Nova Build

[sekira]

I'm working on my first character in Portralis (last time I played was one of the last NewAngband versions).

I don't have the character dump, but I'll recreate the important points here.

character level 9, celestial, paly class level 5
str 8 (2 pts invested)
int 5
wis 21 (10 pts invested)
dex 5
con 10 (4 pts invested)
chr 7

Skills
Spellcraft 30
Agility 10

Haven't spent any AP's yet
Has around 250 hp, 120 AC, todam and tohit are abysmal, but then this is a 0 melee build.

My goal is to get Justice Warrior Class Level 10 as fast as possible, and get light of life. Then go Monster Mage and get some AP's in the Constitution boosting ability. Next is to get some Elemental Lord's Piercing spells (light element of course), and then finish with some Element mastery. With skills I'm getting agility to 30 for some speed, jumping distance, free eq swapping, and of course AC, then I'll put a few points in defense and magic defense, then I'll pump spellcraft like a mad man, until it is up above 100, then I'll go rods to 70, then more agility and defense and magic defense, then the last 30 levels or so its spellcraft all the way again. With blue items included, I think it would be doable to have at least 300 spellcraft (maybe more... I'm hoping for 450). That will make my Light of life 15 radius (or 20 radius if I'm lucky). Then the plan is to use light of life like a "chain spell in all directions at once" effect. Anything I see I can kill, right? I'll use jump to get in good locations for my light of life, too. Very cool. With 20 points in the MM Constitution ability and focusing mostly in Constitution from levels (after I get my prerequisites of course) I should have tons of hp which is nice in any case, but lethal when you are doing a light of life build.

The only thing I'll fear is of course magic immunes and 100% light resist monsters. I'm thinking there are very few of the 100% light resist, but the immunes might be a problem until I get piercing spells up a decent bit (I'm thinking 40 or 50 AP will go into it) I think I might get around the problem by getting a little improved wisdom casting, and some more wisdom and then doing low power and high radius chain spells on them. if I have a 4 radius chain spell, thats 9 chances for piercing spells to kick in. I also might just use summons on the magic immunes or run away if I can.

I know it is risky to do a no physical damage build, but with all those hp, I'm thinking it will work very well. The thing I'm most worried about is doing enough damage with light of life to wrap and cause a crash.

Here is the layout of AP's
Light of life - Min 10, max 30
Constitution - Min 10, max 20
Piercing Spells - Min 30, max 50
Improved wis casting - Min 10, max 20
Elemental Mastery - Min 0, max 10

Final Skills should be (this is before eq and before rods bonus to spellcraft)
Rods min 70 max 70
Defense min 20 max 60
Magic defense min 20 max 60
Agility min 60 max 90 (need that jump!)
Spellcraft All the rest... Min 200 Max... there is no maximum!
other possibilities... a few points in Healing (gotta heal that huge hp if I get hit...), if the REVEAL spell also lights up the area (it looks like it does, but the help file is a little obscure), then I'll probably be putting a few points in divination, so I can jump easier. Both Healing and Divination would max at 25 pts though.

as for stats, I'm getting str to 20, leaving int (I'll use items to go to elemental lord), wis to 50 (maybe more... not sure), leaving dex, chr to 20, and everything else will be in con. having a con above 100 will have the added bonus of making the char immune to stunning.

Oh, one more added benefit from this build... my light of life will light up anything in my line of sight, so jumping is easier

[Variaz]

30-50 points in Piercing Spells? Seems a bit much. Some stuff has changed since NewAngband, like for example, returned spells are now typed. So if you are a Celestial and your Light spell is returned to you, it will be Light-typed, and you won't take any damages because you have 100% resistance. In my opinion, this greatly reduces the need of having 50 points in Piercing Spells(which was a good tactic in NewAngband).

[sekira]

Ya, the piercing wouldn't be for the magic returning (I've already discovered that celestials can cast light spells with impunity) it would be to defeat the magic immunity of magic immune bosses and elites, and also use the curse to defeat the light resistance of light resist monsters. If I was using it for avoiding returning, then I would do 1 AP in light of life, and then the next 50 would go into piercing spells. I hate magic returning quite a bit. I can't tell you how many times I missed one elite in a huge group of monsters, cast a ball spell in the middle, and subsequently died on the spot.

Is there a better way to get past magic immune or light resist? I think it might be tough to add any kind of melee or ranged physical damage... The only thing left is summoning (which I'm not a huge fan of... but you do what you have to) and even that is difficult to make work without quite a sacrifice in leadership skill and charisma.

[Variaz]

Piercing Spells, or use another element against resists. Use Physical or Missile type spells against immunes. (Physical currently requires a hit rate test even when used as an Elemental spell, something I might remove in the next upload though).

Note that right now, there aren't many monsters that resists light at 100%. Save for about 3 monsters, the other stuff that resists Light also resists a lot of other things(like Spheres, Golems, etc...)

[Gando]

Ive found magic missile or the missile spells work great against magic immune bosses...if you have enough points invested.