ToME WikiNerdanelVampire: Here is my latest "winner" of B.O.B. This time I went with mixed barehanded/runecasting strategy, with initial statpoints all into barehanded. This particular character was more into the barehanded direction due to getting a lot of strength and constitution on early level gains and no creativity until level 13, which had the side effect that I didn't find rune for the magic arrow, the best early spell, until level 13.
Later on I found myself casting defensive reflexes a lot when facing non-trivial monsters and especially melee poisoners. I also liked to cast electrical orb in tough situations (such as near multiple melee poisoners or in the presence of one green imp), and sometimes magic arrow when I was running out of mana (because poisoners could drastically cut down my mana stat and green imps wouldn't say still for me to pummel them down). I also cast clean blood a lot to try to avoid letting my stats slip down the drain. Needless to say, I found poison very deadly. Green imps in particular caused a sharp jump in difficulty whenever they appeared.
The Elemental Master was tough too. Fortunately I had found three potions of medium healing just the previous level and drinking two of them allowed me to keep my hitpoints above zero long enough to turn the Elemental Master into elemental toast with my fists. In the course of battle I also had to cleanse my blood a couple of times, and I blinked once, although it didn't give me much of a breather.
B.O.B. 0.1.3 Character Sheet
*** Character Basic Informations ***
[=======Character========] [===Progression====] [========Stats=========]
Name : Mirabaen Level 17 STR : 19
Exp 9346 DEX : 9
[========Counters========] Exp to Adv 11008 CON : 15
Essence 27334 POW : 6
General Speed 0 MAN : 5
Hit Points 255/255 CRE : 8
Spell Points 85/85
[=============Attacks==============] [=======Defenses=======]
[=Hand=][=Hit Chance=][===Damage===] Armor Class 10+1
1 32 20-22 Dam. Absorb. 10/3/6
2 32 20-22
*** Resistances / Absorbtion ***
[===Resistances====] [===Absorptions====]
Slash : 0 Slash : 10
Pierce : 0 Pierce : 6
Crush : 0 Crush : 3
Fire : 0 Fire : 0
Cold : 25 Cold : 8
Electricity: 0 Electricity: 0
Acid : 0 Acid : 6
Poison : 0 Poison : 0
Death : 0 Death : 0
*** Dungeon Depth ***
* Base Dungeon: Level 15 (750')
*** Character skills ***
. Barehand 23.000 [0.000]
*** Character abilities ***
*** Character equipment ***
c) a rustproof ice circlet [1,+1]
It provides resistance to cold(+25%). It absorbs damage from acid(+5). If
equipped, it can be used to cast Cold Aura (Elemental Control level 1).
d) a leather armor of Summer [0]
It absorbs damage from crush(+3), slash(+9) and pierce(+6). If equipped, it
can be used to cast Fireball (Elemental Control level 1).
e) a warm vine cloak [0]
It absorbs damage from slash(+1), acid(+1) and cold(+8). If equipped, it
can be used to cast Acid Shot (Elemental Control level 1).
*** Character inventory ***
a) a rune of electrical orb
It can be used to cast Electrical Orb (Rune Offense level 8).
b) a rune of flying cutter
It can be used to cast Flying Cutter (Rune Offense level 5).
c) a rune of pain
It can be used to cast Pain (Rune Offense level 4).
d) a rune of fire steps
It can be used to cast Fire Steps (Rune Offense level 4).
e) a rune of magic arrow
It can be used to cast Magic Arrow (Rune Offense level 1).
f) a rune of defensive reflexes
It can be used to cast Defensive Reflexes (Rune Boost level 6).
g) a rune of cauterize
It can be used to cast Cauterize (Rune Boost level 5).
h) a rune of clean blood
It can be used to cast Clean Blood (Rune Boost level 4).
i) a rune of cure light wounds
It can be used to cast Cure Light Wounds (Rune Boost level 1).
j) a rune of blink ball
It can be used to cast Blink Ball (Rune Tactic level 8).
k) a rune of toxic dart
It can be used to cast Toxic Dart (Rune Tactic level 5).
l) a rune of blink
It can be used to cast Blink (Rune Tactic level 1).
m) 53 minor healing potions
n) a medium healing potion
o) 30 small mana potions
*** Kill Count ***
You vainquished 2345 monsters.
374 grassmen ("p")
155 lava iguanas ("d")
138 scaled snakes ("s")
135 walking boneses ("k")
132 flying knives ("g")
128 banal snakes ("s")
104 iguanas ("d")
98 mean blobs ("j")
96 flesh blobs ("j")
96 wisps ("g")
95 snow iguanas ("d")
72 ice dusts ("g")
68 skeleton slaves ("k")
65 skeletal hands ("k")
56 sand snakes ("s")
54 grassman champions ("p")
43 stone blobs ("j")
42 mini blobs ("j")
35 skeleton spearmen ("k")
34 large iguanas ("d")
33 grassman chieves ("p")
31 fire snakes ("s")
28 small imps ("i")
25 flying scimitars ("g")
25 haunting spirits ("g")
21 vipers ("s")
20 bone serpents ("k")
20 toad blobs ("j")
18 creeping oozes ("j")
17 salamanders ("d")
14 skeleton swordmen ("k")
11 blinking imps ("i")
11 iguana skeletons ("k")
10 blood oozes ("j")
10 skeleton militiamen ("k")
9 ironguanas ("d")
8 dried grassmen ("p")
6 zothique snakes ("s")
5 green imps ("i")
2 grassman warchieves ("p")
1 elemental master ("H")EtMarc: Magic Arrow the best low level attack spell? I prefer Magic Smash, since you can use it to hit monsters hiding behind others, and crush damage is better than pierce. But I guess that a 0.1.3 barehanded fighter don't need more crush damage.
NerdanelVampire: Magic arrow has a great mana-to-damage ratio. With it I could take some distance to a mean blob and plink-plink-plink it to death. When in this game I lacked magic arrow I had a hard time dealing with haunting spirits when I first met them. In fact, I had to go upstairs to grind a level or two since I used both of my minor healing potions on a level with two haunting spirits - a potion per spirit, and they didn't even gang up on me. Later on, flying cutter and electric orb are very nice spells too, although they use a lot of mana.
NerdanelVampire: So I leveled a little with this character. I found some better gear but no medium healing potions. Then I went back to pick a fight with an Elemental Master again. This time he wasn't too hard, I think both because I was stronger and because this time I hit him with a couple of toxic darts before I started pummeling him. The difference was quite huge, actually.
Also, as I levelled up and got more mana, I noticed myself using electric orb and flying cutter more often - despite the fact that my two level-ups gave me two strength, one dexterity, and one creativity and I didn't modify my stats otherwise. I ended up with 21 strength as a gift from the RNG. Looking back, 11/18 of my level increases increased my strength when 6/18 would have been the expected ratio.