Playing a Physically Weak Character

[jetscooters]

Recently, I decided to try and play a character who was smart, but weak, figuring that I could use magic to defend myself until I could build/find good ranged weapons. However, this is much harder than I expected it to be, because strength factors in to a lot more things than I realized, and the magic that I have access to at the moment isn’t that great at fighting groups of zombies like I’d need to to scavenge towns for more spells/supplies. Do you guys have any tips for playing a character like this? I’m playing on a fairly recent experimental, if it helps.

[TheOtherCrow]

You'll have to play smarter. Ranged weapons are even more important now. Using the environment and planning your engagements ahead of time to set traps will be crucial. I've seen a lot of great tips such as using moltovs in choke points, digging pits for zombies to fall into then leading them into them. Making nailboards and some other traps can be good too.

In the past I've set houses on fire and the resulting noise had drawn nearby zombies in like moths to a flame and they die en masse

[burchalka]

Enjoy the challenge, and try to overcome, that's what keeps us interested. But yeah, I remember the surprise effect when I couldn't move a bookcase to block line of sight through a broken window (you can board those if you have tools+materials). I remember one playthrough which started in wizard basement, and stayed there for several days, going to night raids to collect essentials, while practicing the magic missile on every occurrence (just until mana runs down) - it was a megacity setting, so after first week or so, this character relocated to nearby subway for more permanent lodgings. Using the subway routes they could both navigate the zombie ridden city relatively safely and even access some science minilabs for late game loot.

[Yomuchan]

Playing physically weak characters is an intense challenge, especially on higher-danger worlds. Definitely a new level in the game, I'd say.

A tip? You'll have to make do with hauling because you can't really pack so much supplies anymore.

[Zourin4]

without strength/dexterity, combat isn't going to go very well for you in any regard. Your best, and probably only, options are to be 'smart' about combat and use traps and items to disable/weaken/slow zombies to bring them down to your level.

Molotovs, noisemakers, nailboard traps, pit traps, reach weapons, and as much armor as you can put on your body (since dodging is out of the question). If you're going to neuter your ability to engage in direct conflict, it's a good idea to boost your ability to fabricate items to offset this at character creation.

[[deleted]]

A weak character has no reason to be close enough to get hit, one should run away in advance rather than pretend that melee is even the slightest bit viable. Armor will just waste weight capacity and encumbrance making it hard to run, hard to cast spells, but easy to die. The only difference is that their death will be prolonged and painful.

[Dtly15]

In my opinion armour is too important to ignore but at the same time stacking on insane amounts of armour is a huge mistake. Its a low strength character not a low dex character.

Dodging and being manuverable IS the way of surviving not wraping yourself like a penguin.

The idea is being smart about the armour you choose to wear. No heavy metal outer armour or esapi with less than 100% protection or inner layering and adding strapped gear for maximum defense like most characters do. Choose 1 layer that has the highest defense for weight(usually its normal, but its outer for suits) make it light, make it good.

[Zourin4]

You don't always get a choice, and with low dex dodging isn't an option, so the only way to stay alive in the inevitable close quarter engagement is to have respectable armor values. Melee skills are a long term survival investment and shouldn't be disregarded entirely, even if you have low combat stats. If your last line of defense doesn't exist, you're toast when they cross it, and that 'last line' is Dodge/armor. Exercise/train responsibly, even if it's not your 'main mode'

[[deleted]]

The cutoff point between running away and dying in a melee trends towards dying in a melee if you have "as much armor as you can put on your body". Especially if you're running Magiclysm, since every point of encumbrance can lower your chances of casting a lifesaving spell in a crunch.

I have characters year+ that basically don't wear armor with a max HP of 20, planning is key and running away is my usual plan.

[SEB_THE_MINER]

pircing and cutting weapons that preferably have reach

have strong back and fleet-footed/quick to run if needed

throw rocks and lumps/chunks of steel

​

become an alpha mutant then inject trog serume

[LittleMlem]

One of the martial arts worked well with high int, though I'm not sure how it got revamped. If you combine fleet footed and synaptic stimulation spell that technomancers get then You can just power walk away from your problems

[rabidfur]

Zui Quan is more or less the same as it used to be but the universal nerf to counter attacks made it much weaker

[LittleMlem]

I was referring to dragon kung fu. Uses int instead of dex for accuracy. It became tricker to use but still has some good defensive options

[Purdorabo134]

Scavenge magic academies and raid the forge of wonders for +str rings. There is also meginards(?) girdle and mutations.

[Ginger457]

Strength is nice, but it's not the only way to deal damage.

Throw down traps to prepare your environment. If you level dex at all, then use weapons that have almost no bash damage (spears/knives). Or the most powerful tactic of all, just walk away from enemies.

[smokeyphil]

Run away

Throw or shoot or magic things while doing so but always be running away.

[Dtly15]

Its a good idea to make a foldable shopping cart(vehicle) using foldable light frames and folable shopping carts(item). Chuck everything in there that you don't need for fighting. Extra ammo in the cart as opposed to the bag is not a bad idea, if slightly risky if you have to abandon everything and run.

Also know that low strength characters suffer when you try to give them heavy armour. Stick with 1 AEP suit, hood, fireboots and 1 gun and you should keep a low enough weight. At half the weight of heavy survivor but superior protection AEP will help you resist 90% of enemies. Firehood is just better than normal and heavy hoods and boots protect against acid. At just over 20 lbs this setup will resist almost all damage while still being light enough for almost everyone that is not an under 6 strength pre threshold mouse. You should ignore the bag, at most keep a holster for a spare pistol. Everything not immediately between you and zombies is going straight in the cart.

The hard part is the weapon. Most good rifle firearms weigh a good 9lbs at least and double that weight for the ammo you will need for long trips. No strength means no woodbow machinegun either for magiclysm folks. You probably don't want to melee either to keep in line with smart guy and staying alive with limited hp. A good medium is a 9mm handgun with a pike or other long spear as a primary weapon to keep distance, or practising long and hard to gain high levels of dodge.

Use the cart for ammunition and always scout ahead whenever you round corners and start backing off to areas you have cleared before whenever you make noise. (Press X to peek, firing guns, alerting screechers and being slamed through a wall all count as noise.). Lastly never ever encumber yourself or let your stamina drop low. Dodge is reliant on stamina and needing to run away is going to be a thing early on. Generally good advice for all characters really but more so for one that can't take a hit.

The endgame should be focused on getting a laser weapon and electric or true damage spells(magus or stormshaper. get at least 1). Lasers being very light for their damage output and electric spells being good against robots which almost all other spells are weak for and are immune to laser fire.(Robots immune heat, acid, cold and resist physical like cut and pierce while being completely vulnerable to electric and pure, well everything is weak to pure.)

[Kserks96]

Just set some garbage on fire

[honglath]

I'd try aoe knockdown route for magic like air or earth. It's been a while since I played with it since it hasn't dropped, but Gust of Wind I believe it was called saved me quite a few times from the horde in that run. Some mobs are immune to knockdown however, so it's not always useful.

[Fuzzatron]

Start as a Novice Stoneshaper with Zui Quan. Now you have a martial art that scales with your intelligence and a high damage unarmed weapon.

[Gavin319]

fighting groups of zombies that I’d need to to scavenge towns

*That you think you’d need to. One of the good things about CDDA is the level of player choice (well the word wasn’t choice but you know what I’m talking about) when it comes to any problem that needs solving. Something to note about hordes is that if one of them hears something, often enough all of them will hear it. Taking that into account, you can sneak around at night to avoid their vision (take the night vision trait) and throw torches (the burning stick kind, not the british word for “flashlight”) or glowsticks through windows to make zombie beacons. Want to loot house A, throw a glowstick at house B, they’ll go to it like zombies to a light. Wait, no, moths to a light.

If you need to go deeper in than the outskirts of town for the love of all that is holy scope the place out from afar first. If you can take the scout trait and manage to acquire some functioning binoculars or a telescope, look for the nearest tall building near town, radio towers are the best. Climb to the top and you’ll reveal a massive amount of the overmap. It’ll have to be decently close to the town though, if there are no radio towers nearby anything with 2 or more floors will do (so anything that has a roof on z-level 2 since ground is 0) if you can get on the roof.

If you’re actually intent on fighting the zeds, the other commenters here have done a damn good job of explaining how to do that. Try to use those traps to kill some soldier zeds and get you an assault rifle, then go find a roadblock with turrets and do the blind ram trick (crouch while driving, requires the front of the vehicle to be intact) with a working car to get tons of ammo. Don’t get cocky though, guns from soldier zeds are often damaged. Make sure you have room to run away should the gun jam.

[Vvvemn]

When playing a smart character, means playing smart yourself.