GrandmaTentacleshield: A shield,Tentacles and 650hp, insane win

[Chattius]

Grossmutter Tentakelschild / Grandma Tentacleshield

I never had English at school so i take this as training. I came to ToME playing it on an old Linux Notebook from my Dad (he prefers ToME 2.0 and a bard). This character was played while i was bound to bed at hospital after a complicated torsion break of my right upper leg. I visit an art school (sort of specialized high school). My focus is on musical instrument making, mainly the electric zither. I could do my normal homeworks in maths and nature sciences but not the wood working ones. So i was doing some drawings of characters to train my real life finger skills a bit. One of my paintings was a very old dwarven lady with a shield and a tentacle arm.
I started this idea several times. I did an insane win with only (?) two deaths: one was needed to turn into a ghoul, the other was cause of deadly poison which i overlooked.

Tentakelschild.jpg (3.01 KiB) Viewed 7857 times

https://te4.org/characters/3263/tome/a4 ... 71de64b616

Before starting the character:
I wanted to turn the character into a ghoul because of the reduction of damage to maximal 50% of maximum hitpoints. So wilder skills -and right wielding a shield- are a nogo till being a ghoul.
Tentacles need a free left arm, so shield must be wielded right, see above
I haven't that much play experience and i played tinker builds before. I wanted to try out demonic seeds with this. So with using vim, the active equilibrium using skills are hard to implement and i didn't do it.
With damage limited to 50% max hitpoints i liked the idea to add fateweaving with its 30% damage reflection and i added flux to counter the paradox.
Demon seeds, vim talents, tentacles, chronamancy, runes: all are spells. So i put in meta to reduce spell cooldowns.

Class
Spell / Meta
Reducing spellcooldowns and removing magical buffs
Disperse Magic 2
Spellcraft 5

Steamtech / Magnetism
early on for the passives,with items restoring steam actives are nice to have
Static Shock 5
Magnetic Field 1
Capacitor Discharge 5
Lightning Web 1

Corruption / Doom shield
Taken for the first two talents, but a lategame 3 cooldown Demonic Madness together with Static Shock, fantastic
Osmosis Shield 3
Hardened Core 5
Demonic Madness 4
Blighted Shield 1

Corruption / Demonic pact
Actually the most fun, finding out what use the different seeds have, early game frost grap to isolate bosses
Demon Seed 5
Bind Demon 5

Chronomancy / Flux
Taken to control paradox, but has defensive and offensive possibilities
Induce Anomaly 1
Reality Smearing 3
Attenuate 1
Twist Fate 1

(10)Psionic / Solipsism
Global speed and reducing max hitpoints while adding a sort special hitpoints -and- we have no other psi talents
Solipsism 5
Balance 2
Clarity 5

(34)Wild-gift / Earthen power
Mainly for the righthand shield. Since i took it late in game, not much points left
Stoneshield 1
Stone Fortress 1
Shards 1

(vile)Demented / Tentacles
Adding tentacle attacks to melee strikes, lash out and Tendril eruption are spells, with 70% reduced cooldown late game.
Mutated Hand 5
Lash Out 1
Tendrils Eruption 1

Generic
Race / Dwarf
Dwarf because we want Earthen Power
Resilience of the Dwarves 1
Stoneskin 1
Power is Money 5
Stone Walking 1

Technique / Combat training
Only one question: massive armour or the light armour which creates a shield when hit. I founf the light very late, when i did massive already.
Thick Skin 5
Heavy Armour Training 3
Combat Accuracy 2
Weapons Mastery 1

Chronomancy / Fate Weaving
30% less damage, longer debuffs on enemies, 60 saves and powers...
Spin Fate 5
Seal Fate 5
Fateweaver 5
Webs of Fate 5

Psionic / Finer energy manipulations
Telekinetic weapon and early heal
Realign 1
Form and Function 1
Matter is Energy 1
Resonant Focus 1

(20)Corruption / Demonic strength
Flat damage reduction and a bit other things
Dismember 1
Surge of Power 1
Demonic Blood 1
Abyssal Shield 5

(2nd prodigy)Undead / Ghoul
Never more damage than 50% of the maximal hitpoints - nice
Ghoul 2
Ghoulish Leap 2
Retch 2
Gnaw 2

Prodigies
25 adept - the skills are very wide spread
42 Rak'Shor's Cunning - I mainly play ghouls and i am used to build around their 50%damage reduction

The order of the character buildup was highly depending on luck, means finding certain items early or late. I was only able to turn ghoul at level 45 and so Tentacles had to wait a lot. But i was lucky with items which reduced cooldown ataround level 40.

[Chattius]

I planed to create a topic to ask for help for madness, but i decided to add it to this already existing thread. But still the question to more experienced players is; would it to frustrating to try madness with it for more attempts?
"
While at hospital i did some pencil drawings of possible tome characters i could roleplay - one was a dwarven grandma with a shield on her right arm and tentacles replacing the left arm. It didn't even know if such a character would be possible because i thought that the shield skills would demand a left hand shield. It turned out that a shield in right hand and tentacles work together. So i started a character on normal combining a lot of shield skills. I often lost control on which shield skill to use in which order. She was a heavy armoured lady which was playable but needed a lot of control.
So i played some characters with some talent trees combinations like tinkering, throwing knives,... . Then i stumpled over Rak'shor's cunning prodigy. It allows to turn the dwarf needed for dual wield shields into a ghoul, one of my most played races.
So now we are able to play a ghoul with its no hit more than 50% of its max hitpoints as damage.

So i designed a low hitpoint approach:

As few hitpoints as possible:
Necrosis/Blurred Mortality
Solipsism tree

Reducing damage by some percent:
Solipsism/Solipsism
Fate Weaving/Webs of Fate
Flux/Reality Smearing

Reducing damage by flat amounts:
block, osmosis shield, blood shield,...

It turned out that the design went very intelligence heavy and had more spells than melee combat arts. So i thought: all or nothing. And with nearly everything a spell i added meta with its spellcraft and some items with lowering spell cooldown. The fun character suddenly turned out to survive insane with enemy levels lifted from 1.5 to 2.

Code: Select all

 - Race / Dwarf                       (mastery 1.00)
    Resilience of the Dwarves (generic) 1/5
    Stoneskin (generic)               1/5
    Power is Money (generic)          5/5
    Stone Walking (generic)           1/5
 - Technique / Combat training        (mastery 1.00)
    Thick Skin (generic)              3/5
    Heavy Armour Training (generic)   3/5
    Combat Accuracy (generic)         2/5
    Weapons Mastery (generic)         1/5
 - Spell / Staff combat               (mastery 1.20)
    Channel Staff (generic)           1/5
    Staff Mastery (generic)           1/5
    Defensive Posture (generic)       1/5
    I was never sure which telekinetic weapon to use, so i wanted some flexibility.
 - Spell / Necrosis                   (mastery 1.00)
    Blurred Mortality (generic)       5/5
    Lower maximum hitpoints and thanks solipsism constitution items are not really bad.
 - Corruption / Vile life             (mastery 1.00)
    Blood Splash (generic)            1/5
    Elemental Discord (generic)       1/5
    Einem geschenktem Gaul schaut man nichts ins Maul.
 - Undead / Ghoul                     (mastery 1.00)
    Ghoul (generic)                   2/5
    Ghoulish Leap (generic)           2/5
    Retch (generic)                   2/5
    Gnaw (generic)                    2/5
 - Chronomancy / Fate Weaving         (mastery 1.00)
    Spin Fate (generic)               5/5
    Seal Fate (generic)               5/5
    Fateweaver (generic)              5/5
    Webs of Fate (generic)            5/5
    I took it mainly for the 30% less damage, but it reflects and it kills more than i thought. 
 - Psionic / Finer energy manipulations(mastery 1.00)
    Realign (generic)                 1/5
    Form and Function (generic)       1/5
    Matter is Energy (generic)        1/5
    Resonant Focus (generic)          1/5
    Taking this tree makes the shield a willpower based weapon. So i went all the way to Resonant Focus to power up the effect.


 - Spell / Meta                       (mastery 1.00)
    Disperse Magic (class)            2/5
    With Adept enough to target it.
    Spellcraft (class)                5/5
    4 or 5 - some spells with long cooldowns see the difference
 - Wild-gift / Earthen power          (mastery 1.00)
    Stoneshield (class)               1/5
    Stone Fortress (class)            1/5
    No more of the tree- I didn't want Equilibrium as a ghoul
 - Chronomancy / Flux                 (mastery 1.00)
    Induce Anomaly (class)            1/5
    Reality Smearing (class)          2/5
    Attenuate (class)                 1/5
    Twist Fate (class)                1/5
 - Psionic / Solipsism                (mastery 1.00)
    Solipsism (class)                 5/5
    Balance (class)                   2/5
    Clarity (class)                   5/5
    Global Speed for the ghoul
    Dismissal (class)                 1/5
 - Corruption / Demonic pact          (mastery 1.00)
    Demon Seed (class)                5/5
    Bind Demon (class)                5/5
    No summons, they always die to friendly fire
 - Corruption / Doom shield           (mastery 1.00)
    Osmosis Shield (class)            5/5
    Hardened Core (class)             5/5
    Demonic Madness (class)           4/5
    Cooldown 4 late game so static shock is allways active
    Blighted Shield (class)           1/5
 - Demented / Tentacles               (mastery 1.00)
    Mutated Hand (class)              5/5
    Lash Out (class)                  1/5
    Tendrils Eruption (class)         1/5
    Constrict (class)                 1/5
 - Steamtech / Magnetism              (mastery 1.00)
    Static Shock (class)              3/5
    Magnetic Field (class)            1/5
    Capacitor Discharge (class)       5/5
    Lightning Web (class)             1/5

Still some questions:
Massive Armour or light one: Massive would be better at many light attacks, light one with the special that creates a shield at a hit of more than 15% to max hitpoints (and we are low on this) probably at heavy hits.
Prodigies: Rakshor's Cunning is a must, i took Adept as second - are there better ones?

Since i seem to be a bit fixated on my build, if you would play a character with a shield and tentacles, how would you do it?

My tries on madness failed. mainly because i never found a potion of unlife early in the game. Turning ghoul level 42 is possible in insane, but for madness i would prefer it for level 25.
"

[Chattius]

Using Rak'Shor's Cunning the fun character proved to be very robust in insane. Necrosis is not just giving negative extra life. When turned into a ghoul the lower maximum life is equivalent to a very high flat damage reduction if the hits wpuld have done more than 500 damage. The shield block value was close to 600, 30% of all damage reflected, solipsim , osmosis shield, reality smearing, blood shield, all saves above 100, ...
The escorts were tricky, but i got used to a mix of frostgrap, constricting, and using the unique light armour which could pull.
The character:
https://te4.org/characters/3263/tome/95 ... 0ed485bcea

I unlocked drem and will try a drem version of this character. Less powerful on saves but the start of combat will have more punch because of repeated combat arts. I will not waste more time trying madness, but approach slowly: using custom difficulties i will try insane with the hunted flag set.

[Effigy]

First, nice character! I'm glad you were able to have fun with the game while in hospital.

would it to frustrating to try madness

In my experience, the answer is "yes" regardless of the build you use. I'd recommend giving it a try if you've had good success on Insane, but be prepared to die unfairly. Also be aware that Madness requires a different playstyle because enemies within a certain radius can always detect your location and will swarm you. Most builds that work well on Insane will have great difficulty on Madness because of the absurd enemy scaling.

I've tried Madness on several occasions and never won, even with strong character builds. I have no doubt that my own skill is a limiting factor, as the methodical approach required is quite different from how I usually play the game. If you have great patience and game knowledge, maybe you can succeed. Good luck!

[Chattius]

First, nice character! I'm glad you were able to have fun with the game while in hospital.

would it to frustrating to try madness

In my experience, the answer is "yes" regardless of the build you use. I'd recommend giving it a try if you've had good success on Insane, but be prepared to die unfairly. Also be aware that Madness requires a different playstyle because enemies within a certain radius can always detect your location and will swarm you. Most builds that work well on Insane will have great difficulty on Madness because of the absurd enemy scaling.

I've tried Madness on several occasions and never won, even with strong character builds. I have no doubt that my own skill is a limiting factor, as the methodical approach required is quite different from how I usually play the game. If you have great patience and game knowledge, maybe you can succeed. Good luck!

Thanks. The character idea went from let's try a funny shield and tentacle character to 'lets see how far we can go with this'.

Madness:
Being hunted makes a big difference, no longer the very nice 'Divide and Impera' approach with pulling single enemies to the character. Even starting only insane with hunted-flag set demands new tactics. So for now i stay away from madness and do just hunted insane using the custom difficulty addon.