[2007] Tournament : The Bountyhunter's heaven [by Merlin The Wizzard]

[Grisu]

DISCLAIMER: Migration finished

This tournament has already ended. It was originally started by @Merlin The Wizzard on Nov 7, 2007. The last post was made Sep 5, 2017.
(link to original thread on diabloii.net) ​

Tournament : The Bountyhunter's heaven

Introduction

The tavern fell quiet when Boyd the Necromancer came inside. Nobody liked this arrogant man. Nobody dared to tell him that in his face, because he was well known for his temper and his readiness to summon his skeletal crew. They invariably came up out of the ground, bursting through the floor, and smashing half of the furniture. Therefore, the tavern owners had unanimously decided that Boyd was a protected customer. Anybody foolish enough to raise their voice against him, would be ousted by the bouncers.

Boyd walked over to the bar, where an odd group of travellers sat together, murmuring, casting balefull glances at the smug necromancer.
He sat down, ostentatiously, at their side, and called for the bartender in a voice loud enough to be heard on the other side of town, despite the fact that the man was standing right in front of him.
"One Ale for me, please. And give the crew here one as well, I can afford it after I delivered the head of Dac Farren here to the bountyhunter guild. Yep, that netted me enough gold to last me for the next couple of weeks."

The group of adventurers shot him murderous looks, but they remained silent. They had no desire to be thrown out by the nervous bartender and his huge bouncer.
Boyd turned to face them. "Something on your mind, you bunch of lowlives? Are you bums not happy with the drinks I provide you with?"
One dark skinned man replied in the formal tones that showed he was a paladin: "Give us the respect we deserve, Boyd! We can kill just as well as you!" The bouncer made a grab for the man's neck, but Boyd stopped him with an imperious gesture.
He snorted. "Kill? Me? Forget it! Do you honestly think I would dirty my hands with such business? I have my minions to do that for me!"
Another person in the oddly assorted group, a female identifyable as an assassin by the katar strapped around her wrist, stood up, and looked Boyd in the eye. "It takes skill and dedication to kill your foes, pastyface! All you do is hide behind an army of mindless bones!"
The bartender flinced, and then nodded towards his bouncer. But before the bouncer could grab the impertinent woman, a freezing blast of ice erupted from the staff of another female, and froze him to the ground. Her voice was nearly as cold as her staff, when she adressed Boyd:
"So you think you are such a great hero, by hunting one... ONE measly hero? we could bring you whole sacks full of heads, and those we would collect by ourselves too!"
"Oh really," Boyd snorted. "I can't see you kill one single fallen, the lot of you combined. But why not make it a wager?"
"We don't need your money, little man. We just want recognition!" The barbarian shouted, but the calm voice of the Druid interrupted him : "Fair enough. We go, we kill, we come back, and you... you go annoy honest adventures in another part of the world!"
Boyd snorted again, something he had practiced a lot: "What's in this for me?"
A blonde woman stood up, with a crossbow slung across her back. "If we fail, and come back... We will pay for a plaque at the bountyhunter's guild with your name on it."
Boyd grinned. "That's a deal!"
The last male in the group spoke up, a pale, gauntfaced man, garbed in a similar way as Boyd: "Agreed then. May the best bountyhunter win."
The group of adventurers departed, leaving Boyd, a relieved bartender and a slowly defrosting bouncer behind...

 

[Grisu]

The idea
Before you are forced to wrestle through a large set of rules, let me give you a brief outline of the idea behind this tourney. If you like it, you can always continue and read the rules below :

The idea is simple. There are Five Acts to the game. Each Act holds all sorts of monsters, and several monster types return in later acts (for instance, the skeletons or the leapers).
The idea is to randomly determine five different monster types, one from each act, as listed on the battle.net monster bestiary, and kill every single one of those monsters. The catch is, you are only allowed to equip/use items dropped by these mobs. And you HAVE to use the items dropped by any superunique monster of your bountytype...

interested? Then read on.

 

[Grisu]

Nice story and nice idea i like it. However a few questions.

1- If we roll the 5 monster types does that mean we cant kill any other? or is the specific monster type we chose just for the items it can drop?

2- If we are fully equiped with items that drop from our monster type and we kill a superunique , do we have to un-equip the items we have on and put on the items that drops from the superunique?

I like the idea yet i probably wont join because i am occupied with the no vitality tournament. But maybe when that finishes and the rules are established i may consider.

 

[Grisu]

The rules
The rules are as follows :
- HC only
- Mercs are allowed.
- Single pass only. No reruns.
- ATMA/GoMule is allowed as an extended stash.
- Use any /players setting you desire. Of course, the /players 8 for chests only tactic is not allowed(it's relatively useless too, but read the rules below).

- Everyone playing has to visit the following site:
http://www.battle.net/diablo2exp/monsters/
This is the monster bestiary for each act. Now, pick one type of monster for each act, and do so at random. So, for example, fallen shaman for act 1, blunderbore's for act 2, Zealots for Act III, Vile Mothers for Act IV, Imps for Act V.
How you randomize these is for yourselves to decide, but there is an integer generator on http://www.random.org which is somewhat ardeous to use, but will guarantee true random results. My own method would be using 6 or 7 coins, and then assigning each monster type one combination (for instance, Fallen Act 1 - H H H H H H, Fallen Shaman Act 1 - H H H H H T, etc) toss the coins, write down the combination, and pick the corresponding monster type. Do not use the list of guest monsters in Act V. MAke sure the monster type in question can do damage, and can drop all items.
This means none of the following :
Flying Scimitars
Hawk Nests
Gargoyle Traps
Mummy Sarcophagus
Lightning Spire
Fire Tower
Sand Maggot eggs
Sand Maggot young
Tentacle Beasts
Vile Child
Pain Worm
Reziarfg
If you are NOT happy with your 5 picks, you get one reroll. You HAVE to pick all five monster classes all over, and you HAVE to stick with this result . So if you have only 1 pick you don't like, it might be advisable to use it anyways.

- Next, you must pick, at random, one of the five act bosses.
- Write these trophymobs, as I will call them from now on, and the act boss down and list them here as well.
- On the same site, check out the list of superunique monsters. Cross check these monsters with your five trophymobs, and list the ones that fall into that monster class. I will give a full example later, but for now, say you rolled Giant Spiders for the act 1 trophyMob, The Act 3 superunique Szaark the Burning would be a superunique trophymob for you, and you should list him.
It is possible to have mutliple trophymobs within one class (For instance, zombies have both Corpsefire and Dark Elder). Both count.

Blood Raven is a corrupted rogue archer, and a superunique.
The Countess is a corrupted rogue, and a superunique.
Radament is a Greater mummy, and superunique, and Coldworm Burrower counts as a Sand Maggot, and is superunique as well.
Finally, Shenk is an Overseer (well, it's in the name, innit? ) and is also superunique.

List these as well in the same post.

Equipment
- All characters start with their starting gear. No twinking is allowed throughout the game.
- The only items you can pick up that did not drop from your trophymobs are healing/mana/stamina/antidote/thawing potions, scrolls of identify and town portal and gold. These can either be used or sold, as you see fit to do.
- Up until the moment you start encountering your first trophymobs, you are allowed to use equipment from the shops. However, these items must be replaced by the appropriate trophymob drops. So if I got misshapen for act 1, up until the underground passage (and perhaps longer, depending on the monster roll) I can use a magical small shield I shopped. But if a low quality buckler should drop from a misshapen, I am forced to use that instead.
If you are allready using an item dropped by a trophymob, you may choose which item you can use.
- The only equipment you are allowed to use is the equipment dropped from these trophymobs.If you are not sure which drops belong to your trophymob, and which to other mobs, you cannot use them. So it is to your advantage to separate your trophymobs from other creatures by any means possible.
- You are, however, allowed to mule items you wish to keep off into ATMA or GoMule.
- These equipping rules apply for your mercenary as well.
- Neither quest rewards or gambled items are allowed. Should you end up with a maxed out moneypile, you can gamble it away of course, but you cannot use the items.
- You may use the drops from the Act Boss you rolled. If, for any one reason, you go through an entire act without ever finding one of your trophymobs, you can also use the drop from this Acts boss, but I expect this will hardly ever happen. If it does, make sure to list it in the thread.
- Superuniques
- Once you kill one of the superuniques on your list, you MUST use their drops. Unless one of the following is the case :
a) The item is class-specific, and not for your class. If so, you may sell it.
b) You don't meet the status requirements for the item. If so, stash it. Should you ever reach the status requirements needed (and bonuses from charms do apply), use the item.
c) The item in that particular equipmentbracket is allready filled with another superunique drop. If so, you can decide which one to use. If possible, the mercenary gets to use the other item. Otherwise, sell it.
d) If the item dropped is a socketfiller, it should be used as soon as possible. If neither you nor your mercenary have free sockets, stash the item and use it as soon as you get a socketable item. You or your mercenary are going to use. This does not apply to runes, however. See runewords below.

- It probably needs no saying, but these items cannot be replaced by drops from your trophymobs.
- You may use these items in cube recipes, if applicable (including crafting), but the resulting item still falls under the abovementioned rules.
runewords
- While runewords are not forbidden, it is highly unlikely, giving the above rules, that you can use one. That is why the superunique property is inherited when using cube recipes. If a superunique drops a rune, you can use it and cube it up until it forms one of the runes in your desired runeword. Provided you also find the other runes from your trophymobs, you can make the runeword, and it will still count as a superunique drop, replacing the item you had. This might be an instance where cubing runes is actually profitable

problematic instances
- Should you draw Fetish as your Act 1 trophymob, the guardian of the gidbinn in act 3 counts as a superunique, since it is always a flayer in act 3 (I think. Does anyone know for sure?). If you kill a shaman, the flayer still lives, and DOES count as a trophymob. This means that if you draw Flayers, you MUST kill Witchdoctor Endigu, and use the drop from the flayerpart only.
- Cows are not listed in the bestiary, so you have no business entering this area, except for xp and possible grailers. If you feel so inclined, you can use it, but it won't net you anything except for some xp and a possible death
- the Councilmembers are listed, and can be drawn. These guys have lots of downsides, such as their scarceness, the fact that there are 6 superuniques in act 3 you have to kill and use the item drops from, and few 'normal' councilmembers for other drops to sell/use. This is, to some extent, balanced by the possibilities of great item drops from the mobs. Nevertheless, you might consider 'rerolling' if the councilmembers wind up as a part of your trophymobs.

Scoring/ example in the next post

 

[Grisu]

scoring

Now, for each act, I will list (from memory, but if it fails, I am sure you guys can and will supply details ) the mobs that can spawn in it, and give them a rating for common, uncommon, rare or almost non-excistent.
For every Common monster you completely wipe out in an Act, you get 1 point, uncommon, 2 points, rare, 3 points, and almost non-existent 5 points.
This balances out against the bigger equipmentpile available for the more frequently spawned mobs. These points are added to your score at the end of the act, but see the example below.

The list
Act I :
Common : Zombie, Fallen, Skeleton, Spike fiend, Corrupted Rogue.
Uncommon : Fallen Shaman, Corrupted Rogue Archer, Corrupted rogue spearwoman, Skeleton archer, wendigo, goatmen, blood hawk, tainted, wraith
Rare : The rest, meaning : Vampires, Giant Spiders, Fetish, Skeleton mage.
Almost non Existent - Not for this act.

Act II
Common - Sabre Cat, Leaper, Mummy, Skeleton, Scarab Demon, Vulture Demon, Slinger
Uncommon : Sand Maggot, Skeleton Archer, Skeleton MAge, Blunderbore, Bat Demon, Greater Mummy, Sand Raiders.
Rare - Zombies, Vampires, Claw Vipers, Swarms, Wendigo, Goat men, Wraith, Blood Hawk, Baboon Demon.
Almost non-existent - None.

Act III
Common - Fetish, Zakarum Zealots, Thorned Hulks.
Uncommon - Fetish Shaman, Bone Fetish, Baboon Demon, Zakarum Priests, Giant spider, Giant mosquito, Bat demon, Vampire, Vulture demon.
Rare - Zombie, Sand Raider, Mummy, Greater Mummy, Skeleton, Blunderbore, Corrupted Rogue, Corrupted rogue archer, Willowisps, Frog Demon, Leaper, Scarab Demon, Sand Maggot, Wendigo, Blood hawk, wraith
Almost Non-existent - Council Members.

Act IV
Common - Oblivion Knights.
Uncommon - Willowisps, Regurigitators, MegaDemons, Fingermages, Vile mothers.
Rare - Tainted, Bat demon, Sand maggot, Blunderbore.
Almost non-Existent - None

Act V
Common - Demon Imp, Baals Minion(includes Suicide minions), Death Maulers, Frozen Horrors, Stygian Furies, Succubi.
Uncommon - Blood lords, abominable, overseer, Reanimated Horde, Putrid Defiler
Rare - Catapult, Siege Beasts, Guest mobs.
Almost non-existent : Minion of Destruction.

Now, to balance out points a bit (because Fallen will net only 1 point, whereas vampires will come to a cool 8 points, for example)
Should NONE of your trophymobs spawn in an Act, you can use the drops from the act boss, and add 8 points to your score.
If your mob only spawns in 1 act (council members and the last hero waves in Baals throne EXCLUDED) : +5
If your mob spawned in 2 acts : +2
Council-members : +2

Other scoring rules :
Each character level -1
Each waypoint +1
Each quest +1
Each Act completed +3
Bonus for all quests, all waypoints : +1

example
I started a Spearazon, solve all quests, get all waypoints, and drop Baal at lvl 48. I rolled the following bountymobs:
Act 1: Skeletons, Act 2: Greater Mummy's, Act 3: Willowisps, Act 4: Megademons, Act 5: Overseers.

As per rules, it meant I HAD to kill the following superunique monsters :
- BoneBreaker
- Radament
- Ancient Kaa the Soulless
- Infector of Souls
- Shenk the Overseer
- Sharptooth Slayer
- Achmel the Cursed
- Ventar the Unholy

A bit lucky, because I can now use every drop from greater mummies and their skeleton croonies
In act 3, no willowisps spawned in the Marsh, but I found Greater mummy's in the sewers, complete with skeletons.
Act 4 had willowisps in the izual area (plains of despair?)
So with that information, I get the following score :
Waypoints : +39
Quests : +27
5 acts all waypoints, all quests : 5*3 + 5*1 = +20
lvl 48 = -48

Mob score : Skeletons, common, act 1, +1
Skeletons, common, act 2, +1
Skeletons, rare, act 3, +3
No end of difficulty bonus : they spawned in 3 acts.

Greater Mummy's, uncommon, Act 2 : +2
Greater Mummy's, rare, Act 3 : +3
Achmel doesn't count here, so, end of difficulty bonus:
Greater mummies spawned in 2 acts only : +2

Willowisps - Act 4, uncommon, 2 points
They only spawned in 1 act : +5

Megademons - Act 4, uncommon, 2 points
Vectar doesn't count, so they only spawned in 1 Act : +5

Overseers: Act 5, uncommon, 2 points.
They only spawned in 1 act : +5

So total : Skeletons 5 + Greater mummy's 7 + Willowisps 7 + Megademons 7 + Overseers 7 = +33.
Total score normal difficulty : +71

Is all this clear so far? Oh, btw, most of this post was directly copied from my other thread, I think it still holds true...

 

[Grisu]

This leaves two sections.
One I simply forgot to list in the rules, and is quite important : Character skills restrictions.
Here goes.
- No summoned creatures allowed.
- Barbarian : No Find Item, Find potion.
- Assassin : No Death Sentry, Lightning Sentry.
- Amazon : No Lightning Fury.
- Necromancer : no Summon tree skills
- Paladin : No Blessed Hammer
- Sorceress : No Hydra, Meteor, FO, Blizzard, Chain Lightning.
- Druid : No ravens, wolves, grizzly, poison creeper or tornado

Next, the winner.
Well, I have no price (apart from eternal glory, and the banishment of Boyd, the obnoxious necromancer )
The winner is the person with the highest score (which involves a bit of luck, granted).

There is no time limit, the tournament will continue until everybody is done, or no activity occures during a full week.

I'm off to bed now, will check in tomorrow to see whether there are questions or anything!

 

[Grisu]

A few questions concerning items:

1) If the dropped bounty superunique item is ethereal, do I also have to use it? Esp. in those cases, where the first superunique appears (for instance, if I play a Barb and bought a nice polearm for the meantime and then an ethereal spear drops).

2) If I understood correctly, you have to use socket fillers - in the order you got them, randomly or at free will?

2a) Then you have to socket an item with it - an item you are allowed to use or any socketable item?

resulting in...
2b) if the latter is the case - are you thus allowed to use that normally not usable item?

2c) if yes, can I use the socket quest to create usable items through socketing it with a jewel from my bounty hunter's superunique?

 

[Grisu]

@Morathi - 1) You can kill all monsters. You can only use the drops from your trophymobs. 2) Exactly. That may be a boon, but probably turns into a curse. For full superunique drop rules, see above.
Hope to see you join. It'll be open for a while at least, so no worries... Join when you are ready for it.

@Grisu
1) Yes. In that case, your best bet is to stash the item you were using. As soon as the ethereal item breaks, you can use the old item again.
2) Depends, on whether they drop from one of your trophymob superunique heroes or just from a plain trophymob. If the latter, you are free to use it when you want to. If the former, you have to use it ASAP (but see runewords)
2a) The socket filler can only be used in an item that drops from one of your trophymobs. For all accounts and purposes, for the bountyhunter character, ALL other items just don't exist
2b) It's not the case though
2c) Yes, you can. But the item you create the socket in must be a legitimate find. If you do, and you use this superunique drop socket filler (which you are required to do, unless it's a rune claimed for a runeword), you are also required to use this item, as per superunique item drop rules mentioned above.

So both the imbue (Act 1)and the socket (Act V)quest rewards can be used on legitimate drops.
For the imbue quest in particular... a legitimate drop, so NOT on shopped items.

In the very unlikely event that you still use a shopped item that can be socketed in Act V (because none of your trophymobs dropped anything to replace it with), you cannot socket it.

 

[Grisu]

Ah, ok, I see. That way one finally gets used to using jewels :-D

Regarding runes: I can only use runes I found from trophy mobs to cube up a rune I found from a superunique? That's what I think from this quote:

2a) The socket filler can only be used in an item that drops from one of your trophymobs. For all accounts and purposes, for the bountyhunter character, ALL other items just don't exist

But that also means, that I cannot cube up runes from regular trophy mobs, only those from superuniques?

I think I'll join ASAP, although I won't have that much time to play...thinking about the character ATM, it'll probably be a Paladin.

btw, great intro story!

 

[Grisu]

another question.

How can you tell if an item is dropped from the trophy mob? i mean what if they mix in with another group of monsters and when you kill the whole group all the items on the ground will be bunched up. That would make it very very hard to tell if the item came from your trophy mob or a random monster.

 

[Grisu]

Great, another opportunity to get a Phoenix Striker killed!

A few questions first:

* Why not add Cows to the act 1 or act 5 bestiary?

* If I am forced to equip a weapon/shield because a SuperUnique dropped it, can I still use my current items and put the "force-equipped" item on the weapon switch (or on the mercenary)?

How can you tell if an item is dropped from the trophy mob? i mean what if they mix in with another group of monsters and when you kill the whole group all the items on the ground will be bunched up. That would make it very very hard to tell if the item came from your trophy mob or a random monster.

That has already been covered. Read the rules again. :azn:

 

[Grisu]

another question.

How can you tell if an item is dropped from the trophy mob? i mean what if they mix in with another group of monsters and when you kill the whole group all the items on the ground will be bunched up. That would make it very very hard to tell if the item came from your trophy mob or a random monster.

Well, better keep them apart

- The only equipment you are allowed to use is the equipment dropped from these trophymobs.If you are not sure which drops belong to your trophymob, and which to other mobs, you cannot use them. So it is to your advantage to separate your trophymobs from other creatures by any means possible.

 

[Grisu]

opps lol sorry guys.... there are so many rules:undecided: .

thanks for that.

 

[Grisu]

OK, I have done my random rolls:

Skeleton Archer
Slinger
Thorned Hulk (Stormtree)
Megademon (Infector of Souls, Ventar the Unholy)
Stygian Fury

Act Boss: Andariel

Hmm, not much better than what I first rolled (Corrupted Rogue, Greater Mummy, Willowisp, Vile Mother, Minion of Destruction): quite uncommon monsters and there are hardly any monsters coming back in later acts. On the upside, skelly archers will likely provide some early gear, I have few SuperUniques and act 5 NM could be very profitable (if I make it that far).

This should be doable for quite a while. A Phoenix Striker relies mainly on her skills for damage (although she wants a fast one-handed weapon, preferrably with a range more than 1). No Shadow or Death Sentry make it harder, but Cloak of Shadows and Mind Blast is good crowd control, and I´ll have a freezing mage marc to help with control and corpse shattering.

This will be fun!

 

[Grisu]

@Grisu : Yes, you can, from regular mobs. The problem will be, that by the time you can make a runeword from runes dropped by normal trophymobs, you'll probably be using an item dropped by a superunique trophymob in that slot, which means it can't be replaced. But if one of the runes, even if it is cubed up, HAS been dropped by one of the superuniques, you can replace the item you currently used (as explained in the superunique equipment section). I would treasure any runedrop from a superunique trophymob

@Morathi : Yes, I know there are many rules... It sort of comes with the idea. Using trophymobs and this form of equipment restriction, is bound to bring problems along with it. Those need to be adressed in the rules, making them rather lengthy.

@Jiansonz
I decided to stick to the monsterlisting in the bestiary, as it already is plenty random, and, as subtly hinted at by morathi, there are quite enough rules already Besides, cows are quite unfair, seeing as how there are huge numbers of them, and they can drop all sorts of great items. For balancing issues alone I would be disinclined to allow them, but if more potential participants feel that they should be included, I am sure something could be worked out. For now though, let's leave them out of the list
-Yes, you can equip said weapon/shield in the Second weapon slot. But should another superunique trophymob drop a weapon, you have to replace the other weapon first. For example, I killed corpsefire and got a magical shortsword. I put it in my second weapon slot. But in Act 2, I kill Beetleburst, and out pops a maul. Now, I have to use that in my current weapon slot, since the other one holds a superunique drop. Should Stormtree in Act III however drop a rare giant sword, you can now replace the magical shortsword (and then give it to the act III mercenary, should you use him).
This means it might be tactical to select a mercenary purely for his free weaponslot, freeing up a useless item in your own inventory. Whether you want to use a mercenary that way (the act 3 merc is a prime candidate for crappy singlehand swords, of course ) is entirely up to you.

It also means it is not wise to try and make a build which uses 1 specific weaponclass. However, this pretty much rules out any viable amazon build, apart from a tankazon. Hmm...
Perhaps it could be adressed in scoring... Such as: You get 1 overrule per difficulty, for the weaponslot only. Meaning if the new drop totally screws up your build, you can opt not to use it, but, you will have to deduct 10 points from your score. Would that be fair?

 

[Grisu]

Jiansonz - You missed the act boss You get to pick one random act boss as well! Might be helpful, considering the scarceness of items. Lucky enough, few superunique heroes to mess up your itembuild Runewords might very well be viable for you. Well, good luck with it!

I might have stuck with that first roll. In that case, you get to use the runedrop from the countess as well, you see
But the minions of destruction royally suck if you get them, so I can see why you decided to go for that second roll.

 

[Grisu]

I might have stuck with that first roll. In that case, you get to use the runedrop from the countess as well, you see
But the minions of destruction royally suck if you get them, so I can see why you decided to go for that second roll.

Yeah, but the Countess (and even more so, Radament) could curse me with several items I had to equip. Between my forst roll and a new random one, I chose the latter (and there there was no return...)


Another question: do rejuvenation potions count as healing potions? I hope they do, otherwise there will be very few of them available.



EDIT: Stygian Furies are very rare in Normal - they are only found on the Throne level. All other types in the act are succubi. In NM and Hell, however, they are slightly more common, e.g. there are often Sirens in Frozen River and the RoF bonus areas.

I wouldn´t call reanimated horde uncommon. They can be found in Pindle´s garden, Halls of Valor, Halls of Pain (those are two huge areas), Frozen River, Glacial Trail (two large areas), Icy Cellar and WSK level 1.

In act 4, Willowisps and Tainted must have the same rarity. They can both be found in one areas, of equal size and the packs are equally large.

In act 3 I think Sand Raiders should be 'almost non-existant', as they can only be found on the small Kurast Causeway (and they are not always there, either).

 

[Grisu]

Thanks for the input, Jiansonz. I also noticed I missed the wraiths in Act II, they should be added to uncommon. I agree with all other scorelist comments so far, and will do a repost of the scoring with those changes in mind... if other players have nothing to add. So reanimated corpses to common, Stygian furies to rare, Willowisps in Act IV to rare, and Sand Raiders in Act III to almost non-existant.

I am still of two minds regarding the amazon build. Perhaps Add 25 points to anyone's final score when deciding to play an amazon, due to the almost exclusively weapon-dependent skills? I think this is better then the 1-item overrule (weapon only) at a scorepenalty suggested earlier, IMHO... less complicated.

As for Decoy, I will not regard this as a summon, so it can be used. In that same vein, all the druid spirits (basically just living auras) and the two later creepers (life/mana replenishing) are allowable. It's true, they distract monsters from you, but they don't do damage by themselves. And several necromancer curses have the same effect, so...

Rejuvenation potions are restricted items, sorry. While their drop late is relatively low, they are worth an indecent amount of cash, especially in the earlier difficulties. They only make up a marginal percentage of potion drops anyways.

 

[Grisu]

Well, I decided to go for a bone magic necromancer/meleemancer, with the curses as crowd control.

My first roll netted me :
Spike Fiend, Sand Raider, Giant Mosquito, Megademon, Abominable
And the act boss Mephisto

That meant the following superuniques : Fire Eye, Infector of Souls, Frozenstein, Ventar the Unholy

I dubbed for quite a bit. While this wasnt a dreadful roll perse, I wasnt very pleased with the Sand raiders in Act 2 and the Giant mosquitos in Act 3. Besides, I hate abominables for fighting only, but there are plenty of those in act V. The amount of superuniques wasn't particularly limiting, and I did like the spike fiends for act 1, as those would come back pretty steadily during the entire act, and also be a frequent guest mob in later difficulty levels.
Also, Mephisto for an act boss? Yeah, one of my favorites. But, after a bit, I decided to chance my luck, and reroll... Perhaps I should have stayed with the first roll.

Out came the following list :
Fallen Shaman, Bat Demon, Zakarum Zealot, Finger Mage, Siege Beast
And the Act Boss : Andariel
Superunique trophymobs :
Bishibosh, Icehawk Riftwing, The Grand Vizier, Thresh Socket, Colenzo the Annihilator

The Act boss was a setback, but on the plus side, the bonus gems would be nice.
The Siege beasts for act V were quite bad, I'd say on par with the stygian furies jiansonz rolled, and the odds of them appearing more frequently in later difficulties is almost nil. The Fallen Shaman are definetely more of a nuisance then the spike fiends, as I 'll have to lure pretty much all the fallen away. Just for that, I may opt to leave my merc be in act 1, because she could really mess up the drops otherwise.
Still, I liked the Bat demons better then the Sand Raiders, as the bats would also make their presence known in Act 3 and probably act 4 as well. Besides, they aren't the toughest mobs out there, I'd say
The Zealots in act 3 were the real highpoint, however. Very nice, there would be plenty throughout Kurast, and no Superunique to worry about either.
The Finger mages in Act 4 are about as common as the megademons, and I would miss Ventar. Of course, I had Colenzo. Can't have it all, eh? Still, overall, I find the megademons easier to fight then the Finger mages, and I particularly dislike their penchant of flying away over lava while fleeing.

 

[Grisu]

I don't think amazons should be given a bonus, barbarian, if anything. Amazon has skills like LF and FA which aren't exactly high-end gear reliant