Anyone ever try to run a random character all the way to Dredmore and perhaps beyond? I've tried plenty of times, but as I've lacked to get to beat Dredmore even on a solid build I don't think I'm the best suited. Would anyone be interested in giving this a try? I think it'd be fun to do this a group thing and talk about our progress!
I am currently on my most successful run ever (on level 10 GRPD) with a random build. I always play GRPD, and I have never made it to Dredmor before, but I will be very surprised if my current build doesn't at least get there. It's weird -- my preference always tends toward squishy rogue or mage builds, often with crafting, and always with burglary/archeology. Even though there are so many skill choices, I kept locking into the same few and feeling like I didn't have enough room to make an interesting build. It felt like trap skills and archeology were mandatory. I was having trouble mixing it up, so I decided to play random-only. Even then, it was hard not to just keep clicking random until I got something rogue-y, so I made a rule for myself that I would click random and close my eyes before looking at the skills, then play the build until it died. This current run is from my very first time doing that. The skills were: Communism Swords Assassin Master of Arms Fleshsmithing Battle Geology Leywalker At first glance, it seemed horrible. I would never have chosen those skills if I were making the build for myself. But the random number generator is smarter than me, apparently -- because I've been unstoppable with this. First point went into Communism for self-healing. Second two points went to fleshsmithing for a summon and more self-healing. At this point, I was pretty much invincible for the first couple of levels -- self-healing is incredibly useful. Then a couple points into Battle Geology for the extra resists when blocking and a debuff/ranged attack. A few into swords for damage. Then I maxed out leywalker -- all I wanted was the teleport, but it turned out that the other skills were extremely useful too to let me spam Knit Flesh for healing. Then it was time to finish up swords and battle geology, and take communism up to iron curtain for the armor absorption and then work on master of arms. I just finished dungeon level 10 and it was trivially easy -- I've got high resists, block, counter attack, and armor absorption and I actually like being hit -- it buffs me and usually results in a counterattack. With knit flesh, socialized medicine, food, and the master of arms on-hit effects, I regenerate a pretty incredible amount of health, and I can use leywalker to teleport out of trouble when necessary. I guess my whole point with this long post is that yes, you should try a random build -- it helps break you out of your comfort zone, and there's still tons of strategy involved in building up a character even if the skill trees are chosen for you.
Yeah, that's actually a viable build. Battle Geology makes Dredmor doable too. I doubt you'll be able to handle Vlad Digula, since you don't have solid ranged options (no tinkering/not a mage) and you probably won't get counter capped with those skills (Digula hits HARD, you need to be 100+ counter chance, block capped won't cut it). Digula is optional anyways though. And yeah, Leywalker....people crap all over this tree, but I like it. The teleport is pretty amazing, and the second point in the tree is kind of like having unlimited booze. Mage builds that take Leywalker can eliminate all the early game mana issues that force some mages to go hybrid/melee early game, and warrior builds get a teleport AND mana support to fuel some utility spells (in your case, Knit Flesh). Another point in favor of Leywalker....Blood Magic alone might be all a late game mage needs *most* of the time, but against Dredmor one on one it isn't going to do you a thing. Leywalker really shines there if you don't have Alchemy/Fungal Arts (items to restore mana).
I actually made a character for a random build challenge before. For some reason, he was the most powerful character I ever had. He was breezing through the 15th floor. Then I made it to Dredmor. I wasn't connected to Steam (I launch Dredmor directly from the launcher), so I closed the game and re-launched it from Steam so I could get the achivement. Steam, being the annoying bastard it is, wiped my save. Completely. From Dredmor to nothing, without even being killed. I was not amused.
I've beaten Dredmor on a random build, but this was A) back when he was on level 10, and B) on DM, not GR. At least I did get the steam achievement for it (sorry Giygas )
I always run random no matter what, admittedly I've never got below lvl 9 on GRPD it's still fun though.
@OP: We've had forum competitions with random builds before, both original games and modded ones. But considering the hilarity you get out of a lot of random builds, I'd say this can never be done too much. If you're up for rolling a competition of sorts with random builds, I'll be all over it, and I suspect many others here will be too.
Well, I was wondering if anyone else would like to run the competition, maybe, or if anyone would be at least willing to help me with it. What would be the rules? First one to beat Dredmore? Most points by the end of the game? And how would we prove it? I figured you take a screenshot of your random build at the beginning and then a screenshot of your build at the end. First one to post both screenshots win. And what about prizes?
The one I participated in, you played 7 games. Each game had a random roll. You had two scores: your best score of all 7 games and your best 3 scores combined of all 7 games. There was no prize, but I don't remember it ever ending. I suppose if the Ominous Countdown ends up as a public beta for Odin or something, the reward could be a copy of Project Odin. I'm going to make my own version of a GRPD Random Roll competition, but feel free to make your own.
Same as what Gigyas said, we just signed up, played, and posted our results. The one I participated in was a going rougue, random roll, perma death competition. We can make whatever rules we like of course, but I'd suggest picking the winner from final scores. Judging by all your questions I take it you worry about cheating? Well, we can't guarantee that can't happen, but I'd like to think this is an honest community.
Just found the forums! I pretty much always play random rolls with Going Rogue/Permadeath/No Time to Grind/Realm of the Diggle Gods. My latest character got this after a couple of re-rolls from horrible stuff: Staff-fighting Crossbows Artful Dodging Tinkering Piracy Communist Egyptian Magic Having Wizardlands helps a bunch, both to store stuff for later use and to give you a bit more XP with the graffiti levels. My experience is that any build with both a melee and ranged skill is viable, and a good utility skill like Piracy is useful too. This character is on level 10 now, so far so good.
It was a good run. So close. In the end, impatience was my undoing. Didn't have a full HP or mana bar but I kept exploring level 15 anyway, and couldn't do much but run when I came across Dredmor. He got me with that wind-cold DoT thing.
Wow, nicely done! It's not like you had an overpowered skill set either (but viable)...I'm guessing a point in Piracy and a point in Communism helped your early game tons.
Yep, the early skills in several of those trees help a lot. And later on, the Black Spot especially is very helpful. Communism is a bit of a mixed bag, with lots of debuffs as well as buffs, Keep Vodka handy.
I'm not familiar with why vodka would be needed for Communism - is this just a quip? Or is there actually some random debuff which is only removed by vodka?
Anyone ever try? I did, and I finally beat Dredmor on GR/PD with random. I see a lot of threads now for random competitions, and there's this one on Reddit now too. I love seeing so many people challenging themselves like this. Isn't it fun to see what ridiculous builds you end up with?
When General Winter triggers (adding the Winter Offensive buff), if you drink vodka while it's still active, you get a nice additional buff. Everything other than Tinkering was pretty good, but Piracy and Communism were the stars. Especially Guerrilla Attack, Swashbuckling, and Mists of the Corsair for defense, and The Black Spot for debuffing.
