Lord Dimwit's Haftedmaster void-diver

[fph]

I am trying to play a Tome2 character similar to Eolytha, the Rohanknight Haftedmaster described in Lord Dimwit's guide. There is a point I don't understand about it: Eolytha dumped about 70 points into Mindcraft, but Grond generates an anti-magic field, so mindcraft powers cannot be used when one is wearing Grond -- is this correct? If so, Grond only works as a swap weapon, or magic can only be cast in two turns (unwield Grond-cast-rewield). Wouldn't those points be better spent into something else, then?

[Estie]

Hmmm I dimly (!) remembered reading that guide, and yes it must be a swap thing.

I suppose when void diving, he took the stairs not wielding the hammer, did detections and buffs, and swapped to the hammer for fighting. I am sure you can use divination instead of mindcraft, but mindcraft is a good package for fighters prior to the Grond phase too, and generally more point efficient than magic.

There is also the issue of sanity drain when meleeing the last boss. I think you need enough wisdom to not be 1-hit to zero by that attack, and enough restoration to accomodate. I dont recall what mind craft does exactly, but maybe something is helpfull there, too.

I had made a hafted master void diver of my own, but at the time didnt know the exit from the void was not on the lowest level, so I spent an eternity searching and my resources ran out.

[Yottle]

Grond comes with Aggravate. That makes it a very, very bad idea to wield it all the time in the Void/Nether Realm.

Mindcraft does not cure insanity. LD says that he carried a stack of Cure Insanity potions. AFAIK that is the only way to melee the big insanity drainers. There are junkarts that activate for cure insanity, but they are only about as effective as potions of cure serious insanity and take hundreds of turns to recharge.

[Derakon]

Mindcrafting is an amazing utility package, and can be helpful for reaching the lategame even if you can't use it when wielding Grond. It gives you a targeted teleport, for example. And a full-detection spell that costs 1 SP.

High-level mindcrafting also gives you intrinsic ESP. I can't remember how common "true ESP" (of all non-mindless enemies) is in ToME 2, but getting it as an intrinsic could still come in handy.

Incidentally, the number of high-level weapons in ToME that generic antimagic fields is irritating. Did DarkGod really think that nobody would want to play a hybrid fighter/caster? I can't imagine trying to go pure melee (let alone pure bows) in ToME, considering the number of awful, awful enemies out there and also how amazingly useful the spells are.

[fph]

Thanks everyone for the information!

[Estie]

Originally Posted by Yottle

Grond comes with Aggravate. That makes it a very, very bad idea to wield it all the time in the Void/Nether Realm.

Mindcraft does not cure insanity. LD says that he carried a stack of Cure Insanity potions. AFAIK that is the only way to melee the big insanity drainers. There are junkarts that activate for cure insanity, but they are only about as effective as potions of cure serious insanity and take hundreds of turns to recharge.

Yea, you need mass cure insanity down there, if you melee anything. Which conviced me that melee is just bad, regardless of the damage you can dish out - there are ways to 1-hit anything with melee, but it is still not a good way to complete the quest. The real op class is the sorceror. I won many times, void diving and all, with them. Melee can, at best, 1-hit the boss, but that isnt sufficent to make up for the utility of magic.

[Derakon]

Originally Posted by Estie

The real op class is the sorceror.

I bet you could ask six people what the "real OP class" is and get six different valid answers. ToME 2 is not short on broken builds.

[Pete Mack]

I thought the real OP class is Thaumaturge. Mass blast of Create Walls! Mass blast of Gravity! Mass blast of Mana Storm!<4x> Morgoth dies.

[Derakon]

You forgot inertia, Pete. I think only four monsters in the game resist it (Great Wyrm of Power, Aether Hound, Aether Vortex, Inertia Hound), it slows anything that doesn't resist it, and the slowing stacks. So Thaumaturge is definitely up there, yeah.

Other contenders I can think of are Sorcerer of course, Summoner, Alchemist (natch, though you have to have an extremely high tolerance for grinding), Possessor...that's only five. Someone needs to think of a sixth so my previous statement isn't a lie.

[Patashu]

Originally Posted by Derakon

Other contenders I can think of are Sorcerer of course, Summoner, Alchemist (natch, though you have to have an extremely high tolerance for grinding), Possessor...that's only five. Someone needs to think of a sixth so my previous statement isn't a lie.

Bard


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