Escort rewards - what's worth it?

[Parcae]

I find the rewards from the escort quests a little difficult to parse. For example, my Archmage just unlocked the Stone Alchemy tree thanks to a rescued Alchemist. I didn't realize that I would have to spend a category point to use my new acquisition! Is it worth it? In general, which rewards are considered useful?

Edit: On an unrelated note, are there any shops that sell pickaxes? One of the bits of the map to Bill the Troll was generated entirely surrounded by trees.

[Tom]

I find the rewards from the escort quests a little difficult to parse. For example, my Archmage just unlocked the Stone Alchemy tree thanks to a rescued Alchemist. I didn't realize that I would have to spend a category point to use my new acquisition! Is it worth it? In general, which rewards are considered useful?

Edit: On an unrelated note, are there any shops that sell pickaxes? One of the bits of the map to Bill the Troll was generated entirely surrounded by trees.

What rewards you should take depends a lot on your character.

I play mainly a rogue and I take:
Accuracy from a warrior
Imbue armour from alchemist
Unseen action from a thief (if a second thief I might consider stats)
The two 'P' things (Premonition and the other I forgot the name of.)

There is as far I know, no shop for pickaxes, but I guess there will be soon in the future as your request has been raised by others too.

[Avianpilot]

In general, which rewards are considered useful?

The two 'P' things (Premonition and the other I forgot the name of.)

An answer to both is Providence! Removing negative status effects each turn for a few turns is pretty much worth it for any character.

[Postman]

From Sun Paladin - Chant of Fortitude(+10-12 to saves) if race/class have save talents or Chant of Fortress(+4% to physical res) otherwise

[shooth]

Got staff tree with a current mage... Certainly not yet been worth the cat point and 8 generics I sunk into it for staff beam... Will reserve judgement until I get to the endgame staffs. The stone tree didn't seem like it had much new to offer my mage. Seconding both Providence and premonition, and the thief one to get infravision.

[Aquillion]

Providence is vastly more useful than anything else you can get from an Escort. It's a free Wild Infusion that doesn't take a slot, cures any three things, and also heals you a bit. (Though it does take an action to use.)

Either Chant of Fortress or Chant of Fortitude (only one, you can't use both) is a good addition to anyone especially if you use Magic.

Premonition is a great addition to anyone who doesn't use Mana heavily, especially if you use Magic but not Mana. (Alchemists work, too, since they use so little mana.)

Unless you're totally sure you want to spend the points, go for individual talents bonuses and not entire categories. Some entire categories are worth it, but they're much more situational.

The ability to imbue gems is very nice; even one point of it is worth +1 to all stats. Unlocking the tree is a decent deal if you have a cat point and generics to spare, but usually I could find better things to do with that.

A +2 bonus to a stat you use is always nice, if you're not sure what else to get.

Alchemists can teach talents to their golem by controlling them when the escort. It's almost impossible to give them cat points (you can theoretically do it, but it's better to use that on yourself), so just go for talents. Disarm is particularly nice for a golem. I'm not sure they're smart enough to use Providence correctly, and it's unlikely they'll have enough Magic to get any meaningful healing out of it, unfortunately. Teaching them Premonition or Chant of Fortress to help their defenses could also be nice, though again, unless you boost their Magic the benefits will be low, and they lack the stat points to do much with it.

Got staff tree with a current mage... Certainly not yet been worth the cat point and 8 generics I sunk into it for staff beam...

Staff combat is actually surprisingly bad for mages. Here's why:

One of its big advantages is that it passes through friendlies, which mages don't care about.

As a mage, you can very easily get enough spells to always have one ready. This makes the other advantage of staff combat (the fact that it recovers instantly) unimportant, too.

It has a low mana cost, which is a bit nice, but it's not that much cheaper than your starter spells, and the damage is generally lower, with no special effects -- plus, you're going to want a lot of mana anyway for your other spells.

It's great for Alchemists, because they have little else to do while their bomb is cooling down, because they generally have no use for will and no desire for lots of mana, and because it can be shot through their golem, but it doesn't fit mages nearly as well as it seems.

[bricks]

The Light tree is a good unlock if you invest in magic but don't have healing/shielding options (I'd have loved to have it on my Ghoul Reaver, as horrifically unthematic as that would be). Disarm is a hidden gem; weapon-wielding mobs are taken to almost zero damage if it lands.

[lukep]

One that I haven't gotten, but think would be well worthwhile is the Light tree as an archmage with Aegis, for the synergies with Healing Light and Barrier.

[Frumple]

One of those key in things -- golem will use providence fairly intelligently, probably moreso if you tweak its priority (though I didn't bother with that, and so couldn't say what a good number for it is). Golem'll use any talent about as effectively as any other tac AI using actor, so y'shouldn't worry about giving it active talents and then it being too stupid to use 'em. It's even got a lil'bit of code somewhere in it, I think, that'll prevent it from slamming you with beam or AoE talents, so if you wanted to give it mind sear or poison spit or something equally inane, you could without worrying much.

Giving the golem trees is something rather silly, if possible. You can get a max of five generics (arena, potion, heart -- maybe six, if you unspec the graveyard curse) and one cat point (bile) on the golem, more if you give it extra escort rewards in something it can unspec (lost warriors are a good target, there, since you can unlock the tree in last hope -- don't do this before unlocking the tree in b34, though. It'll wreck your golem's combat training mastery). You could theoretically get something like 4/5 elemental harmony or better without using up extra rewards.

Of course, that's not what you really want to do. The ultimate silly thing to do with a golem if you're mucking around like that, is to buy combat training in last hope, get its thick skin up to 5/5 via the arena/potion/heart, then max golem resilience. 45% resist all (15/5 thick skin). Add three pearls (eyes, armor), and you've got a crazy little tank with 75% resall. Whee~

[jenx]

How do you get the arena points to be allocated to the golem?

How does the golem pay for martial training?

I haven't played alchemists much.

[Aquillion]

How do you get the arena points to be allocated to the golem?

How does the golem pay for martial training?

I haven't played alchemists much.

Just control the golem at the appropriate time (click its portrait.)

Note that it will have to pay for training out of its own pocket. This is tricky, because there's no way to transfer gold to it directly -- you'll have to have it sell stuff or pick stuff up itself until it has the necessary cash.