Early Game Character Building
This guide gives general character building advice for the early game. Early game generally ends when you've reached the latest Ecumenical Temple spawn level, Dungeon level 7.
Contents
Build a Basic Plan
Beginning
At the very start, focus on your primary killing skills. For melee characters, this involves raising your weapon skill (and usually, only the weapon skill) until it reaches minimum delay or kills your foes at a comfortable rate. For magic based characters, this is getting the useful spells in your starting book to acceptably low (at least less than 10%) failure rates by training their respective spell schools.
Defences
The consensus on character building after that is usually to work on your defense skills until that reaches comfortable numbers as well, or until offensive skills are uncomfortable again. For robe or leather wearers, this is likely going to be Dodging (which contributes to EV), and for heavy armor wearers this is likely going to be Armour (which improves your AC proportional to your armour's base AC).
Shields provide an EV-like boost to your defenses, allowing you a chance to block some incoming attacks, but early game EXP is precious and shields cause encumbrance issues. If you insist on wearing a shield early game, a buckler's penalties will be removed by 4 Shields skill, provided you are a race of normal size.
For any character, Fighting skill is also a must; the bonus to physical combat is useful, but the extra HP is precious, especially to squishier caster types.
A note on hybrids
Even if you are aiming to be a "hybrid", don't try training both your magic and your melee at the same time. You will have two ineffective killing methods, and they won't benefit you simultaneously.
Stats
Your character gets an allocatable stat point every 3 levels. Where you put these in the early game depends on your character and perhaps, your plan for their future. Stat zero is a valid concern for some starting character combinations.
Strength
It alleviates some of the penalties of wearing armour, and also improves your physical damage dealt. A valid choice for any physical attacker, especially those who (will) wear heavy armour.
Intelligence
It improves your spellcasting rates and spellpower. Spellcasters should almost always use their stat points to get more intelligence.
Dexterity
It improves your accuracy, and your Dodging skill scales off of it. An excellent choice for anyone wearing light equipment, and early game accuracy bonuses are a boon.
For stabbers in particular, it'll improve your chances of landing a "stab" while unseen/unnoticed.
Gods
Some backgrounds begin worshiping a god, but characters without gods should consider which god to initially worship. Read the section on Choosing a god if you need help with that.
Training Invocations
The Abyssal Knight background begins worshipping Lugonu, and their early game can make excellent use of the Invocations skill; how much and when to start is up to the player, but don't neglect training your other skills in tandem, since banishment will not replace your main offensive options.
Skills by background
In the early game, preferred skills are directly based on the character's background, with a few variations due to race.
Review the Skills page if you are not sure how to turn skills on or off. Life gets much easier for characters who focus on just a few skills while getting started.
Warriors
Whether ranged or hand to hand, Warriors kill by using weapons or unarmed combat
In order to deal as much damage as quickly as possible, all warriors should focus on training their primary weapon skill. Improve the weapon skill to at least 1.0 delay (Your weapon's base delay, minus 1, times 20). After that, begin to branch out into fighting, throwing, armour, or shields depending on class and character design, but always leave weapon skill turned on during the early game.
Zealots
Like the warrior classes, by far the main focus is to improve weapon skill. Cinder Acolytes can also invest a little in magic, but Scorch alone can only go so far. When Abyssal Knights begin branching out to other skills, invocations should be turned on as well.
Hybrids
Transmuters should get Spider Form castable and pour the rest into Unarmed Combat. Spider Form easily suffices for a killing tool for a while.
Enchanters should train Hexes to increase the effectiveness of Ensorcelled Hibernation and Confusing Touch and put some XP into Stealth. You can ignore Short Blades until your Hexes have enough power to reliably mess up your enemies; if your stealth skill keeps up, you'll one-shot any sleeping foe for a while yet.
Warpers and Arcane Marksmen should focus on improving their weapon skill, then getting Blink castable with low failure rate.
Mages
For almost all mages, the actual spellcasting skill is not particularly important in the early game. It is much more important to get killing spells running, so casters should turn off all skills other than the necessary magic schools. Use 'I' often to check how easily you can cast your important spells. After failure rates for your critical combat spells are less than 10%, branching out into spellcasting and other magic schools becomes appropriate.
A small exception to this are spriggan spellcasters. Spriggans can use their considerable speed to escape almost anything in the early dungeon, so mere survival is not the necessarily first objective - consider Fighting to raise your measly HP.
Wizards, and Venom mages should focus on getting their low level attack spells and Mephitic Cloud to <10% failure rates. These classes, particularly venom mages, may wish to branch into a weapon so they can kill confused low-level enemies more effectively. Poison's early spells and skill levels are quite cheap, and are often worth for their boost for survival and early game offense.
Conjurers can focus almost entirely on conjurations. Searing Ray gives you good killing power in the early game and works wonders in corridors; packs of jackals, gnolls or orcs will succumb to it quickly. Dazzling Flash does no damage, but can blind foes to give yourself a chance to escape (or set up a stab if you're using a short blade), and the Hexes skill is also used for Fulminant Prism, which conjures a prism that deals great damage to nearby units after 20 auts.
Elementalists and Summoners can focus entirely on their spells, or train a weapon after they have some spells that can help in melee combat like Conjure Flame, Frozen Ramparts, Call Canine Familiar, etc.
Necromancers should focus on their spells. If the character wants to dabble in melee, branch out to a weapon skill. Polearms (for reaching attacks through a line of undead servants) or staves (preparing for an eventual staff of death) are recommended.
Other
Artificers should focus on a weapon, as their wands will have respectable power against early dungeon monsters even without much Evocations skill.
Wanderers should wing it. Take a look at your early possessions and try to make a plan.
Delvers can either focus on Stealth for any kills until they make it up to D:2, or focus on a weapon.
Weapons
In the early dungeon, most characters will find wielding a one-handed weapon with good accuracy to be more effective than trying to hit anything with a large, but slow weapon. Daggers and whips often have good brands on them and hunting slings with sling bullets are universally effective in the hands of any character that can find them.
Once you have started training a particular weapon skill, you should usually favour weapons of that skill unless you find something incredible that makes the switch pay off.
Armour
Spell-using characters should avoid wearing anything heavier than a robe in the early game. Leather armor and bucklers may seem dandy, but in the early game, the greatest defense is killing your foe reliably and fast. Once you can cast your spells more reliably, you can consider upgrading to somewhat heavier armour.
AC builds are typically spell-less, and should equip the heaviest armour and shield they can wear without seriously affecting their damage output.
Similar to weapons, players should identify all enchanted or artefact armour that might be useful to them.
