ToME: the Tales of Maj'Eyal

I made a thread about Highers a little while ago. I'll clean it up and sig it when I get round to it, and maybe make a compilation of race threads. Anyway, I'm thinking about ghouls lately and having the same problem I had with highers. Sitting down to play a ghoul, there are relatively few classes that look good. And, if I try to choose a race for those classes, ghoul usually isn't my preference. The release of Ogres didn't help any, since Ogres are better at many of the things people want ghouls to do. Just as spell-slinging classes usually do better So let's look at it both ways.

Playing a Ghoul: Ghouls have 3 big problems. The first two are obvious: global slow and no infusions. The third is status effects. Most races have skills that improve saves, remove conditions, or resist important conditions. Ghouls have stun resist, but nothing else, and their stats and class options tend to leave them with poor mind saves. They can't use wild infusions either. To survive a ghoul run, I would want some combination of

--Ranged damage
--Superior mobility
--Global haste
--status cleanse or resistance
--healing
--enough passive defences not to be bursted from full when I miss a turn

There's a bunch of decent options. Sun Paladin and Demonologist (basically the same class) stand out. So do Archmage and Paradox Mage. Doomed could work. Warden, Mindslayer, and Doombringer are probably viable.

Now let's flip it around. What kind of class would look at ghoul as a race that synergizes with their skills? From what I can tell it would be classes that

--Depend on cooldowns more than auto-attacks
--Depend more on sustains than on self-buffs
--Want to stack constitution
--Have poor base HP
--Have enemy-targeted jumps but no free-targeted jumps
--don't want mindstars or anti-magic
--don't have their own bleed or poison mitigation, or have poor physical saves overall.

Which leaves... what?

Necromancer and Sun Paladin are popular. Healing minions is cool, so I like the necro. Ghoul paladin won't be happening for me until I have wins on shalore and halfling paladins (already have an ogre win).

Conceptually, ghouls should be good in the "dumb brute" fighter classes, but I don't see it. Bulwarks depend on block timing which is very frustrating if you're slow. Berserkers drain a % of their health every turn, so with ghoul speed and health you're actually killing yourself. Neither class really needs bleed and poison immunity, because they have mitigation in vitality. Both can benefit from stun resist, but do have their own resist source and a cleanse. Both like auto-attacking (berserkers especially). Brawlers don't want to raise CON and already have enough jumps. Marauder could maybe work -- no rage, no block, just melee. Skirmishers, Archers, Rogues, Shadowblades, and Arcane Blades probably have the tools to survive as ghouls, but don't get much out of it.

Ghoul Alchemists would be pretty good, I guess. The golem isn't slowed, the defenses are nice, and alchemists spend most of the game waiting for gem bomb to cool down anyway. It's basically a way to make an alchemist even more boring than they already are.

Ghoul reavers probably can't stay alive, but ghoul corruptors might. They even have a tiny bit of blight-synergy. Ghoul demonologists have lots of passive damage and multiplicative mitigation, but miss out on the special start, and the possible beacon drop. Plus, regen infusions probably do more for demonologists than anything ghouls have. Ghoul Doomed have a nice mix of HP and pets and cooldown-based AoE, but they can't get mindstar training in Zigur, and hate management is a nightmare until they get a good HP regen item. Ghoul Cursed seem unplayable. Ghoul doombringer could be good I guess with a focus on active weapon attacks. Still miss out on the beacon. Ghoul solipsists miss out on mindstar training and on regen infusions. Mindlsayers have their own jump and cunning/will based attacks; ghoul offers them nothing exciting. Same problem for Wardens. Paradox mages appreciate the health and resists, I guess. Ghoul Anorithils are in a similar place. Their damage comes from spell cooldowns, they have their own healing and status cleanse, and they love more HP.

So, to sum up, my proposed list of ghoul classes

--Necromancer, Alchemist
--Demonologist, Sun Paladin
--Anorithil, Archmage, Paradox Mage, Marauder, Doombringer

Anorithil is the standout one to me, given how much of their damage comes from just existing. Once your Corona engine comes online, you really just need to be able to generate +/- energy to keep it going, and your autofires will eventually kill everything regardless of your own speed. Add this to the fact that they give Ghouls reliable survivability options through Light, and that Ghouls somewhat cover their low mobility with Leap. I think overall Anorithil is the single class with the most Ghoul synergy, although that still doesn't exactly mean Ghoul is gonna be the best class for them.

The one other (very gimmicky) one that I've played around with is a Ghoul Temporal Warden focused on Temporal Hounds and Spacetime Folding. Your Hounds act independent of your speed, meaning Ghoul doesn't weigh you down there, you have really strong mobility options between Leap and Dimensional Step, and the often overlooked Spacetime Folding tree keeps you from getting overwhelmed or surrounded by enemies, which is basically death for the 80% global speed of a ghoul. Celerity also makes exploring a bit more safe, as you don't travel at less than standard movespeed. Basically, this build kites and banishes enemies away while your Time Puppies tear them to shreds. Minimal risk and alleviates a lot of a Ghouls inherent problems, although sustain is still an issue (getting Celestial/Light from an escort makes this combination sooooo much stronger)

I would say ghoul is a poor fit for Sun Paladin. Sun Paladins want to be fast. Shield builds have really good bump attacks from Shield of Light and two handed builds want to make lots of attacks to proc Righteous Strength and then make as many attacks as possible before it wears off. They're already likely to be losing attack speed to precise strikes to get their crit rate up and really don't need to lose more speed. They also don't need anything the ghoul offers except maybe leap.

Mindslayer might be a good fit. They have good damage mitigation and I think Beyond the Flesh works on global turns. I'm certain the Auras do. They can also use skate to mitigate the speed penalty for movement, have in class mental and physical effect removal (not very good mental removal, but they do have some passively) and naturally build mental save stats.

I think Doombringer and Ghoul synergize well together. His retch ability counteracts the damage from the status removal and healing Doombringer skills. And doombringer can deal aoe/ranged damage so approaching melees get toasted and ranged units can be engaged quite easily, making the lower speed less of a problem.