Im not judging your lack of tail... The great Felid thread

[runequester]

So the felids have caught my attention.

Anyone playing one presently or had good or fun runs of them in the past? What options did you go with?
What things were hard?

I am presently having a ton of fun with a stealthy berserker: sneaking about the dungeon, pouncing on things and running away a lot. Very cat like all in all.

Getting concerned about the lack of ranged attacks but maybe that's just for less evolved races

[greepish]

Well the felids biggest problems by far are early game. It's insanely weak, has no armor. By the end game you have far and away more lives than you need and are practically invulnverable (and it really needs fixing)

So berserkers are generally chosen since they have great early game surviveability. But really I'd say anything with early survivability is good, so any spellcaster with mephitic cloud or evaporate would work. The only felid I played and won with was a felid stalker.

[runequester]

I imagine the stealth aptitude might work out really well? Given you can't wear armour anyway, and you should be racking up a good dexterity score, you might be able to avoid some fights you don't need to take.

[greepish]

Eh, stealth is really not that great. Sure raise it a bit, but don't put buttloads into it. As a berserker it's not bad since troggers don't really use many skills.

[runequester]

I figure it'll be less effective at higher levels, but at least when starting out, it's proven handy quite a few times, to pick fights on my terms.

Given that level 12 is the furthest I've made it with a character (still in super newbie mode, since I just started some 2 weeks ago), what is "low level" to everyone else seems like dizzying heights of power to me

With no weapon skills, I figured it's pretty much stealth, dodge, fighting, stabbing and unarmed combat. Anything else I should be concerned with?

Is Traps&Doors worth the effort at all? This goes in general, I guess.

[greepish]

Well if you're just starting out, I'd really not choose a felid. They're terrible, and besides being good with a felid will not make you good with other species, since felid strategy is magnitudes different from a normal species.

[runequester]

Well if you're just starting out, I'd really not choose a felid. They're terrible, and besides being good with a felid will not make you good with other species, since felid strategy is magnitudes different from a normal species.

I've been doing more regular characters (had a good run with a kobold hunter, and been messing around with fighters and berserkers).

The felid thing was just a "let's try something entirely different as a break" but it turned out to work much better than I thought it would

[CommanderC]

I won 15 runes with a Felid Wraper, and I'm sure that's the last time I play felids. The problem I see with felids, is that the game becomes more boring because of the lack of choices. Playing them like summoners doesn't help either.

If you pick a background that can summon or has ranged attacks, I would go with Sif and abuse channeling.

If you choose something weird (like wraper), kiku, nemelex or makhleb are good choices. IMO kiku is the best one. She is very reliable, and her first gift is very fast.

[Pteriforever]

I figure it'll be less effective at higher levels, but at least when starting out, it's proven handy quite a few times, to pick fights on my terms.

Given that level 12 is the furthest I've made it with a character (still in super newbie mode, since I just started some 2 weeks ago), what is "low level" to everyone else seems like dizzying heights of power to me

With no weapon skills, I figured it's pretty much stealth, dodge, fighting, stabbing and unarmed combat. Anything else I should be concerned with?

Is Traps&Doors worth the effort at all? This goes in general, I guess.

WOW.

I've been playing for 4 months and I've only reached level 13.

How did you improve so quickly?!?!

[runequester]

Well, the highest I had before this cat was 7 or 8 So I think this may have been a lucky break.

The things I've noticed though:

1: I die all the time from trying to fight everything.
2: I die all the time from fighting a large group. Try to use terrain for cover.
3: I die all the time while still having potions and scrolls unused.
4: I die all the time because I get carried away hacking at a monster, and I don't notice my health is too low.
5: I die all the time because I don't try to escape until it is too late.

Work on fixing those 5, and slowly we'll reach the dizzying heights of level 15

[greepish]

You should really then choose a newbie background. Warrior classes are actually BAD newbie classes. You should try out something wizard or conjurer, or something else with mephitic cloud.

[srulz]

Well, the highest I had before this cat was 7 or 8 So I think this may have been a lucky break.

The things I've noticed though:

1: I die all the time from trying to fight everything.
2: I die all the time from fighting a large group. Try to use terrain for cover.
3: I die all the time while still having potions and scrolls unused.
4: I die all the time because I get carried away hacking at a monster, and I don't notice my health is too low.
5: I die all the time because I don't try to escape until it is too late.

Work on fixing those 5, and slowly we'll reach the dizzying heights of level 15

While things 1-3 should be fixed by experience sooner or later, 4 & 5 could be relatively dealt with using macros in your configuration file. My splat rate (well, at least the really stupid ones) during my newbie years decreased by 90%+ when I add this simple thing to my init.txt file (rc file if you're playing online):

force_more_message = LOW HITPOINT

that's all. I played melee chars almost all the time, so I understand your issues perfectly

[runequester]

Well, the highest I had before this cat was 7 or 8 So I think this may have been a lucky break.

The things I've noticed though:

1: I die all the time from trying to fight everything.
2: I die all the time from fighting a large group. Try to use terrain for cover.
3: I die all the time while still having potions and scrolls unused.
4: I die all the time because I get carried away hacking at a monster, and I don't notice my health is too low.
5: I die all the time because I don't try to escape until it is too late.

Work on fixing those 5, and slowly we'll reach the dizzying heights of level 15

While things 1-3 should be fixed by experience sooner or later, 4 & 5 could be relatively dealt with using macros in your configuration file. My splat rate (well, at least the really stupid ones) during my newbie years decreased by 90%+ when I add this simple thing to my init.txt file (rc file if you're playing online):

force_more_message = LOW HITPOINT

that's all. I played melee chars almost all the time, so I understand your issues perfectly

What will that do ?

[srulz]

That will prompt a --more-- each time your HP reached critical percentage (which you can also set), so you'll notice it, and would also stopped your button mashing.

[runequester]

Aha! I will have to mess with that then

Sometimes we're our own worst enemies!

[Pteriforever]

That will prompt a --more-- each time your HP reached critical percentage (which you can also set), so you'll notice it, and would also stopped your button mashing.

If playing a fragile race -- Te, DE, Ko, Fe, and so on, change it from 25 to 50. 25 is WAY too low when even an average monster could probably deal more than that.

[runequester]

well, in the end, I bit the bullet on the last level of the orc mines. Went down the last stairs and was mobbed instantly by a horde of hardcore orcs.

That was a super fun run though. So many exhilarating moments Even if it's not newbie friendly, I think I'll give them another shot, probably as a spell slinger.

[Markizxd]

I just found a nice way to start a Felid character

- Start a Felid Monk (wchich gives you nice melee for starters)
- Focus spellcasting
- When you find altar of Kiku go for it
You get instant book of Necromancy, receive corpses and miscast protection. At this time you should have pain at least at good and regeneration at around fair. Focus necromancy and animate dead should be available soon, which with "receive corpses" ability is well... awesome. Animated divine presents tear apart pretty much everything in early game (except for hydras)

[XuaXua]

(except for hydras)

For that you need Summoning, Ice and Summon Ice Beast.

[runequester]

Any significant changes to felids in 10? (Trunk, as it were)

[palin]

(except for hydras)

For that you need Summoning, Ice and Summon Ice Beast.

Or a Potion of Berseker Rage. A Berserking Felid eats hydras for breakfast.

[Tutankham]

1: I die all the time from trying to fight everything.

Try a spellcaster. That will force you to learn not going into melee all the time. Eventually you'll learn to _not_ melee all the time.

That will prompt a --more-- each time your HP reached critical percentage (which you can also set), so you'll notice it, and would also stopped your button mashing.

And changing the threshold to a very high value like 60% helped me too. That reliably reminds me of the chars vulnerability while it's not too late to run away.

[ElectricAlbatross]

(except for hydras)

For that you need Summoning, Ice and Summon Ice Beast.

Or a Potion of Berseker Rage. A Berserking Felid eats hydras for breakfast.

Is that despite the fact that Felid claws will cut hydra heads off?

[palin]

Is that despite the fact that Felid claws will cut hydra heads off?

If you have enough unarmed combat and fighting for sure. See my FeBe win on the wiki (here).