Random Skills Challenge!

Ok here are the rules.

1) It has to be roguelike permadeath.
2) You have to play the first random skillset you are given.

Use this thread to post what you got stuck with. Update the thread with progress.

Ok, I already broke the rules because my first random roll gave me staff/psionics/bloodmagic lol.

Anyway, here is my build:

Archery
Shield Bearer
Berserker
Deadshot
Pyromancer
Perception
Alchemy

 

You didn't want it to be too easy, or something? I'd have taken it. xD

I'll try this out. I will die horribly, but I will do it anyhow.

Maces
Artful Dodger
Viking Wizardry
Promethean Magic
Perception
Fungal Arts
Alchemy

I really wanted to re-roll it, but I think it's viable, if a bit gimpy.

 

I'm going to try this also. I'll let you know how I do:

Swords
Staves
Dual Wield
Master of Arms
Promethean
Perception
Smithing

Well off to a roaring start with a truly non-specialized build. Probably going to play this as a melee, and write off the mage skills for now.

/edit After a few close calls, dinged level 2 (+1 into smithing) and no turning back. continuing the game later this evening.

 

Bleh, inglorious death at level 3 to a acid trap. I'm so spoiled by fungal arts that running around at 15 hp cause i have no food or healing is rough.

I'll edit with next build later.

Edit: OOH this one's a winner. Get this..

Archery
Berserker
Necronomiconomics
Promethean
Psionics
Alchemy
Tinkerer

I'm thinking I'll rush promethean for the pet, then tinkerer/alchemy/archery/psionics. Just got to make it to level 3.

 

Definitely looks like a doable build, if you can get it going.

Anyway, I'm still alive -- just killed the monster zoo on level 2 (thankfully had *1* squid bolt). So far I'm level 7 with maxed Tinkering, and +1 each into Armor and Sword. My equipment is decent due to smithing but the search for more iron continues.

I can't say how well I'll do as I descend -- I guess eventually, as I run out of other things, I may get the dragon summons as well. But I don't really need to rush to get it atm. Mana and magic power is just not going to be sufficient to put anything else there.

 

Keep in mind that the Wyrmling summoned pet loses a lot of its "oomph" after Floor 3 or so. Once you hit Floors 4 and down, especially on Going Rogue, the Dragon's DPS simply does not keep pace any longer and he's really just there to take hits at that point - and to get in the way of anything you try to fire at the monsters he's occupying.

The Wyrmling can actually kill Floor 1 monsters with ease and Floor 2 monsters in a few hits. Beyond that, he starts taking several rounds per monster and will die (eventually) when being attacked by 2 or more sides.

 

Yeah if you are going to put points into promethean magic for obvious fireball, it makes sense to rush wrymling by level 3. Because the pet singlehandedly can carry you through DL 3 at which point you'll probably be level 9-11 and have more points to mess around with and can have a more functional character.

It's not till like DL 7 that enemies will start two hitting the pet. And if you are building around fireball, you probably want it by level 12 or so anyway I'd imagine.

 

I'm already on level 5. What I meant was that I have no reason to put points into Promethean, and I was saying that I really don't need the Wyrmling. But after I've maxed everything else, Staves and Promethean will be left, and may as well put my extra into Promethean.

 

Alright, I'm in. My random skills:

Axes
Shield Bearer
Vampirism
Mathemagics
Necronomiconomics
Burglary
Alchemy

Never played with Necro, axes or shield bearer, so should be interesting. Alchemy + Vampirism is a better roll than most I would imagine.

EDIT: Well that didn't take long. Died on level 1 to a countering-Zombie. At least I got the Steam achievement for it.

 

That looks totally viable to me. Axes/vampirism to carry the early game, mathemagics/rift for the endgame, alchemy for support.

 

I found an enraged diggle in the first room. -_-

I was just going to try it again with the same build.

 

Yeah, I guess I'll give it another go. Executive decision: floor 1 death means you can try again with the same build one more time. Hooray stubbornness!

 

Okay, I got:

Staves, Dual Wielding, Artful Dodger, Deadshot, Fleshsmithing, Perception, and Alchemy.

Dunno if I can go no-armor to get good Magic Power for Fleshsmithing, or if that's even worth it. I'll try, tho' - do my best to buff up Dodge. Only pet's in that tree, if I want to flank critters.

EDIT:
Argh. I cleared the entire 1st level, but got killed just as I went to the 2nd by an Enraged Diggle. Dunno how it got me, I escaped to the stairs, but as soon as I emerged on the upper level I died.

Gonna try this build again, I think. Ulimately it may lack punch, but, eh, we'll see.

RE-EDIT:
Bah. Seems like Fleshsmithing is bugged, or the 1st skill is. I'll do a re-roll (if that's permitted?).

 

I finally died fighting a monster zoo on level 8 (skipped most of level 7 because things were getting really nasty). I kept having to run back up the steps to heal because I was out of food, healing potions, etc. I finally got tired of doing that.

I was level 17 with a score of 362812, in case we are going to compare. Considering my particular build, I did a lot better than I had expected. It demonstrates why, as a melee, you REALLY need a source of healing.

 

Well, I died on DL 6. It was a rather interesting run. I started out leveling promethean magic to lvl 3 for the pet. I then decided to take alchemy to 4 not knowing that I could make stary orbs at alch lvl 3. Not having any spells to cast at that point. I decided to take fireball. That spell was ruined.

So, what to do. I decided from there to level tinkering up to level 5 and grab a clockwork bolt thrower. After that it dawned on me that 26 damage just isn't going to cut it. So I put a point into necro for the nightmare curse.

Keep in mind I'm level 12 now and finally have a decent spell and no other offensive abilities beyond a pet. I made it that far with the fire trap and the pet and going very very slowly.

So for giggles I then leveled promethean again. The tactical pyre is quite useful I found. Quite cheap, and very effective against a zoo. Up until that point I had no way of killing anything outside of my wrymling. However fortune turned for the worse. I accidentally stole from brax on level 5. Having never done that before, I foolishly tried killing waves of the demons he spawned using tactical pyre. After killing a good 40 or so I figured out I'd have to escape. The entire dungeon was filled with them by now. Fortunately I had a stack of invisibility potions to burn through and made it to DL 6.

Things seemed to be going up. If I could stay focused and slog through with my terrible misbegotten character, I could take necro up and have a somewhat viable caster by the time I needed to have a viable build. As long as I didn't do anything stupid. I then ran into a monster zoo on DL 6. After slogging through a good half of that spaming pyre, my dragon, and plinking away with arrows I leveled. I looked at my skills and thought, hmmm everything fun in necro is just so far away. Maybe the last promethean skill got buffed and is good now. It's worth a shot right?

Well, I took it. I cast it. Everything went on fire. Neato. I took a step. Went from 50% hp to dead. Well, it certainly does good damage. Can't imagine why you'd ever want to cast it. You cast the spell, then take a step and take 25 damage even with 5 fire resistance? How is that spell even remotely useful.

Anyway, time for another random build. I still can't believe I made it that far with pretty much no viable offensive skills.

Word of advice, the only spells in promethean magic even worth casting are the trap which is too expensive by about 6 mana (but at least is effective), the pet of which there are better elsewhere, and the pyre. The pyre is really good, but that's about it. The last skill would be better if it did nothing, that spell may as well be called suicide. I should have just leveled psionics.

It was fun trying alchemy instead of fungal. Alchemy is great with all the booze/mana/healing potions. But fungal has more spamable invisibility and a pet at level 2. If I was optimizing a caster, I'd rather go fungal to 2 for the pet then bloodmagic to 3 with my points instead of golemancy to 2 and then alch to 3 and then bloodmagic to 3 for essentially the same effect.

Edit:
Ok, this build is going to be awesome. I think viking magic will be a lot stronger than promethean. At least it better be, I don't have any other offensive skills.

Artful Dodger
Shield Bearer
Dual Wield
Viking Magic
Perception
Alchemy
Fungal Arts

 

I've never gone beyond Obvious Fireball so that's good to know.

I'm going to try the challenge again after I complete my current run.

 

Well, I had

Axes
Staffs
Unarmed
Dual Wielding
Psionics
Vampirism
Necronoconimoconics

Having never played a vampire before, I ofcourse died on the first floor. Great.

 

Every time, It's a flipping enraged diggle in the first room. Maybe I should try opening the unlocked doors first. -_-

 

I went ahead and rolled a new character. Klonk is now sitting at character level 4, and is happily letting his mustache golem do ALL the work. Mustache golem is a pretty cool guy.

Swords
Throwing
Master of Arms
Golemancy
Viking Wizardy
Promethean
Archaeology

I took golem on the first level up, and exploding rune on second. I took throwing on the third. I seriously doubt that I will touch swords or MoA. I figure I'll finish throwing before I reach dungeon level 2, and then go for obvious fireball, and then Skatha's roots, and invive thaumite swarm. Dunno if I'm touching archaeology.

 

Ooh, this is fun. I've been doing this for a few nights, with mixed results. One gave me my first Hand-to-hand run, and, I have to say, that skill tree wasn't as useless as I first feared. One run the other night forced me to experiment with Promethean magic, and I can understand all too well when one of the above posts notes that the Wyrmling becomes somewhat ineffective around floor 3 or 4...
Archaeology is a must to dump points in, though, should it come up. I got so much easy EXP and enchanted items from Krongvils, it was a great run. Randoming is fun.