I'd like some instruction in SpEn, since it is apparently OP.
Sell your soul to the god of tedium that is 0.6 movement speed. Let its cheesiness flow into you.
Pa, the beautiful speed boost is awesome for running away, and even more awesome for tabbing confused monsters, but the Enchanter background is so strong, actual kiting is not usually very necessary beyond XP level 2. You definitely should get used to running away quite a lot though
(I hate Centaurs, but love me some SpEn, go figure)
SpEn is OP because Sp skill aptitudes fit perfectly to the Enchanter background, so you are already an awesome Enchanter by somewhere around D6/D7 (
like, you can just go now and win the game in theory, see a ridiculous win by pedritolo here) and can basically spend all the other XP in the game on whatever the hell other method of killdudes you desire.
Underhound.eu is down *again* right now, I never have access to my morgues when I actually want it, but I shall try to outline my SpEn approach.
So first things first,
Elliptic's guide to SpEn: (I basically follow this, stealth is awesome)
My 0.20 SpEn guide: SKILLS: Approximate goals are as follows: 1) 5 Short Blades, 8 Stealth. 2) 4 Spellcasting, 8 Hexes. 3) 3 Fighting, 8 Dodging. 4) 8 Short Blades, 12 Stealth. 5) 6 Fighting/Spellcasting, 10 Short Blades/Hexes, 15 Dodging/Stealth. 6) 10 Fighting, 27 Stealth, and whatever spell skills you want.
SPELLS: Use Ensorcelled Hibernation when possible. Use Confuse against rC+ monsters or if you want a higher success chance. Other starting spells are decent but unnecessary. Invisibility is the best spell in the game if you find it. Other good spells include Deflect Missiles, Dispel Undead, Apportation, Blink, Passage of Golubria, Controlled Blink.
GODS: Ideally you want a god who helps with hard-to-stab monsters. Some good choices: Kiku (pain melee, zombies), Dith (shadow step, shadow form), Jiyva (slimify), Lugonu (corruption, disto melee), Makhleb (greater demons), Ashenzari/Vehumet (conjurations).
WEAPONS: Use short blades, stab high-HP monsters with a dagger. For regular melee, early on look for elec, draining, or venom weapons. Later look for a quick blade and/or pain brand a weapon with Kiku. Distortion is nice also. If you can't find a quick blade and want better melee, demon whips are reasonable. Oh, and get a buckler. STATS: Raise Int or Dex.I personally go Ashenzari on most of my Enchanters, because I love the passive monster detection so much, and because Passwall is ridiculous.
On D1, I pick up whatever throwing weapons I can find, and yes, kite stuff when I can. I usually train Stealth on D1 until level 2, then short blades. You should cast Corona on every monster you attack, but I often forget.
At level 2, memorise Ensorcelled Hibernation. If you think EH is a pretty good spell, you are underestimating how good EH is. It turns a lot of monsters into insta-kills, including moths of wrath, deep trolls, yaktaurs, centaurs, ogres, and of course, adders.
Still on D1, but now we are casting EH on all the monsters, not Corona. If it fails, try again. If it fails again, just run away for a bit, then cast it again. Now we have a way to guarantee our stab, we are still training short blades to improve our stab.
Once you hit level 3, still on D1 probably, you should learn Confuse. If you think Confuse is a pretty good spell, you are vastly underestimating how good Confuse is. Its worth casting at basically everything. Its got a higher power cap than EH, and so works on more monsters. If you need to disable a monster straight away (eg Orc Priest, Centaur) then confuse it. If it fails, try again. Use Confuse to split packs, use confuse to kill confused monsters, use confuse in corridors because its less annoying.
Do not approach or try to use confuse to kill the first ogre you meet. Use confuse (or EH) to run away from the first ogre if its awake, kill some more dudes, learn Tukima's Dance, then go back if you must. Disarm the ogre first, then confuse it, then move in for the kill. Tukima's dance is not a spell you will need to use a lot - once you have some dogding and HP and hex spellpower you will be casting EH on ogres whilst they are right next to you, but at the beginning its really good at turning Ogres into harmless little puppies. Its also massively useful for taking ego-weapons off of monsters, like disto weapons off of merfolk and uniques (after casting TDance on Rupert, my current GnEn just tabbed him to death with a +5 dagger and a few mana vipers). Its also fun later, when you have Ogre packs, just to disarm all the ogres and watch the clubs pulverise everything, but we are not focusing on fun today, but rather winning, and by the time you meet Ogre packs, you probably want to just confuse stab them and move on, or use some faster way of dealing with them.
Finally, before Lair, learn Dazzling Spray. As you play more SpEn, you see that although just casting Confuse again and again will work eventually, not all early/mid game monsters fall easily to Confusion, and sometimes its just better to blind the buggers, kill them and move on: Death yaks can be confused, but its a bit of a pain, and feels like it takes ages, Elephants are pretty stubborn too, and of course, things like Orc Sorcerers you don't want to stand around casting Confuse at whilst they summon demon crap at you. Dazzling Spray might take a few hits to blind these monsters, but as a speedy spriggan, they will be blind long enough to kill most of the time.
Once you have completed Step 5 in Elliptics skills section, you can and should develop a means of killing harder to hex monsters, but keep using your hexes all the way through the game - EH, Confuse, and of course Invisibilty if you find it, just don't stop being useful in a 3 rune game. Also Passwall is fantastic in Zot.
I like to run with Earth magic and/or summoning spells, but literally any ranged option for killing dudes is good.
Some of my favourite midgame techs:
a) Invisibilty. Invis is everything Elliptic says it is.
b) Summon Mana Vipers. Vipers are not only good at shutting down spellcasters, they are good at just straight up killing dudes as well. Seriously, those guys are buff. And you can cast it already. Whats not to like?
c) Summon butterflies and LRD. 6 spell levels, now you can safely kite anything in the game if you have some corridors and a bit of patience. It doesn't even feel that boring in my opinion, because summoning and then blowing up butterflies is fun, if you like that sort of thing, and seriously, imagine how those Juggernauts must feel, brought down by butterflies and dust. Awesome.
d) Discord. I shouldn't mention this spell, we are here to win, not have fun. But this spell is fun. Just as everyone should Shatter V5 with a DDEE of Mak sometime in their crawl lives, so too should they Discord V5 sometime. Possibly after blinking into a corridor. Also fun in Zot against Draconians, Orc, everywhere.
Favourite endgame tech:
a) Malign Gateway. I don't know why this spell is still in the game, its really not that functionally different from Singularity (the short lived level 9 Translocations spell from 0.17-a0 which was killed due to being ridiculously overpowered): You cast it somewhere, then walk away, and all the monsters die. You can choose to stick around, maybe summon some vipers, some butterflies, and some shadow creatures, but there is no real need, MG will happily take down 2 orbs of fire and an ancient lich all by itself whist you contemplate your spriggan navel just around a corner somewhere.
Finally, a quick word about Confuse (did I mention Confuse?) notable monsters you can easily confuse: beeeeeeees
and caustic shrikes.
Fake edit: Oh yeah, vampires, kobalds, gnolls and halflings all make good enchanters - if it has a good stealth aptitude, thats all you need. I just prefer Spriggans, cos all their other aps are perfect too, and that speed really is useful for just noping the hell out of trouble.
Actual edit: Holy crap, forgot about nets: Nets are awesome for enchanters, and will allow you to completely destroy Mara, Ancient Lichs, and other stuff, with little personal risk.
Author
Topic: Dungeon Crawl: Stone Soup. Or: THAT DAMN SIGMUND. (Read 1680833 times)