So, apparently, Lord Dredmor hits like a tank.

Well, I might have been exaggerating a bit, but Arch Diggles HURT. Far more than anything else on that level, by far. When they counter you your health just plummets. And yeah, a counter attack with a crit thrown in could do 60 damage easy (assuming you don't dodge or block, again, it all comes down to how hard the RNG wants to kill you at any given moment).

And a Doul's and a another Sword, buffed with about 12 Anvils between them and mostly-optimized with TTiAW can deal some terrifying damage; also, don't underestimate the damage gains from Berserking, More Berserking, Viking Thingie Proc, BOTH Astrology buffs, and Offensive Maneuvers all at once: it gets pretty insane, but in a good way.

 

I guess I should try Beserking. I never really felt the need to go to that tree though.
Also, using magic with Beserking sound hilarious.
"What is magic?" Standard Beserker in most any game.

Yeah, those Arch-Diggles hit hard as hell. I saw the Let's plays. 40 odd damage is a bit nasty. I'm not looking forward to fighting them.

 

Berserking coupled with the 3 Astology Buffs and the damage from Dual Wielding... I was surprised at how well Astrology complimented my melee build(s).

The only hurdle is hoarding enough booze or getting your Mana Regen up high enough to keep Syzygy and Celestial Aegis up as much as possible.

For reference, hitting a monster and getting hit once or twice yourself will typically trigger all 3 Berserking procs, which results in... let's see... a total of:

4 Burliness
3 Caddishness
4 Melee Power
5 Armor Absorption
1 Stubbornness

As for Astrology, if you can keep all 3 buffs up (Radiant Aura, Syzygy, and Celestial Aegis) you get the following (rather ludicrous) mountain of stat gains. Of course, you need to keep refreshing Radiant Aura and Celestial Aegis after getting hit a few times, but still...

3 Necromantic Resistance
2 Aethereal Resistance
2 Transmutative Resistance
3 Sagacity
2 Nimbleness
5 Enemy Dodge Reduction
13 Magic Resistance
2 Visual Sight Radius
2 Aethereal Damage
12 Life Points
8 Mana Points
5 Dodge Chance
3 Armor Absorption

Dang, that looks more impressive as list than it does as a pile of Icons, doesn't it?

 

Man this thread got derailed badly, lol.

As for Dredmor, I /really/ like the idea of phylacteries being around to destroy to weaken Dredmor. Not only making him more of a mechanic fight, it gives you the option of killing him old fashioned if you want, or balancing risk of other mobs and him stalking you while you break phylacteries to weaken him/remove powers. And it would have the added bonus of making you actually explore floor 10. The two times I've beaten him, I've never spent more than 10 minutes on floor 10, when i usually spend an hour per other floor minimum.

 

I wonder if he will still hit like a truck in the next patch, or if they're going to maybe tone that part of him down a bit but give him better Visual Sight Range so he can detect thru Sneakiness more effectively (and from further away), so that his reportoire of spells will come into play more?

And on that subject, I wonder what - exactly - they're doing to make him "nastier". Teh aforementioned "awareness" buff? Spell damage buffs? More spells to choose from? Minions that spawn with him? Minions he can summon during the fight?

 

Honestly, I don't think we need the Phylacteries. Yes, I know, it's what Liches have, in like almost every lore about them. Except Vecna, because he's a God, he doesn't need one.

But if I have, I will point out several other games where Liches are enemies, and you don't have to waste your time tracking down a Phylactery just because they're liches.

It adds a bit of tediousness to this game.

 

Vecna definitely had a Phylactery for quite a long time. You could break it in Greyhawk and you could break it in Ravenloft. I do not know if they included a Phylactery in Die, Vecna Die! since he was destined to win that one.

I personally like the idea of having to undertake some ritual that involves exploring the entirety of the 10th Floor. But, the fact that Dredmor keeps returning time after time is pretty consistent with the myths of a lich that is killed without destroying his phylactery.

 

@Incedax
You must be talking about Vecna before he became a God. Vecna didn't need a Phylactery after becoming a God. He became the God of Hidden knowledge, or Secrets. Something like that.

After he became a God, no one could kill him. Seriously, he became a God. A being of absolute Power.
The point of being a God is nothing can kill you. Not a time/space destroying bag of Holding into a portable hole, nothing.

I play games to have fun, not be bored silly due to D&D additions into a game that doesn't need them at all.

Do I need to point out ADOM and Angband, how liches in those games don't require you to destroy their Phylactery?
Besides, the Phylactery is a D&D creation.
Not all Liches are created equal.
This game doesn't need to borrow everything from D&D

 

Does every feature that's suggested have to be compared to other games?

Yes, a whole lot of games have already done a whole lot of things. That doesn't make them any less of a good idea. It's not a 'phylactery' - it's a game mechanic that turns a very unimpressive fight into something vaguely memorable. At least, more memorable than the current "spam every spell/wand/potion/bolt you have and completely overpower Dredmor".

 

@J-Factor Okay, look, it will add tedium to the game. I'm no
I'm sorry, but I want to go and kill the final boss, not search all over for some tiny object, at least, I think a Phylactery is small, it's not like Voldemort's Snake. :Insert immature joke here:
I'm sorry, I will not change my mind on my opinion here.

It isn't needed.
Make Dredmor weaker in melee, strong at ranged. That would be fine. But a hunt for a tiny object...um, yeah. Like this game couldn't mess up the final floor.

 

@DavidB1111 I am talking about Vecna before he became a god because many people can and do play in game settings prior to his ascension to becoming a god. After he became a god he was given godlike stats and could be still be killed, because in the setting that Vecna exists in any god can be killed by sufficiently powerful characters.

Vecna did not become a being of absolute power, he became a being of transcendent power within his narrow focus (called portfolios such as Knowledge, Secrets, and Undead).

Phylacteries are not a D&D creation. The earliest specific reference to a phylactery that I am aware of is the hebrew Totafot (which the greeks called phylacteries) which were boxes containing scripts of torah and said to be a passage for the souls of the jews that died during the exodus. Some practitioners believed they could channel those souls into themselves for (supposedly friendly) possession.

Speaking of the exodus, those Jews left a place called Egypt whose culture includes Canopic Jars. When a body is mummified the heart would be placed in a Canopic Jar and it is said that this was the seat of the soul. Many Egyptian myths include the idea of the bodyguards of a notable person rising up from the dead to defend their entombed master against grave robbers. The most famous way to stop those undead? Break the Canopic Jar.

 

@Incendax I see. I was not aware of all of that. I knew about the Canopic jars, however, but I was not aware of everything. Thank you.

Also, Totafot sounds like it's used in a joke, due to how silly it sounds.

 

No worries! I think D&D is the first place the word 'Lich' was ever put together with 'Undead Critter With Phylactery'.