sudden death chalange week 1

[petercordia]

Edit: for those who don't know, crawl sudden death challenge (CSDC) is found on http://csclub.uwaterloo.ca/~ebering/cra ... index.html
6 consecutive weeks there is a race-background combo you're encouraged to play, and there are additional challenges, such as worshipping particular gods and getting the 1st rune without going into lair.

CSDC seems fairly generous in week 1, allowing Ogre Wizard with 3 of the strongest gods for that character: Ashenzari, Hepliaklqana & Okawaru.
I'm trying for a lairless win, because that will grant this weeks bonuses automatically.

I went with Hep, because he was the only one of the 3 in the temple, but I have almost no experience with him. The ancestor is quite strong, already killing many enemies. Could anyone give me advice which background to choose for the ancestor?
My character dump: https://underhound.eu/crawl/morgue/pete ... cordia.txt
I'm training only general skills atm (fighting, spellcasting, dodging, invocations, evocations) because I haven't yet found anything which pushes my character in a particular direction (except a robe of archmagi). This makes me a bit weaker right now, which is the reason I don't think I can afford to leave my ancestor unspecialised. I'm fairly certain I'll want a shield + polearms/axes later on.

[svendre]

I don't follow what you're talking about with the challenge and all that, but if I had an ogre worshipping Hep, I might encourage you to go a throwing route with portal projectile.

[petercordia]

right, I put a link explaining the chalange into the original post.
Does throwing also suit Wizards? I'd feel like I'm wasting all my Int. Also, which ancestor is best if you go throwing?

[TheMeInTeam]

Wiki says to take hexer but it's my least favorite ancestor background. Knight gets considerable durability increase from the shield and decent damage eventually. Battlemage stays fairly frail like hexer but eventually winds up with haste (all ancestor backgrounds self-haste at XL 19) + bolt of magma + crystal spear so it can spit out a lot of damage.

Even with idealize I don't usually see ancestors making super hero plays. They are nice for positioning, to offload a fair amount of damage on their own, and for transference...which actually has a fair amount of flexibility. At XL 27 it's still pretty frail, ~120 HP and only the knight gets decent AC (low 30s). It is immune to poison and negative energy though so you can throw those poison arrows/draining bolts right through the ancestor freely, douse it in mephitic clouds, and it won't take damage. Hep also doesn't care if you attack it and AFAIK inner flame/immolation work on it.

[VeryAngryFelid]

TheMeInTeam, you may want to check this:
viewtopic.php?f=12&t=25969&p=335023#p335023

[TheMeInTeam]

TheMeInTeam, you may want to check this:
viewtopic.php?f=12&t=25969&p=335023#p335023

That's pretty awesome, but not exactly the same scenario as just attempting to win/meet the extras in CSDC! He picked the ancestor background he did for obvious reasons given the context of the challenge constraints.

For an OgWz that can already inflict confusion on many enemies I don't like a hexer. I took knight, but battlemage is totally legit too.

[svendre]

right, I put a link explaining the chalange into the original post.
Does throwing also suit Wizards? I'd feel like I'm wasting all my Int. Also, which ancestor is best if you go throwing?

Not in general, no. But, there are a few specific reasons in this case why I suggested it. First, ogres can get plenty of str as they level up. Secondly, you want some int early on for casting spells that are your mainstay staying alive (you won't have body armour for awhile), then later on when you're in heavier dragon scales, that int will allow you to keep casting at least lower level spells. Portal projectile, specifically because you'll be able to throw around your Hep ally. Then, of course one of the main points is that ogres can throw boulders. For this kind of build, and probably in most cases, I would choose the knight.

Building a pure caster out of an ogre seems like a weird choice. The throwing will supplement mana and vice versa. You'll always have a means to demolish any spell resistant monster via boulders. Smite targeting with boulders is extremely powerful. It can be used as a means to eliminate all sorts of threats where you don't want them to have direct LOS on you.

[acoolguy]

Throwing is fine on OgWz. With OgWz the direction you go largely depends on what the dungeon gives you. If it gives you early books, you may go in that direction and ignore throwing. If it gives you good weapons and armour, throwing can be quite good to pick up.

[petercordia]

The game was very kind to me, but I ended up stupidly dying by staying in a fight and not using consumables at <50% hp. https://underhound.eu/crawl/morgue/pete ... 201708.txt
I noticed that I used more consumables than I usually do, because of the sudden death challenge. If only I had kept that up