Snake Sneak
Posts: 119
Joined: Tuesday, 10th September 2013, 14:55
Pure caster advice
after winning with a ranged character, an unarmed melee and a 15 rune DsGl^Chei with Shatter (but shatter went online quite late), I am trying to do a "Pure Caster".
My own (really simple) rules for this caster project are:
- No Chei - Chei is great and I love it, but makes hybridizing too easy to be considered a "pure caster"
- Book start - no GrGl branching into magic
My problem is that I would expect sometimes life to become easier, but it does not.
In order to have some armour, and ideally make it easier, I focused mostly on Dr and Gr. DrFE, DrAE, GrEE, GrFE.
My main problem is that you need to be always super-careful, stair-dancing, luring, and so on.
Your mana pool is so low (even when I have 25-30 MP, is still low) that you cannot afford to lose it in stupid ways.
Second problem, power of spells is low. Any sub-5 level spell is considerably weaker than any decent weapon trained to corresponding skill.
From level 5, spells become usable but the problem is that also monsters have a lot of HP.
For example: my best Fire Elementalist died in Lair:5. I hade to lure one by one every single elephant or yak. Death yaks are... death yaks. Hydras can be managed thanks to decent Gr armour and Sticky Flame. But you cannot use FIreball in melee range, so - either you kill everything in 3-4 shots, or you have to run. And, the problem is, that even a pack of yaks usually do not die in 3-4 fireballs.
My best EE (apart from a legendary a really lucky run that died in Shoals:5) usually arrive in mid-dungeon or mid-lair. Orc is a pain. LRD is perheaps the most flexible spell in the game, but is a bit low on power, and makes really a lot of noise. And if you do not get Iron Shot, you are dead. And even Iron Shot misses a lot.
Air Elementalists are my favourite starting background, because combine utility (swiftness) with "bolt-like" starting spells (shock and lightning bolt).
Here the problem is that Gr have a -2 aptitude, and my Dr usually die because of lack of GDR. I mean, I can melee really easily with a Dr, especially if you can find any +3/+4 weapon.
But then, you encounter a yak that has a lucky roll. And your health drops really really fast, even if you have 15AC.
My plan for skills usually is: train Spellcasting, and relevant magic skills, until the "level 5 spell" is online (under 7-8%).
Then add FIghting and weapon skill. Sometimes I throw in a buckler (really useful).
In the past I always had Vehumet as god, but started hating him for bad spell gift. Lastly I prefer SifMuna, the instant free-cast and miscast protection (and books, but I just received one book until now...) are better.
What can I do wrong?
Demonspawn rocks. Unarmed also.