Share your Builds

While Fungal Arts gives you no , but it still very helpful for melee. FairyWodger+Inky Hoglation and on the last turn of invisible a Greedy Blungecap can turn around a bad zoo. You can keep 3 Loberstermanes on you at all time for another 3 AA. Puffballs can be used on a large group of monster to keep them busy till you get to a choke hold. Also is a great resistance passively given to you each fungal arts level.

Demonology is amazing for melee as FaxCeles said.

Burglary is pretty must for non-magic non-mod build. The teleport skill is just that useful. If you get surrounded or low health then teleport away. You are going to need a teleport skill sometime in the game.

Archaeology isn't necessary but the extra exp and knockback are pretty nice.

In the end I think the build I suggested will have a lot of especially with berserker rage, Fervor Flagellent, and diggle god of war.

 

something people forget/don't know about about Charlemagne is that the damage scales really well, especially around mid game. It's so excellent for picking off that one annoying wight or spellcaster, or just knocking back a special monster.

Damages
3 (+ 1 ×)

Even if you're just doing a gish build, that damage gets up there later on.

 

So here's what I got after taking into account people's advice:

Maces
Dual wield
Berserk
Vegan
Demonology
Burglary
Hunter

Am unsure about Maces and Hunter; may want to replace one or both with Smithing and/or Fungal. I mostly have Maces for the fuck-awesome knockback smash and because I was under the apparently mistaken impression that the damage bonuses from weapon-specific skills get doubled.

 

First level of maces gives you 2. If you are holding two maces, you get a total of 4. So I would say that damage bonuses from weapons absolutely double - provided you are wielding two of that weapon type!

I'm also a recent convert to Big Game Hunter - the extra XP is pretty staggering for the first level.

With the skills you list, I think your first point will go into Animal Friend, then a point into Burglary (lockpicks!), and your next three points get distributed 2 Vegan (for the 5!) 1 Maces. After that you'll have to make an interesting choice - run for Ninja Vanish? Get Hunter levels for even more XP and hope for the hounds? Berserk for more armor? (A good choice if you haven't found any decent armor yet)

One last bit of advice - get an Elvish Grinder ASAP, and grind all your cheese and meat. Saves a ton of inventory, and feeds your lutefish cube really well.

 

Whenever I'm making a build I think about how I'm going to kill dreadmor and then work from there. Your build work pretty well for dreadmor. The knock back probably won't work against him but invisible and/or teleporting away to heal will. Burglary gives you both of those options. You will more than enough to bypass dreadmor's armor and +5 from Killer Vegan is nice too (does that double with dual wield?). Big Game Hunter is a bit of a weak point in the build. Maces do limit your options a bit but maces are one of the best weapons to use against dreadmor. Clockwork Thunderclap and Mace of Windu both do a great job bypassing Dreadmor's defense even if they aren't from a chest of evil. I worry your biggest problem is the inability to heal well. Killer Vegan means using food to heal isn't the great idea, but it is doable. You have no way to make mushrooms, healing potions, or have a healing spell.

If you download the mod Inquisitor and replace big game hunter your build will be much MUCH better. The first skill makes the 2nd floor a breeze. The 3rd skills is a buff I keep on at all time. The 4th skills stop a enemy from casting a spell and is brittle (i.e. not time based) makes zoo possible without wasting all your ammo. The 5th skill is great passive that adds +1 resist to all. The 6th skill is a nice heal and give +3 and (enough to off set a heavy armor). Here is the link http://community.gaslampgames.com/threads/skill-inquisitor.2121/

 

Inquisitor is also in FaxPax (and has in fact had some changes in such).

 

Be warned though, once you start modding you'll get addicted. First you add a skill or two next thing you know you got 300+ more room layouts, an extra diggle god or two, 12+ more skills, endless amounts equipment, monster zoos on floor 1, and more.

 

Wait Vampirism... Really?

• Vampirism
• Burglary
• Emomancy
• Viking Magic
• Piracy
• Berserker Rage
• Blood Magic

Yup a Vampirism Build. First off you got a ton of ways to heal. Each hit you do heals you 1hp, except against constructs. Then you got corpse drain which is... meh but works. Then you have the cure which is amazing. Last but not least you have Haematic Phylactery which is a very nice panic button.

Next up you got Viking Magic+ Berserker Rage+ Drain Hit to make you pretty vicous in melee combat. Not as much as a pure melee but you still do a nice job.

You don't want to melee huh? Well you got my chemical explosion and Thor's Fulminaric Bolt. Both do a lot of damage and both are effective against Dreadmor.

But I hear what you are saying, both of those skill cost a lot of mana. Well you got Blood Magic to give you mana per kill. Also Psyhic Vampire give you extra mana for 50% of the time each melee hit.

However the great part about this build is its tankiness. You got swashbuckling for a massive +75 counter for 4 turns. Not enough? Mist of the Corsair+ Batty Form is a +70 dodge for another 7 turns (with +50 for 13 turns after that). During that time you probably built up some rage giving you massive amounts of AA.

But oh no you have used all your abilities, mana, and Haematic Phylactery whatever shall you do? Bam burglary! Turn invsible and/or teleport away.

 

Wish I'd read a little more before starting! I dropped Maces and Hunter for Smithing and Fungal, and now I wish I hadn't because I now realyze one pet is enough for the early game and whenever I take Smithing I always end up leaving it for last... Shoulda stuck with what I wrote down there... I figure, though, without Maces I can just use whatever I find in chests of evil.

Anyway, I've gotten level 2 Fungal and now I intend to intend to push Vegan to its max before getting some Berserk and some Demonology.

 

If you take smithing you really need to gun it first. Early armor and weapons are awesome. Late in the game you'll be finding so much stuff on the floor you won't care about what you can craft. I find early smithing makes the first seven floors or so, much easier for dedicated melee builds. Later than that I mostly use it to create throwing items, (huge stacks of which are wonderfully helpful), but if you find yourself holding off on smithing until the late game you might as well skip it entirely.

 

Oh yeah, save your basic staff weapons and crude iron axes - they became fantastic throwing items once you have smithing 5.

 

So I tried this build on easy mode and.... it is pretty underwhelming. First off it takes 11 levels to get and power up the Death Ray. But level 11 of just Wand Lore+ Rogue Scientist isn't easy so I had to max Unarmed Combat first. It took me till about level 20+ to get the Death Ray powered up. A 7 wand powered death ray did about 3/5ths of normal monster health on floor 11. It took about 4+ castings to kill a named monster. So for 20 ish mana, 11 level ups, and 5% chance of a debuff that removes of almost all of your + prevents casting each time you cast the death ray you get....a worse version of the stars aligned. When Astrology is making your build look weak than you got a problem.

 

I posted this in my Modded Character Builds thread, but I thought it would go over well here, too.

Radiant Fire Goddess

Radiant Wizard
Dragonfire Aspirant
Archmage
Dastardly Scoundrel
Blood Mage
Burglary
Archeology

The flavor of this build seems to demand a female character. At high levels (theoretically, as I just came up with it) she would be floating around, hurling bursts of flame and blasts of light, disintegrating monsters with wild abandon while disappearing and reappearing at-will.

Level 2: Lucky Pick
Max Dragonfire Aspirant.
Snag Archeology 2
Max Burglary and Dastardly Scoundrel
Archmage 2
Max Radiant Wizard

Dragonbreath and Light Dart will be your main sources of damage for a while. By the time the major RW penalties come into play, you'll have dual vanishes and more escapes than you can shake a stick at. Since you'll be leaving behind multiple flame auras and an entangling breath as you leave, enemies will have some trouble actually getting to you in melee. As for spells? The multiple sources of magic reflect will turn them right back on them.

 

I'm on a quest to find the ultimate Vegan Build.
The one I'm using now has worked pretty well till now (floor 4). Zoos were a breeze, and I didn't even use BMDs or squiddies.

Killer Vegan
Berserker Rage
Unarmed Combat
Thrown Weaponry
Battle Geology
Burglary
Piracy

Basically, first point goes into lucky pick. Infinite picks ftw! Then you want to max Vegan quickly and get Berserk up (I personally don't take the last skill there).
Battle Geology lets you stomp anything in the beginning, the counter/crit reduction isn't that important since it is pretty low for the first few levels anyway. That it has a recharge of only 6 turns makes it very flexible, but I kept it turned on for a looong time.
Piracy is there for Swashbuckling (hint: disable Plutonic Fist ), which is like 4 turns invisible while still killing things. Mists of the Corsair is in a similar vein, you might level up Burglary instead.
Well, I'm not far in, but this build performs amazingly well even with the crap loot I found.

 

This is my favorite clockwork knight build:

Clockwork Knight
Axes or Maces
Fleshsmithing
Tinkering
Smithing
Archaeology
Dual Wield.

Get one level of It belongs in a museum, then focus on leveling smithing and your CK skill until you can make fine steel weapons. Then work on your tinker skill until you can make clockwork weapons. It is nice to take knit flesh at some point so you'll always be able to heal yourself.

later, focus on leveling up axes/maces and getting power limbs and power gauntlets so you can max out your melee power.

 

Currently playing Alchemy, Archaeology, Viking Magic, Astrology, Inquisitor, Leylines, Druid Magic. Excellent Gish.

 

• Unarmed Combat
• Shield Bearer
• Master of Arms
• Berserker Rage
• Pirate
• Blacksmith
• Tinker

A turtle who makes its own armor.

 

Tentatively awesome build:

Spellsword
Dragonfire Aspirant
Thunderbreath Aspirant
Qi Gong
Kung Fu
Burglary
Archeology

Another gish build, but this one built on manaless spellcasting. Breaths and Qi Gong nukes can be rotated almost constantly. Vanish can be used to refresh cooldowns and start the cycle anew. Inherent defense bonuses from the Aspirant lines make gearing up for MP very easy. Wielding a tome, magic gauntlet and weapon with Spellsword abilities, Qi Smite and Magma Carrot stance allows for massive application of MP to melee attacks, along with a lifedrain. No particular melee weapon specialization allows for any found weapons to be used. And Burglary can be used to Vanish or run away to begin the cycle of pain anew.

The preponderance of Warrior archetype abilities also makes for massive HP, and Dragonbreath is early floor ez-mode. Depending on how it scales, the build could be equally powerful in later floors as well.

 

I'm surprised you went with Thunderbreath over Self-righteous breath. is a lot less resist than and you get 4 and . In return you do lose 4 but that isn't a big deal.

 

I can see where you're coming from. Necrolyzing breath was another strong choice. I tend to not level up burglary and archeology past 2, so the idea was that I would get it early through TA instead. But then I found Fax's hat in a 1st floor shop, and getting an Invis/Teleport so I could steal it became a priority over just about anything else.

Long story short, my trap affinity is about to be 16. On floor 5. LOL.

That said, early Dragon Aspirant is really, really strong. They're warrior archetypes with HP bonuses, so double-stacking them has left me with 130 HP at level 17. I have a sneaking suspicion those skill lines may be a tad bit overpowered, but that's a discussion for another thread.

Edit: Oh, I know why I didn't take that. It was because the Self-Righteous breath doesn't leave a field like Fire and Thunder does.