What items do you forbid?

[Wargasm]

They did, it's a glyph called Byceppss. It even bumps your damage nicely.

That doesn't help Warmonger at all. :p

[Lujo]

Ah, well, then you've got this guy called Glowing Guardian. I hear he's got a boon thats kinda good with that.

[Wargasm]

Actually is there any good reason to keep the Tower Shield around? It doesn't convert favourably, the 10% is usually not enough to make a difference (I very rarely use a fourth ENDISWAL to top off that last 5%) and I already keep Dragon Shield as a prep.

[Lujo]

Depends. If you plan to play someone who doesn't stack passive resists then yes (allthough it can help you tank a hit off a boss for a low investment). If you plan to stack resists it's invaluable, and resist stacking is the most powerful strat in the game, bar none. Due to sort of complicated math, resists don't stack linearly, and after certain thresholds 10% is quite a lot. Physical resist is also hard to come by in relevant quantities and taking it out of the pool in case you need it for a run is not good.

Endiswall stackign is not what I had in mind, though, before you ask. I'm talking stickig a dragonshield and patches on a crusader in VGT and then piling Drac's +15% and Taurog's +15% on top of that or any such shennanigans. If you have it in the pool and start a monk with a dragonshield, and the add the tower shield, the ammount of hits you can land on a phys damage monster is quadrouple from what you'd have with no resists - with no gods involved.

EDIT: It's also one of the few ways to get any damage reduction on the vampire. And there's a marked difference between physical resists and magic resists in that magic resists can be built up with just Binlor from pretty much nothing to relevance, hysical resists are much rarer.

[Wargasm]

Guh. Going to make it impossible to forbid anything. On a side note, I keep forgetting you can do polytheist things with Taurog. Then again, I'm terrible at polytheist strategies in general. :/

[Lujo]

Forbid stuff that's not hepfull to a broad archetype, then play it for a while. The mix it up. Then take everything out. Then put random carp in there. Then only basic/quest/elite stuff. Then nothing again. Then archetype. Then stuff you don't need while you grind a particular dungeon to death...

[Darvin]

I'm on the edge with Hero's Helm. It's pretty dinky if you find it later, but if you find it at the 1st level it's pretty much an auto-buy.

Actually is there any good reason to keep the Tower Shield around? It doesn't convert favourably, the 10% is usually not enough to make a difference (I very rarely use a fourth ENDISWAL to top off that last 5%) and I already keep Dragon Shield as a prep.

Only worthwhile if you're stacking it with other forms of physical resist or if it just barely allows you to survive an attack that would otherwise kill you. A Paladin with Dragonshield has 43% physical resist, so bumping that to 53% is pretty good. I'm actually surprised the tower shield never got buffed.

[Lujo]

Guh. Going to make it impossible to forbid anything. On a side note, I keep forgetting you can do polytheist things with Taurog. Then again, I'm terrible at polytheist strategies in general. :/

Taurog's a good piety farm in any case. If there's magic damage popcorn and you don't mind wasting them, and if you're going to convert glyphs early anyway, you can probably grab the sword, kill the magic users, convert a few glyphs/and or get levels and join whoever else. It'll cost you a mana point, but you still have 12 for 2 fireballs. I've even joined mystera this way. Best deal probably is to join dracul, and kill the magic users/undead first since you won't kill them later anyway and you still get the exact same piety (4, halved from conversion).

This is also the basis of early TT worship (no prepped gods). If you can level up easily somehow with no gods, pick TT up, start mopping up popcorn that you wouldn't otherwise (magic users, undead), pick up a utility boon or two, tribute up a bit and convert to whoever.

Also, if you've popcorn bowled early, and left the magic users alone, and saved glyphs for whatever reason, Taurog is rather easy to get in, grab something and get out again.

[Naoya]

What about the fire heart?
It has plenty of synergy with some classes and awesome for healthmonstering, but no CP unless charged, and it also takes a while to charge that thing. I usually just prep it if I want it.

[Wargasm]

Oh that thing's great any time you're forced to melee with a caster though. Not to mention Sorcerers love it by default, as do Bloodmages.

Which reminds me, I need to go Bloodmage at some stuff. Maybe my next burning run. I don't think they play nicely in VGT with that -3 mana. I figured I'll throw resist-stacking Human Crusaders at that until one sticks.