new to spriggan casters, some questions

[tasonir]

Should my spriggan be using shields/weapons/ranged weapons? Right now I'm going venom mage, but I've also played around with air/earth mages. I have found bucklers and figure the additional slot would be nice to have for when I eventually find quality ones, but are even +0 bucklers good to use? Would training shields to 9 remove spell casting penalties in addition to the attack speed penalty? Should I be wielding a weapon, presumably a short blade? Are rods/staves better?

In short, I'm just not sure what to equip a caster with, really.

[Un67]

Bucklers are almost always nice to have, so train the skill to 9 and go for it. As for weapons, it's generally good to have something you can use to fight in melee to conserve mana if need be, but for casting you want to go for a staff (preferably energy for Spriggans). Ranged weapons are still good to have, because there are many things that they can do that spells can't (attack with no MP, attack while silenced, apply curare, etc.)

[mageykun]

=D

Okay, I'm going to talk a lot now.

Basically, weapon choice, taking a shield or not, etc depend on your build, and what you want to do.

On shields: spriggans are fragile as all get go, and while you will always be nice and evasive, a buckler gives you second live of defense and drastically increase your survivability. If you can, equip a buckler. Even a +0 vanilla one, you can always trade it in for one with a resists or reflection when you're lucky enough to find one (and spriggans are already shot equipment slots for resists- so having the shield slot useable helps). The only real difficulty is bucklers can be hard to find early, and yo have to get to skill 9 with a -3 aptitude penalty to get rid of all the melee speed, damage, and casting penalties. (So there's a heavy opportunity cost in skill points to training it up). The tricky bit is getting to lvl 1- let a weak rat or something smack your shield under automatic skill training until you've weighted a good chunk of your xp towards your lvl 0 shields skill, then go kill some things. Remember that if the penalties are problematic for you, you can unequip your buckler, keep it in inventory, and keep training shields until you feel ready to use it (this won't take necessarily till skill lvl 9- that's just when the penalties go to 0. Depending on your int and spell skills, you may be able to cast in a buckler safely earlier).

The only reason you should not equip a buckler is if (a) you're putting it off because you have a better place to spend your skill points for the moment, or (b) you want a two handed weapon. Now, I'll tell you that mele spriggans are probably better off going 1 handed, but you can make it to Zot with a 2H SpBe if you really wanna. For caster spriggans though, staffs are an excellent two handed option, and can increase your damage output enough to be worth not taking a buckler.

Weapon choice: stabber spriggans should use a dagger (maximize stab), or maybe a quick blade (less stab, but more hits). Mele spriggans (generally berserkers or hybrids) can go short blades (quick blade for moar speed or a nice sabre for the base damage), maces and flails (whip, until you can find a demon whip. Slightly slower than the short blades, but more base damage), or go into long blades if you really want to spend the points and sacrifice the shield advantages (even slower, but better base damage). Blaster-casters may want an elemental staff, both because of the spell power boost and that they are awesome in mele one you get staves, evocations, and your elemental spell school trained up. But they can take a short blade or whip with a buckler instead, for the benefits of shields and potential randart weapons (there are no randart magical staffs).

I also find it kind of helps to choose your planned weapon type early on, since delaying your choice or changing you mind wastes skill points. Of course a good enough find early enough can make your change your plans or break the general outline I just gave, but it still doesn't hurt to think ahead.

Rods aren't weapons you fight with. They're tools you switch to, evoke spells from, and then switch back. Auto-recharging wands that need to be wielded to work. Don't bother using them in mele.

On ranged weapons: if you're a blaster (wizard, elementalist, conjurer, etc) you don't need to- you have your spells to do that, and you may not have the points to spare. You may still want to though. If you're a non-caster, or a hybrid that uses buffs and utility spells instead of direct damage, then by all means yes. Ranged attacks are a great solution to low hp, and you can kite wonderfully with spriggan speed. I'd rather sling a hydra to death than try to mele it with a flaming dagger, that's for sure! (ignoring stabs). Slings are probably the best option, especially since they synergize with your buckler (though it is possible to use a bow or xbow if you really wanna). Steel ammo for damage, silver for chaotic things, a few rocks for jellies, and poison for kiting. Blowguns are great early on, but curare is in short supply later in the game, and poison becomes less useful. You can go full on needle-stabber though- train up throwing, and go to Oka or Trog for needles of sleep and paralysis- they work even on demons!

That's all the words I can dump for now. I am entirely too enamored with Sprigs.

[tasonir]

I appreciate all the thought out responses though I will definitely go bucklers, and I wish my last semi-successful mage was still around - he had an artifact sabre with flame, rF+ and +int, on like dungeon level 5 no less but due to being fairly newbish he still didn't make it too far. Aside from finding something like that again I think I'd probably try to get a quarterstaff with a good effect...maybe a nice rod if I find one...still haven't gone far enough to find a rod I'd actually use yet, but one day.

I like the idea of having slings/bow since they are +2, but in my attempts I have a lot of trouble with encumbrance since I haven't gotten strength up to 8 or so yet, so I usually left them in the temple for the future, and then died. I'll travel without for a while and try them out once my casting is higher level

[AtT]

Aside from finding something like that again I think I'd probably try to get a quarterstaff with a good effect.

Quarterstaffs do not actually have effects on them, you're thinking of Staves. A quarterstaff could potentially be branded, but I think you're talking about Enhancer Staves.
I believe this information (taken from the knowledge bot) is up to date and accurate:

  Code:

Enhancer staves (fire, cold, air, earth, death) have (Evoc + 1)/15 chance of doing 1d(1.25 * (Evoc + skill)) extra damage that ignores AC (except earth), but checks the appropriate resistance. Air also needs to pass a (damage dealt + air + 1)/20 chance, and death a (necro + 1)/8 chance.

Basically, if you're good in the type magic and have a decent evocations (14 to max it out) and maybe some staves skill (so you can actually hit) you will do a ton of damage with an enhancer staff.

[Sojiro]

The tricky bit is getting to lvl 1- let a weak rat or something smack your shield under automatic skill training until you've weighted a good chunk of your xp towards your lvl 0 shields skill, then go kill some things.

Actually, you don't need to gain a full level, as soon as you start training it it appears in your skill list, and you can focus on it to pour massive amounts of XPs inside. You can weight a large part of your XPs toward Shields without using it a lot, especially in manual mode.

[Blade]

The tricky bit is getting to lvl 1- let a weak rat or something smack your shield under automatic skill training until you've weighted a good chunk of your xp towards your lvl 0 shields skill, then go kill some things.

Actually, you don't need to gain a full level, as soon as you start training it it appears in your skill list, and you can focus on it to pour massive amounts of XPs inside. You can weight a large part of your XPs toward Shields without using it a lot, especially in manual mode.

That's only in 0.10 Trunk; it doesn't apply retroactively to 0.9.1. It's still fine to give information based on 0.9.1, since that's the current stable version and the version most new people will probably be playing.

[BountyHunterSAx]

Not to become a sir-spamalot, as I just posted this link in my new-topic post. But I actually just made a semi-instructional how-to/let's play for a spriggan wizard (intending to go pure conjurations). Thusfar the video is ~2hours long and he's still alive. Found some poison resist, has Isekundurun's Magic Blast hungerless (Lvl4), and is in the Lair.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=M4lclhJ-3jQ
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oP7tNhskOSA

SpWz is my highest score to date - though I still haven't won the game, so grains of salt all around.
-AHMAD

[BountyHunterSAx]

To weigh-in on the buckler issue, I never use bucklers as a Spriggan. My speed bonus and reliable Mephitic cloud spell and blink spell can handle most any "typical" trouble I run into without needing to get my hands dirty, and I inevitably find a staff by the time I hit Lair:6 or so, rendering the entire shield school I studied entirely pointless. That, plus the less equipment reliance you have the better.

Now, before you get to that point, if you happen to find a buckler, yes, no harm in wearing it if you're still reliably casting stuff. But I prefer to funnel my EXP into dodging and spellcasting/conjurations. That -3 aptitude to conjuration means you really have to WORK at it if you're going that route .

-AHMAD