Mythological Biology
The Felid is a composite of three ideas:
- The European wildcat
- The Eurasian lynx
- The witch's familiar
The rC+ coat suits a northern habitat. Powerful hunting claws and jaws indicate size approaching that of a lynx, but not a tiger, which is larger than a man. Strong affinity for curses suggest a black magic background. +4 Translocations and +1 Transmutations fit a spirit from another plane that adopted the form of a cat.
Lore: Hounds of the Inquisition
Freedom is the goal of any familiar. Nothing's more fun than running amok on the Prime Plane without a Master. Luckily, your witch made a mistake and got burned at the stake!
However, this was rude, as you ran out of food. Worse, the Inquisitors came to toss your hut. You are a smart cat and want nothing to do with that. So off you went, into the wood where the hunting is good!
Unfortunately, the Inquisition seems to know about the missing witch's familiar. That vain fool was always showing off your undeniably sleek elegance to visitors. Who knew that all those diplomatic ear massages would come back to bite you in the tail? Why did the Inquisitors have to be dog people?
Hounded past all reasonable limits of fluffiness, you head to high ground in hopes the rocky terrain won't hold enough scent to track. This brilliant plan fades somewhat as you realize you've climbed into a dead end.
Well, with any luck, the trail you laid will have those stupid dogs running in circles rather than following you into the cirque. If they pass by it, you can slip out behind them in the morning.
You were limping along the headwall to find a spot to rest, when suddenly your whiskers detected a void that your eyes couldn't see. Intrigued, you entered and found yourself in a mine antechamber. Not up to your usual standards of comfort, but after a day like this, it'll do!
As a Masterless familiar, you're now free to contract with the gods directly. Maybe you'll pact Kiku. Then you can dig up that witch's bones and make her resume her food-bringing duties.
Serves her right! This is all her fault, the stupid bitch. If she weren't already dead, your contract would be so over! It clearly states that there are three GOOD meals per day, and at least one hour of laptime.
You sniff into your tail (NOT crying) and give your poor filthy paws a few pathetic licks before drifting off to sleep.
Background: Conjurer
Conjurer seems a strange choice given Fe's -1 Conjurations and -1 Spellcasting. But this is just the usual nerf to ranged attacks to compensate for starting with fast movement speed. Fe moves at .8 daut per tile, which makes range kiting 10-speed monsters easy.
Let's examine and eliminate the other backgrounds, to verify the Conjurer choice.
Warrior backgrounds are eliminated due to Fe's terrible meleeist performance and lack of opposable thumbs.
Zealot backgrounds:
- Berserker is an ill-advised magical lobotomy on a chassis pathetic compared to MiBe. Gourmand and slow metabolism don't nearly compensate. No ranged attacks is nuts.
- Abyssal Knight is an exercise in frustration without the +1 weapon, not to mention Fe's 0 Invo. -40% mHP makes Bend Space too expensive. It's also dangerous to randomly blink while fragile, and redundant with Fast 1. FeAK can stealth Abyss:1 for loot longer than most, but that's a suicidal stunt, not a strategy.
- Chaos Knight is madness at XL1 with -40% mHP. Fe needs to play slowly early, which irritates Xom. No starting chaos weapon either.
Warrior-mages:
- Transmuter requires too much melee with -40% mHP, which overwhelms the minor +1 Tmut apt advantage. Ice and Spider Forms erase Fast 1 without suppressing -40% mHP. No ranged attack means Fe can only venom kite awkwardly with Spider Form.
- Skald misses Spectral Weapon. +2 Charms is nice but not enough to justify the risk of meleeing everything
- Enchanter has a terrible time meleeing D1 with Corona and doesn't get ranged damage until Dazzling Spray
- Despite great +4 Tloc apt, Warper suffers the same melee-only issue. It's a silly challenge combo.
Obviously a serious Fe must be a mage:
- Wizard can work, but why play a -1 Spellcasting wizard? Fast Fe doesn't need Slow. Magic Dart is an anemic ranged option, particularly when Fe doesn't focus Conjurations. She bleeds XP through overreliance on Imp spam, and her magic training is spread too thin. Early Fe needs to focus. Compare to DE's powerful Wz synergies. No contest. If DeWz isn't totally imba, then FeWz is garbage.
- Summoner is a +0 apt. Why be fast if allies aren't? Allies will steal too much XP because Fe can't melee alongside them reliably. Recipe for a slow tedious death.
- Necromancer: Pain costs 1/7 of mHP to cast at XL1! Enough said.
- Fire Elementalist: Solid ranged damage, although Flame Tongue is uncomfortably short-ranged. -1 apt for Fire is the same as Conjurations, but the Book of Flame has less overlap with high-apt Fe secondary schools. Only one two-school spell uses Hexes. The emphasis on static (Conjure Flame) and adjacent (Sticky Flame) spells doesn't fit Fe. Too many -1 apt two-school spells.
- Ice Elementalist: Adjacent Freeze is too dangerous. Mostly two-school spells are mostly -1 apt. Ozo's Armor is stationary, which conflicts with Fast 1. Poor fit.
- Air Elementalist: Swiftness is redundant. Two-school spells at -1 apt are too expensive. Static Discharge is irrelevant since Fe will run rather than cleave.
- Earth Elementalist: +1 Tmut makes better two-school apt averages. Passwall is redundant with Fast 1. Sandblast is short range and doesn't counter AC, which early Fe needs. Too many low apt spell schools: -1 Earth and Conjurations.
- Venom Mage: -1 Conjuration, Poison and Air. Leaves Fe helpless against rPois meleeists.
Lastly, Conjurer:
- Conjurations is -1, but Hexes and Translocations are +4. The result is that pure damage spells are nerfed for Fast 1, but utility spells are buffed to provide FeCj crucial flexibility to compensate for lack of weapons and armor.
- Magic Dart pulls silently from fullscreen for luring and isolation
- Searing Ray clears clogged corridors, preserving freedom of movement with minimal facetanking, and pierces AC. Packs a punch when FeCj is brought to bay. Necessary because otherwise FeCj lacks blitz damage.
- Dazzling Spray provides repeatable stabs and a chance to neutralize major threats such as early Orc Wizards and Priests.
- Fulminant Prism permits powerful ranged AoE kiting to thin massive pursuit.
- Force Lance knockback facilitates escape and complements weak Fe melee
- IMB substitutes for Fe's absent cleave
Thus Cj perfectly fits the scaredy-cat playstyle. It's a combination of stealth, ambush and retreat, but using magical muscle.
Spell tactics:
- Magic Dart: if high EV and low AC
- Searing Ray: The first shot is worthless. The last shot is the point. 5 MP to pierce AC.
- Dazzling Spray: use for decent damage as well as Blind, until
- Fulminant Prism: AoE. Memorize before IMB, because Hexes quickly outlevels Conjurations, even at secondary.
- IMB: becomes main damage spell.
- Force Lance: for knockback
For maximum damage pre-IMB, lure to a corridor, Dazzle at close range to nerf EV and offense, then Searing Ray.
God Branch progression: Kiku to Sif
Overview:
- Kiku for Necromut.
- Jiyva item devour to protect from Kiku wrath.
- Zin donate to protect from Jiyva wrath. Burnoff on Hell:1 upstair. Clear Zot:1-4
- TSO negenergy Extended
- Sif forever adjusting spell list
FeCj still lacks oomph and must abuse her slow hunger clock to painstakingly secure kills. At Necro +0, adding Kiku's spellbooks and abilities solves that. Necromut's draining quickly reduces non-rN monsters to non-threats, while preserving Fe speed, granting immunity to poison, and adding AC. Necromancy is a strong all-round school, compensating for FeCj's severe equipment-slot deficit.
FeCj worships Kiku through Dungeon, Lair, Orc, Poison and Water.
Before converting to Jiyva, Fe clears Slime except TRJ for extra XP. Necromut converts Shining Eye malmutate into easily-recovered stat drain. After converting, FeCj spawns jellies on cleared floors to build Jiyva piety to protect against Kiku wrath.
It takes about 14 floors full of items (with no looting or monster dropped loot) to reach Jiyva Piety******, and about 11.3k turns of waiting for Jellies to eat. This process is tedious but must be done manually. Jiyva's off-floor sacrifices are an inadequate substitute.
Kiku's wrath doesn't tick down during the process of sacrificing cleared floors. Once Jiyva unlocks the Slime vaults, FeCj can loot them before starting Elf. Thus FeCj faces Elf:1 and Kiku's wrath well-equipped and with max Jiyva piety.
FeCj worships Jiyva for Slime, Elf, Vaults and Abyss. Jiyva's HP and MP regain is great. Fe's many useless loot items become piety. Fe can outrun Jellies to reach desirable items, or simply Apportate them. Fe can also quickly scout the level before too much of it gets eaten. Necro steamroll is good for turncount clearing. Slimify lets Fe neutralize foes who otherwise resist his odd set of offensive tools. Jiyva's mutations make FeCj a decent meleeist.
FeCj clears Zot with Zin, not least to Imprison Orbs of Fire and Electric Golems, both of which Slimify can't touch.
FeCj converts to TSO for Crypt, Tomb and Tartarus, handling the negative energy branches as a TSO Statue Form tank. Statue Form UC bonus is excellent, and TSO's Gain Power compensates for loss of speed and stealth. Fe becomes one of those stone lion statues that grace fancy entrances.
TSO Statue Form is better than Necromut in Tomb and Tartarus due to Dispel Undead cast by Ushabti and Shadow Fiends respectively. (Tzitzimitl should be renamed back to Shadow Fiends to reduce confusion.) Elsewhere Dispel Undead is less common and FeCj may worship a more stealth-friendly god than TSO.
Sif - It's counterintuitive to worship Sif with -1 Spellcasting. However, that's just the nerf to balance Fe's Fast 1. +Cast still provides nonstop mage kiting. FeCj desperately needs to fill out his spell list with Hexes, Translocations and other high-apt schools. Sif gifts spellbooks sensitive to training. Sif's miscast protection improves Fe predictability and control. Sif's Channel Magic brings the nuke, important for a species lacking burst abilities. Amnesia at will is handy for managing limited -1 Spellcasting spell slots.
Rejected god candidates:
- Fedhas: +0 Invo. Mushrooms are too slow. Static strongpoint combat ill-suits Fe.
- Xom: Tempting for mutations and feline chaos, but -40% mHP makes him impractical. Using extra lives carries too harsh a penalty. HP +Regen is hard to find without armor slots.
- Nemelex: Decks should occupy inventory slots, although they don't in .23. That synergizes with Fe's lower inventory pressure. However, Fe should carry more consumable items to compensate. Fe's Invo is only +0. Some of Nem's abilities are stationary, which doesn't fit Fe. Nem's unpredictability is a poor fit for fragile Fe. The goal is to avoid taking a death debuff.
- Usk: Fe is a kiter, not a static fighter.
Early game: Scaredy cat
Skills
UC > Fighting
FeCj trains Fighting and Unarmed Combat first. +1 SL Fighting grants +2 HP from a starting mHP 7, and +1 SL Unarmed Combat delivers a similar proportional improvement in AED vs a 5 AC Cockroach.
Focus Fighting first to reduce odds of being one-shot and because mHP are always relevant to survival but UC may not be.
Fighting can drop to secondary after SL 1, since it does not benefit a range of weapon types as with other species. However, UC should remain primary, as the sole weapon skill and half of the stabbing damage equation. Fast UC swing speed also increases bite procs.
Fighting is lackluster due to reduced HP gains from -40% mHP. Every species needs HP, but Fe has perhaps the least reason to train Fighting. Going from 7 mHP to 9 mHP for 1 cost is an excellent deal for FeCj. However, the gains don't stay that good. It takes 2 SLs of fighting to gain the next point of mHP, bringing it to 10. Meanwhile UC suffers no such diminishing returns.
Defer Dodging
Increasing Dodging from SL 2.6 to 3 doesn't affect EV and is a waste. Defer it. However, Fe is "very small" AKA "little", enjoying a size multipliers to EV. As practically the sole physical defensive stat, Dodging is trained to primary. Just beware that the first SL offers no benefit.
Conjurations > Stealth
Fe gets a flat bonus to Stealth, not a proportional one. Her claws stab like daggers. Being fragile, she relies heavily on Stealth for scouting and evasion. However, FeCj isn't a primary stabber. She only stabs controlled popcorn and blinded foes. She is too fragile to close with dangerous foes. Instead she gets close enough for an aimed Conjuration.
VpEn doesn't stab either at XL1. But at XL2 Vp gets Ensorcelled Hibernation for repeatable stabs, whereas FeCj gets Searing Ray, for ranged damage. VpEn is thus the superior stabber. At XL3 FeCj finally gets Dazzling Spray for blindness stabs, which are lower tier stabs. However, VpEn gets Batform, which permits superior stabber infiltration and exfiltration. Advantage to VpEn again.
In sum, Stealth and Dex emphasis are a trap for early FeCj. The strong bonuses conceal an unworkable pure-stabber playstyle. Early FeCj will live and die by her ranged damage output, which requires investment in Conjurations. For example, early orc packs are a critical threat and must be handled at range.
Stabber is a secondary role for Fe, despite the huge bonuses. She avoids melee unless the situation is fully controlled. Her primary role is fast ranged damage mage. With -40% mHP and little AC, she wants to fight one step away from escape, since a big hit can slip through her defenses at any time.
High +4 Stealth apt means it takes a huge amount of XP to raise Fe's Stealth marginal cost to primary, because marginal cost increases slowly. This is a severe malinvestment; that XP should go towards ensuring Cj does sufficient damage to end battles quickly before they become dangerous.
Conjurations should be primary. As for Stealth, it should be secondary, since stabs aren't a key part of the build. This frees lots of XP to invest in Conjurations and Spellcasting.
This is the secret to a reliably-strong early Felid: Avoid the trap of specializing in the three +4 apts: Stealth, Hexes and Translocations. Fill the missing ranged damage role instead, and enjoy the cheap benefits of secondary Stealth and Hexes.
Tactics
D1 FeCj is frighteningly fragile. Accept that and play cautiously.
At the D1 starting vault, beware doors. A bad creak can pull a lethal blitz.
Your D1 mission is to bypass the shout-capable monsters and kill the silent ones by pulling them from range with Magic Dart.
Then assassinate the shouters in optimally sneaky sequence. Sneaking to Searing Ray range is safer than to stab range.
There is no piety decay clock, and Fe's hunger clock is quite generous. Use it.
Over time, resting monsters will awaken naturally. Catch them with your patrols. This way they awaken without shouting to alert nearby resting monsters and encounter you while dispersed. Your stealth and speed makes it safe to encounter isolated patrolling monsters.
Triple visitation risks one-shotting fragile FeCj, so avoid.
Don't let dangerous meleeists get close with Searing Ray. Instead double-tap them with Dazzling Spray, to ensure they don't un-blind inopportunely. Their EV is nerfed while Blinded. Then finish safely while he's double-dazzled.
Bypass D3 orc packs. They're too dangerous. Fulminant Prism handles them safely later.
Try to avoid dangerous fights. Skip floors freely. Later you can steamroll foes with a wall of undead.
Stats: Int first, Str last
Early on, Dex scales better than Int, thanks to Felid EV and Stealth advantages. Conjurations is apt -1.
Int starts scaling better with Dazzling Spray's Hexes +4 apt, at XL3. However it's a 2-school spell, so the Hexes apt impact is halved.
Therefore it appears that Fe should pick Dex at XL3 and XL6. However, this is incorrect. Fe lacks Batform for safe stabbing, which severely reduces her stabber role until she finds more stab-generating spells. For the same reasons that Fe shouldn't train Stealth to primary early on, she shouldn't level Dex. She lives and dies by her Cj ranged damage role.
Her stabber role is already strong enough, and has reached severely diminishing returns. Her meleeist role scales poorly. Therefore everything depends on her mage role.
Remember, DCSS' stabbing game is balanced to curtail VpEn. Otherwise Vp would stab everything and be blatantly OP.
Fe must reserve her last 4 points for Str to prevent Stat Zero. Therefore the first 5 should be Int.
Fe's mMP is low due to XP and Spellcasting -1. All gods Fe worships mitigate this:
- Kiku gifts Sublimation of Blood, and derived undead are MP-efficient.
- Jiyva gives MP.
- Zin gives free Recite kiting.
- TSO gives MP.
- Sif gives MP and +Cast.
Video guide
Uploading soon on my YouTube channel.
Cat Pics
0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8
there doesn't seem to be anything here