ToME WikiNew: Rohanknight swordmaster w/ dagger and +4 speed: 3d4 + 48 base damage. Granted, this is w/ 3 blows: the one-blow stats would be 1d4 + 16... but still. the makeshift spellsword I was using: 1d4 + 14. 1 blow only
Do not equate the differences to high stats in the former - dex was 14, and the swordmaster still got 3 blows.
Why did I not think of checking this before?
I got mobbed by owlbears and I realized I was taking multiple turns to kill them. Then I checked base damage.
It's quite obvious that the innate HtH skill warriors get has made any attempt to determine whether spellswords will work useless. Thankfully 2.3 gets rid of those, and then maybe mages might do more than 16 damage per hit.
Still; as for whether or not spellswords will work in 2.3, that remains to be seen.
That, and there's one confession I have to make. I finally downloaded the theme and t-plus modules yesterday... and am hooked to the point where it'd take a year to actually finish the char. So, any chance of getting this guy to a high level and seeing how he does then is void; 2.3.0 will be officially released before then. :P And as all my previous experiments with a warrior ended up in me taking more time to kill stuff than a Mage would, and spellswords like this won't exactly get greater HP or anything... I still have to conclude that it would fail, despite not having tried it.
Sry for wasting your guys' time on a random spiel that I never actually tried getting outside the bdowns... but theme and t-plus call. :P
Alright.
This is an attempt to recreate a spellsword (warrior who uses magic) with 2.2.7, attempting to mimic future conditions (2.3.0, etc).
Since 2.3.0 isn't stable at all, and I'd prefer not to have to work around random bugs, this will be done with 2.2.7.
Now, the major change is 2.3.0 giving 6 skill points per level as opposed to 5. This makes for a total of 294 (29 * 6) skill points, as opposed to 245 (49 * 5). Due to mages having no skill whatsoever in HtH, as listed in tome/help/birth.txt (i *hope* the hth category means head to head/fighting skill...), and not having enough skill points to spread around, it really wasn't feasible before. But with wizard mode I can get the extra 50 or so skillpoints... the hth category... well, if I can win with it being nonexistant for mages, 2.3.0 shall be grand when it comes out.
294 - 245 is exactly 49 points... conveniently, that's just the number you need to max Fire. Which means I'll be turning on wizard mode just after birth, maxing the Fire school, and then turning off wizard mode and leaving it off for the rest of the game.
Thus, enter the rohanknight vampire mage.
My planned skill distribution is as planned:
max Mana, Fire, magic-device
nature to 10, grab healing. same with water, put it to 6 for ent's potion.
worship manwe, bring prayer to 20... couple that with 15 points from god quests to cover conveyance, noxious cloud, and some nice god spells.
Dump everything else into weaponmastery and hope FF blesses me.
All the messing with spell schools and whatnot should bring magic up to a respectable level. Maxed mana is another 15% aswell, along with the 50% mage mana bonus.
Now, I do *not* plan to spam manathrust/fireflash and use weapons only when monsters move next to me... alright, that will probably happen, but if it does turn out to be completely unavoidable, I can definately say "forget spellswords, just play a normal mage" and get on with life. And yes, I do plan to use actual weapons and not mage staves.
Some people decided "hey, i'll not max any one school, i'll dab points around to get a few random spells!"
No.
Poison blood is worthless; poison brand is next to worthless vs high demons/dragons. Manwe gives it to you anyways. Essence of speed is worthless; you basically have to run a rohanknight for hte extra .2 to the weaponmastery mod. Stone Prison is nice, but you can tote around wands/staves of shake (or one of stone prison, if they exist) for the same effect. Necromancy/mimicry are too expensive unless you don't get anything besides them. Same goes for anything in the water school outside of ent's potion. Probability travel would be nice, but manwe gives conveyance (albeit not highly enough to get prob travel), and dumping 35 points into conveyance just for it... Fire shield I actually *am* getting, and it's unresistable at high levels, unlike ice storm.
The only changes I can see myself making are diverting a few points into necromancy for absorb soul (if FF is nice and grants me a bunch of it at first), and going for stone prison... but I'll see how staves of shake turn out. Are they targetable?
I'll have a few skill points left over... unless they're enough to bring spellpower to a high level, I dunno what I'll do with them... we'll see.
Well, wish me luck...
Chatter
MassimilianoMarangio: You can change the number of skill points in the ./lib/module.lua file. Change simply the 5 to 6 as in the actual version:
["skill_per_level"] = function()
return 6
end,
On the other hand, I'm not sure that 6 skill points are needed in ToME 2.3.0, perhaps the old 5 or 5.5 are enough. Still checking it...
SirMaur: I much prefer using wizard mode to do this. It autoflags the dump; and doesn't require me to go poking around in the game's code. I could do it, but I don't see the point when Ctrl+W, y, G, down a few times, and + x49 gives me everything I need. I'd probably forget to revert the changes after this guy's done anyways.
Besides, whether or not the extra 49 skill points are needed, they're in 2.3.0 anyways. I'm using 6; not 5.5 or 5. :P
Time to start running this guy... who knows, I might even play carefully with this one. >_<
Thanks for responding...
(that *is* you, right, marangio? I saw your name in the "last edited by <user>" blurb, but you didn't actually leave your name...)
MassimilianoMarangio: Yes, forgot to sign the comment 