Well, Orcen the Underachieving Necro got started Friday. He quickly learned he should have paid more attention to "Introduction to Skeletons" and "Advanced Skeleton Management" at Thanatos University, and dropping out after his sophomore year in search of adventure was a really, really bad idea. If only he'd listened to his folks and not spent his time chasing hot Rogues!
That's all water under the bridge, now, though. Faced with real life adventuring, and no skeletons to do his bidding, he found he had to (gasp!) melee for his levels. And, since there's no such thing as a Cruel Wand, as soon as possible he purchased a trusty hand axe, which along with his Bone Armor allowed him to survive until he was able to summon his doughty gollum.
Though he thought Gumby his Gollum and his (hot!) Rogue merc would do the killing for him, he quickly saw the error of his ways and found himself sullying his hands with vulgar melee attacks throughout Act 1. Iron Maiden, which he thought would be his salvation, simply didn't return enough damage at these levels to be able to kill in anything other than geological timeframes.
While he thought Act 1 would be a quick haul, it was anything but. However, with his exemplary 26% MF from a ring and a 2 chipped topaz helm, it was remarkably rewarding - if he had been any character other than a necro. He went through the entire Act without finding one - ONE, mind you - necro head. Instead, he found TWO Hsarus' shields, a Cleglaw's shield, and an Umbral Disk. What was it with shields?!
However, on his way to kill Andariel, he found a Dimoak's Hue, which he promptly muled off to save for one of the mercs he'd heard about over in Lut Gholein. And Andariel (who is kind of hot, in a kinky sort of way) graced him with some Gorefoot boots and a very sweet amulet that helped solve his constant mana demands. (Unfortunately, the battle with Andariel was not his proudest moment, involving as it did lots of running back to town to heal, resurrect his (hot!) Rogue, and revive Gumby.)
So, Orcen is now age 19, in Lut Gholein, where he was able to commission a Combat(Prayer) merc who should help keep Gumby alive and do some serious damage of his own. Hopefully, Orcen will be able to retire from melee combat once and for all, and let his two minions do the killing.
The battle with Andariel showed Orcen one thing, though - the lack of Summon Resist is going to be a BIG problem with Act bosses who primarily do elemental damage (ie, all of them). Her poison dropped Gumby in under 20 seconds.
) my cold fire sorc is doing quite nicely, but the lack of teleport is very weird... never played a sorceress that didnt have teleport