Hi everyone! The format for this week’s spotlight is a little different because I wanted to showcase a very proficient modder, Essence. He’s had it a long time coming, namely for his Essential DoD 1 and 2 mods which add 6 different skills to the game.

I will describe each of them briefly since there would be way too much to talk about for one post. If you want the details of every ability I suggest you go to Dredmorpedia, all six are featured there.

Bushido is probably the most Warrior-oriented of the skills. It’s designed to help melee characters survive the later levels and as such, it’s all about defensive buffs and self-healing. Here you even get some stackable buffs when getting hit, like Into The Jaws of Death, which stacks all resistances 66% of the time when you get hit.

It culminates into a Final Stand ability that grants you high block and magic resistance as long as you don’t move. All in all, very useful for a melee build, especially with RotDG.

As someone who enjoys playing rogues, Poisoneer is one of my two favorite skills in the pack. It’s straight-forward enough, and it does what the description says. Most of the abilities are either an activated poison or a chance to act. Surprisingly though, it has a healing spell!

It’s certainly a good skill to invest in for offense, and it even meshes well with Throwing because one ability makes all thrown weapons poison enemies.

This one is a mix between magic and melee, and boy is it enjoyable to use. The first half of the abilities boost your melee defense and attacks, but the second half lets you morph into a mana-infused being that wrecks havoc all over the place. The final spell is a huge storm of mana that surges all around you.

Interestingly enough, the abilities in the empowered form do not cast mana, they have a cooldown instead, and bad side effects. That means it is kind of an all-or-nothing strategy when you finally use them. As people have said, it’s kind of a strange skill to focus on and it’s open to experimentation.

This is my favorite skill because hey; ninjas. One of the only mods focusing on throwing (with a bit of melee), it really adds a different dynamic to the game. The first ability summons throwing weapons out of thin air for mana, their qualities depending on your luck. You can then create a clone of yourself, disappear from monsters’ grasps or even enter a stance that stuns enemies.

There’s a nice variety in gameplay here, so it remains enjoyable through and through.

The strangest skill in the pack, Silver Tongue is hard to describe, and somewhat all over the place in utility. It lets you put enemies to sleep, charm them and debuff them, but it also lets you pretend you have crafting skills for a few moments. I have a hard time finding a build to make it work with, but I suspect it would be interesting with the most uncommon ones.

Last but not least, QiGong has a unique concept: exchange mana, permanently, for internal power and fish-related abilities. In practice, it means sacrificing all your potential mana in return for damaging procs, blasting spells that use cooldowns and even empowering your character (but forget all your mana regen). Basically, if you’re making a character that doesn’t play to use spellcasting at all, this skill is a good choice since it makes you stronger with no downsides.

Well, that’s about it with these mods, and although I couldn’t describe them more deeply I highly recommend trying them out. I rather enjoyed using them all and they’re up on my regular playing list. Anyhow, I’ll see you next week with more findings!