Lujo wrote:^ I've been harping on Sorcerors all the time, they're bloody strong. Goblin sorcerors especially, since they have a cheap way to refill the bigass mana pool, and they don't LOOK that strong because you trust a class ability to be balanced somewhat so the +5 mana kinda slips past the cheeze radar.
I've always loved Sorcerers for their early power; they're one of the few classes who can stand up to higher level monsters in a Vicious Token run with only a small boost to their HP. Sure, some of that power fades away later, but that 5 MP is definitely something you can build on to do amazing/ridiculous things.
It's funny, every time I go to say something like "the sorcerer is my favourite class", I end up thinking "but wait, those other classes are so awesome, too!". Which I feel is a better testament to class balance than anything

Blovski wrote:Hm, interested to see whether the extra 30ish XP from a goblin makes up for the eighty quasijillion mana potions of gnomes. Never really tried it.
I'd say that the Goblin's strength increases proportionally to the relative power of the monsters vs. the player... the most obvious example of that being the Vicious Token runs, where most classes, even fully prepped, can struggle at first unless they get a good draw. A Gnome might be better than a Goblin in a fully prepped regular Vicious run, but in purist vicious or VT runs, the experience makes up for the resources lost (whether blackspace, gold, piety, etc.) due to low early strength. In my above VT example my Wizard ran out of exploration around levels 4-5... and no matter how important XP conservation for level cannons actually is, you can't forget that your power level matters too (something which playing the Monk more has reminded me). Obviously I wasn't a Goblin, but a Tikki worshipper with boosted attack and monster zoo subdungeon can practically simulate being a Goblin XD. Also, it may be stating the obvious, but 30 bonus XP is more valuable if you get it at lower levels (in terms of the level XP thresholds).