PD/GR win - melee/mage hybrid - build and gear choices (Lord Dredmor tactic spoiler)

Just beat the game on Going Rogue Permadeath and thought I'd post about it...

My skills were
Swords
Dual Wield
Psionics
Astrology
Blood Magic
Archaeology
Smithing

Astrology was the most useless of all those, whereas the others were essential. If I were to choose a melee supportive magic skill now I'd probably go with Viking as it boosts melee damage. Astrology is useful for Radiant Aura and thats about it... The higher buffs dont do enough to warrant the investment and also cost a lot of mana.
The Syzygy buff has a hit point buff that has gotten me killed in previous games since if you have below 10hp and the buff wears off or you move between floors it will actually kill you.
Astrology has a spell mine that is supposed to stun whatever walks over it but its far too unreliable. Nerve Staple is much more reliable and easier to use in a pinch.

Although I did find 4 swords with excellent bonuses on them in later levels (which I boosted further with Anvils and rerolled with archaeology) I used smithing a lot to make weapons for early levels which I continually upgraded as resources became available.
I ended up finding a Self-Righteous Sword and a Katana with +18 necromantic damage - I then proceeded to exhaust most Anvils by upgrading them even further and rerolling them so their bonuses would be almost entirely in +damage.

With Smithing I made two Rings of Iron Thorns, which give +5 block and +8 counter each.
I also made Serpentine Plate Armor which helped a great deal in lowering the melee damage of most enemies.

By far the most problematic enemy was the Arch Diggles, which would have been incredibly annoying and resource-consuming without Archaeology. Before making significant progress into level 10, I realised arch diggles were too much so I rerolled my armor and accessories so that they would have piercing resistance, since arch diggles do piercing and slashing damage. With high counter chance, massive melee damage, Nerve Staple, and piercing resistance, they became much easier to deal with.

Psionics and Blood Magic were very effective in preventing me from having to rely on food and booze to restore hp and mp. Psionics heal spell (healing crystals) is great because you can layer an escape route with them. Blood Magic is good since most enemies you can plow through, replenishing your mana for the odd tough enemy (nerve staple, attack attack, nerve staple...). I still had a big reserve of food and drink on level 10 thanks to this.

As for Lord Dredmor, I didnt actually use melee against him at all. I just nerve stapled, then hit him with all the wands I'd collected. I used tentacular wand first, which was really effective, and then finished him off with fiery wands. He didnt even get close to me nor cast any spells. When he moved I just nerve stapled him again.

Given how much Ive played this game recently I think Im done with it for now. I beat the most difficult setting with the only character that really appealed to me (dual wield melee). I'll watch til future patches tweak, rebalance, improve etc before I consider replay.

 

And by rerolling the weapons you inadvertantly cheated because of the archaeology bug with TTIAW. When weapons (and only weapons) are rerolled it never removes damage slots already on the weapon, just keeps adding more and more. lol. They will probably fix that one pretty soon