Advice on how to play low ST characters

[pblack]

I'm trying to get a Mist Elf Mindcrafter going and I come from the good ol' times when you could just start up a hurthling and never worry about a thing since he most certainly would be at 25 St soon enough. Now, that's not the case anymore and I find myself fearful of playing any low ST R/C combo.



How do you guys recommend I approach this? I'd like to get Great Book caster on this guy but then, how am I going to haul a bunch of spellbooks on top of everything else throughout the game? Should I get the packager talents or should I just rely on a girdle of carrying? Or is this a non issue and I should not put any special effort in it and just play burdened/strained the whole time?

Thnx

[JellySlayer]

My experience with hurthlings, mostly, is that you'll end up being Burdened/Strained for the early-midgame through probably level ~16 or so. Beyond that, you usually end up with enough St increasing gear/potions that you can get ahead of the encumbrance problems (also, your worn gear tends to get lighter as you move to artifact/higher metal stuff). If you're really concerned about it, the Porter talents do help a lot.

It helps not to be too much of a packrat, and to pay attention to where your encumbrance is going. Avoid carrying big piles of food (you don't need much as a Mist Elf anyway) and extra missiles, sis, etc. that you don't need.

[Lasher]

Hmm. I just played an elf archer that had Maximum 13 potential strength when she started.

I just went burdened till about dwarf town. At the time I thought that I could still raise my strength past 13 maximum by being burdened. But that didn't work. Anyways, she ended the game victorious at 27 strength. I just ate every Dark Orc I could, cause even if I was at my maximum that would give me one more potential strength. I also trained by the Dwarf Trainer and ate lots of other corpses, always hoping for more strength. Later on potions really helped.

But yeah, I think you are basically right. You just have to tough it out till you get that strength up, probably from Dark Orcs or occasionally other corpses and the Dwarf Trainer. Being Burdened in the early game isn't too bad, unless you are doing something definitely dangerous.

One thing I usually do is drop all my stuff that isn't critical for dungeon exploring on the staircase above dwarf town. Then I make sure no dwarves ever follow me up. This stuff is usually like climbing sets, fletchery sets, spare pickaxes, potions I don't want to use at the time, scrolls, spare armor and weapons, all sorts of stuff I don't absolutely need. Then I try to plan out my explorations so I don't have to backtrack too much, but for the most part it isn't a huge deal.

My elf finished the game at over 100 days, and had to fight every single guy on the last level to death, and the only corruption she got was from getting smacked. So leaving stuff laying around and backtracking isn't too bad anymore, since background corruption isn't too bad either.

[pblack]

Thx guys.

My Mindcafter met his end in the Putrid caves due to a case of extreme cockiness.

"Oh, I got serpent's bite as a precrown and I have managed to get my ST up to a whopping 14 before dwarftown! And I got 7lb's! I can melee like fighter! For sure!"


But yeah, being burdened for this part of the game is pretty much OK if you have enough PV. I'll give that one another go once I decompress =P

[grobblewobble]

I'd like to get Great Book caster on this guy but then, how am I going to haul a bunch of spellbooks on top of everything else throughout the game?

So this works? Can you get good success rates on casting with a mindcrafter that way?

If you pull it off, strength of atlas should solve your problems once you have the combo up and running. You could probably store your spellbooks in a safe place until then, and rely on girdle of carrying to make it through at first.

Buying the talents would be a bit of a waste if you can eventually cast Strength of Atlas perpetually.

[pblack]

So this works? Can you get good success rates on casting with a mindcrafter that way?

If you pull it off, strength of atlas should solve your problems once you have the combo up and running. You could probably store your spellbooks in a safe place until then, and rely on girdle of carrying to make it through at first.

Buying the talents would be a bit of a waste if you can eventually cast Strength of Atlas perpetually.

I cannot confirm but that's what I read in posts and wiki out there. You just have to find a wand of wonder and probably TH might help a bit.

[sweetnothing]

Yeah, the wand of wonder makes wonders for mindcrafters. Except I've heard something bad about occassional Wish which you can get from it with associated stats drain

[blunk]

Dont worry about burdened strained its also good for pumping str to potential max.
Blessed Girdle of carry is your friend.
Early on also store somewhat useful but heavy items on stairs or dungeon entrances to collect for later use or sale.
Lighten the load when you can and try to be selective of what you carry.

[Blasphemous]

That occasional wish is extremely rare but yes, it drains 10 points out of a random attribute.

[AlterAsc]

So this works? Can you get good success rates on casting with a mindcrafter that way?

Mindcrafters don't get problems with casting spells, they only get severe penalties on learning spells via spellbooks. You can even learn Light and Darkness spells from blessed spellbooks as they are easiest to learn.