ARCHIVED Tasonir's Melee Naga Guide - Revision history

Qqqqwe2: Qqqqwe2 moved page Tasonir's Melee Naga Guide to ARCHIVED Tasonir's Melee Naga Guide: old, heavily revolves around removed skill (Tm)

2024-08-30T19:00:17Z

Qqqqwe2 moved page Tasonir's Melee Naga Guide to ARCHIVED Tasonir's Melee Naga Guide: old, heavily revolves around removed skill (Tm)

Tasonir: /* Background and Weapon Choice */

2016-05-22T14:58:03Z

‎Background and Weapon Choice

Tasonir: /* Background and Weapon Choice */

2016-05-22T14:55:05Z

‎Background and Weapon Choice

Tasonir: /* Background and Weapon Choice */ Better wording.

2016-05-22T14:53:53Z

‎Background and Weapon Choice: Better wording.

Tasonir: /* Background and Weapon Choice */ De-emphasize statue form for nagas in particular.

2016-05-22T14:46:09Z

‎Background and Weapon Choice: De-emphasize statue form for nagas in particular.

Tasonir: /* Spellcasting Hybrid */ Remove a reference to obsolete spells.

2016-05-22T14:33:09Z

‎Spellcasting Hybrid: Remove a reference to obsolete spells.

Tasonir: Updated to version 18; no content changes.

2016-05-22T12:01:29Z

Updated to version 18; no content changes.

Quik: Improved paragraph division.

2015-05-20T06:06:42Z

Improved paragraph division.

Show changes

Tasonir: Updated attack speed penalty mechanics

2015-04-19T21:07:23Z

Updated attack speed penalty mechanics

Tasonir: Nothing needs to change for version 16. I might emphasize blade hands more in a future revision, but that can come later.

2015-03-18T17:21:20Z

Nothing needs to change for version 16. I might emphasize blade hands more in a future revision, but that can come later.

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 A main decision is what weapon/shield you will be using: I generally prefer using unarmed, shields, and statue form on melee Cheibriados worshippers.  However statue form is weaker on nagas than on most races since you lose your scale mutation, which is 9 AC, and your naga barding.  For nagas, blade hands is usually best, although statue form or necromutation can be used in extended if you have trouble with torment, but neither are needed to deal with torment if you are careful.    Feel free to experiment with the background that suits you best; very little of this guide changes based on your background, just train your weapon skill instead of unarmed and the choice of shield vs two-handed weapon is up to you.  Most weapon skills will tend towards 2H weapons, although nagas do have very strong stealth if you wished to go for a stabbing approach (Chei's +15 dex gives +45 stealth, after all).
-Of weapon skills, polearms are generally favored for the innate reaching ability. No, hunters was not a mistake - they play fairly similar to melee except removing the need to get into melee range during combat entirely can make the early game smoother. Just train your launcher skill early on, and you can either stay with it all game long or hybridize into melee depending on how your game progresses.
+Of weapon skills, polearms are generally favored for the innate reaching ability. No, hunters was not a mistake - they play fairly similar to melee except removing the need to get into melee range during combat entirely can make the early game smoother. Just train your launcher skill early on, and you can choose when to develop a melee attack to compliment it.  Generally speaking melee is a great asset to have as it tends to deal higher damage, and if you try to use a ranged attack exclusively you will likely run out of ammunition.
-In short, whatever you put in your hand slots can be made to work - Nagas have fairly flat aptitudes and work well with basically any weapon type. I personally love unarmed and transmutations, but do not feel forced into picking this style. It is extremely powerful, but comes at a cost of very high experience requirements to get it performing well.
+In short, whatever you put in your hand slots can be made to work - Nagas have fairly flat aptitudes and work well with basically any weapon type. I personally love unarmed and transmutations, but do not feel forced into picking this style. It is extremely powerful, but comes at a cost of a slightly weaker attack in the early game, which is already the most difficult point.
-Note that since Nagas are large, they have slightly lowered EV and they require less skill to learn to use shields without penalty. They can eliminate the penalty for bucklers at 3 levels in shields skill, for shields at 9 levels, and for large shields at 15. It is still important to train dodging and you will eventually be able to have high EV. See the [[Naga]] page for more details on the race.
+Note that since Nagas are large, they have slightly lowered EV and they require less skill to learn to use shields without penalty. They can eliminate the penalty for bucklers at 3 levels in shields skill, for shields at 9 levels, and for large shields at 15. It is still important to train dodging and you will eventually be able to have high EV due to Chei's +15 dex boost. See the [[Naga]] page for more details on the race.
 ==Skill Training==

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 A main decision is what weapon/shield you will be using: I generally prefer using unarmed, shields, and statue form on melee Cheibriados worshippers.  However statue form is weaker on nagas than on most races since you lose your scale mutation, which is 9 AC, and your naga barding.  For nagas, blade hands is usually best, although statue form or necromutation can be used in extended if you have trouble with torment, but neither are needed to deal with torment if you are careful.    Feel free to experiment with the background that suits you best; very little of this guide changes based on your background, just train your weapon skill instead of unarmed and the choice of shield vs two-handed weapon is up to you.  Most weapon skills will tend towards 2H weapons, although nagas do have very strong stealth if you wished to go for a stabbing approach (Chei's +15 dex gives +45 stealth, after all).
-Of weapon skills, polearms are generally favored for the innate reaching ability. No, hunters was not a mistake - they play fairly similar to melee except removing the need to move during combat entirely can make the early game smoother. Just train your launcher skill early on, and you can either stay with it all game long or hybridize into melee depending on how your game progresses.
+Of weapon skills, polearms are generally favored for the innate reaching ability. No, hunters was not a mistake - they play fairly similar to melee except removing the need to get into melee range during combat entirely can make the early game smoother. Just train your launcher skill early on, and you can either stay with it all game long or hybridize into melee depending on how your game progresses.
 In short, whatever you put in your hand slots can be made to work - Nagas have fairly flat aptitudes and work well with basically any weapon type. I personally love unarmed and transmutations, but do not feel forced into picking this style. It is extremely powerful, but comes at a cost of very high experience requirements to get it performing well.

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 Many [[background]]s can be made to fit this guide. Naga [[Fighter]]s, [[Gladiator]]s, [[Skald]]s, [[Monk]]s, [[Hunter]]s or [[Transmuter]]s all work well with this build.
-A main decision is what weapon/shield you will be using: I personally prefer using unarmed, shields, and statue form; however statue form is weaker on nagas than on most races since you lose your scale AC and naga barding.  For nagas, blade hands is usually best, although statue form or necromutation can be used in extended if you have trouble with torment, but neither are needed to deal with torment if you are careful.    Feel free to experiment with the background that suits you best; very little of this guide changes based on your background, just train your weapon skill instead of unarmed and the choice of shield vs two-handed weapon is up to you.  Most weapon skills will tend towards 2H weapons, although nagas do have very strong stealth if you wished to go for a stabbing approach (Chei's +15 dex gives +45 stealth, after all).
+A main decision is what weapon/shield you will be using: I generally prefer using unarmed, shields, and statue form on melee Cheibriados worshippers.  However statue form is weaker on nagas than on most races since you lose your scale mutation, which is 9 AC, and your naga barding.  For nagas, blade hands is usually best, although statue form or necromutation can be used in extended if you have trouble with torment, but neither are needed to deal with torment if you are careful.    Feel free to experiment with the background that suits you best; very little of this guide changes based on your background, just train your weapon skill instead of unarmed and the choice of shield vs two-handed weapon is up to you.  Most weapon skills will tend towards 2H weapons, although nagas do have very strong stealth if you wished to go for a stabbing approach (Chei's +15 dex gives +45 stealth, after all).
 Of weapon skills, polearms are generally favored for the innate reaching ability. No, hunters was not a mistake - they play fairly similar to melee except removing the need to move during combat entirely can make the early game smoother. Just train your launcher skill early on, and you can either stay with it all game long or hybridize into melee depending on how your game progresses.

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 Many [[background]]s can be made to fit this guide. Naga [[Fighter]]s, [[Gladiator]]s, [[Skald]]s, [[Monk]]s, [[Hunter]]s or [[Transmuter]]s all work well with this build.
-A main decision is what weapon/shield you will be using: I personally prefer using unarmed, shields, and statue form; but many players prefer weapons like polearms. Feel free to experiment with the background that suits you best; very little of this guide changes based on your background, just train your weapon skill instead of unarmed and the choice of shield vs two-handed weapon is up to you.
+A main decision is what weapon/shield you will be using: I personally prefer using unarmed, shields, and statue form; however statue form is weaker on nagas than on most races since you lose your scale AC and naga barding.  For nagas, blade hands is usually best, although statue form or necromutation can be used in extended if you have trouble with torment, but neither are needed to deal with torment if you are careful.    Feel free to experiment with the background that suits you best; very little of this guide changes based on your background, just train your weapon skill instead of unarmed and the choice of shield vs two-handed weapon is up to you.  Most weapon skills will tend towards 2H weapons, although nagas do have very strong stealth if you wished to go for a stabbing approach (Chei's +15 dex gives +45 stealth, after all).
 Of weapon skills, polearms are generally favored for the innate reaching ability. No, hunters was not a mistake - they play fairly similar to melee except removing the need to move during combat entirely can make the early game smoother. Just train your launcher skill early on, and you can either stay with it all game long or hybridize into melee depending on how your game progresses.

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 ==Spellcasting Hybrid==
-While your damage may be primarily physical, support magic is an important part of any character who doesn't worship Trog; Cheibriados worshippers should use all the standard utility spells with an emphasis on blink and controlled blink if available. Common utility spells to look out for include repel/deflect missiles, regeneration, blink/controlled blink, control teleport, phase shift, stoneskin, abjuration/aura of abjuration, etc.
+While your damage may be primarily physical, support magic is an important part of any character who doesn't worship Trog; Cheibriados worshippers should use all the standard utility spells with an emphasis on blink and controlled blink if available. Common utility spells to look out for include repel/deflect missiles, regeneration, blink/controlled blink, control teleport,aura of abjuration, etc.  Prior to version .18, phase shift and stoneskin are also recommended.
 If you are using unarmed, blade hands is an excellent spell, although you can't also use a shield. Statue form is an all around useful form that can be used with melee or ranged weapons, including shields, and won't slow down your movement very much since you're nearly as slow as a statue already (2.8 vs 3.0). Keep in mind that the slow also applies to non-movement, so all your combat and potions etc are 50% slower too. Still, it is worth using if that's the setup you're interested in; the 50% reduction to torment is particularly useful in the extended game with high regeneration. If you do learn statue form, picking up several other earth spells is practically free: stone arrow or even iron shot can be affordable, LRD is single school, and if you have enough, shatter is also single school. It is unlikely you'll ever need that much firepower, though, and the massive noise generated can make it quite risky.

← Older revision	Revision as of 19:00, 30 August 2024
(No difference)

← Older revision		Revision as of 12:01, 22 May 2016
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 ==Equipment==
-At various phases in the game, you'll have different incentives to switch between working on AC and working on EV. Early game, avoid heavy armor because of your deformed body mutation. A +0 plate mail with 0 skill is generally bad even on d:1; but by the time you're in lair a +4 plate with 5-10 skill may be worth wearing. Early on it will be much easier to raise EV quickly through dodging because of the +15 dex; you should generally train this first unless you find a highly enchanted body armor. When you can finally afford to train armor somewhat, a medium armor such as troll leather, ring mail, scale mail, or chain mail are reasonable options, generally if they have some enchantment. It's perfectly fine to stay in light armor until you can find a dragon armor; if you are using unarmed combat, you especially need to stay in light (encumbrance 11 or lower, the lower the better) armor because heavy armor can slow unarmed attacks. If you do wear medium armor and use unarmed, training armor will reduce this penalty significantly, but don't neglect your offense. The delay is determined by rolling 1d10 + 2d(EV Penalty) - 10; if the result is positive, that amount is added to your attack delay.
+At various phases in the game, you'll have different incentives to switch between working on AC and working on EV. Early game, avoid heavy armor because of your deformed body mutation. A +0 plate mail with 0 skill is generally bad even on d:1; but by the time you're in lair a +4 plate with 5-10 skill may be worth wearing. Early on it will be much easier to raise EV quickly through dodging because of the +15 dex; you should generally train dodging first and raise armor later on. When you can finally afford to train armor somewhat, a medium armor such as troll leather, ring mail, scale mail, or chain mail are reasonable options, generally if they have some enchantment. It's perfectly fine to stay in light armor until you can find a dragon armor; if you are using unarmed combat, you especially need to stay in light (encumbrance 11 or lower, the lower the better) armor because heavy armor can slow unarmed attacks. If you do wear medium armor and use unarmed, training armor will reduce this penalty significantly, but don't neglect your offense. In .16, the delay for heavy armor on unarmed was made fixed rather than a random roll.  You generally can wear up to scale mail with 0 penalty, but wearing something heavier will require high strength and some level of armor skill to bring the penalty back down to 0.  In good news, it is in fact possible to wear very heavy armor like crystal plate armor and still have 0 penalty, with roughly 20+ armor skill and 35 or so strength (values approximate).
-Aside from the body slot, nagas wear bardings instead of boots, which provide significantly more AC, with only a minor EV penalty. This is a large benefit, but they are much less common and you may not find one until the late game. If you are still having trouble finding one late game they can be commonly generated from scrolls of acquirement, so pick armor until you get one. This does make getting non-barding armor slots less likely, so beware if you have a barding you already like. Consider jewelry, rods, or wands. You cannot generate a wand of hasting, so you have a slightly better chance of getting a wand of heal wounds. It's still far from certain, however.
+Aside from the body slot, nagas wear bardings instead of boots, which provide significantly more AC, with only a minor EV penalty. This is a large benefit, but they are much less common and you may not find one until the late game. If you are still having trouble finding one late game they can be commonly generated from scrolls of acquirement, so pick armor until you get one. This does make getting non-barding armor slots less likely, so beware if you have a barding you already like. Consider jewelry, rods, or wands. You cannot generate a wand of hasting, so you have a slightly better chance of getting a wand of heal wounds. It's still far from certain, however.  Once you have a barding, training the armor skill becomes more valuable as it's four base ac will be boosted by armor skill like all other base ac.
 ==Stats==
-With the +15 to all stats, you have all you need of the three. Dex will boost your EV slightly, int will help with casting and strength will raise your damage slightly. I generally go with int, but when you already have 30 of each, it isn't as critical as other builds.
+With the +15 to all stats, you have all you need of the three. Dex will boost your EV slightly, int will help with casting and strength will raise your damage slightly. I generally go with int, but when you already have 30 of each, it isn't as critical as other builds.  Strength increases your damage significantly, but you generally already have more than enough damage.  It can be a decent option if you are wearing very heavy armor, though.  Builds with a fair amount of spells should probably still default to int.
 ==Survival Advice ==

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