The Tavern

First of all, I've had a very enjoyable game as a Djinn Conjurer^Mahkleb. I've heard from someone else who had a very enjoyable game as a Djinn Warper^Mahkleb, spamming Manifold Assault, and I'm tempted to try out the Djinn AM (for starting with Fear and Inner Flame).

But...

I feel like almost all the viable Djinn builds use Mahkleb and use magic to kill stuff. It feels a bit stale.
With -10% hp and negative weapon aptitudes, I think currently all warrior, adventurer and zealot starts are weak for Djinn. Which is a shame because, in contrast to species like DE which are defined by their one-dimensionality, there's nothing fundamental to the Djinn identity that means a Djinn Fighter shouldn't be viable.

I know the whole Djinn spell gimmick makes starting with a spell book desirable, and I'm tempted to suggest that Djinn that start without spells should learn more spells as they level up, so that they all end up knowing 16 spells. That way Djinn fighters could potentially at least have a strong end game. It still wouldn't negate the Mahkleb-dependence though.

Thoughts?

Try a Djinn necromancer. Pump str, wear ice dragon armour if you can, train a weapon - melee until you get hit, then vamp drain. Once you get necro high enough that vamp drain returns more health than it drains, you can be a pretty tanky fighter. At that point just keep building a vamp drain fighter until much later when you hopefully receive more useful spells, then train up spellcasting later as it becomes juicy based on gear drops. I still like Gozag in this instance over Mak. It's better to not need to heal all the time, but instead to dominate the board from a stronger position. You shouldn't really need heals on kills until extended if you only cast more strategically as a hybrid rather than spam spells.