It ain't easy being melee

Part of the reason why I use mods is because vanilla is not conducive to fighting like gentlemen. Admitedly, this is a "rogue-like", but even as the OP pointed out, even nethack let you play melee, so I fail to see why vanilla DoD should restrict you in this regard.

 

Syzygy is thoroughly underwhelming.

• 12 is a death trap when the buff can be randomly lost due to Gnomes.
• 8 is only useful for mages and overall you'd be better off saving 1 every 4 turns instead.
• 2 is just 2 more points of damage against monsters with in the high double digits.
• 5 is better with the new combat mechanics I'll admit.
• 2 is another 4 and 1. Yawn.
• 2 is another 1 and fractions of a couple of other stats.

It's barely worth the bother of keeping it up in my experience. I'd rather the Gargle Blaster kept it and Astrology was given a better buff (with a proc perhaps).

 

Remind me, if I dualwield axes for more does that carry over to my crossbow shots and thrown weapons?

It's become increasingly evident to me that ranged is going to have to be my bread and butter for everything except emergencies.

 

Absolutely. Everything that adds character stats aside from damage applies universally. Which means the and you get from axes will come into play when you throw and shoot things, and should you have the crossbow or throwing skills, the and you gain from those skills will apply to your melee attacks as well.

The damage on the other hand is a bit strange. Any generic damage gained from weapon skills is exclusively melee or ranged. So all your damages from axes only apply in melee and your crossbow bonuses only do you any good when firing at range.

The exception to this rule is unarmed, which adds its damage to both ranged and melee, because zen monks are just that awesome.

 

All these benefits may seem fairly insignificant in the lower floors where Gargler Blasters are typically found but that buff looks pretty nice when you can pull a Blaster out of the first drink dispenser on the first floor and like Lorrelian said it's easy to keep it up all game.

I do agree that it's a weak buff for where it's been put in the Astrology tree, made doubly so by the existence of Gargle Blasters. So, I fully agree that Astrology deserves a better skill to replace it.

Also... sorry about the double post, just couldn't help myself.