Kiku advices

[tv1990]

I want to play a heavy necromancer playstyle (lot of undead minions as main source of damage) i want to see some succesful runs and i have some questions about necromancy :

_ can a staff of death be considered as a pain branded weapon

_ how "spammable" kiku's receive corpses (how many times i can cast it without runing low on piety)

_ what magic school i can branch to for extended

_ aside dispel undead, simul , and raise undead what "cool" necromancy spells i should memorise

[njvack]

It looks like a staff of death isn't pain-branded exactly, but is more similar to other enhancer staves -- it deals negative energy damage based on evocations and necromancy. It's also an enhancer to necro spells (especially relevant for, say bolt of draining and dispel undead).

Corpses are pretty cheap, but you probably don't want to "spam" corpse delivery unless you need a lot of corpses. Most of the time, animating regular corpses will be fine.

Branch to any magic school you like. Depends on what spells exist and what you've already trained. Melee + necro is totally viable for extended; you'll switch from "primary damage comes from derived undead" to "derived undead do extra damage when you need it." A bunch of dragon simulacra are insane.

Bolt of Draining (can fire through undead allies), Agony, and Death Channel are all good general-use spells. Regeneration never gets old. Borg's and Death's Door are insanely great.

[Badtown]

Staff of Death is pretty undesirable as a poor man's pain brand.

While it can technically hit harder than a Pain brand, you have to invest in 3 skills rather than 2 to get great use out of it, and you're still swinging a slower staff without a bonus.

Corpse Drop piety cost isn't bad, you can use it several times without dropping from one piety rank to the next.

Necromancy is a great support school for other magic. Regen/Sublimate/Dispel Undead/Simulacrum are great throughout the game.

[Hurkyl]

While it can technically hit harder than a Pain brand, you have to invest in 3 skills rather than 2 to get great use out of it, and you're still swinging a slower staff without a bonus.

To be fair, the extra skill is a useful skill that you would often already want to be training for unrelated reasons.

[Sar]

Both Death's Door and Borg are excellent spells if you are willing to invest that much in casting and have the book. Borg is the one you should probably get first.

[sanka]

- a staff of death is not bad if you find one, but a pain branded fast weapon is better for melee in my experience
- kiku's corpse delivery is spammable, because once you get your pain branded weapon (or, in rare cases, the necronomicon) you have absolutely no other use for kiku's piety, and it's really hard to get excommunicated by spamming it. (Ok, sometimes invoke torment is useful too, especially if you are immune to it.). But you have no reason to actually spam it, because agony/bolt of draining/dispell undead and pain branded melee kills almost everything in a 3 rune game easily. (Bad luck if you got neither agony, nor bolt of draining tough.)
- for extended you want mostly the same things as other characters: strong melee (non-pain branded), haste, controlled blink. The most important necro spells are Borgs and Death's Door, but simulacrum can be strong even there.
- at * piety memorize corpse rot, and use it to kill anything dangerous that are not immune to it. It's one of the few overpowered low level spells that has not been removed for some reason. You need to run around a little bit sometimes to use it tough. Agony or bolt of draining is enough for three runes, which also means you will have a lot of extra XP to prepare for extended if you like.

[MainiacJoe]

re Kiku I'd appreciate insight into choosing when to pain-brand a weapon. I understand that weapons with a min-delay less than 7 are ideal, but suppose you get to 6* and you haven't found a demon weapon. If your choices are between a speed 7 weapon with high base damage and a faster weapon with low base damage, how do you decide whether to go with one of these, or to wait a little longer?

[Sar]

I don't know if it's optimal but I don't hesitate to pain something like a greatsword/battleaxe/glaive, because I don't like swapping and those have enough damage to kill rN monsters.

[Ceann]

Vampiric Draining is a very powerful spell you can get, also as a Ne it and bolt of draining allow you to dip into depths if you feel like being a little risky once you clear dungeon orc/lair because it has a high spell power cap and if you find any Spriggan bands on U:1 that will get you a demon whip or a quick blade which are some of your ideal pain brand targets. Vampiric Draining always hits and ignores EV so it should be easy to kill them as long as you use a hallway or something.

Race matters a bit "in my mind" in whether or not you want to actually choose Kiku. If I was Mu then I would start MuNe and take Sif, if you want to pick Kiku then you should choose another starting spellbook you like that plays well into getting necromancy books from Kiku. As it is kind of a waste to start as Ne and then go Kiku and get a book you already have. So depending on race I would probably start as another class has a positive apt in Ne and something else and start with the appropriate book.

[Sar]

Well, I personally would never consider dipping Depths after Lair/Orc if I played a game with a desire to win. Also I'd still prefer Kiku to Sif on a Mummy, because being able to throw corpses at anything that looks funny at me beats channeling in combat to cast one more Vamp Drain. Also, Ne^Kiku is probably fine, you will get some redundant spells but you will also probably get to use the first power earlier (depending on skill training), so it's all good IMO.

[njvack]

The other nice-ish thing about Mu^Kiku is that you can raise some corpses and then torment the whole damn screen without taking damage.

[Airwolf]

I actually like Ne^Kiku because Receive Corpses and Animate Dead is amazing, and Ne guarantees Animate Dead.

I pain brand a fast otherwise weak weapon like any short blade, a spear, a whip, etc. In that case, pain does most the damage, not the weapon, so you do want to have an alternative for pain-immune foes. (If you're lucky, it's something like an electrocution-branded version of your pain weapon, fast and low XP.)

[Badtown]

_ aside dispel undead, simul , and raise undead what "cool" necromancy spells i should memorise

Definitely agree with Ceann around vampiric draining. That single spell can take you through most of the early game and is useful even later when you just need some guaranteed damage.

I haven't seen this spell mentioned much: Agony is also a strong spell for a little while against some fat threats like nameds, hydras and dragons. You'll eventually Amnesia it away to make room for stronger/more versatile spells. Bolt of Draining can replace it once you can afford some skill points into Conj.

Haunt is often avoided by non-Kiku folks, and it's pretty strong for dealing with individual problems. The ghosts it summons can reduce the targets MR and Slow it even if they alone won't kill it.

I also like that Kiku is fine with Holy Wrath weapons. The combination of a Demon Whip of Pain + Sacred Scourge of Holy Wrath is pretty handy.

Kiku's the best-designed caster god in my opinion, and happens to work well for hybrids too. The guaranteed gifts start showing up early (when you need them) and are consistent to build around. Corpse drop is like a reusable summoning scroll for dealing with problems. The resistances are incredibly useful and make the Tomb a very easy source of loot and experience after the midgame.

As a caster, long after you move on to powerful screen clearing spells, the points you invested in necromancy will continue to pay off from Necromutation, Regen/Sublimation of Blood, and Dispel Undead.