Thursday, 8th February 2018, 15:22 by Alphaeus
I don't see the problem with Gnolls that people keep bringing up. Yes, they struggle with high-end skills, but that is kinda the point of the race. You exchange the ability to use the high-end skill-intensive stuff for the ability to use anything good you find. If you start boosting their aptitudes for one thing or another, you lose the point of the race. And what about those people who generally enjoy playing 1h + shield and a selection of good spells?
Besides, if you find something good enough, 2H still becomes attractive (found the storm bow on my current run, and had been collecting arrows since D:1, so it's quite practical for me). You'll suffer a bit on the side of delay, but the exchange can be worth it on an artefact executioner's axe, for example.
That said, there are also ways around this. Playing with Chei, for example, sends your stats high enough that you can get around some of the gimping of heavier armors, higher-end spells, etc. Ashen's boosting from being fully bound takes away a bit of your versatility, but when fully bound with a 2H weapon your skills will be boosted nicely.
Additionally, manuals aren't quite "useless" like VeryAngryFelid said. As his numbers demonstrate, you will end up with about 4 extra skill levels in the boosted stat (a touch more if you find one earlier). Those 4 extra skill levels, especially if combined with Ashenzari, mean that many things that reach their min-delay or have their penalty counter-acted in the skill 20s will be within reach. For my current run, for example, this means that I'll reach over 20 shields, which makes large shields more attractive to me. So it does make a difference, just not as much as other races.
Back to my point, though, the complaints I see in this thread seem to be about the overall play-style of the race...which was intended. You can't have super-boosted skills AND everything trained AND the ability to get high-end skills...otherwise no one would want to play anything else. If I could hit lvl 23 or more on my weapon skills on a gnoll...for all of them, while also training magic...why on earth would I play something like a minotaur that might be able to eke out a few more levels but would have awful casting and less weapon versatility?