I decided to face my fears and play a magic-less build.

Then again, if you want to get through a rogue-like game without ever using alternate tactics of handling things, then either you are playing the game wrong, your luck is so good you ought to be a millionaire already, or the game is too easy.

 

Okay then, apparently, I do have good luck in Roguelikes. So sue me.
And I want to apologize for my abruptness in the last page.
I really don't like to come across as a troll in the dungeon.

 

^Wait, the dungeon has trolls? What are you talking about?
@The thread in general - you mean wizard builds are actually viable?

- See what I did there?

But seriously, i've been playing melee builds since way back when, and the only problem is that in Vanilla, warriors don't have a lot of aoe to play around with, and are 100% reliant on tinkering/crossbow to get their aoe/ranged damage needs. If you are playing non-vanilla, then stuff like druid/bloodknight/bros let you rip it up like a baws.

 

TROLL IN THE DUNGEON!



TROOOOLLLLL IN THE DUUUNGEOOOON!

(Thought you ought to know.)

 

I like crossbows, they complement my warrior build, but I don't *need* them.
I've played with Tinkering before, and it's nice, but I've never needed the skill either.
I'm fine with just making bolts rarely. I tend to find enough bolt vending machines that I usually don't have to mass produce bolts for awhile.

 

^Oh i never said it wasn't viable, just that it takes for freakin' ever to say, chase down octos at the end of a zoo. Bolts/mines/etc are more "quality of life" improvements than actual necessities. However that's really only applicable in Vanilla. If you're not playing vanilla...
Say you accept an inconsequentia quest on floor 2, and lo/behold it summons an evil named monster who thinks he's the man, and you've got no wizard trees, or bolts to poke at him. If its vanilla, you're probably going to spend a lot of time running. If you have mods, however...

Whatshisface The Randomlynamedmonster has appeared.
I CAST FIST
???
Profit.

 

Er. I have never run into a monster from a shrine quest that was even 1/2000 as dangerous as an evil chest monster. There's no reason to run from them unless you have like 3 AA on floor 4.
They fall in melee way easier than any Evil Chest monster.
And yes, I use bolts for getting rid of octo spam.

I think you're falling for the assumption that everyone plays on Going Rogue.
On Elvish Easy, the few monsters I've had trouble with were easy to take out in ranged.
Mind you, sometimes, this game doesn't like you having a chance in hell of running away from an enemy.

But I've never run into an enemy that never fell well in melee, nor did insane damage in melee, from an inconquencia shrine.
Maybe on the first floor, if I wasn't prepared.
But the random uniques lying around are more dangerous.

 

^I was actually referring to an instance where, just before clearing level 2, the lase inconsequentia i found spawned a named monster just outside the inconsequentia area. I didn't realise it was even a named monster, I CAST FIST, his attack got critical hit-countered, and then the quest complete screen showed up. I wuz li3k... did that just happen?

 

Oh. Okay then. I got a bit confused then. You're fired, go home.

 

Actually just finished up a no-magic run and found that of all things, Killer Vegan actually really helps. It's 5 righteous damage buff applies to ranged and thrown attacks, making them more useful against Dredmor, the debuff curing effect is awesome, everyone loves more life and regen, and it removes Diggle Archmages as a threat.

 

Don't forget Fish Paladins. They're horrible with all that on a melee build.

 

Vegan and Demonology synergize extremely well due to Vegan removing the only reliable source of (the aforementioned lutefisk) in the entire game.

Unless Wizardlands adds something that does it that isn't a diggle.