, evasion, and shielding much, much better.

[psitank]

Would playing an Ogre Magi style be much better? Because I realized that although Ogres have horrible aptitude in every branch of magic, is it feasible to focus on a couple spell categories and use Giant Spiked Clubs as backup? Basically I would still miss out on 3 gear slots but it won't be as bad since i'd be a mage and mage shouldn't get hit much anyways. Although I'd imagine it'd still be a million times harder than a Spriggan Venom Mage or something.

If I do play Ogre magi what's the best branch of spell I should focus on to give me the best chance of ascending?

I always wanted a duel between Irenicus and the Nameless One. IMO the best protagonist and best antagonist in all the RPGs i've played.

[sigfried von murdock]

Ogres mages are good at casting spells... But they take quite a while to learn any new ones in any branch.

I am not sure if there is any real solid ogre play style, A shield definitely makes them more survivable, but their magic is just painful to use. Also they don't have the ability to gorge up on meat like trolls do, or have the regeneration, and eating rotten meat helps, but they still chow down a lot.

[jackalKnight]

I've never played a caster Ogre. I suspect they would be best as a "fighter first, caster second" rather than the other way around though. The HP increase is vital to them, so exploit it and gain Fighting levels.

[danr]

I would suggest summoning or translocations as single spell schools. Both give powerful panic buttons and utility without having to put too many levels into spellcasting or different magic schools, and still allow you to focus on melee and not worry too much about having a lot of MP.

[tazoz]

The best advice I can give is to train dodging at every opportunity, even though it trains slowly and adds only a small amount, it adds up.

There is a big difference between having 15 ev and 10.

My ogre berserker win had by the end game 30 ev and 20 ac, making zot a breeze, the first skill I maxed was dodging and it was completely worth it.

Additionally I suspect that pumping dexterity with your stat points makes sense even with wizards as you have such high spellcasting. (to be effective, blaster mages might need to get their intelligence to around 20.)

I feel that ogre transmuters are underused, the high hp and lack of body slots and strength goes well with the form spells. spider form can give you around 20 dodging.

One last piece of advice is that ogres can walk in shallow water without penalties in trunk, use this.

[galehar]

One last piece of advice is that ogres can walk in shallow water without penalties in trunk, use this.

They don't fumble attacks, but they do take a movement speed penalty. Although, I'm not sure it makes any sense...

[FlyingPants]

played a whole bunch of ogres, then made a mummy, and on d2 there was that Giant Spiked club artifact with speed brand. Durrrr