So, I'm trying to get through Dredmor with a pure melee build. I got to him on Dwarvish, but ended up getting hit with some bad crits and dying. This is the spec I was using at the time. Axes Shield Bearer Berserker Rage Master at Arms Assassination Perception Artful Dodger Having looked around the forums, it seems that Mirror Shields are mandatory for meleeing Dredmor, ergo Blacksmithing is mandatory. Is the above build viable even on Elvish? Or am I pretty much required to pick up BS as a skill? I'm asking because SERVANTS OF THE BLOOD GOD DO NOT TRIFLE WITH PETTY CRAFTING! BLOOD FOR THE BLOOD GOD! SKULLS FOR THE SKULL THRONE! -coughs- Or something like that.
You can buy Mirror Shields in shops or just find them. You can also mute his spellcasting with magic skills. The more important thing for meleeing Dredmor is having good melee stats. Aim for , or over 100. High also helps. It's an ok build but imho it's not specialised enough and pretty dull. I'd go either for dual wield for extra damage or unarmed for extra defence. 1 weapon is kinda meh. So my advice is: get some anti-magic via shields or skills (magical law, emomancy or magic training), max your defensive melee stats or just find a way to stun him.
If it were me, I'd switch Shield bearer for Dual wield. If you're going to be putting points in axes, doubling those bonuses is very nice (plus, Shield bearer's purpose in the build overlaps with Master of arms). I'd also switch Berserker for a way of dealing with casters (Magical law, Paranormal Investigator, Emomancy, whatever). Here's my Rogue loving bias coming through, but I'd even trade Master of arms for something that offers more tangible melee benefits - Piracy fits the bill (and dovetails nicely with Magical law). All that said, there's nothing keeping you from completing the game with your build as-is except a way to prevent casters from raping you. To keep that tanky, warrior-ness of your build and have a solution for this, I'd consider swapping Artful dodge or Assassination for one of the anti magic skills. Alternately, you could rely on luck to find a couple of mirror shields, wear one and keep the other to switch in when facing hordes of magic users or Dredmor himself.
You need a mute. Your simplest solution is a sonic wand, make sure to have one on the later floors, maybe even craft one with items that grant wandcrafting. Practical Geology will let you petrify yourself (although you're going to be hit by dredmor's corruption bolts) or petrify dredmor and run away when you run into trouble, the seismic fist also is a temporary mute. Smithing is more thematic than most of your alternatives, unless you want to roleplay like. BLOOD FOR THE BLOOD GOD ACCORDING TO CITY ORDINANCE BSH3100 CLAUSE 8 In which case take magical law and serve dredmor a gag order. There's Emomancy too. That's pretty dark?
