Couple questions about Kiku?

[Konebred]

Just curious what is a good starting combo for following Kiku would be. I really wanna get to end game with a Kiku guy but just can't seem to clear lair. If I find a temple late I don't have enough necromancy to kill hydras. I have had decent luck with Sludge Elf fire elementalists. Sticky flame and drain life were really effective together, they were just pretty fragile and I always died from bees or a centaur or something silly. Anyways just looking for good combos involving Kiku, thanks!

[Happy Corner]

Spriggan Stalker of Kiku is a favorite of mine. Fulsome Distillation is a Necro spell (so you can get started training that before you find Kiku), you're quick enough to run away from trouble, and you get a big head start on assassin skills and backstabbing fun. Ever wonder how you can one-shot the Royal Jelly? This combo is one of the types that can do it. Animate Dead (with corpse delivery, if needed) and later Haunt makes it all the easier to set up the stabbing.

Ghoul Monk is also good. You get a head start on piety (you get a spell book the instant you join Kiku, so again you can start training your necromancy spells sooner), ghouls are good at necromancy despite their low int, and Kiku's corpse delivery can help you with the rotting issue in a bind (on top of all the other necromantic things you can do with that perk). Invokable torment (that doesn't hurt you) is another plus.

[KoboldLord]

Kiku is great for caster/melee hybrid backgrounds, which tend not to have the raw power to brute-force things in the early game until they have time to train up their skills more. Also for light-armor non-casters who want to hybridize quickly. Necromancy is extremely versatile in exchange for requiring you to work around various disadvantages, so you can spend xp on just the one magic skill to do a lot of magicky things reasonably well. A skald or transmuter gets the immediate benefit of a cheap and reusable ranged attack in Pain, and eventually a fairly strong ranged attack in Agony. A stabby enchanter or assassin gets to Recall in an army of zombies whenever stealth doesn't quite work out. And so on.

Kiku is not so great for backgrounds that already focus on a formidable ranged attack. Fire elementalists, for instance, deal more damage with fire spells than Pain can reasonably do, and there aren't so many creatures early on that resist fire but don't also resist pain damage. Zombies are also a hassle for fire elementalists, since they tend to stand in the line of fire while you're trying to take down an important enemy, or decide to camp out right on top of your Conjure Flame tile that you were trying to lure that hydra into. Similarly, hunters like their unclogged lanes of fire and will probably not find all that much synergy with Kiku's toolkit.

[TwilightPhoenix]

Venom Mage isn't a bad idea as undead slaves are immune to your Mephitic Clouds, Toxic Radiances, and, if you get a book with it, Poisonous Clouds, allowing you to spam poison on enemies while they're getting torn apart by zombies. VM is also a strong start and Pain can handle most of the non-undead non-demon Poison Immunes that hassle most other VMs.