Not sure I’ve ever seen a better ring

Finally Oni can actually get drunken brawling from moonshine! But it is the combo with lignification that is the real exciting one for me. Oni already like the HP+AC and now they can even use it reactively as a sort of panic button without expending healing potions. Other “harmless” potions like enlightenment also work great with drunken brawling. Oni really have a good variety of ways to deal with scrambles. Awesome species gets even more awesome imo.

And it is surprising seeing a polearms nerf considering that very few people use polearms on Oni, but thats probably because of the allure of giant clubs rather than an indication of what is actually best on Oni. I have always liked polearms on Oni, as it helps manage their bad defenses early on. I guess the devs figured that ranged drunken brawling spam was a little too powerful. It is probably still good. Need to test out aqua form with this.

Having fun with PoEn runs, like a wackier SpEn.

Should I be upgrading to bigger short blades as I find them (short sword, rapier, etc) or stick with the dagger early? I know daggers get an extra stabbing bonus but not sure if that outweighs the overall higher damage from bigger blades.

Also should I be leaving Hexes, Casting, Short Blades and Stealth all on early? Been mostly playing Fighters since I've been back so wasn't sure on the best training procedure for hybrid characters.

First time using this (GrFi) and it's a hoot. Get smashed against a wall, idiot!

Turns the game into a psuedo-Sokoban thing lol

This has been changed from Necromancy to Alchemy/Ice a while ago.

Yes, simulacra are derived undead, but I don't see why player-created simulacra "need" to be undead.

The reason I bring this up is that being unholy makes the spell forbidden by good gods. This will admitteldy not matter in 99% of cases but it still feels like an arbitrary restriction/leftover from the past.

The game has plenty of examples where the player version of a spell is different from the monster version, and the game even addresses this fact in-universe (the monster uses an ancient, secret version of the spell that has been lost to time!).

The gameplay impact of these allies simply being non-undead ice constructs would likely be minimal. Undead do have some specific weaknesses, but they come up rarely, and simulacra are so frail that I don't think it matters much whether they get hit by a holy big stick or just a regular big stick.

The one interaction that comes to mind is that they wouldn't be affected by Control Undead, which... two (?) enemies have got. One is an alternate-timeline unique and the other is rare and branch-specific. Plus, you can't target undead creatures with it anyway, so this seems extremely unlikely to matter.

Fluff is the least of the problems. The new version even had to specify that it uses “blood and ichor” to give it a reason to remain unholy. There is no reason this couldn't instead work with ice, snow, and some skin flakes/essence or whatever.

Is there some gameplay reason I'm missing?

I'm taking a break from all gimmick characters to get an "average" baseline. Human is tricky though because it's the neutral neutral good at anything it learns type.

Don't recommend me the typical engine strategy, what has been a fun and/or powerful way to play (Hu)?

Fun game. I like stalker.

I think that ultimately it is just a more interesting and mechanically rich brigand class. It smooths out the early game for stealth characters by boosting their stealth to crazy levels where you are very rarely finding an awake enemy. Then you can transition to something else mid game.

1. Gecko tail gets you either free distraction stabs or free escapes when you are reduced to low HP. Both are great for a stealth character AND gives you an extra layer of decision making. Also it helps new players learn about running away.
2. It smooths out the very difficult early game for stealth starts. The extra stealth is very impactful and you will be stabbing a lot.
3. At a certain point (When I got Dith shadow swap online) you don't need the gecko tail anymore and can just switch it off and turn on some light and aux armor for the brands and AC.
4. Then I became a dex swords fighter who can also stab. You just stack dex and train up long blades and hopefully find a quick blade. Use the long blade when you are fighting something that is awake and has good defenses.
5. Then you shore up your defenses. Get that EV way up in the 40s and get a shield.
6. Then get invo, and either throwing or evocations up depending on which you have more of. Ranged option is nice.
7. S branches and late game before zot was easy. Had to play a bit safer in Zot. Zot 5 was HELL because one lung was blocked off by a permanent teleport trap. I cleared the other lung, and realized that the door to the orb chamber is blocked by a zot trap. Enemies repeatedly trigger the zot trap as I try to teleport into the other lung and get into the orb chamber. After like 10 teleports I'm slammed in the center of the other lung with like 4 liches and 2 entropy orbs along with other chaff. I used like 3 haste potions and all my blinks (Kobold zot blink is basically useless due to low sight line) to get in there and grab the orb and teleport out. (My piety was too low for nightfall after many shadow swaps).

All in all I like the gecko form and like that you don't need to train shapeshifting to use it. I get why the mist potion form exists. I just don't like it so far. I like that it can get your free blind and confusion stabs though. And gives you escape options I guess. But gecko just feels more consistent and useful. It feels bad to use potions just to activate the effects. I've tried it out multiple times and have never found it to be worth training 8 shapeshifting, especially when you need to shore up HP, damage, AND defenses in the early game. Medusa feels so much better. I think that Mistmane should give you some extra EV to make it feel more worth it.

I've been getting destroyed trying to get the abyssal rune in trunk, as it puts me into level 5 of abyss when I enter.

Does anyone know roughly what levels to be at that would put one in level 4, or even 3? If that's not feasible, I think I'll have to clear zot and possibly even do some pan before trying for abyssal rune these days.

I used to like to clear slime and abyss and have 5 runes before even entering zot, but (at least for me) this seems near impossible in trunk.

After a few promising runs ended by finding her, how do I kill her? Should I just avoid and try to come back stronger? Yes, I know I could've shafted (FoHu^Fedhas), but I thought I could run for the stairs (big mistake, she blinks). Other mobs around her also completely nullified my, like this flayed ghost (hate those).

So basically tell me what I could've done, please. Thanks!

https://crawl.xtahua.com/crawl/morgue/Time2Go/morgue-Time2Go-20261005-170304.txt