Cheibriados (split from the wiki thread)

[Southpaw]

The other thing to consider, Tasonir, is that for most trivial enemies (to use your words) neither headbutt nor constriction really matter. However, as the game progresses, some of those non-trivial fights are immune to constriction, which may or may not make them considerably harder. Nobody is immune to headbutt retaliation (in melee, and as far as I'm aware), so you still get to make use of your racial damage enhancer.

[One-Eyed Jack]

You can't just assume that you'll have cblink in the late or even postgame. It's a rare spell and you have no guaranteed means of acquiring it.

[Tiber]

I'm surprised the hear that minotaurs are stronger followers of Chei than are nagas. Is this the opinion of most of the better players?

For someone who wanted to worship Chei, what might be a few suggested race/background combos?

I haven't tried it, but wouldn't a troll benefit greatly from Chei? The int bonus could offset their horrible aptitude for anything magical, str and dex could benefit unarmed, and Chei's "free" sustenance would make a nice bonus for a troll. And trolls have the HP to survive being a pincushion. A troll transmuter of Chei would be a natural fit, I think.

[tasonir]

You can't just assume that you'll have cblink in the late or even postgame. It's a rare spell and you have no guaranteed means of acquiring it.

My favorite run so far was the 15 rune win that focused on statue form instead of necromutation, and I never had CBlink generated in that game. So yes, I have personal experience with that. However, it's fairly likely to get it, I'd say it generates around 90% of games that I've played. By no means guaranteed, but I still think it's a likely drop.

I do like the troll suggestion. I might do troll or minotaur, and yes, constriction does fail against a fair amount of late game mobs, while headbutt won't. Still, by the end game, I don't really need to rely on constriction. I think I'll try troll first though, they have always been interesting to me.

[smock]

l

You can't just assume that you'll have cblink in the late or even postgame. It's a rare spell and you have no guaranteed means of acquiring it.

Semi-controlled blinking is not as good as cblink but it's sufficient. If the thing killing you is next to you, then even uncontrolled blink + teleport is often good enough. If the thing killing you is not next to you, then strategic use of evap+!water can get often block the LOS of whatever is about to kill you plus effectively cblink you far away. If you have stealth and a strong ranged weapon then most issues that would require cblink are either revolved by raining death on the opponent or via an early controlled teleport before things get nasty. (-ctele levels are significant problems!)

I do like the troll suggestion. I might do troll or minotaur, and yes, constriction does fail against a fair amount of late game mobs, while headbutt won't. Still, by the end game, I don't really need to rely on constriction. I think I'll try troll first though, they have always been interesting to me.

Constriction seems much better than headbutting to me! Constriction:(1) increases damage over time; (2) locks down blinking enemies; (3) prevents enemies from repositioning themselves in other ways (moving around you to let another opponent get a shot at you, for example); (4) seems to hit very often against most enemies; (5) I believe it does more damage than headbutting; (6) can be used to strategically immobilize one enemy while another enemy is attacked; (7) prevents enemies from fleeing,which is usually a good thing and generally reduced the annoyance of chasing down fleeing enemies; and (8) can be used on things that cast spells instead of attacking. Constriction is way overpowered right now. It'll surely be nerfed soon.

[KoboldLord]

I believe I've mentioned this before, but constriction let my last naga conjuror tab Norris, Rupert, Wiglaf, and Saint Roka to death with a dagger of venom and 0 short blades skill. The naga in question was roughly as poorly suited for melee combat as it is possible for a naga to get, but constriction killed them all anyway. Constriction is also unaffected by Chei's drawbacks since it was corrected a while back to depend on absolute time rather than player turns taken. Comparatively, retaliatory headbutts are sane.

I do not believe constriction will make it to .11 without another significant nerf, although I'm not sure on the specifics.