Heir

[yisk]

I played the gnome-thief under Raven and received a penetrating dagger.
I had four talents at first level and took "Alert" for "Treasure Hunter" branch.
The mithril brutal two-handed sword is very useful to the barbarian, seven league boots - for the bard.
In general, how do you think, in what cases this talent should be received?

[DeSt]

Bard, Thief(only on 4+ talents), probably Healer.

Barbarian's gift inferior to every single guaranteed artifact weapon. And it useless early, 'cause some protection needed. And it useless lately, 'cause too low damage.

[Subconscious]

You may consider taking Heir for wizards since the caster talents arent that good for real... The wand is good for earlygame if you think you need extra survival aids.
I wouldnt bother taking any heir with fighting classes or any weapon / armor heirs. Theyre basically just additional candies for those who cant live without.

Well 7LB are just simply great awesomeness... I dont know what else you would ask when starting the game. If I had wish that time I could probably use it to get pairs of those. Bards can also get up to SEVEN talents so there is no arguing is it worth it.

Do I take heir? Seldomly... I think there are more comfortable ways to start a game than betting everything to one. And that requires that you really have the 3 talents you need.

[Silfir]

Bards can only get six talents:

1 talent base
1 talent bard
1 talent Candle or Falcon
1 talent stats divisible by seven
1 talent Mana 18+
1 talent gnome or hurthling

If you want six talents, play a gnomish bard, because hurthlings don't get enough Mana. You don't need six starting talents anyway - four are enough, and guaranteed by playing a hurthling or gnomish bard in Candle or Falcon. Reasonably likely if you play any kind of elf in Candle or Falcon, too.

Heir is not often possible to get, rarely possible to get without forgoing Treasure Hunter, and for most classes not worth it.

The barbarian sword is pretty awesome for the early game, and you can get protection without shields. Using it right from the start prepares you well for most of your crowning gifts (Vanquisher in particular, though Grod is also pretty enormous) as well.

[Grey]

It's only worthwhile for Bards I feel, because they have the only decent gift and the extra talent to help them get it.

The dagger of penetration looks nice on paper, but in my experience is as good as a decent damage weapon. The fact is it only does 1d4+5 damage, and thieves have awful damage output in general. In all the thieves I've gotten to high levels concentrating solely on the dagger I found myself having to very slowly whittle down monsters, making them very dangerously berserk when very injured. An artifact slayer, a weapon of devastation, or a high damage penetrating weapon is far nicer to find. Otherwise a decent spear (easily attainable) at least makes you safer.

[meh]

I only go for it with bards, really. Looking at the list of gifts, it seems that the fighter and assassin ones might also be worth it. The dagger of penetration doesn't actually look all that useful, since most monsters early on have very low PV anyway.

[gut]

Elementalists get a good one. A ring of minor elemental
mastery. -cold, -fire, -shock, and usually [+2, +2],
although it can be better. I remember getting a [+2, +4],
and I think they can be even better than that.

It is fireproof, can't have it's PV reduced armor
damaging attacks, can be further protected with
guantlets, and is not likely to be replaced until
you reach the casino. It provides help against some
of the more deadly parts of the early-game. Fireball
door/floor traps, ogre magi, fire breath attacks,
and three types of vortex.

[Grey]

They start with a ring of fire resistance anyway, and another random ring. Shock and cold have much more limited protection use, since the enemies that use it are rarer (and hopefully by the time you meet them you'll be prepared). Admittedly yeah, you don't tend to find anything better before the casino, but I don't think it makes a huge difference to the char beyond the starting PV, and you wouldn't choose the 3 talents just for that.

[Silfir]

The Ring of the High Kings is better than the ring of elemental mastery, and you get it before you reach the casino. Not by much, however.

[Alavir]

I tried a male elf mindcrafter with heir yesterday, and it was a nice way to start in the early game. Too bad that the robe got destroyed when he was level 16...