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[Lokked]

I just figured that out: Soul Syphon needs Sorcery. I was looking at the raws and I swore I knew how to read them, as it says:
   [REACTION:PHYLACTERY]
   [NAME:Store a soul in a phylactery]
   [BUILDING:SOUL_SYPHON:CUSTOM_A]
   [REAGENT:A:1:PLANT:NONE:NONE:NONE][REACTION_CLASS:SOUL]
   [REAGENT:B:1:CROWN:NONE:NONE:NONE]
   [PRODUCT:100:1:TOOL:ITEM_TOOL_PHYLACTERY:INORGANIC:SOUL]
   [SKILL:ALCHEMY][AUTOMATIC]

But it turns out I'm quite daft, as the reaction flavor text right above this in the Soul Syphon actually says, "SORCERY" -_-

I think it worked the first time I tried because I enabled Sorcery immediately, and this most recent attempt, I had not.

Thanks! All my error Great race. Much different than Orcs (which I found similar to dwarves, except for the reduced need to find magma and mine for hematite). Truly a masterwork creation!

[Lokked]

What are some of your favourite Embark skills to send along with your warlocks? I found, during Embark, I would get 7/7 Warlock/Witches about 80% of the time. I find that as soon as I get a few skeletons roaming around, I tend to only use my Warlock/Witches for Sorcery-related reactions, so I'm wondering what's worthwhile for Embark skills?

On one of my games, I took a few prisoners, along with some Pylons, built a Mason and Craftsman shop, rushed corruption chamber, then churned out a couple ghouls to be Miners (as I mentioned earlier, this didn't actually kill the Embark prisoners) then turned the rest into Skeletons to farm and churn out hourglasses on the surface. I didn't really use my warlocks for anything other than building the Corruption Chamber and doing their Sorcery reactions.

Another question: With a 7/7 Warlock start, what's the most effective way to kill animals at the beginning? I have been temporarily assigning a Warlock (that I'd given 5 Magic Weapon Use, and some other combat skills (what's useful for a warlock?) as well as a copper Stave and Wraithblade) to the Overload position and having him s -> a -> k a target, but this is very micromanage-ee, and if he happens to sleep while in this position, he gets very unhappy thoughts. I try to assign and unassign him as I need him, although he still manages to sneak a demand in here and there.

[misiekm]

Most of my fortresses nowadays end up abandoned (be it due to boredom or FPS dipping too low), so I've been doing a lot more RP-ish choices, rather than min-maxing. In the case of the Warlock race, that means the Warlocks and Witches themselves do absolutely no manual labor (after the first skeletons and zombies are ready, of course).

My embark usually consists of 1 Keeper of Knowledge (with managing and bookkeeping), 1 Doctor (2 in each medical skill), sometimes a Jeweler... and the military. All others (if I embark with more than default 7) get Sorcery and nothing else (because I want to gouge my eyes out, if I have to assign more starting skills).
The warlocks with best military stats will be pre-designated as the Overlord and 2-4 of the Riders - they get 5 Dodger and some combination of skills in Magic Weapon User, Shield User and Armor User. Dodger I always found the most useful skill to start out with, and IIRC Magic Weapon User is the only skill they level up naturally?
I always allocate at least 2 of the Rider positions to Warlocks - I like to specialize them (in terms of spells) in late game. Also, the Overlord and assorted Riders tend to train together for a while before being actually assigned to their proper positions - can't have a Rider of Apocalypse that's only done Individual Drills, or the poor bugger gets his head chopped off by the first elf he comes across. Quite embarrasing.

Anyway, as soon as the early souls are in and some animals / prisoners are slaughtered, Zombies are made responsible for all hauling (and only that), and all Skeletons are made responsible for all other manual labor (at least until I've enough souls to actually inscribe some skills into them). Ghouls I rarely work with - the transformation's always been super wonky for me, and my first ghoul went insane when I forgot to make him some clothing

So yeah, I don't really use my spare warlocks for anything either. I do like the idea that they're just sitting on their butts, drinking the wine their skeletal servants brew for them However, I have modded in a sort of Mage captain position - assuming I'm still playing that late into the game, I sometimes draft a few spare warlocks, teach them some ranged spells (well, fireballs mostly, really), and have them provide some extra firepower for my melee skeletons and archers.

Oh, and as for killing animals - the Overlord is super effective at that, given his super-speed. But I'm quite sure you need to run the reaction in his Throne Room, turning him into the Overlord caste, to actually get these bonuses - rather than just assigning him the noble position. I find it a little cheesy to give him all the bonuses without a noble position, though, so early on I just send skeletons or even the Riders to hunt. It's slow, but also really good for a laugh - watching the oh-so-terrifying Death and Pestilence run after a capybara, chasing them around the entire map

[LMeire]

What are some of your favourite Embark skills to send along with your warlocks? I found, during Embark, I would get 7/7 Warlock/Witches about 80% of the time. I find that as soon as I get a few skeletons roaming around, I tend to only use my Warlock/Witches for Sorcery-related reactions, so I'm wondering what's worthwhile for Embark skills?

On one of my games, I took a few prisoners, along with some Pylons, built a Mason and Craftsman shop, rushed corruption chamber, then churned out a couple ghouls to be Miners (as I mentioned earlier, this didn't actually kill the Embark prisoners) then turned the rest into Skeletons to farm and churn out hourglasses on the surface. I didn't really use my warlocks for anything other than building the Corruption Chamber and doing their Sorcery reactions.

Another question: With a 7/7 Warlock start, what's the most effective way to kill animals at the beginning? I have been temporarily assigning a Warlock (that I'd given 5 Magic Weapon Use, and some other combat skills (what's useful for a warlock?) as well as a copper Stave and Wraithblade) to the Overload position and having him s -> a -> k a target, but this is very micromanage-ee, and if he happens to sleep while in this position, he gets very unhappy thoughts. I try to assign and unassign him as I need him, although he still manages to sneak a demand in here and there.

It's important(ish) to embark with at least one guy that has appraiser skill, since warlocks can't trade and therefore have no other way to train that skill and know how close their wealth is to triggering invasions. Other than that I send most of my points on hourglasses and boulders to get a good start and get necromancy working faster. I also like to bring a black monolith or two, to make unbutcherable corpses more useful, just stick it on the far end of your refuse pile, away from the butcheries, and remember to have someone drag it across the room every now and then to raise what tiny raccoons or whatever got left there to rot and it makes for an okay defensive/offensive force.

While managing a dungeon, I tend to use a horde of zombies for general labor, and save skeletons for military/important crafting- zombies are dirt cheap compared to skeletons, and I find that most problems like food production or low-skill bulk crafts can be easily solved by throwing more zombies at it. (Also titans/FBs, I have solved those problems with more zombies as well.)

I use undead to kill things, the black monolith I always bring really comes in handy. At first, you'll want to leave it in the butcher shop itself; it'll be impossible to harvest most of the kills this way but it's worth it. After you butcher the first few prisoners, (or butcher one and have the other get chased around the map by the bones of the first) your haulers should start dragging all the surface corpses into the monolith's "sight", this is a snow-balling effect as even undeads that die get dragged back to rise again. Once you've got about 50 or so uncontrollable undead animals doing the hunting for you, it should be fine to move the monolith so that it only "sees" maybe a fifth of the freshly dead to keep the horde sustained and your larders well-stocked.

As for your nobles, try to avoid getting them until you have access to artifacts and/or gem/precious metal furniture. All warlock nobles are ridiculously pompous divas, no exceptions. Before you assign any of them to a position, make sure they already have a good set of rooms so there's a happiness buffer before they start throwing hissy fits that the tombs they don't plan on needing aren't covered with enough gold.

--

More fun things to do with monoliths:

If your map has a waterfall, try to make sure the shortest path into your dungeon is right through it, (Remember to restrict access to the river bottom so your fort members don't drown themselves.) on the very bottom level of the waterfall, just above the actual surface of the river, place a monolith to raise everything that drowns, dies on impact, or gets murdered by the large amount of undeads now enjoying the lovely waterfall/all you can eat buffet.

Similar to above, dig out/build a long, narrow hallway. Next, channel out the hallway until the pit is about 5 levels deep, pave the floor of the pit with slag or something comparably heavy for extra fun landings. (fall damage is calculated by the density of the floor material) Build a retracting bridge over the top of it and link it to a pressure plate right in front of the entrance, the time-delay on bridge mechanics should ensure that somebody ends end falling inside. Dig out part of the wall 2 tiles in and pasture a monolith in the nook, to protect the monolith, construct a fortification directly between it and the rest of the pit. Dig out an easy path from the bottom of the pit to the outside to let any zombies generated join your hunting forces.

[Carcanken]

I've been having problems getting the pylons working for some reason.

All of my skeletons constantly go opposed to life, even when next to a blinking pylon, which was said in the manual to be powered. Is this a known bug or can skeletons permanently get stuck in opposed to life?
Alternatively, is there a way to remove the opposed to life effect on skeletons by editing the raws? I see it mentioned but don't know exactly how to go about doing so.

[Lokked]

Funny you mention this: I ONLY just started seeing this. I have a 3x3 Staircase with the middle channeled out and replaced with a Floor Grate, and every 10 Floors I have a Pylon. The Pylon flashes from the diamond icon to the P, so I'm assuming they are all working.

Down in the Magma Forge area, my skeletons constantly swap back and forth from Opposed to Life to labourers, even though I've set up a couple more Pylons in the forge room. My pylons upstairs ALWAYS have a warlock within 25 squares, as they connect to both my food hall and the surface factories and training grounds.

The only thing I can think of is that the "darkened centre square" of the Magma Smelter that the skeletons in the Magma Forge area stand on is blocking the Line of Sight of the Pylon. Is this possible?

[LMeire]

How does dreadnought rank in terms of blade quality? I'm trying to decide what would be the best material for the Overlord's wraithblade without spending too much to buy his minion's copper staves, but the "supernatural heaviness" is making me a bit wary about it's use in non-armor/blunts.

...
The only thing I can think of is that the "darkened centre square" of the Magma Smelter that the skeletons in the Magma Forge area stand on is blocking the Line of Sight of the Pylon. Is this possible?

Actually yes, the darkened squares in vanilla "blueprints" are impassable walls that block sight. I once killed a fire-breathing iron FB by filling a hallway with three jeweler's workshops and a kitchen, blocking enough of the monster's perception to let my dwarves actually seal themselves off completely and ensure that it's only valid targets after it destroyed those workshops were the wardogs crowded under my cave-in hammer.

[Shames90210]

All of my skeletons constantly go opposed to life, even when next to a blinking pylon, which was said in the manual to be powered. Is this a known bug or can skeletons permanently get stuck in opposed to life?
Alternatively, is there a way to remove the opposed to life effect on skeletons by editing the raws? I see it mentioned but don't know exactly how to go about doing so.

Never had that problem (I also seldom use magma forges) but there may also be an issue with your pylon chain, I for ease once I can spare the Large gems make a pylon for each level, its expensive but it works, also try setting up the pylons every nine levels instead of ten, I put them every five at the start to guarantee the connection.

What are some of your favourite Embark skills to send along with your warlocks? I found, during Embark, I would get 7/7 Warlock/Witches about 80% of the time. I find that as soon as I get a few skeletons roaming around, I tend to only use my Warlock/Witches for Sorcery-related reactions, so I'm wondering what's worthwhile for Embark skills?

I run 2 miners (5 mining 4 mason 1 architect) a wood cutter (5 logging 5 carpentry), 2 Farmers (5 farming 1 cooking 1 brewing 1 butcher 1 tanning 1 herbalist) General Crafter and Leader (1 judge of intent, 1 appraiser, 1 broker, 2 record keeper, 1 wood/stone/bone crafting, 1 Bowyer 1 Furnace operator) and either a hunter or generic fighter depending on if I embarked on a hostile area or not/ if its a ghoul (ghouls are always my hunters).

I run a pretty generic set up but I seldom fail a fort early on, I more just get bored with them and start fresh.

How does dreadnought rank in terms of blade quality? I'm trying to decide what would be the best material for the Overlord's wraithblade without spending too much to buy his minion's copper staves, but the "supernatural heaviness" is making me a bit wary about it's use in non-armor/blunts.

Dreadnought is heavier better Steel should really be used for armor though given its damage reduction (cuts it in half) a good blade material would be just bloodsteel if you wanna run down that chain, or mithril if you can spare it (steel grade but lighter).

[Lokked]

As I played more with Warlocks, I've come to realize that you don't necessarily need Magma at all.

With Dwarves, in order to skill up, I would forge endlessly on copper, Melting what was produced and repeating, for each of the 4 smithing skills. This would normally require a LOT of fuel.

With Warlocks, I started a new fort and focused the initial 7 (all Warlocks) on Gem Cutting, Mining, Lumberjacking and Masonry, with the rest having offense skills. My goal was to get Skeleton Inscriptions going asap. I Mined rock, turned it into Cabochons, murdered wildlife with my military warlocks, created Skeletons, and had Legendary Stonecrafter, Bowyer, Bonecrafter and Weaponsmith by the end of Summer. The only fuel I would need would be to forge the weapons I planned on using, and none on skilling up.

The Stonecrafter would churn out Masterwork furniture. Gem warlock, skilled up in Cutting, not quite to legendary, would turn any gems into Gem Beds and encrust the furniture with gems, so I could have my Nobles with acceptable rooms mid-summer. The rest would churn out bows/weapons and arrows and I'd formed a Skeleton Archer unit with Masterwork Bone Bows.

I'm a bit of a min/maxer when I play DF (I try to do something achievable as fast as possible). Does anyone have a better military strategy than this?
Has anyone forgone an undead military and attempted to focus on Spells for your warlocks? Is this viable? What strategy do you use?

[RodriguesSting]

Apparently warlocks embarks are pretty much exclusively warlocks now, with no skeletons and ghouls.

Any updated tips on how to proceed?

Edit: There are some odd bits of info here and there on this thread, but there happens to be an updated LP with a more detailed beginning?

[Lokked]

Apparently warlocks embarks are pretty much exclusively warlocks now, with no skeletons and ghouls.

Any updated tips on how to proceed?

Try what I'd stated just above. Since you don't have an early Ghoul to create a Ghoul Master army out of, you can temporarily assign a Warlock to the Overlord position and remove him once you've killed what you're after, so he doesn't get bad thoughts.

For Warlock Skills, focus on what's necessary to get your skeleton army started (Masonry, Bonecrafting, Gem Cutting). For items, bring a couple picks, 1 axe, Rope Reed Seeds, Bloated Tuber Seed, any alcohol seed (optional), warlock weapons, prisoners and hourglasses to match prisoner count (optional).

Make Graveyards (in case the flow of Souls from NPCs isn't enough), Inscriptor, and creating Rock Cabochons a priority.
Create a few beds and start with a Dorm.
Train a Stonecrafter to 15 or 18 and start pumping out furniture. Carry on from here.

[RodriguesSting]

The cabochons are for gemcutters, right? But how do you level up the mason and the others you mentioned in your example? Are those warlocks, or skeletons you leveled up on the Inscriptor? I need a bit more of details.

[Splint]

The cabochons are for gemcutters, right? But how do you level up the mason and the others you mentioned in your example? Are those warlocks, or skeletons you leveled up on the Inscriptor? I need a bit more of details.

Skeletons presumably. However warlocks learn gemworking if I'm not mistaken, which should equal a good flow of rock cabochons for the inscriptor. I'll have to consult the manual though.

As to the warlock exclusivity, I believe that was to address the problem of having virtually none/not being able to fiddle with the top-end stuff because they consumed the warlock in the process (and warlocks being a finite resource, moreso in prior versions of the mod, this was of course bad and made said advanced stuff extremely ill advised to fiddle with.)

[Lokked]

The initial mason is just a warlock with either skill 5, if you can spare the embark points, or none. Your fort does not need a skilled mason. The whole fort needs only a single mason to non-stop produce Blocks out of Flux, which is made into furniture (at 3 times the value of non-Flux furniture), until you can make all your furniture out of metal (except bed, which will be out of your highest value Gem at the Gem utter's workshop, using your Gem Cutter you've been smiling up on Rock Cabochons).

So, initially the mason can be an unskilled warlock, which can be replaced later with a skeleton (about the time you need more warlocks to focus on GraveYard).

[RodriguesSting]

It seems warlocks are hard to please. Good thing there are few of them. I also noticed that hunting isn't really necessary early on, as bringing prisoners will net you enough bones, souls and leather for the exact same number of skeletons (plus a little extra spare if you butch the two that pulled the carriage), which is significantly faster. The remainder you raise as zombies to do carrying and unskilled labor.

I also noticed that skeletons do gain experience on their tasks other than military. At first I thought they only get via Inscriptor, which obviously speed things up, but it is not as vital as I thought, which is good. I will also keep in mind the flux stone furniture, as I didn't knew about its value.

Finally, I would like to ask if armor is useful for the skeletons at all. I will have a lot of spare points, I can even fathom to bring an entire set of armor after all. Though more prisoners might be equally as good. Which reminds me: is there a difference on the amount of resources wield in butchering prisoners of different races? As an orc is significantly bigger than a gnome...

Edit: Can wrlocks sacrificed at the Grand Convocation be resurected?