Sil-Q 1.5, getting back into the game, whats good in this patch?

[andvare]

Looking for some effective non pacific build suggestions to get me started, any build suggestions are highly appreciated

Now I'm playing around with:

Faenor 3/3/5/2
7 Melee
7 Evasion
10 Smithing

Forged a vampiric great axe (I wonder what curses do...), equipped the most heavy armor I could find and descended..
..
Found out heavy armor decreases my skills in melee/evasion, whats a good tradeoff?
..
RIP died to something with high dodging

[Infinitum]

If you want to play a melee character, pump Evasion and Melee first and foremost in that order. All other stats and feats are secondary. I usually start off 6/6 and then pump stealth for Opportunist. +1 of either is usually better than whatever feat you were thinking of instead. Base points in other stats aren't worth it past prerequisites. Aim to have at least 1 base melee/evasion per floor by the midgame and some 25/25 by 1000'.

Axes are bad in comparison to swords in general; there's some use case by the midgame when high protection enemies start rolling in but more raw hit and evasion % is still better.

Avoid Smithing early on; the power curve is essentially U-shaped, and the midgame is where Sil gets difficult. Getting some 8 skillpoints, weaponsmith, artificer and a hammer with masterpiece around 900' can be nice for a mithril sharp great/sword and a bespoke artifact bow if a sharp artifact weapon didn't drop.

[SweetVinegar]

My favorite builds at the moment are Cruel Blow stabbers. Using daggers or shortswords with low lbs and the Finesse + Subtlety abilities will allow you to land high criticals and confuse enemies fairly often. Combined with Zone of Control + Flanking + Opportunist you'll land extra attacks while the enemies waste their turns on movement. Accuracy is very important for this build because it increases both your damage and makes you more survivable due to more reliably confusing the enemies. If you get lucky and find Angrist picking up Rapid Attack will turn you into an absolute blade demon destroying any foe you come across.

Another cool melee build is to use heavy greatspears together with Knockback + Polearm Mastery + Focussed Attack. Waiting a turn while enemies are 1 tile away and moving towards you will give you a free attack with the extra accuracy from Focussed Attack. With decent effective strength you'll be able to keep knocking back enemies repeatedly without getting hit. Smithing greatspears of gondolin, doriath and nargothrond and weapon swapping between them will allow you to handle just about anything the game throws at you (except dragons?). One thing to be wary about is that fire breaths can burn up your spears.

Finally one of the strongest ranged builds would be to use Point Blank Archery + Blocking. Blocking will make you very tanky and with Point Blank Archery you'll be able to shoot arrows in melee without having to waste turns on kiting. You'll just need to be careful to only have one enemy in melee, but corridors and Exchange Places can help with that. If you find a good bow, for example a dragonhorn bow 4d3 (5 lbs), you'll have damage comparable to a 2h weapon while getting the defensive bonuses from a shield. Archers are some of the best and safest builds at killing dragons.

Regarding heavy armor it really depends on if you plan to get the Outwit ability or not. In case you get Outwit and have decent perception (and a decent amount of constitution) you can pretty much ignore the evasion penalties. Otherwise I tend to avoid the heaviest armors, for example I'd rather take a [-1, 1d2] helmet over a [-2, 1d3] great helmet or [0, 1d1] boots over [-1,1d2] greaves. For most of the game Studded Leather Armor is okay, until you find a Mithril Corslet or a Corslet with 2d6 protection or other useful enchants.

[SweetVinegar]

In some cases smithing early on can be really strong if you plan for it carefully.
Especially as a Feanor or Naugrim you can get some decent items at the guaranteed 100' and 300' forges that will give you quite a boost. For example as a Feanor stabber with 1/5/4/4 stat spread and 4 point investment into smithing + Armor Smith (costing you only 1000 exp) you can make a Leather Armor [0, 1d5], Helmet [0, 1d3] and Boots [+1, 1d2] giving you decent survivability even if you got unlucky with armor drops. Another great item to smith early on is a Ring of Secrets <+0> for easy identification or Amulet of Regeneration which I usually get on smiths at 300'.

[andvare]

Thanks a lot for your replies!

I had an awesome time playing Sil-Q during the weekend, with some pretty epic moments and lots of deaths, those cat assassins sure are deadly!

It seems Alchemy is almost mandatory to avoid stat drain from potions, or can it be mitigated with enough Will or other strategies, such as throwing?
Does staff of darkness increase stealth, or does it have some other utility?
Does it make sense to have both the Feanorian lamp and Inner light, to increase the intensity?

It was a little tricky to figure out which weapons and abilities to use/get, until I learned to keep track of hit rolls and I frequently neglected getting songs, since smithing would plug most of the holes, but song of freedom seems strong because of the stacking to freedom of movement.