Welcome back to our second ever three parter.
◊ Coincidentally, this is the farthest I ever got with a starter necromancer if only because I really don't play the class that much. Tsukiko is a level 6 vampire and on floor 5 after a slight run in with the local gnoll mob.
See that zombie down there? That's a trapdoor spider. In its current state, it's not that dangerous but alive, the bastards are a huge pain in the butt, they dive under the floor, come out only when you're nearby and then poison you before running back under. Jerks.
The orc throws a runed spear. The runed spear hits you!
You die...
FFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFF-
Okay, so screw necromancers, we're playing the real mob class.
◊ First off though, welcome Sheena, the Kenku ninja. Kenkus basically are bird people, they're incredibly fragile (without the fighting skill that increases HP, they'll never make it into triple digits of HP), have a strong association with air magic, and most importantly, will eventually be able to permanently fly. That's right, continually airborne in a game that's filled with lava, deep water, and other nasty stuff.
So what's so special about the summoner?
◊ Well, a typical summoner can, in about three turns, amass a small army to destroy anything in sight. This is stupidly useful, but they come with numerous drawbacks, including but not limited to:
- Slow leveling since anything your allies kill only gets you 50% of that experience
- Inability to survive anything on your own
- Heavy dependence on that MP pool, more so than the wizard
- The allies are temporary and poof after a while.
Get past this stuff and you're set because the summon school of magic is just plain awesome and will eventually get you armies of abominations and demons under your command.
So our first spell is summon small mammals.
◊ For a low 1 MP per casting, we can summon one to a handful of, well, small mammals to attack with. How strong they are, how long they stick around, and how many appear per casting depends on your summoning skill.
However, at this point even the weakest enemy in the game, the newt, can tear off half of your HP in short sword to... toothless mouth combat.
◊ However, you'll need to kill a few enemies on your own if you don't want to fall behind in the experience curve.
Oh so tempting... and on the first floor too.
◊ As for the spells, they all are exactly as they sound.
◊ We'll be skipping imps because they're useless little bastards and instead go for man's bird's best friend.
You feel stronger.
i - a +3 ring of strength (left hand)
Okay, so this is a ring of strength. They auto-identify upon being put on and more importantly, can be cursed and give you negative strength. As you might expect, there's intelligences and dexterity equivalents.
Oh, we're at a very special place today.
◊ Meet Crazy Yiuf.
◊ To quote his description...
Crazy Yiuf basically sits in his little, partly finished home in the woods, with a small hammer that he's using to build his house and always has a staff of CHAOS. What does a chaos branded weapon do? Who knows! That's the deal.
Okay, so maybe siccing a bunch of rodents on him, killing him, taking his walking stick and clothes was a bit much.
◊ Speaking of uniques... I don't believe we've met Terence yet.
◊ He's much more boring than Yiuf, and basically is a human fighter.
And I die. Why? A compilation of factors...
- Never fight in the hallway. You've got an army and chokepoints are bad for an army.
- Your MP is limited.
- The staff of chaos is chaotic, it just might heal the person you hit.
- It may also haste them too.
Okay, screw the Kenku, it can wait for another day, it's time to fall back on the Deep Elf. Sheena grabs the closest dagger and falls back on the "kill the weaklings for extra experience and then cast summons afterward for more experience" strategy.
Okay, listen up because this is important: Grey Rats are your best friends early game.
◊ They're the best small mammal you can get thanks to their disproportionally high damage output. They will save you where the rat, quokka, and bat all die. Here? He's just eating Jessica for me.
Shit man, is that even a question, it's FUCKING YES!
You continue memorising. x2
You finish memorising.
Yyyyeeeeeessssss
This spell is great, it summons strong and fast dogs and can even summon several at a time. It is THE early to midgame summoning spell. Go my puppies! Kill!
◊
And somehow Sigmund still kills me! Yeah, about enemies with projectiles, make sure your army doesn't leave any convenient patches for an arrow to sudden fly through in hit you. (And as you might guess, I'm not terribly good at mob characters.) Maybe more summoner next time? Or something different? I'm feeling in the mood for something significantly less magical next time.
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