So, my thief theory does hold water after all, at least partialy:
VT RUN -
Elf Thief -
Berserker Camp -
Vicious Token
Worked as advertized - more potions, fireball every time you chug a health pot, popcorn munching stabber, Bigass mana pool, CB money... If I had the good sense to kill the Berserkers on time I would've easily went Unstoppable. Well, it involves the (un)Balanced Dagger and the "I'm totally not about as powerful as your average Vicious Reward, do prep me" Crystal Ball, and there was a really eraly Binlor desecration, but it's perfectly legit and on the fun side of powerful. Michael Bay approach works, but I believer other ones would, too.
Very legit Wiki "recommended race/class" material, meaningful benefits from all 3 abilities, open to shenanigans, myguyvering, all sorts of stuff. Probably as good a Michael Bay as the Tinker and the Rogue, not as good as Assassin, but we all know why that is.
Now, Dwarf Thief SHOULD work, but I'm having trouble cracking it. I'm not satisfied with a Dragonshield-only build on them, or even an Alchemist Scroll build - the Elf works at reasonable difficulties with no special help. The concept is generally the same - more CP, more boosters and more effective potions on a non-potion race + popcorn munching helper ability.
Still, there's no health equivalent of schadenfraude, and no direct paralel to Crystal Ball, and health-to-damage exchange rate is somewhat worse and health is a lot more difficult to apply than mana. Resists are a complete pain to build up (because other people would break them ridiculously), and proper healthmonstering eats up your precious health potions. Fire Heart would obviously be good, but getting your health up really high means either JJ or GG, and both either eat potions and don's like you using them (and you lose popcorn with GG). Drac is great - but you lose your potions unless you desecrate.
Dwarf Fighters work, that I know, because all the dinging is great with big health. Dwarf Sorcerers with Witchalok Pendant work (surprisingly well) because all the mana lets you go places and leverage your health. Dwarf thieves... seem to need too much to work, unless I manage to figure out/stumble upon whatever I'm not figuring into the equation. Or someone else comes up with "Oh, you're supposed to X, I've been doing it all the time", has happened before.
Seriously, Elf Thief rocks socks, but can anyone crack the Dwarf Thief?
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Here's an interesting attempt, sadly at regular difficulty:
RUN -
Dwarf Thief of Binlor into JJ -
Labyrinth -
Puzzling out the Dwarf Thief
Ok, this was at least interesting. Too many moving parts, but interesting.
So, what Binlor did for me was provide bigass damage, but also provide me with 2 glyphs, which turned the Pissorf I got from the Pendragon and the Endiswall I found into 2 health boosters to go with my extra Health boosters. While still retaining use of both of those glyphs. This was rather good. Farming Binlor is drugdery, but at least it charges the fire heart.
Now, what happened later made me think just spamming stoneskin would've worked fine, at this difficulty (and, possibly, even at VT difficulty). So Binlor is sorta self-sustaining, and you don't have to waste inventory slots on resist stacking, you have it when you need it. However I didn't take that path.
I swapped over to JJ and picked up an Agnostic Collar, both of which wouldn't be present on other runs. Then I boosted both my health and mana twice, and never got around to getting Chaos Avatar. Since I had a crapton of health, and a Sorceror mana pool I could cast endiswall between hits which let me get binlor Bigass Hits TM on bossess per pool. But no JJ - no Elven mana pool an anything, so this works on Sorcerers (with Witchalok Pendant it can ger rather silly). And it doesn't work against magic damage guys.
But! The potions were working and the stabber was working and everything was kinda working - I could buy out the alchemy stuff, I could've remembered I don't need money and got even more health on me. However, i'm not sure it would've worked wihtout the JJ health boosts, even if the mana boosts weren't necessary.
Still - I feel like I'm onto something. Temporary resists, not necessarily a lot of them at a time and a huge health pool with Binlor damage. Endiswal for easy access to all the swag everywhere. Fire Heart probably the way to go, refilling 100% probably not necessary at all, just padding out your other potions to get you more hits in.
Eh, long rambling read, but I'm mulling this over while I wait for my anti-insomnia Camomile overdose to kick in, and it's kicking in so I'm unbelievably drowsy.

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ROFLMAO (do read please

)
FAILED PQI -
Orc Fighter -
Cursed Oasis -
Ding! Max / Purist
The PQI was Ding! Max, and I was missing Purist, so I thoght - hey, Orc Fighters are exceptionally good at PoS, wonder if I just happen to run into Pissorff?
I ran into, get this:
- Pissorff
- Binlor
- B2P
- JJ
- Zombie Gold
- Blacksmith Subdungeon
Biggest luckout ever, only thing missing was CB. "Yo, dawg, I heard you like to Pisorff, so we put a Pissorff in your Pissorff..." But!
I actually found Binlor somewhat late but I still got 100 out of him, got into JJ, took petition right away and got some mana and some health. Then I went to work on the boss at lvls 1-2.
I missdinged myself right through lvl 3, from 2 to 4. This is because I was hitting the Boss into a lvl 7 guy at lvls 1 and 2 and he was about to croak, so instead of just eating popcorn like a decent person I went stright for the big kill and got myself cursed twice and if I ate anything I'd get cursed again and waste another level full of JJ health.
But the level was revealed enough due to a bit of overexploring and B2P, so I... just went for the Big Wraith, because of the highly retarded Resistance evasion on Pissorff, which meant that I easily added a dragonsoul on top of all my "RNG sayes you're getting the scummy PoS dream setup on a guy who's really good at it with just Pissorf". That's right, killed a boss so my level doesn't go to waste
Then I just finished slamming the boss into a lvl 9 AA and killed him. And then, forgetting I was actually supposed to do Ding! Max and NOT Purist (that was just my own throw in!) - I exited the level with the entire Zombie-You-Win-If-You-Have-B2P-Gold entirely unexplored!
And failed the PQI!

Face - palm, head - desk. Like a boss!
What I did notice, though, is that I haven't got Unstoppable this time, which might mean that the Devs have either fixed it, or that everything works fine if you kill the Wraith, but not if you don't kill the wraith, except that never bothered with it because I've always just PoSed down the dragon.
Also, I think I've been getting fewer benefits from peekaboo, will have to check on that, but if I am, that might support the "Devs have fixed it" hypothesis, and that would be really swell, too.
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Eh, way too many moving parts...
VT RUN -
Dwarf Thief of Everything -
Doubledoom -
VT / Science
It took 3 tries until I did it, and I only really did it because of... too many things.
1) Two fails against Frank. You simply run out of refills or piety or walls, or whatever. This time it was Medusa and Jormugandr, so that's the first clue to just how abysmal Dwarf thief comares to the Elf thief. Because the Elf would've rolled any of those runs.
2) I had 2 Bear Maces and Stone Fist this time, which is effectively double base damage and a bunch of it was on both guys at once. I also had Wheytwut to make sure it was on both guys at once.
3) Getting Binlor to work on this map in a satisfactory manner was about as much a PITA as it would be on VGT. Not hyperbole. On a map with more walls taking the Endiswall would've worked much better, but that only makes this whole thing map dependent on top of everything else it's dependent on.
3) I had to swap gods. I only really won because of Drac refills, and I had to desecrate EM (and Binlor), to not get run down by piety hits for both leveling up (while in Binlor) or drinking potions (while in Drac), and I also had to play with all that in mind. Maybe I could've won in Binlor, but not against anything tougher than Medusa and Jormugandr, which means anything. This made both the Gloves of Midas and the Agnostic Collar invaluable, which then adds luck to possibly mandatory God Juggling.
4) There's not enough inventory space, ever, so managing that's a game of it's own. I had to completely forgo B2P (on a dwarf no less), because of this (in part, in other part it was the combination of Map + Binlor). And when you come down to it, I'm rutinely missing out on CP because of it, too, even if I do have the cash. And I never know whether I'll have cash to burn, becuase it feels like you just have to buyout all the alchemy shops.
Conclusion: While I actually enjoy me a good mcguyvery puzzle, using everything and anything, having a bunch of features come into play etc, the difference between Dwarf Fighter and Elf Fighter in terms of luck, effort and all that is extremely noticable (and that's just between those two). It's also kind of difficult, for me, to figure out what I can safely let go, and what I'm supposed to focus and how much when playing a dwarf, so it's extra difficult to tell if you're doing well or not at any point.
I'm not ruling out the possibility that I'm missing something obvious or doing something wrong, but I'm kind of dreading that even if I do find that killer Dwarf Thief playstyle it'll be something you just can't recommend to anyone else. It makes me a bit sad to see something that looks so sinergystic still need so much more than stuff that's just tackign on a this-or-that module on a class.
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Especially when you know that this complete troljob:
VT RUN -
Dwarf Sorcerer of Dracul -
streaking flaming ? Dubledoom -
Vicious Token / Trolling
Is essentially Bossy McBossalot, Gainful Employer. Not that the bossess were tougher, but the gameplay made this feel like Hobblers compared to VGT. And not that I mind this working, it's hilarious, but this being a recomendable combination, and Dwarf Thief taking me putting on my murderous DD cult leader trousers feels wrong. Also hilarious, but still wrong
And I'd never get the other guys to let me put this on the wiki, not that I'd try (even though that might not be a terrible idea unless the Sorcerer finally gets that damned mana pool of his trimmed down). Funny thing is, Sorcerer played this way actually gets something out of all his class features, while Sorcerer played the powergamery way is just abusing the hell out of the mana pool o.O
Also, if you don't think this run wasn't as simple as I make it out to be - check the preps.
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Note on a
disenheartening detail - all my killer Dwarf builds which didn't involve heavy res stacking, involve having a huge Mana Pool. JJ Dwarf Monk (and I suppose whatever else) works. Dwarf Sorcerer Works. So if you're not packing a Dragonshield, the key to playing a kick-ass Dwarf is... to play an Elf.
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Ahahahahahhahahahahahahhahaha! Ahahahhahahaha! ROFLhahahahahhahahahahahaha! PffffftROFLMAOhahahahahhahahahaha!
VT RUN -
Dwarf Thief of Dracul (yes, of Dracul) -
Hex Ruins -
Vicious Token / Treminal Brain Failure & Running Along With ItSo I somehow prepped Drac on Hex Ruins...

Cue the Benny Hill music.
It was... BEAUTIFUL! Wheytwutting around, dodging the humongous pile of Zombies, punting those I could out of the way every time I level up with my ginormous health pool, never mind figuring out how to get out of Drac with Blood Shield, Sanguine and Lifesteal with nothing to desecrate in the first place, a Mystera with no hope of getting my Mystic Balance due to Consensus, and a Pactmaker with no hope of getting me Overheal if I ever wanted to be back in Drac, eating popcorn to ding through the Aequitas kill with a million Zombies chasing me around - while saving dodge and Whoopaz for Stheno - figuring out how to get use out of health pots in Drac with no indulgences...
Sweet Jesus, I'm not sure I've ever been on a cooler run. It was like Indiana Jones and the Raiders of the Lost Brain.
I even won! See:

Best 45:00 of DD on this playthrough (and pretty damned high all-time). I always did love the way DD was kinda the only RPG-ish game where the Thief felt like an actual thief more than an assassin, and I feel like I've just been through something that could be packaged as a standalone game. ^^
Key to Dwarf Thief - get your mana pool enormous. Scratch that, key to Dwarves in general - get you mana pool enormous. Well, at least about 18 mana. Start in Drac, go someplace later or at least desecrate something for the indulgences.
Also, go Drac on VT Hex with no cheap solutions with something, at least once in your life X_D
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He he he, this never gets old:
VT PQI -
Orc Fighter -
Eastern Tundra -
Vicious Token / Trolling
They don't call him "The King of Ding" for nothing

PoS the boss from levels 1-10, although I did get a silly good setup for it, Binlor TT & Mystera. Getting a less favourable god setup would've made me play with the boss a lot less as I would've just converted all my glyphs right away instead of waiting for my 3rd god in a row for refreshment. Wouldn't have got Unstoppable that way, though... No B2P either, but hey, TT Michael Bay Fighter is a sneaky Assassin in disguise ^^
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And, well, I did skimp out on fighters this time around

VT PQI -
Elf Fighter of Spamming the Pissorff -
Shifting Passages -
Miser / Vicious / Bunch of stuff
Didn't skimp on them for lack of power, thatsfersure. Even had a cool semi-Acid Caster thing going on here, and totally PoSed down the Wraith through it's resists by slamming stuff into it and dinging that way.
Shout out to Sidestepper, this whole EM Greenblood on Shifting Passages PoS spam thingy is his signature move, credit where credit's due ^^
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