Crazy idea? SpAs w/ demon trident of electrocution?

[danr]

So I found this nice little trinket in a vault in Lair. I've got a SpAs of Okawaru and am tempted to experiment with using a spriggan as a straight-up melee character - not stabbing, not using much magic. The -3 aptitude for polearms is a minus, but spriggans also have -3 in conjurations and play conjurers no problem.

The trident would allow melee without being in range of enemies.

[Sar]

You don't even really need to abuse reach that much, Sp make for good melee characters - high EV and you can run away from things if they punch through it. You'll probably want some magic though, the usual buffs and such.

[Siegurt]

The only thing I can think of that might go wrong is it's REALLY annoying to back up, poke something, back up, poke something etc. etc.

I'd probably pair it up with summons, even though you can only poke past your summons 1/2 the time, it saves large amounts of headaches
Also if you've got some invested in stealth (which you very well might being a SpAs) you can get trident-distractastabs with summons (Which aren't as good as shortblade stabs, but are as good as longblade stabs)

[njvack]

The thing that tends to kill my melee Spriggans is a single hit for a surprising amount of damage. As long as you remember how squishy you are (and how hard some melee bruisers can hit!) this isn't crazy at all.

[and into]

I'd also add that heroism and low skill for min delay on a d. trident more than make up for the poor polearms aptitude. 9 skill levels in polearms, then whenever you need it, one turn and two keystrokes lets you hit stuff at 0.6.

[ackack]

You don't even really need to abuse reach that much, Sp make for good melee characters - high EV and you can run away from things if they punch through it. You'll probably want some magic though, the usual buffs and such.

Yep. This character is capable of tabbing things just fine.