Dungeon Crawl Stone Soup: Now with 50% more Sigmund

[Cogwheel]

So I've noticed that I'm not the only one that posts screenshotted playthroughs of games. Apparently, they're called LPs, if the threads on this board are anything to go by. This is going to be one of those. This is a large post, but I'll try to make it easy to navigate and, if necessary, skim.

So, first of all, Dungeon Crawl Stone Soup (typically referred to as Dungeon Crawl, or even more commonly, Crawl) is a Roguelike RPG. Since this is a semi-obscure genre, I'll explain what that entails. If you already know, than skip this.

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A Roguelike is a type of RPG, named after the first of its kind, Rogue. Roguelikes have, most commonly, depth - you can do lots of things in them, though the level of detail varies from game to game - difficulty, no plot, and randomness. Now, I'll elaborate. Depth... well, you'll see. Easier to show than explain, really. But basically, expect lots of tactical options and such, though Crawl has less of those than other games of its kind.

Difficulty? Well, the game is not fair. Everything is a legitimate threat, to an extent, and this only abates slightly at higher levels. And not even then, in some cases. Things can kill you if you're not careful, even things you wouldn't normally consider dangerous. Nothing is pre-identified for you. And yes, you will often die in horrible, random, arbitrary ways - once again, not as bad in Crawl as in other games, though that's not to say it's any easier. Oh, and if you die, the game erases your save file. Have fun starting over.

Lack of plot: With a few exceptions (ADOM comes to mind), a Roguelike consists of the following: Go down into a randomly generated dungeon, go down to the last floor, and either kill the boss or, more commonly, grab an item and escape. Why? Well, in NetHack (the most famous Roguelike), you want to get this amulet for your god. In Crawl, you want the Orb of Zot, for some reason that's never explained. It probably gives Ultimate Cosmic Power.

Randomness: A good deal of what keeps the game entertaining. Dungeons are randomly generated every time, with only a few things you can count on. Your item selection, stats, gear, monsters you run into and so forth will be at least somewhat different every time, which makes the game addictive rather than repetetive and tiresome.

I'm probably not doing a good job of advertising the genre here, so trust me when I say it's better than it sounds

Now, how is Crawl unique among Roguelikes? Read on. Or don't, if you don't care/know the game already.

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Crawl seems easier, at first glance. It's not - it is, however, friendlier. if something kills you, it'll probably be something you at least half-expected: A strong monster or a potion of poison at an early level, rather than the necklace you put on just happening to be an amulet of strangulation.

It also provides a tutorial, a manual, and so on. The goal is that, unlike other Roguelikes, it should be playable without the aid of a guide or Wiki. While this is the case, I'm lazy and use the Wiki anyway. It also tries to remove no-brainers. For instance, in NetHack, you will be using, barring extraordinary circumstances, an amulet of reflection and probably grey dragon scale mail. In Crawl, you use whatever you find that happens to be useful in that particular situation, and many things have drawbacks - overall, the game is very well balanced.

There are also a few other things. Less emphasis on class, though there are many - your character is defined more by their skills, race and choice of deity. Each race has aptitudes - skills they are good, or poor at - and often XP penalties for daring to be something other than a human or orc (or possibly a couple other races, such as kobolds). Skills affect a bunch of things, and are trained through practice.

The gods are another interesting one. There are, if memory serves, 14 gods. Each has things that please and displease them, and if you act accordingly, you gain piety. With enough piety, they give you abilities and, depending on the god, gifts. These are typically quite powerful. Of course, their code may be a pain to work with, and if you annoy them (by doing the wrong things, or converting) they will punish you, often very severely.

I am missing things here. That's ok, I have a bad memory.

Now, what can you expect from this LP? Poor quality, this being me. Apart from that, you can expect a couple things. As usual, read the spoiler, or don't, depending on how much you care.

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Firstly, the LP will be continuous through multiple playthroughs. I have not beaten this game after two months, and do not expect to do so particularly soon. So, if a character dies, I'll just start up a new one.

Second, there will be writing in between screenshots. This will consist of info on the game/what's going on, and poor attempts at humour. I'm not funny, but I never let that stop me. In any case, no experience with the game will be necessary to understand what you see. This may lead to a bit of an infodump at the start, but bear with me (only not literally. Bears in Crawl can kill you).

Third, reader participation. It's no fun if you just read, after all. So I'll let you, and whoever else is inclined to post, decide what I play and, should I have any questions (and I will), how I play said character. Don't get overly concerned about practicality, as I won't survive anyway. Just have fun.

Anyway, I believe that's about it.

And now for the major infodump: Classes and races. There are, I believe, 25 races and 28 classes, so I'll summarize a little. Classes, mind you, are often just a pile of starting skills, hit dice/MP dice (not sure about this) and sometimes a starting god. Should you not start with a god, you can pick one up later on, provided you survive long enough. The real bonus is that a class starting with a god will, with a few exceptions, be better able to make use of their skills.

If you know this stuff already, feel free to skip it.

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Human: They are vanilla. Average at everything. Unless you pick a class that doesn't work particularly well with any other race, this isn't normally as good as picking the appropriate specialist class. Or maybe that's just my playstyle. Anyway, they're boring.

High Elf: The nice elves. I hate them too. They're average at using invocations (god-given abilities) and magic items, as well as summonings and divinations. Shields and armour, too. Meanwhile, they're weak at poison magic, earth magic, necromancy, maces, axes, polearms, and unarmed combat, as well as slings.

The flip side is that, while their XP gain is slow and their strength could use work, they have good MP gain and are good at everything else. I do mean a slow XP gain, though. Never played high elves, but many swear by them, especially for certain classes.

Deep Elf: Drow, essentially. Horribly low strength, but they're fast, and have ridiculously high intelligence. Their aptitudes in non-magical areas include a very slight boost to evocations (using magic items), decent skill with ranged weapons, slightly less of a hit to XP than high elves, and lameness in most other regards, unless it involves dodging or something. The good news is that they have the highest MP of any race, and godlike magical aptitudes, though they may be beaten in specific schools by other races. In short, excellent casters, terrible at most other things.

Sludge Elf: Ugly elves. No one likes them. They lose many of the high elf aptitudes, but are still fairly similar otherwise (fast, intelligent, bit stronger), and are better than high elves at necromancy (enough to be average, anyway). They're also amazing at unarmed combat and transmutation. Since these are the two things transmuters do most, I'd recommend sludge elves as the race of choice there. Incidentally, elven armour counts as light, for better or worse, and also reduces casting penalty. It's reduced further if you're actually an elf, meaning that elf casters can often get away with wearing ring mail at the very least.

Mountain Dwarf: Short. Angry. Drunken. Bearded. Mountain dwarves take a 40% hit to XP, like deep elves. The good news is that they're excellent with fighting in general (high strength and HP) and have good armour/shield/mace/axe/whathaveyou skill. They're pretty great with trap-spotting and swords too, if you're so inclined. They're good at fire and earth magic, but only technically - their casting skill in general is awful, so don't bother.

Also, dwarven armour gives a bonus to armour skill, and is harder to corrode (from acid) but gets in the way of casting. Dwarves get a bigger boost to their armour skill and remove the casting penalty.

Deep Dwarf: Deep Dwarves are good at the same things dwarves are, for the most part, though less so. They're less tanky, but smarter. They are also better casters, and good at necromancy/translocation, and completely amazing at earth magic/evocations. No one can beat their evocation skill, and their invocation skill isn't half bad either. They can also, at the cost of maximum MP, recharge wands. The catch to all this is the lack of any ntural regeneration.

Hill Orc: Strong, mildly good/average dex, only slightly low int, no XP penalty. Skills are somewhat similar to dwarves, though less good, and they're not quite as horrid at casting. Very good with axes, and quite decent with everything else as well, though not ranged weapons. Not made to be agile/stealthy fighters, either. Still, no XP penalty, and one class has a special variant just for them (see classes). I play orcs quite frequently. Orcs can eat rotten meat, and only rarely get sick from it.

Merfolk: I... I don't know. The Wiki says they're pretty good as fast, lightly armoured fighters, and are also very nice with poison/ice/divination/transmutation/enchantment magic. Especially transmutation. They can also swim. Good with polearms and short/long blades, but not so much with any other weapon, or form of magic. Oh, and they can swim too, unlike any other race. In deep water, that is, and shallow water doesn't inconvenience them. Stats are average. Don't look at me, I've never played one. 20% XP penalty.


Halflings: Very fast, very stealthy, quite good with any ranged weapons (especially slings). Decent with short blades, too. However, they're fragile, bad with armour/shields/most melee weapons, and ok to lame at any form of magic. Never played one, but it could be good. Oh, no XP penalty, too.

Kobolds: Once again, no XP penalty. Kobolds are a bit like halflings - good at what halflings do, but not quite as much. They are, while still somewhat fragile, also stronger, and better at magic (summoning and necromancy most of all, though they're not amazing at anything). They can use short blades very well, and are fairly good at evocations too. Lastly, kobolds are carnivores. They can't eat anything but meat. The flipside is that they can eat meat when not hungry, so it's a very good thing overall. Oh, and they can eat rotten meat with no problem too.

Spriggan: Fun race, this. They're herbivores. This is a problem. A large one. However, they hunger very slowly, and are excellent at all kinds of magic, with the exception of summoning/necromancy/conjuration (that being blowing things up) and elemental magic. They're terrible at those. Spriggans are also too small to fit into most armour, and are very weak. However, they're fast (as if permanently hasted) and can see invisible. Only Spriggans can match a Deep Elf's MP, and they're also great at stealth and evocations.

Make no mistake, Spriggans are powerful and fun. They just have some severe setbacks that need to be worked around. 30% XP penalty.

Naga: Strange race. The stealthiest in the game, but you can't wear boots, and any armour except the rare naga barding fits you poorly, giving reduced AC. You're also very slow. Their stats are average, as are most of their combat and casting skill aptitudes. The good news is that they are immune to poison, gain AC over time, and can spit poison. They also see invisible, and are masters of poison magic. At least the slowness only applies to movement (which still makes it hard to run away). 20% XP penalty.

Centaur: Very good with ranged attacks and kicking things. Reasonably strong and agile, and also fast (just not as much as Spriggans). Gets hungry quickly, gains an AC boost from tough skin, and has as the same armour issues as nagas. Ranged attacks, sadly, are all they do well - that, and they're about average at melee weapons. 40% XP penalty.

Ogre: Odd one, this. You're too large to wear armour, making you somewhat vulnerable in melee. Well, more than you might expect, anyway. Ogres, weapon-wise, are only good at maces/polearms/staves/fists, and absolutely terrible at the rest. While their base spellcasting skill is good, their aptitudes for the actual branches of magic are not, making them an oddball caster at best. Still, for hybrid casters or invocation-based melee characters, their respectable MP and ludicrous strength could make them pretty good. They get hungry fast (not as much as centaurs), but the ability to eat meat when not hungry, including rotten meat, takes care of that. 10% XP penalty.

Troll: Trolls are basically uber-ogres. You can eat anything. Stuff that would give most races food poisoning, or rotten meat, or meat when not hungry? NO problem. This means that despite getting hungry at three times the speed of the second fastest-hungering race in the game, trolls are typically rolling in food. They also have claws, tough skin, fur (AC) and large size. This means you can't wear most armour, but hit very hard in unarmed combat. Also, low int - they, unlike ogres, should never pretend to be casters. No gloves, thanks to the claws. Oh, and they regenerate. Fast. 50% XP penalty.

Minotaur: The last of the big smashy races, minotaurs are very poor at magic, but agile, strong and great with armour shields, dodging, and any melee/ranged weapon you care to name. Whatever it is, if it's not stealthy or magical, a minotaur is probably good at it. They don't get hungry unusually quickly, but don't have any dietary bonuses like trolls and ogres. They're also awful at invocations/evocations, sadly. Still, at least they can wear any armour, barring some headgear (horns get in the way). 40% XP penalty.

Kenku: Bird people. No helmet for you, thanks to the beak. They're frail, but fast and strong - odd combination for a race, really. They're also very good at summoning and air magic, and can't wear boots due to their talons. At later levels, they become able to fly, first temporarily, and later permanently. They're also quite skilled at conjuration, fire and (to a lesser extent) necromantic magic, but are awful at invocations, earth and ice magic. I've played about three Kenku, so I'm no expert. 20% XP penalty.

Draconian: Draconians are average to above average at almost everything, with a few exceptions (the armour and stealth skills come to mind). They're too oddly shaped to wear most armour, and at level 7, become a random colour. This often improves a handful of their aptitudes, and gives them a resistance/breath weapon, though there are exceptions. Never managed to get one to survive, as much as they intrigue me. 30% penalty.

Demigod: Humans but better. Stat-wise, great at everything. Skill-wise, average at everything. The catch? Slow skill gain, sixty percent XP penalty and, perhaps worse yet, the inability to worship and of the gods. Still, it's good in some cases, and almost never a bad choice as such. Just, you know, not what you'd call a no-brainer.

Demonspawn: Average stats across the board, and somewhat poor aptitudes/skill gains. Or skill gains, anyway. I seem to remember aptitudes being average to mildly below average. They are, however, good at invocations. So why do they deserve the 40% XP penalty? Mutations. Mutations can happen in many ways, in the course of the game, but are random and often harmful. Demonspawn randomly get mutations when they level (there's a chance of getting some mutations at every level, though it's far from guaranteed), and these mutations will never go away. They're also, with the exception of horns, purely beneficial. Unfortunately, like undead, they can't worship the game's good gods.

Mummy: Another oddball race, like the rest you'll be seeing here. Mummies have poor aptitudes in everything but fighting (governs accuracy and HP) and necromancy. They're also weak against fire, have a 50% XP penalty, and have below-average stats, with a bias towards strength (strength may be average, not sure). You also can't drink potions. The good news is that they're immune to pain, poison and negative energy, and never need to eat. Ever. If you play one, play carefully, and take advantage of the ability to take all the time you need. Also, play a fighter, death knight or necromancer, ideally.

Ghoul: Zombie that eats people. Reasonably agile and strong, bit stupid. Good at stealth and unarmed combat, bit lame at everything else, or average at best. The exceptions being that, if you insist on a caster, they're mildly above average at ice/earth magic and necromancy. They're also, like all undead, immune to mutations (they rot and lose max HP instead), cold, negative energy and poison, but vulnerable to various undead-slaying things. Oh, and they can't transform into other creatures, either.

Ghouls can eat anything. Rotten or humanoid meat (if it's both, even better) will actually heal them, making up for their very, very slow regen. They can eat any amount of food without ever getting full, and need to eat to combat the periodic rotting they experience. Oh, and they can't eat non-meat. 20% XP penalty.

Vampires: Another very strange race. To get the basics out of the way, they're decent at most forms of combat, if not great. They're stealthy, and can use any sort of magic (most, anyway) with a reasonable degree of competence. They're also good at necromancy, enchantment and a couple other types of magic. Stat-wise, they're average, and do not get freebie ability gains every 3~5 levels like other races. Mummies also don't, so at least vampires aren't alone.

Now, what makes them special? You can drink blood from any non-insect corpse, more or less, as well as from unarmed attacks against the correct enemies. This is how vampires feed (potions of blood also work). A vampire that's very hungry will gain little effect from potions, and acts like undead. They will also not regenerate. A vampire that's reasonably full is somewhere in between, while with enough blood, a vampire acts as though alive, for better or worse, with very fast regeneration. Of course, this doesn't last long. Oh, and a vampire can never truly starve. Starting at level 3, if they're not currently full, they can turn into bats. Starting at level 6, they can bottle blood up for later use. 50% XP penalty.

Now for classes. Classes will, for ease of navigation, be tagged. If you don't want to read all this, use ctrl+f to go to [caster], [combat], [stealth] or, for classes that mix combat with something else, [hybrid-caster] and [hybrid-invocation]. Some classes may not fit in, and will thus be given the [misc] tag. Happy skimming!

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Fighter [combat]: An all-around fighting class. Fairly powerful, with skills and equipment picked according to your race. So a kobold fighter would be fast and somewhat stealth-based, with some scope for using ranged weapons, while a dwarf fighter is a walking tank, complete with heavy armour and shield.

Gladiator [combat]: Seems to be a fighter variant, but I never played more than one or two short-lived gladiators. They've got some skill in throwing and the generally more dexterous side of melee, as well as a bit of unarmed combat on the side. They also have the moderately rare throwing nets as starting equipment. But then, I never used nets, myself.

Monk [combat]: If you were hoping for spectacular martial arts, walk away. Now. Monks wear light armour (robes, animal skins, leather armour, any elven armour) and punch things. If you already have natural weapons, even better. That's the beginning and end of it, however. While skill impacts unarmed combat more than any other weapon type, there's also the disadvantage of not being able to enchant your weapons. That, and fighting oozes becomes ridiculously painful. Still, monks are entirely viable.

Berserker [hybrid-invocations]: The tag is technically incorrect. Berserkers are mildly dexterous tanks who start out worshipping Trog the Wrathful. Trog hates magic, and approves of killing things/sacrificing said kills/killing spellcasters/burning spellbooks. Oh, and he gives invocations/gifts of weapons, but the invocation skill is never used. Instead, your chance of success/the effect of said invocation depends entirely on your piety. Berserkers are pretty good, but if you don't want your skill/stat distribution biased a little towards being agile, you may want to start with a fighter and pick Trog later.

Paladin [hybrid-invocations]: Paladins are fighters that worship the Shining One, the designated paladin god. He does not take kindly to dishonourable tactics - poison, sneak attacks, negative energy, use of evil items, etc. - but sees no reason to protect you from such effects, except for negative energy. Piety increases over time, and for sacrificing evil objects/killing undead and demons. Ergo, it takes a while. Abilities include blowing things up with holy fire, and having a shield to protect you, plus summoning angels. Oh, and you get an aura that lights you up/gives you See Invisible. All this takes a while, though, except for the aura.

Priest [hybrid-invocations]: The focus, for once, is on the invocation side of things. Priests often use staves, and the real difference between them is the god they pick. First, there's Zin. Zin hates mutations, eating or butchering intelligent creatures, use of evil items, and lots of other things. Piety increases with time, and by tithing with vast sums of cash. Oh, and his abilities mostly just protect you from poison/mutations and, later, eneimes. You can also preach to enemies, with a variety of effects. Zin is a bit of a challenge god.

The other common choice is Yredelemnul. Don't be fooled by the silly name - only the use of holy items offend him, and killing enemies gives piety. He lets you animate the dead, drain life and mirror damage while praying, among other things. You can also (much later) command undead and so forth, and he tends to give gifts of undead servants quite frequently. Decent choice, and beats Zin.

Orc priests can choose Beogh too. Beogh gives little in the way of activated abilities, but orcs will frequently join you on sight after a certain point, may be upgraded to more powerful types of orcs, and get buffed by Beogh. Oh, and your damage/armour bonuses from orcish gear increase with piety, up to a ridiculous 227%.


Healer [hybrid-invocations]: I'm overusing that tag. Maybe I should have just made one for invocation-centric classes. Ah well. Healers are essentially priests of Elyvilon, the third of the good gods, after Zin and the Shining One. Elyvilon is a pacifist - if you harm or butcher anything, make sure you're not praying, so she doesn't notice. Elyvilon grants a variety of healing abilities - useful, in a game where most healing eventually becomes pitiful - and boosted HP. And gives you piety for sacrificing weapons you don't need. Interesting, decent class.

Chaos Knight [hybrid-invocation]: This time, the focus is on combat. Chaos knights are fighters of various sorts (depends on the race, really) with a decent starting invocation skill, worshiping one of the three chaos gods. Makhleb the Destroyer may be the best, as nothing offends him, and you gain piety for killing/sacrificing anything at all. Abilities are simplistic, but useful. You can blow things up, and you can summon some very nice demons, though with a low invo skill, they may not be friendly.

Lugonu the Unformed is the goddess of the Abyss, chaos, carnage and corruption, and basically Cthulhu. The code of conduct resembles Makhleb, and the powers are quite odd. You can use a strange blink variant, depart from the abyss instantly, banish things (insta-kill that you don't get any kind of credit or loot for) and banish yourself to the abyss (good for running ). You may also bless your weapon once per game, powering it up, or corrupt a level. Corrupting a level is strange - walls appear where there were none before, while previously existing walls might be broken up in parts, and demons are everywhere, most of them low-grade and friendly. Better than it sounds.

Lastly, there's Xom of Chaos. Xom is the RNG personified. Piety cannot be affected, but is altered randomly, and I'm not entirely clear what effect it has on Xom's actions, though having more is good. Xom also has, unique among the gods, a boredom level. The chaos knight is a plaything, not a worshiper, and had better be entertaining. If you're not? He gets bored. Xom doesn't give invocations, but instead does random things, both good and bad. If he gets bored, he forgets about the good part. The benefits outweigh the drawbacks by a fair bit in the long run - you just need to survive Xom and the game for long enough that the "long run" actually matters.

Death Knight [hybrid-magic][hybrid-invocations]: That's right, two tags. Death knights can be one of two things. One is basically a more martial version of a necromancer (but not too much melee, as you can't wear heavy armour, so it's still risky), while the latter is a more martial version of a priest of Yredelemnul, who can also choose between several weapons. Good class, though I only ever play the Yredelemnul variety (possibly missing out).

Crusader [hybrid-magic]: Crusaders are odd. Being casters, they can't afford to use much armour unless it's elven (elven scale mail or something is, I assume, a godsend for crusaders). Still, they wade right into combat. Your basic spells include berserk rage on demand, regeneration, haste, and some weapon-augmentation. They seem neat, but my crusaders never last long enough for me to find out.

Reaver [hybrid-magic]: Essentially a mix of conjurers and a bit of melee. You pick fire or ice as your starting skill bias/spell book, and go back and forth between melee combat/blowing things up.

Warper [hybrid-magic][magic]: I gave this class two tags because I have no idea. Their spells, barring teleport and blink to an extent, seem to be utterly worthless, and yet they're too weak to survive in melee for that long. I'm at a loss, but people seem to play them and do fine, so I must be missing something.

Wizard [magic]: Highest int and MP, and the lowest strength of all the classes. Wizards start with a book of minor magic, with a bias towards summoning and conjuration. Basically, they're the magical jack of all trades - a bit of every kind of magic available. I've only played one, but intend to try more eventually.

Conjurer [magic]: Conjurers have a few interesting spells that can be used very tactically and carefully - more so if you chose frost over fire as your starting bias. For the most part, however, this is the class to choose if you think spells exist for the express purpose of blowing things up. Quite good fun, and effective too, though like all casters, they struggle in the early game.

Enchanter [magic]: Fonts of neverending subtlety. Enchanters have some buffs, a handful of debuffs (slow and corona, the latter of which makes things easier to hit, come to mind). They can also put things to sleep, turn invisible and so forth, meaning they're a sort of stealth-magic hybrid. Interesting to play, if a tad tricky.

Summoner [magic]: You summon mooks to fight for you. Small mammals, then snakes and imps, followed by ice beasts, occasionally-hostile scorpions, powerful demons, and so forth. Bit hard to play, especially as anything killed by someone else only gives 50% XP, but decent all the same. Summoned creatures improve, both in quality and quantity, with your skill, so that's nice.

Necromancer [magic]: Some oddball blasting, a couple transformations to others and yourself and... who am I kidding? Yes, you can raise legions of the dead to do your bidding. They're frighteningly ineffective and hard to raise at first, though, so grit your teeth and play a subpar blaster for a little while. It gets better.

Transmuter [hybrid-magic]: A very strange class. Transmuters make use of a good deal of unarmed combat, but that's not the odd part. You can distill harmful potions from corpses, and also toss potions to create clouds with various effects (most commonly steam, poison or confusion). These are the basics. You can also transform yourself - you want to be a frost giant, a walking statue, a giant spider, a dragon, or a transmuter with swords for hands? That can be arranged. Unfortunately, they have a slow and bumpy start.

Air Elementalist [magic]: One of the four elementalists, who do not combine to form anyone at all. Like all elementalists, they branch out a bit into conjuration, and have lots of varied spells - blasting, confusion clouds, haste, resistance to ranged attacks, and so forth. While your blasting may be a tad lacking in the midgame, they're solid otherwise.

Earth Elementalist [magic]: As their basic blasting spell requires that you hold a stone to be at all effective, I never survived too long with these. What I have seen suggests that they branch out into lots of other stuff, however, including some damage, self-buffing, a bit of summoning, and blowing up anything that dares to look wall-like. Again, I have never played one that lasted for long.

Ice Elementalist [magic]: These are fun once they get started. You have a melee-range blasting spell, a few for somewhat longer ranges, and a bunch of other things, such as putting people to sleep, armouring yourself reasonably heavily through a spell (another spell gives a shield), a little summoning, and so forth. Interesting class.

Fire Elementalist [magic]: Sorry, did all that subtlety confuse you? Fire elementalists are like fire conjurers with a somewhat different set of spells. Primarily, however, aside from a quick foray into transmutation, you blast things. The conjuration practice you're getting on the side will allow you to learn some other spells too - do this quickly, so you have something against fire-resistant enemies.

Venom Mage [magic]: Poison. So much poison. You have the requisite confusion cloud spell, lots of poison-based blasting, transforming into a spider, summoning scorpions, curing poison, poisoning your weapon, and so forth. Conjuration practice will allow you to get something to combat poison-resistant enemies (some normal enemies, and any undead/demons) with. Until then, a late/midgame poison spell, Poison Arrow, ignores poison resistance. Still, you're basically an unusual blaster, with this class.

Stalker [hybrid-magic]: In this case, once again, it's more of a stealth-magic hybrid. Stalkers, in a nutshell, are this - a watered down assassin and a watered down venom mage mashed together, with a few new spells given to help out in combat. Rather like the buff spells crusaders get, if only in style - these are spells unique to a single spellbook, which Stalkers start with.

Assassin [stealth]: Been wondering when I'd use the stealth tag? Here and one other place. Assassins are very good at stealth (you have to be for the skill to be anything but worthless), short blades, dodging and stabbing - the latter being the art of sneak attacks. Still a tad hard to play, as stealth doesn't seem to work nearly as often as it should. You also get a blowgun, some poisoned needles, some curare needles (super-poison, with a slow effect attached) and a decent amount of skill with them.

Hunter [combat]: Another odd specialist class. Basically, hunters use ranged weapons. Slings, darts, crossbows, bows, whatever. They're not picky, as long as it's a weapon that hits things from a long way off. Often, you have a melee weapon too, and maybe even a bit of skill in it. Skill-wise, however, hunters are very focused: My centaur hunters tend to start with skill in fighting, bows and nothing else. Still, if you want ranged weapons, this is the class to go to.

Artificer [misc]: Yes, the misc tag exists for artificers, and another class that's only meant to make the game more difficult. Artificers can fight, if necessary, but not particularly well. At least, their starting skills don't cover it. In practice, all they're really good at is evocations, and they get to start with a pair of wands. I can't imagine this class working too well with anything but a deep dwarf, but it could be good then.

Thief [stealth]: Nerfed assassins, one of two challenge classes. Your skills and HP are weaker, and you don't get a blowgun. You get a tiny hand crossbow and some skill with it instead or, if you're a spriggan, some evocaton skill and a rod of striking (rods being rechargeable spell-using items) instead.

Wanderer [misc]: Random stat distribution. You also get lots of ranks in skills... but said skills are chosen randomly from all the skills in the game. So you may, for instance, get stabbing without stealth, invocations with no starting god, or conjuration without spellcasting or a spellbook. Pick this class if you hate me. A lot.

Infodump over. That's multiple hours of my life I'll never get back So, here's the deal. Pick a class, race and, if you want, name. In fact, pick a few, since no character will last too long. Oh, and if you have any preferences weapon-wise, if a class lets me pick a weapon, mention that too (the choices are short blades, axes, maces/flails or spears).

I believe that's about it, so.. post away! And if you actually read all this, thank you.

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If you want to play this game, you can find the game here, and the Wiki here.

Note: Updates will be sporadic for a little while, as I'm still not home. Just a fair warning.