Detailed Winning build by Anonymus #2

Lawful good/neutral/evil Human Monk/Tattoo Mystic of Immotian

MAKE SURE TO SET DISABLE COMPLICITY TRANSGRESSIONS TO YES AT CHARACTER CREATION OR THE SUMMONS IMMOTIAN GIFTS YOU WILL KILL NEUTRALS AND IMMO-CHAN WILL PUNISH YOU FOR IT!!!

I've played around a lot with this build and won twice using it. It is strong in offence against single targets, very strong in defence [high defence value, high saves, MR in lategame] and features a lot of debilitating moves and mobility.

--------- Do a 42 [baseline] pointbuy with stats:
Str 18
Dex 16
Con  3 [more on this later]
Int 16
Wis 16
Cha  3
Luc 14

This pointbuy will give you good melee and brawl bonuses due to high str, good defence [defence pulls from dex and wis],good skills and decent luck [translates into decent loot]. Bad diplomatic skills, but if you want good diplomacy or other cha based skills, play a paladin or bard or something.

For two bonus starting skills my recommendation is Handle Device and Use Magic. Handle device will allow you to disarm traps, which there are plentiful, to say the least, [plus you get xp for disarming them, win/win] and Use Magic increases your chances of succesfuly activating a wand, wand damage and decreases wand mana usage.

--------- Starting feats [mandatory] ---------

Great Fortitude, Iron Will, One body One Soul

The first two are prereqs for One body One soul. What it does is simple, it replaces all constitution rolls [for hp, fortitude saves and so on] with wisdom. That is why you take 3 con at point buy - this does create a bit of danger with con draining monsters, but there few of them, fortunately. More on this later.

--------- Skills ---------
Starting as a monk you get a lot of class skills and you'll need most of them.

From start it is absolutely crucial that you raise search and spot and you keep raising them to max each level. Search detects traps [both passive and active use] and secrets doors, while spot works on hiding creatures [a lot of dudes hide in this game!], invisible creatures [spotting their outline] and setting up watches when you rest.

Because of your high int you'll be able to level a lot of skills. You don't need all of them at max, as your attritubes and kits will contribute.

What you'll need to pump, in no particular order:

Handle device:put around 7-8 skill points in total, dex bonus and kits will help you get it to 17-18, which is enough to disarm the vast majority of traps easily.

Alchemy, Knowledge[Nature] and Knowledge[Mythology]: you need around 4 skills points in each, in order to have 8 with stat bonus so as to make the jump to Tattoo mystic.

Jump: AS MANY POINTS AS POSSIBLE! You can delay raising it until lvl 3 or 4 but not much more. Jump is the lifeblood of a monk mid and late game. It allows you to escape combat, close down to dangerous enemies [like spellcasters] bypass dangerous traps that you couldn't disarm and bypass dangerous terrain like magma or turbulent water. Jump is love, jump is life.

Find weakness: Again, as many points as possible. This increases your offence and defence against humanoids, as well improving your Presicion Strike attack manuever. There are a lot of humanoids in this game.

Escape artist: Ditto. This improves your ability to escape grapples, engulfment, being stuck and so on. However, most importantly, after reaching 15+ it allows you to break paralysis! This is obviously highly desireably. Although you won't get paralyzed often [or ever] due to high saves, there is always a small chance - and paralysis equals death. Thus, max this.

Healing: Put 1 point at start to begin play with a healing kit. Put 8-10 points later. With bonuses you'll have enough to treat stat damage. You won't need to cure diseases or poisons with it as Immotian will give you innate spells of curing for those.

Balance: 5-6 points are enough.

Athletics: Max lategame, this will give you more fatique points, which is always good.

Tumble: Also max late. You will need it in the last floors to make your defence legendary.

Decipher Script: 5 to max. This will train your int a lot, allow you to identify some items instantly, keep scrolls after you use them.

Appraise/Climb/Diplomacy/Craft/Ride: Zero. The bonuses I got from stats were enough for climb and appraise while the other three I didn't use at all.

Hide/Move Silently: I don't use them. Go for it if the playstyle suites you. The Sneaky feat would help here I imagine.

Listen: I'm not sure about this one. Some games I used it a lot, some not at all. More research needed.

Poison Use: You are lawful. Don't fucking use applied poisons. Immotian will get angry and smite your ass.

Knowledge skills: Just what you need for Tattoo mystic, as I said. Leave the others to 0.

That does it for skills. Phew.

--------- Early Game ---------

You begin with a random martial arts weapon [quarterstaff, nunchaku, fighting sticks], 7-8 potions of dimension door [these are precious!], a chackram [no you are not Xena] and some clothing.

To start, wield your weapon with 2hands. For a long while [until level 5] a monk weapon will do better damage and have better speed than fists. Make a binding for throwing [y, cursor to Throw, key from 1 to 9]. Also make a binding for Flurry of Blows [it's in u, for Use]. Gather all the potions in the starting room; there should be 3 more dimension door pots and another stack of 5 pots. These are healing pots, you always 5 of them at start. Make sure to [s]tow them in your belt, for easy access.

After you've done all of that, it's time to start exploring. Try to use [s]earch in corridors, to help locate traps. If you can't disarm them explore another way. If doors are locked and you can't [p]ick the lock, [k]ick them down [this makes noise]. Once you find an enemy [l]ook at them and e[x]amine them. Make note of their hp, attacks, equipment and general power. Decide if you want to engage. For example, don't engage zombies at lvl 1 as they get +6 to str and are relentless. If you decide to split, simply run back. Monks get some serious fucking bonus to run speed at this game, almost nothing can catch up to them.

If you decide to engage, start by throwing your chackram a couple times, then simply wack them with your weapon. You should prevail against most monsters in the first floor [except shadows, fuck those guys]. If it's a dude with low defence consider enabling flurry of blows, this will cost you some fatigue and accuraccy but will double your attack speed. If you get gravely wounded [more than 70-80% of hp damage] drink a healing pot [heal pots are very common in this game, especially after floor 3]. Running away once you've engaged in melee combat isn't exactly straightforward in this game:if you try to move away you get two options, flee or disengage [and abort which aborts]. If you choose flee you always take the step away but the enemy also always gets an attack of opportunity [henceforth AoO]. If you use disengage you get to roll [d20+escape artist I think] vs w/e to safely back away. If the roll succeeds you step away safely. If it fails you don't AND the enemy gets an AoO! So until you raise escape artist it is more prudent to a)drink heal pots b)flee early in the fight c)if you have no other option, drink a ddoor pot. Never hesitate to drink a potion, better to be out of potions than dead.

Don't wear unidentified items or drink unidentified pots, ever. EVER. There is a lot of cursed shit in Incursion. There are plenty of id scrolls, just be patient. Once you get more than two of a scroll it's 99% identify. Identify your gear first, especially helm/gloves/jewels/cloaks, then wands, then pots/scrolls. As a monk you shouldn't wear armor but you can wear robes. Sidenote if you get a scroll or potion of remove curse you can wear a cursed item and use remove curse to turn it into a good item. Haven't tried it too many times but seems cool.

After you get 1000 XP by killing dudes and possibly disarming some traps, you get your first level. Congrats. Go to character screen [d] and press [G]et levels. Then press S to spend skills points. Refer to the previous section for skills.

Keep exploring and killing dudes. Rest in the inn everytime your mana is 0/your hp is low/your fatigue is low. Don't worry about food, it's plentiful in this game.

At 2250 XP, you get your first bonus feat. There are dozens of feats in Incursion and I've tried only some of them. My recommendation for level three is Power Attack - it will give you one extra damage for every 3 points that your to-hit roll is higher than an enemy's defence roll. It's one of the few ways of increasing unarmed damage - there aren't a lot in this game.

Try to explore the first three floors fully. If you die, simply restart. It will happen, Incursion has a lot of shit that will kill you with extreme prejudice. So don't let it affect you too much.

--------- Making the jump to Tattoo Mystic ---------
The requirements for Tattoo Mystic are: Knowledge (Mythology) +8, Knowledge (Nature) +8 and Alchemy +8,  brawling BAB of +3.

Tattoo Mystic is a prestige class [prc] with full brawl advancement. It also stacks with monk levels for advancing unarmed damage, bonus move speed and stunning fist DC. Furthermore, every two even levels [so at 2,4,6,8 and so on] you get the choice of a mystical tattoo [no tribal shit pls] which confers a magical bonus. This is why you're taking levels in this class instead of going full monk - plus, some later monk bonuses that you will miss out on will be provided by Immotian [more on this later].

The requirements mean that you can easily make the jump at level 3 [the earliest possible you can]. This will get you some good monk abilities - Evasion, Zen Defense, Deflect Arrows and Still Mind - plus four magic tattoos. Very strong.

You can also make the jump at level 5. This way you'll get Slow Fall, Ki Strike +1 and the Master Trip & Master Disarm feats, plus three tattoos. It's up to you to decide if the loss of a tattoo is worth it. Both ways are fine. I don't recommend getting more than 5 monk levels as some tattoos depend on you TM level total, but you can if you want to.

Tattoo recommendations [check them all out at http://incursion.wikidot.com/manual-classes#toc20]:

Butterfly: Besides demonstrating your loose sexual morals, this tattoo gives you a blanket 25% chance to evade any melee or ranged attack. Absolutely essential. Along with your high defence melee dudes will hit you only on natural 20s.

Mountain: This gives you resistance to knockdown equal to your tattoo mystic level, plus the  Living Wall and Endurance feats. I always get this.

Spider: Gives your unarmed attack the ability to poison. Very cool. Depending on your TM level you get progressively stronger poisons.

Tiger: Half your TM level as bonus to STR plus bonus to intimidate.

Mantis: Mantis Leap feat and you gain +1 natural armor every even class level. Very strong.

Eye: Gain the ability to see invisible. Take this if you haven't found any gear with see invisible.

--------- Immotian Worship ---------

At 20' [second floor] there is always a guaranteed temple. Since you are monk you start with Immotian, but to sacrifise you must do it at his altar. Simply stand on its square and [p]ray then [s]acrifise.
Gods in Incursion are impressive but also a fucking mess. Check out their detailed descriptions at http://incursion.wikidot.com/gods

What is Immotian about? The law basically. This can mean either the letter or the spirit - he accepts all lawful alignments. He is pretty draconic. His full description:

Likes:
Sacrifices: Arcane spellbooks, wands, staves and other instruments of sorcery or profane magic
    Player destroying undead, fiends and aberrations
    Player curing disease in a neutral creature (unless disease is player caused)
Dislikes:
    Player becoming diseased
    Player casting arcane spells
    Player drinking alcohol
    Player destroying creatures with ties to elemental fire (other than dragons and fiends)
    Causing disease in another creature
Blessings:
Aid [What you get when you [p]ray for help]
    Remove disease and poison (even for non-worshipers)
    Heal wounds
    Cure blindness
    Restore mana
    Remove fatigue
    Remove curses
    Resurrect
    Protect from deadly blows
    Smite enemies
Permanent
    Grants "fire" allies once in a while
    Fire spells casting level +1 every other level starting at 2nd
    Lay on hands +1 every level starting at 2nd
    Sacred aura +1 every level starting at 4th

    (1st) Resist fire +5
    (2nd) Resist fire +2
    (3rd) Resist fire +2, cure disease spell, neutralize poison spell
    (4th) Resist fire +2, celestial aid spell
    (5th) Resist fire +2, fire shield spell
    (6th) Fire immunity
    (7th) Magic Resistance 25%
    (8th) Magic Resistance +15%, disease immunity
    (9th) Magic Resistance +15%, poison immunity

[level here refers to the level of worship, not character level]

So why go for this dude and not someone else?

Many reasons.

Number one is EASE OF WORSHIP. You gain favor primarily by sacrifising spellbooks and wands [and a bit by killing undead & so on]. Most other gods require sacrifise of corpses [and corpses of specific monsters at that] and they weigh a fuckton, you can maybe carry 4-5 at max. It takes a fucking century to gain one level of piety with e.g Xavias [believe me I've tried]. Conversely you can carry two dozen or more spellbooks and wands. This means rapid and easy favor gain, as you don't ever need spellbooks and you only need a few wands [2-3 attack ones and curing/alacrity/opening]. Wand sacrifices especially give a CRAPLOAD of favor.

Number two: good benefits. Poisons and diseases are fucking murder in this game. Now, as monk you have high saves but even that wouldn't protect you 100% of the time. Conveniently at 3rd level of worship you are gifted cure disease and neutralize poison as innate abilities. Fire allies are strong and will help you kill and [more importantly] rest safely. Fire resist is always good and immunity will allow you to walk through magma. Lay on hands gives you another way of healing by using fatigue.

Most importantly: Fire Shield. This is an awesome spell that you are gifted at 5th level of worship. It gives you cold resistance and burns whoever attacks you for 1d8+character level fire damage, even if they miss! This is basically awesome. There are a lot of monster in the later floors that are incorporeal [and thus immune to physical damage] and fire shield will slowly but surely kill them. Plus you get surrounded a lot in late floors and fs helps a lot with cleanup. All in all a 10/10 ability.

Problems with Immo-chan: As I said disable complicity transgression = YES, meaning your favor doesn't modify by your summons actions. If you don't you are in danger of breaking your computer.
The worst of Immo's restriction is not killing creatures with ties to fire. There are A LOT of them, and no, they dont turn neutral. That means they will whack you and you can't touch them [or Immo gets angry]. Just run away or try to [q]uell them. Or best of all, get your summons to kill them. Thankfully you get fire immunity at 6th level of worship [or large fire elementals would raep you].

Another problem is conduct. Besides his restrictions above, Immo demands a Lawful conduct [read about that shit here http://www.incursion-roguelike.org/man/Advent.html#AC]. This is bothersome because being lawful means you can't attack prone or stuck or fleeing/cowering HUMANOID creatures [though if you offer terms of surrender and they refuse you can then pummel them], or Immo gets mad. This sucks because you want to do just that - this decreases the value of the Knock Prone feat [which is excellent otherwise] and Master Trip to about zero. Also no poison [though spider tattoo doesn't seem to count] or attacking creatures who surrendered to you or stealing.

Sounds impossible to maintain a good favor right? That's because it is. Inevitably, you will fuck up and annoy him. If you fuck up again you will anger him. If you fuck up a third time [don't do it] he will open a can of whoop-ass on you. First possible punishment is turning ALL of your potions to blood [yikes]. Second is summoning insects that damage you and make you afraid [so you cant attack] - this can fuck you up if you're in a fight. I've not gone beyond in punishments but I've heard he will kill you outright if you don't pacify him.

The solution to all that is simple - be vigilant. Every once in a while check your favor level. Does it say "At present you have displeased Immotian" or "At present you have angered Immotian"? if yes STOP WHATEVER THE FUCK YOU"RE DOING and go back to the altar. Sacrifise a couple spellbooks until you get the message "Immotian seems pleased with your offering. You sense his anger has faded". This translates into always, ALWAYS HAVING TWO TO FOUR SPELLBOOKS AVAILABLE IN YOUR INVENTORY. Don't be greedy and sac them all, though spellbook drops are frequent. Just keep a few handy and you'll be safe.


--------- Mid Game

At this point you've cleared two, two and a half floors. You've got some sense on what to fight, what to avoid and so on.

First of all, you should now switch to using fists, unless you've found an excellent monk weapon [+3 or up]. Stunning fist is very good. You should also start using a buckler, as it doesn't decrease your unarmed attack ability at all! So always collect bucklers and identify magical once. You can get some very good abilities from them AND you get 1 armor for each plus.

If enemy is giving you trouble don't hesitate to wand them to death. You should carry two attack wands, either on your belt or your shoulders. Don't blast wands stored in your backpack while in a fight, as that takes extra time and the enemy will pummel you! If you haven't found any wands after clearing 3 floors, your luck is rotten and you should consider not playing roguelikes at all :P

What feats to get at level 5 and level 6?
First of all, there is a great injustice in that Circle Kick hasn't been implemented. There goes the only possible way of dealing damage to multiple targets [cleave doesn't work with unarmed]. Thus Power Kick is useless, unless you go for Flying Kick later [I've not tried that].

My level 5 choice is Lightning Fists. It gives you 5% extra attack speed with fists for every point of dex bonus and opens up the late game special unarmed attack feats.

Level 6 has more possibilities. One is Iron Fists which gives +1 damage to fists [lackluster], but it opens the way to Iron Skin later, which is awesome [+5 to armor vs piercing/blunt/slashing]. Another is combat reflexes, for more attacks of opportunity. A third is Falling Star Strike, which allows you to blind enemies on crits or once every three hits, unless they make a save [dc= stunning fist dc]. Excellent feat, though I usually take it on level 9.

By now you have entered 40' and have noticed that stronger enemies are appearing. You should examine all of them and take care especially with their attacks. There are monsters that drain con on attack - stay the fuck away from them! Either run or wand them to death. There is a also a monster that has a con draining aura - the dreaded mote of entropy. Don't even approach it, it can kill you in two rounds with your 3-4 con. Just run away. [sidenote, there may be more monsters with con drain auras, though I doubt it, but I haven't met all of them! so be careful]

There are also monsters that have ranged death attacks, like grey nymphs. These usually give a fortitude save - and your saves are sky high. Sometimes though, you will fail it and die instantly. Such is life in Incursion. Drink something with 40% alchohol to drive away the pain.

As you're diving you should be noticing you're finding more treasure chests. After 20' they start to come locked unfortunately. Unless you luck with a wand of opening, you have to roll to open them and the DCs are pretty disgusting - and they get harder the lower you go, also you can't raise the picklocks skill. Fortunately there are ways: firstly, everytime you rest you can then retry to open a chest and get +3 to the roll and secondly, by carrying a chest to a high floor, the dc decreases. What I usually do is gather all chests I can't open next to Immotian's altar - that away after each rest I know to return there and retry them. Opening chests is important as it is the primary source for good gear [though sometimes it's cursed], secondary source is monsters and tertiary is the floor [though good floor drops are rare and most often they are picked up long before you can find them].

Gear is amazing in Incursion [like dnd I suppose]. It can give you shit you could never get otherwise. For example a headband of tactical combat gives you the feats Expertise, Tactical Withdrawl and Expert Tactician. Considering you get eight feats in total for a human character, you can see how gear can make or break you. This is why exploring the first floors fully is important, as terrain allows, altough better gear spawns in lower floors, the first floors are not as dangerous and you want every advantage to prepare for 50'-60' and lower.