ToME: the Tales of Maj'Eyal

So my basic build that I'm thinking of is like this:

Eldritch shield category:
Eldritch Blow: 5/5
Eldritch Infusion: 1/5
Eldritch Fury: 5/5
Eldritch Slam: 5/5

Dwarven Nature category
Elemental Split: 5/5
Power Core: 3/5
Dwarven Unity: 1/5
Mergeback: 1/5

Earthen Power
Stoneshield: 5/5
Stone Fortress: 5/5
Shards: 5/5
Eldritch Stone: 5/5

Earthen Vines
Stone Vines: 5/5
Eldritch Vines: 5/5
Rockwalk: 1/5
Rockswallow: 1/5

Stone (cat point)
Earthen Missiles: 5/5
Body of Stone: 1/5
Earthquake: 1/5
Crystalline Focus: 5/5

(Alternatively, ignore Stone and: 4 more to Rockwalk, 4 more to Rockswallow, 4 more to Eldritch Infusion). And use the cat point to bump Earthen Power.

Generic:
Dwarf: 1/1/5/1
Combat training: 3/5 armour, 5/5 accuracy, 5/5 thick skin
Call of the wild: 1 meditation, 5 nature's touch, 5 earth's eyes, 5 nature's balance
Harmony: 1/5/2/5

Stats:
High (maxed) str & magic, medium willpower & con.
(Willpower early, bumping vines & dwarven nature, then str for a bit, then str & mag. Con a little throughout.)

Prodigies:
Undecided.
I can carry the world looks pretty strong to me, despite others saying its weak. (40 str is a big damage boost, a voratun shield & 5 in stoneshield gives you ~.8 dmg per point in str (pre-adjustment). So that is 32 dmg, plus another ~.8 per phys power, so 8-12ish more from 40 str.
That is likely ~55 or 60 post-adjustment (and with dual wielding, an additional 25-30 on the offhand attack).
And getting rid of fatigue may not be completely useless in longer fights...

(Flexible combat seems weaker to me--doesn't boost my Eldritch Shield line damage, doesn't boost my Shards attacks, just one extra attack per round at not so high damage...)

Arcane Might would give a slightly lower boost, but also substantial. (Assuming ~80 mag, would gives ~32 dmg pre-adjustment, ~40-50 post).

Eternal Guard seems really good, but not sure if I need more defense vs offense... I already have a couple heals (and more with inscriptions), and dwarven resilience + stone fortress is cutting down a lot of damage too...

Spectral shield seems really good too, though I guess it depends what resists are on my shield already, right? (Resists on shield are also blockable damage types when blocking, right?)

Spine of the world seems really good, though with MergeBack & infusions (with CD from Harmony) could probably handle conditions ok? (And my saves will be pretty high...)

(Initial thought is for both I can carry the world & Arcane Might)

Basic idea:
- Good melee damage (shields seem to have almost as much attack power as 2-handed weapons of the same tier, though only a 1.0 stat modifier instead of 1.2. With 2 damage prodigies this should be pretty huge.
- Crowd clearing with vines & Eldritch Slam
- Eldritch shield line will do a lot of single target damage when I need to nuke (esp with high magic stat)
- Vines provide mobility and a small (or big, if I ignore Stone) heal. (And a nuke if I ignore stone)
- Elemental Split pets should be good damage with high magic stat, and provide a lot of defense.
- Stone line gives a way to soften foes from range with Earthen Missiles, and Crystalline Focus seems like a really nice damage boost (ignore 50% phys resist!).


Main areas where I would love feedback:
- Thoughts on those prodigy choices? I am thinking offense just cause I already get so much defense stuff, but would need to buff my damage up.
- Should I go for the stone category or go deeper into the other categories? (Also bumping a cat point into Earthen Power would give me more damage and survivability.)
- Are my stat plans reasonable? (High str for high melee dmg, high mag for eldritch shield line dmg, dwarven nature line dmg, earthen missiles, and arcane might dmg)

IIRC, boosting rockwalk and rockswallow really improved my quality of life, playing Stonewarden. Vines are excellent, as long as you can get where you're needed in a fight. Without them, getting around was really painful but I might just play too conservatively with movement infusions (i.e. I have no idea what I'm doing). I don't think I used Stone Fortress, like, at all. But a big part of that is me not managing all my resources very well (I forget I have stoneskin).

I grabbed Stone Alchemy the first chance I got, and honestly the biggest benefit was probably not having too many places to spread out class talents. I was rolling in gold by the endgame, but it didn't do me all that much good.

As far as prodigies go, I went Eternal Guard -> Spectral Shield. Eternal Guard is excellent, since with enough elements you block everything including DoTs. The only times I took damage were when I was stunned, or something stripped the block effect (Wildfire was the big offender there). I don't know for sure, but if you had versatile enough shields (probably by inventory juggling), a better defensive prodigy might Spine of the World or Draconic Will. Alternatively, if you're confident in other ways of managing effects, you could definitely go for something offensive. Windblade would probably be hilarious.

I don't know that fatigue will be a huge issue. I think equilibrium was only a problem for me a few times, and boosting will eventually took care of that. Mana is problematic early on if you don't care to use a manasurge rune, but fine once you get the talents to deal with it.