Wow Fungal Arts is really good.

Really underestimated this ability..
Just thought I'd try it out in a new test build where I had a spare point... and it's amazing!

If you have good memory, and can memorize all the buffs from each Fungi;
http://www.dredmorwiki.com/wiki/Fungi
You become so much more powerful. Simply you get a Rank1 ability to make 2 'Spore' items at Lv1, you take these spores, click on enemy corpses (or soil) wait 3-4 turns and they grow into Mushrooms, each one with quite a good buff.

If you manage the ability you easily end up with more spores than you'll ever need, meaning clearing out Level 1 you get an endless supply of awesome buffs! As the mushrooms 'drops' (growths) seem to be randomized and not based upon level.

The later ability's in the tree are also good.
Rank 2 lets you summon a slime that creates a spore cloud upon summoning, nice AoE DoT and quite a durable pet to start with, good for survivalists. Rank 3 lets you change your useless mushrooms into something more useful (e.g. if your pure melee you don't need the magic oriented ones etc..), Rank 4 grants your attacks a chance to drop a cloud of confusing spores, nice AoE attack that confuses opponents and hence increases your survivability and damage output.
Finally rank 5 gives you a big nice summon to help along, I haven't got rank 5 yet so can't tell you what he's like..

But yes, I really under-estimated this tree, free constant buffs with afew good abilities, nice!
(also so much easier to use than the other 'crafting' skills, you don't need any equipment, get all your resources from an ability/killing enemies, no annoying window management, simples!)

 

Yeah I got this skill after clicking random. I never realized the mushrooms were so useful. I especially like the Plaid Power one. Allows me to equip other items without sacrificing defense.

Too bad I died early on with it as I tend to randomize my skills every time I die.

 

I agree I am loving my mushroom tree, I use the slime to draw the monsters attention when im in trouble and stack up mushrooms when im in trouble, the greedy something one that gives vapirism attacks has saved me many many times!

 

Not only that but the skill adds, in theory, free "extra gold" from every single monster drop, as you just grow a Mushroom on their corpse after collecting their money... Then sell the useless Mushrooms later! Some of them sell for alot, especially the easy to farm stacks!

I'm neeeeever in need of money, whilst being uber buffed!
Yes the Paid Power one (Grunge Ear) is amaaazing <3 I also love the Plumber's Agaric, Fell Truffle and Odious Puffball! Because the throwing items are actually quite fun hah!
Not to mention how many times Fairywodger+Inky Hoglantern has saved me with escaping and healing.. I'd even call it TOO strong possibly! If you know what your doing!

 

The only downside is the amount of inventory space taken up especially if you take a crafting skill such as tinkering.

 

Agreed. After playing a few hours with the skill i have totally re-worked my strategy and benefited immensely.

 

It really is pretty good. You get a bunch of buffs, throwable area attack + crowd control, instant mana, health + regen.

The level 2 summon is pretty powerful early on. Use them for crowd control and damage.

 

That's true IanExMachina but It's kinda on par with the other "craft skills" like Alchemy, Smithing, Tinkering etc. And you wouldn't combine them, ack imagine the inventory slots! x_x

I dislike the crafting skills personally so often I take this or Archeology instead.. But honestly this shines above all else. Not to mention you don't need all the Mushrooms, I just kept the health, defense and melee orientated ones on my character and sold the Mage style ones, just kept them in my belt bar for easy access (along with the spores for easy planting) and never ever had Inventory issues.

 

Yeah I made the mistake of trying to make a Throwing/Archery/Tinker/Funghi as you get those puffballs.

I had like no inventory spots spare :s

 

Yes I wanted to try and make a Throwing build around the Puffballs as they are really good! But I can totally imagine how much space Tinkering takes up xD; Dunno why you'd need BOTH Throwing & Archery o-o

Also I hate the other crafting skills ¬.¬ Screw you Alchemy and your healing-potion coloured ACID!! DX<

 

My first time trying the Fungal Arts was using Archery and Throwing. Which did pretty well actually, but I deleted the character before even clearing level 1, I had to clear my inventory every 3 minutes and that was a pain :/

I restarted with a Promethean Mage and now, I clearly find this skill awesome. I'm dominating level 2 with the slime and the sagacity boosts provided by mushrooms. I still didn't run into a monster zoo, but I think the boosts and the 22mp regen will do the trick. If I don't stupidly run into all the traps like I always do, this is going to be my most successful run so far, thanks to these strange shrooms \o/

 

As usual as this skill is, It's a serious pain planting mushrooms on everything all the time ><. I think It should autoplant seeds on corpses instead.

 

Moglok a much easier way to do it is place the Spores in your belt, then all you have to do is click them, click on all the corpses, hit the space bar afew times and walla lots of Shrooms, not too much effort.

It's a pain if you keep them in your inventory I bet xD

I wouldn't say make it autoplant... but what it DOOOOES need to do is be able to Shift+Click to plant it, like Shift+1 over the corpse.. as the way its programed stuff on your belt bar if you shift+click the number tries to use it (e.g. drink a potion) but Spores don't work that way Makes me sad

 

I was thinking about it last night, and the Fungal Arts skills plus Archaeology plus a Horadric Lutefisk Cube would turn you in to something like an artifact-o-mancer: you'd get extra raw items from every monster you kill due to spores, the useless 'shrooms get put into the cube, lutefisk is sacrificed to the lutefisk god, and if you get an artifact from a useful item class you re-roll it with the Archaeology skills, or if not you convert it into XP.

Last game I found one of those on the first level, and boy did it change the way I play the game - anything that's not immediately useful gets converted into lutefisk.

 

Plus the Odious Puffball = 3 Lutefisk, which is pretty boss.
(Aslong as you have something else to split the items in like an Ingot Press... I usually keep one in my inventory to make Omelettes & Grilled Cheese in XD)

 

I'd dig a few more offensive fungi I'd really really dig being able to make bolts out of fungi! maybe shoot lobstermane at enemies?

 

Im down for fungi bolts.

 

When I first looked at Fungal Arts I assumed it would be kind of useless due to the fact that the buffs mushrooms give you never scale. But in actuality, having dozens of healing, mana-restoring, health-stealing, and invisibility mushrooms on you at all times is invaluable, even if most of the others aren't that great as you progress.

In my last game I think I discovered a great combo: Vampirism plus Fungal Arts. Not only do Fairywodgers and Greedy Blungecaps help keep your health up in emergencies, but you can just summon your blob for free, unequip your weapon, and feed on it in between battles for safe health regeneration! Technically I guess you could use any summoning spell that way, but not having to worry about regenerating all that mana makes it work a lot more smoothly.

 

Wow! Yes iv sometimes killed the summoned blob to get an extra corpse to plant Mushrooms on but NEVER thought about using it to heal with Vampirism! HAH! Awesome idea I love it.

Also wouldn't Vamprisim + Greedy Blungecaps stack and give you like, 6 life back instead of 3?

 

Vampirism and Greedy Blungecaps do indeed stack. I was getting 6 or 7 life a hit when I ate one.