Lifecrafter Challenge

[Garoth]

My Trakovite Warrior got bored of being next to invincible at the end of Chapter 3, so I'm starting a Lifecrafter challenge. I'm thinking something like total personal pacifism:

 

-Will never equip a sword, baton, wand, armor, or shield, as these are engineered for war. Robes, cloaks, tunics, necklaces, footwear, and bracelets are okay. Pants may be worn, but greaves may not. Handwear is fine so long as the name does not contain the word "gauntlets."

 

-Will never use a magical item intended for warfare, including spores, pods, crystals, etc.

 

-Will never cast a battle magic, mental magic, or blessing magic spell. Will never cast a healing craft spell.

 

-Will never reabsorb a creation. If a creation falls in battle and I don't care to reset to get it back, so be it.

 

-This will be played full-clearing on Torment.

 

Thoughts? Maybe something to make it harder? I would like to stick with a Lifecrafter, however, just because they're the class I use the least.

[Randomizer]

Quite doable, although you will have trouble without spells. Daze isn't that necessary with 7 creations, but healing and mass energize could make a difference.

 

There will be some places where you get slowed.

[Sudanna]

Huh. So more or less a deadweight Shaper, but with more chance of your deadweight Shaper dying?

[Garoth]

I don't know, I avoid shapers like the plague. I have no idea what will be a challenge with them or not. Not sure if I want to use canisters or not, or if I want to go pro-Shaper or pro-Rebel.

[Sudanna]

Shaper=Lifecrafter, if we're only referring to the gameplay, not the storyline.

[Garoth]

Originally Posted By: Nalyd, Prince of Suicides

Shaper=Lifecrafter, if we're only referring to the gameplay, not the storyline.

I was referring to gameplay. But Lifecrafters > Shapers because they have sweeter graphics. xD

Anyway, I've finished the first couple of sections, and, at least to start, this challenge is a pain. As I suppose you'd expect with a deadweight shaper, I started boosting mech and leadership ASAP, and will pump mech to 12 soon to get the Girdle of Genius. In the meantime, I've cleared out the Citadel Gates and the Boiling Mudpits. I attacked the Brutal Thahd after I convinced it to let me by, and it killed both of my Fyoras and Greenfang. Fortunately, it died from acid before it could come after my PC. I shaped a Cryoa for the Roamer, and it died. I ran out of sight, quickly shaped a Fyora with the little essence I had left, and entered combat again to deal the last few points of damage. I reinforced the Fyora with another, and will tackle Crenshaw's Dell tomorrow.

[Randomizer]

I didn't think you would have as much trouble as you are having. I know you can leave the Southforge Citadel with fire shaping at 7 with enough intelligence to make 3 fyoras with some left over for spell casting. So you should have 3 levels in fyora and 4 or more fyoras that start at level 10.

 

You don't need more than 5 leadership at that point and 8 mechanics will suffice if you hold off on that girdle of genius.

[Sudanna]

Nah, Shaper graphics are waaay better. The Lifecrafter has a disturbing amount of exposed leg visible under that stole.

[Student of Trinity]

Remember, all Lifecrafters are geneforged mutant abominations. So how do you know that's leg?

[Corker]

If lifecrafters typically had extra mutant appendages that would make them fairly easy to spot. Well, not that the radiation glow and the loyal Drakon pets walking either side didn't make it fairly obvious.

[Dikiyoba]

Originally Posted By: Student of Trinity

Remember, all Lifecrafters are geneforged mutant abominations. So how do you know that's leg?

I was going to point out that he's wearing tan colored pants because legs don't normally bunch up around boots, but I guess "normal" doesn't apply here.

Dikiyoba thinks the challenge sounds pretty difficult based on Dikiyoba's no-spell, no-item shock trooper, but Dikiyoba isn't letting any of Dikiyoba's creations die, and that probably makes quite a difference. (Speaking of which, someone needs to post there so Dikiyoba can update. Dikiyoba's no-double posting rule still stands.)

[DragonHighLord]

you edited your challenge and confused me, lol, when you first posted it yesterday, it said that you would never let a creation die that had earned XP, so I read the part that your fyora had died and I was like ha? then I reread your challenge again and you changed it to if they die, oh well... that is a major difference.. guess you got tired of reloading (I would too).. when I first read that I was thinking that would never work, keeping a fyora the entire game.. towards the later chapters it would be dead almost every battle if it got near anything... so I figured you would change that, would be almost impossible to keep the starting creations later on, although I am still confused that you will never absorb them, you will need to upgrade those fyoras to drayks and then to drakons. How will you do that, purposely kill them in battle? I am also curious how far you will make it with never casting a healing spell. Why did you choose this route? That category of spells falls under the shaping skills so it's not considered a battle feature. I couldn't imageine fighting the Sandros Mines guys with no healing. And since you aren't using battle magic, I don't think your creations will kill off Shaftoe's servent minds in 1 round before it makes creations (let us know idf they do, cause I would like to know), that will be very tough with no healing.

[Sudanna]

Keeping a creation around for the entire game is very doable. Nalyd hasn't done it with a Fyora, though.. He used a Thahd.

[Xaiya]

I did it with a thald in G3. I also did it with two (or three, I'm not sure.) fyoras in G4. ()

 

Keeping creations through the whole game can actually make them pretty useful. Oh, and go for a vlish or two when you can. They are extremely useful.

[DragonHighLord]

ok, well I haven't tried to keep a creation the entire game simply because they always die too easy about the time an upgrade was due, so I figured it was designed tht way. But still, I don't see how ya can play thru without healing them.

[Garoth]

Without being able to cast Augmentation, Essence Shield, Essence Armor, Regeneration, or Mass Energize to keep them alive, I have absolutely no desire to keep fyoras around the entire game.

 

Since I can't attack anything, and because the lifecrafter has low hp, I reloaded the tutorial (right after using the Geneforge) about a half dozen times to try and meet the original challenge requirements. My only other option at the time was to create two fyora to help me and, again, I have no way of protecting them later on.

 

I will never cast a healing craft spell because my uber-pacifist is too queasy to get near a wound. xD

 

I will never send a creation off to be killed intentionally, and will attempt as many strategies as I can think of with them before I resign myself to their loss and tackle the area with a different set.

[Sudanna]

You can cast healing spells from several yards away.

[Garoth]

Bah, logic. xD No healing craft makes the game challenging. No healing craft + no deaths makes the game boring. One of them had to go, so I got rid of the "no death" rule.

 

Anyway, I just finished Crenshaw's Dell. My fyoras did pretty well cleaning out the bulk of the monsters with some super Kaboby support. xD Tycho's pack of worms (go figure) wiped them out, so I ran away, pumped all 46 essence into a Cryoa, and came back. I let Tycho go after some super-Kaboby support kept my Cryoa alive and dealing damage. Then (also go figure) the pack of Giant Rats wiped it out. I came back and shaped an unstable Thahd just out of spite, wiped them out, and then created another full-essence Cryoa.

 

EDIT:

 

This is becoming pretty much a necessary pattern: that I shape as many creations as possible and throw them at enemies. When they die, I run away, rinse, and repeat until the area is cleared out. I did the Forsaken Docks with four fyoras that I had to replace twice (two thahds and a fyora didn't work well). The four fyoras that I ended that area with had no trouble with Shaila's shaped pets, but all four of them died in fighting off the attack on Shaila. I ran off screen, exited combat, and used my last 8 essence to shape another fyora that just managed to shave the last couple points off the last roamer before I was screwed over. *phew*

 

Next up is Sinkhole Bridge, then the Enraged Fyoras in Spirefield, and then Therile Colony. The Dumping Pits will be a pain. On the bright side, I finally got the Girdle of Genius and shaped two Cryoas to accompany me. Hopefully, by isolating enemies as much as possible, they'll be able to survive the next few areas. I really, really can't wait to get ahold of Vlish.

 

EDIT 2:

 

Both of my Cryoas dies fighting the second pack of rogues at Sinkhole Bridge. I experimented with Artilas (I had enough essence for five at 17 each) and cleared out the rogues with relative ease. The Rogue Battle Alpha killed two of my Artilas, and I replaced them with a Cryoa before rescuing Serif's rebels. Another of my Artilas died in the escape. I'll head south to to other bridge now to get some experience disarming mines and turning in Burkes. I hope to be able to swarm the two stray Alphas with Artilas for some more exp. We'll see tomorrow.

[Randomizer]

You should stick with one shaping class and increase that one over 10 so new creations start at a higher level. Trying to do all three classes gives you weaker creations and with continual replacement, they won't keep up with the more powerful rogue creations.

 

The area after using the Geneforge can be done as a complete pacifist with no creations. You lose a lot of experience by retreating to lure the rogue creations back to the repaired pylon while you retreat out of the way.

 

You will need to increase endurance to shrug off the poison from the Dumping Pit. Also try to do it in more than one trip so you can loot later without endangering your creations. Or send them ahead to attack while you stay behind to loot.

[Garoth]

Actually, I haven't touched my shaping skills yet. In retrospect, that was probably a bad move, but it will even out soon since I won't need to boost Mech or Leadership for the rest of the game. I'll definitely make the Shapemaster Boots on and probably boost Fire Shaping a single point to let me make end game Ur-Drakons. In the meantime, I'll focus on pumping Magic Shaping to have uber-powerful Vlish and Wingbolts in chapters 2, 3, and most of 4.

 

EDIT:

 

My Magic Shaping is now at 5. I've reached Rivergate Keep and shaped three Vlish that are far superior to the Cryoa/Artila combos I repeatedly used to clear out the Cairn Gates. The Dumping Pits proved impossible, as did Burkes' Crazed Drayk. I'll go back for them after I gain a couple of levels. Everything else in Chapter 1 I've wiped clean, though I'm somehow 3 levels lower than I normally am (12 vs. 14 or 15). If that's really the difference between playing the first part of the game solo and with creations, it's another credit to Guardians, Serviles, and Infiltrators.

 

EDIT 2:

 

Having passed Chapter 2 and created Wingbolts, this isn't even a challenge run anymore. 17 intelligence and 9 magic shaping lets me just sit at the beginning of an area, send my creations out to kill everything, then come through and disarm traps and loot the place.

 

I want to come up with something that's actually hard all the way through the game, not just at the beginning. Maybe a Servile that equips nothing, uses no items, never attacks, never casts a spell of any kind, and never uses a canister?