When I recommended playing Demonspawn Beserkers in an earlier blog about the rogue-like game Dungeon Crawl, I neglected an important trait unique to Demonspawns. No race is better at Invocations. None! It behooves a Demonspawn, therefore, to enlist as a Priest of Yredelemnul. To see what I mean, press ? to access the Help menu, then % to visit the Table of Attributes, an important table that all players should study if they wish to gain an advantage.
By using the powers of a god, one can cede all spell-magic, which conserves experience points for other skills, like fighting, armor, and dodging. Contrast the Demonspawn Priest's ease with Invocations to the lot of the spellcaster, who must draw upon up to four different skills with every casting of a spell.
Yredelemnul's invocations grant powers over the dead, which comes in useful in all parts of the dungeon. Yredelemnul asks nothing of a player save that he raise the dead and kill monsters. One of the awesome powers Yredelemnul grants is the ability to drain the life force from all visible monsters. This is among the most powerful abilities in the game.
Yredelemnul priests begin with a staff and experience in staves. I have mixed feelings about this, because later in the game a Demonspawn might come across a demon blade, demon whip, or demon trident, all of which confer racial bonuses. Also, a staff is reduced in effectiveness by the use of a shield. However, sometimes an excellent staff compensates for not using a shield. Take for instance a staff of poison that grants resistance to poison, poisons those struck by it, and increases the effectiveness of poison magic. As a priest, you probably won't care about the last benefit, since you won't be casting many spells. But resistance to poison is nothing to sneeze at. The downside is, however, that an enchanted staff cannot be improved by Enchant Weapon scrolls. That's a huge downside, considering many weapons in the hands of experienced players are improved close to +8, +8. Besides this, many monsters, notably the undead, have resistance to poison, negative energy or cold. I recommend that all Demonspawn of whatever class train in Maces and Flails, because they are weapons commonly found throughout the dungeon and the weapon class of the most commonly discovered hell-forged weapon, the Demon Whip, the choice of all Balrogs. Another neat little bonus is that Maces and Flails are more effective than any edged weapon against Hydras.
Demonspawn Priests with mediocre intelligence should eschew magic and concentrate upon fighting skills. Demonspawns just are not that gifted in magical abilities with the exception of Summoning and Necromancy, and you could spend much of your experience trying to build mediocre talent in magic. That experience is better invested in fighting skills and in Invocations. Yredelemnul's gifts offer more than enough in the way of necromancy, to the point where learning Necromantic magic is redundant. The chief advantage to exercising Spellcasting would be to acquire additional Magical Points, which are used with each Invocation.
Turn off training (to do so, press m to visit the Abilities menu) in the specific weapon you wield until such time as you discover a superior weapon in the dungeon, preferably one that permits the use of a shield, but be flexible. There isn't a hard and fast rule on what constitutes a superior weapon. This is a judgment call on the part of the player. If you fall in love with a weapon, turn on training in it and stick with it until the end of the game.
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