Frog - what's a good tanky Priest build?

[GrimaTheBold]

I've never gotten far with priests, so on my last one I emphasized melee. Took Demigod-Hades for the extra Con & HP (and rNether) instead of Hera, used Combat personality instead of Pious, and I put all my early stat gains into Strength (then Dex & Con) instead of Wis as I have in the past. For my magic realms I took Life & Trump. Coffee-break mode.

It ended up being the farthest I've gotten with a Priest - once you can spam Healing combined with decent melee, it's game changing. For my Demigod power at CL20 I took the one that gives you +20% to healing, not sure if that was a good choice.

Then I died at CL 35 on Dragon Quest due to stupidity (decided to quaff Healing instead of casting to save SP, and accidentally quaffed Heroism).

Is there a better build for a melee-focused Priest? And is Trump a good choice? The spell set seems to align well with Life, no overlaps, and getting blink, teleport and teleport away in your first Spellbook is great. And I'm sure its awesome once you get Dimension Door on line. But I never made much use out of all those summon spells, except using Kamikaze as a distance attack. It's funny, when I look at the Ladder for Trump users to see which spells they used, several hardly touched all the summoning spells, while another cast the hell out of them, especially Trump Undead.

There's always Sorcery, I guess that's the obvious choice for a 2nd realm. Not many characters can cast both Haste & Healing...

[Sideways]

Yeah, the only real drawback of picking Sorcery as your second realm is that it makes it easy to forget that you also have a primary realm.

[CyclopsSlayer]

If Nature was allowed as a primary you could play a Druid type.

[GrimaTheBold]

If Nature was allowed as a primary you could play a Druid type.

I'm actually surprised there isn't a Druid class in this game.

[budswell]

You sort of can. Just a nature High Mage.
My attempt: http://angband.oook.cz/ladder-show.php?id=23612

[CyclopsSlayer]

Interesting, although on a mage I would have done weapon and shield, their dual wield sucks.

[budswell]

I was arrows and spells only, the weilded weapons were purely for the resistances.

[wobbly]

Chaos is another option for teleport/TO and comes with a recharge spell and destruction. Demigods are human tier hps with a big xp penalty. You'll have hps eventually with Hades but its all late game. You could try half-orc?

[GrimaTheBold]

Chaos is another option for teleport/TO and comes with a recharge spell and destruction. Demigods are human tier hps with a big xp penalty. You'll have hps eventually with Hades but its all late game. You could try half-orc?

Its funny I never think about Chaos unless I'm playing a Chaos-Warrior. A Half-Orc Life-Chaos Priest actually sounds like a blast, trying one of those next!

Edit: it went well! I took him to CL 41, died to Zhar on DL 48 I think. But looking back I didn't make a ton of use of the Chaos distance attack spells, since I was more interested in saving my SP to cast Healing during combat.

And I'm sold on Half-Orc. Faster leveling, good HP, and I had no idea they also got the CL20 benefit like humans.

[ster]

Just wanted to pitch in to say that Trump has the best 1st book in the game and trump monsters automatically wins you the game once you get it. Great realm overall.

[GrimaTheBold]

Just wanted to pitch in to say that Trump has the best 1st book in the game and trump monsters automatically wins you the game once you get it. Great realm overall.

I need to try it more. For some reason I have a mental block about making use of summons - I never think to use them, and when I do, I seem to be disappointed more often than not. Not just as respects Trump, even extending to Summon Hydra staffs, Nature's Gate.

I'm still trying combat priests, now I'm running a Half-Orce Life/Craft. It's funny, I never see anyone talking about (or using) Craft much, so I'm curious to give it a try.

[CyclopsSlayer]

When I play a Monk, Craft is the best way to go. Healing and detection from items. I only wish Brands applied to Unarmed.