Yeah, that's the Room of Death. There's a cheevo for killing those buggers. Most combos can't manage it, especially when they first walk in to the vor armory. Come back when you're 50
I read about that on the wiki this morning. It sounds Fun. Also, the name reminds me of
Kobolds Ate My Baby for some reason - oh wait I know why! ALL HAIL KING TORG! ALL HAIL VOR!
As for escape methods on an alchie, you can itemize for it a bit. Double up or teleportation runes or go tele/movement infusion, get ahold of some escape items. Natively, you've got gem portal which is kinda' anemic but sometimes useful...
That sounds pretty good...
Dwarves have a similar talent for their forth racial, so you can kinda' stack it if you're feeling like it.
I know that this forum is the drunk midget capital of the world but I always feel iffy about playing a Dwarf in any game. I'm a little superstitious about the whole dexterity bit that seems to plague them in every game I see them in. I'll give them a shot though, once I think of a - oh god now I have another use for my favorite drunk midget Sodel Athelod, thanks!
Shalore get a global speed boost from their first racial talent, which can help a lil'.
I played a Shalore in my third run and to be honest with you I don't like how they gain experience so slowly while being so frail. Then again usually if I play (non-dark)elves it's as a class that when converted to ToME would be either Archer or Archmage - either the woodland sniper or the haughty and overpowered glass cannon.
I don't see myself playing a Shalore as an Alchemist because of that and how their first quest is made harder than that of the human castes due to their experience penalty and frail bodies. The whole reason I tried Shalore is it gave me the stats I was wanting in higher quantities than the Higher, but I missed that sense of stability and the nice recovery infusions too.
...I could give it another go though sometime soon. Shield was pretty nice.
Everything else with some movement options (Yeeks, ghouls, though the latter involves some trade offs) is probably locked to you, currently.
I don't like the thought of playing the undead or a yeek anyways so it's alright. Reading up on the yeek at least made me think of them as Scientologists. If I were a ranger they would be the hated enemy I picked at level one. Either them or monstrous humanoids.
Ghoul did sound okay though from what I was reading on the wiki, though personally skeleton sounds nicer. Probably because I like bone as a material.
Then there's a talent or two dealing with golem movement (invoke and some kind of swap-position, iirc) which can help a little, sometimes.
I'm starting to use my golem to scout. I also somehow managed to get my golem to learn Stone Touch after escorting an alchemist, which makes for some interesting battles. Since his acquisition of the skill he's been defeated about once and once only.
As for builds, the general alchemist build I use is an initial class point into golem power, then the rest into gem bomb until it hits 4/5 and alchemist protection opens up. Then I stuff every class point I get into alchemist protection until that maxes, and then the rest into the third tier bomb talent until that maxes. Usually a point into golem resilience in there somewhere. After that, things get friskier depending on what I'm doing, but that's my basic "get me through old forest" build. Ignoring generic investment, anyway
It sounds like a good build. So far I've maxed out the whole gem bomb and barely started the whole bomb protection bit in favor of beefing up the golem's offense and defense. I didn't even realize I could level the little bastard up either, but now Jean-Claude van Damn he's fine. Next talent point he gets is going into Taunt to draw further aggro away from Aldeen (my Higher Alchemist).
The big thing is that with maxed out alchie protection and the radius boosting talent, you don't need to invest in dexterity. Literally the other thing points in dex does for an alchie is increase your bomb throw range (at a rate of one per twenty dex, iirc)... and with the maxed radius booster, you hit out to a max of ten anyway, which is enough to get you through pretty much the whole game.
Like I mentioned, I'm kind of superstitious about wizards and dexterity. It's out of habits brought on since my introduction to Dungeons and Dragons in the 6th grade that I've made sure every single wizard I play in a game has above average dexterity, in order to avoid being hit as often.
In fact I make sure any build I play ends up having good dexterity for that reason, though then again I tend to shy towards wizards, rogues, and the occasional ranger or cleric. It's what I do for every game that will let me do such a thing.
However...
Defense wise, constitution is going to get you a lot more bang for your buck than dex (defense in particular is a pretty crappy, well, defensive stat in T4. Especially if you can't stack it pretty high, which alchies can't.). Standard stat spread, f'me at least, is to max out magic, and then alternate between con and willpower, keeping them even. Usually do this until I'm comfortable with my mana pool (not too hard, as alchies don't need terribly much compared to other mana classes) then switch to con/cunning, for the crit boost (which is small, but more helpful than mana I'll never need).
This I agree with very much. When I first made the post asking for advice I didn't know much about the stats but now I'm putting points into what you've mentioned. Just a little less consistently for the constitution and the cunning, but then again I'm new so I'm bound to make mistakes.
Luckily one of Aldeen's equips raises health by forty points, so she's not as squishy as her previous incarnation from the first run. Of course it also helps that I had her spend most of her gold on a wizard's regeneration infusion - I almost said inscription and then inception because I'm running on caffeine and no sleep - that restores a hundred and fifty health over five turns.
I did screw up on the whole wild infusion and put one in that removes magical ailments, but then again I have more problems with being frozen or what-not on rare occasions than being poisoned frequently now that I can have Aldeen recover thirty hit points a turn for five turns.
Now if only her golem would stop stepping on poison spores and flooding the motherfucking room with toxins. Anyways, thanks for the advice. I'll give Dwarf Alchemist a shot and I'll try Shalore Alchemist again too. I'll start raising constitution and cunning a little more often as well, especially since that cunning tree I don't remember the name of seems like it would be perfect to throw in there sometime.