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I do value to exception for 'deep sleep' enemies, but I think that's the only case where it helps. It should be possible to keep that very special case.

I just had a necromancer lose 50 hp in a single turn in the 2nd Vault of Yendor. I thought I was safe for one more turn, was planning to quaff a healing potion next.

I could learn a lot more from this if I wasn't stuck unable to examine the dungeon after death. All I can take away from this as-is is "You should examine everything that can possibly hit you in the boss room", which I know I'm probably not going to do next time either, because I'm too lazy

 Perhaps 'ghost mode' after you die would be nice, where you can just float around and examine stuff.

I guessed that was the reason, but I'd prefer if my strafe attacks did trigger on sleeping/unaware enemies. It doesn't help that an enemy can become aware and attack in the same turn, so sometimes you're strickly worse off because an enemy was 'unaware'.

I actually had a lot less trouble with Fire Mage than with Ice and necro mage, because you can usually finish fights with a single mana pool by spamming spells.

Something similar happened to me just now, but I know the cause. Which was that in my game [Synax the snake charmer] [Shadow step]ped into a tile that a [Rattle snake] also tried to move into.

... for Burst of Flame and Flame Portal

Interesting perspective. I'll try it out. What do you think of Flame Portal II?

and a second win with today's game of the day. Very similar build; apparently this build suits me.

I won my second game, as a barbarian. Some comments on game design:

1. Charms are great! (But I haven't seen them enough.) This was the first game where I got a charm, which gave +2sp, which I put in my ranged slot. I'm not sure it made me stronger, but it changed how the game played a lot, and it was very fun. I'd consider giving some characters a starting charm, for example mages for +mana, or barbarian for +sp.
2. Strafing is very fun, but I find it pretty hard to predict who will be hit when. It would help me as a player if hovering over a tile with the mouse highlighted the enemy that would be hit by the strafe attack (if there is one) and the weapon that is used (if there is one). (That last part mostly because I still remember how as a Ranger I'd keep hitting enemies with my bare fists.)
3. Finding an altar of strength as a strength-based character was deliciously OP. I sold most of my spare equipment to buy Strength points (and a few potions for the final boss).
4. The books of knowledge where you get a free talent point in the skill you pick work really well to make me try out new abilities and combinations.
5. Shadow Step was very nice, and makes me see what the teleport abilities of the mage classes could be. I don't see much use for those abilities as they currently are. Perhaps if they were free once every 20 turns (or once every level-up even) I'd experiment with them more.
6. Poison sucks. I blew a few consumables fighting the boss with the poison vipers and the poisoned knife, because poison is deadly when green mushrooms aren't nearby. But I never found use for the blade. +25% chance of 200% poison is +50% damage on average, but it's incredibly hard for that damage to be useful. The mace and the handaxe were my weapons throughout the game.
7. I bought Power Strike and Cyclone Strike, which I usually don't have on a Barbarian, and they were very helpful against Grapple.
8. Playing without the mouse (or even playing with touchpad) feels impossible.
9. Could there be some kind of visual warning that a weapon won't benefit from any more stats? Maybe highlight it in gold or whatever. (Though that could also be confusing. :/ )
10. Bosses feel like they generally cost me more resources than they guard, but killing all the bosses is fun.
11. Battle axe (2Handed, 6 more damage than handaxe) feels like a extremely bad deal. Perhaps that was only because I had a +2 shield of reflection.
12. At the end of the game, I probably should have used my Wand of Fire to charge up my Molten Forged Boots. Finding fire damage is hard, and the wand scales poorly.
13. Life tap saved my life when I was fighting a swarm of fire bats (or at least meant I didn't need to use consumables)
14. The Core is a very scary branch, even with 70% fire resist.
15. (Not related to this character) Fireball 2 feels sucky. +6 damage in the center, when previously it was +4 damage everywhere, and on plain fireball I mostly use the edges of the fireball in the first place. Maybe it it also provided a 1-turn stun in the centre square... (no that would probably be OP, stun-locking bosses and such).
16. It would be great if there was a key for 'attack melee if possible, otherwise attack ranged if possible, otherwise wait' (or if Q could be configured to do this)

I wouldn't like the visual noise that highlighting below-20% hp enemies would give.

As for the power level of KS: few enemies survive more than 5 hits. Bosses can receive +100% damage vs Discord and can apparently be frozen in a block of ice. I think with the current mechanics getting instant kills at 40% hp wouldn't be too far out of the scope of the reasonable. But KS killing enemies without extra actions being required would still feel nicer to me.

I understand why Dominate doesn't effect bosses, but it not being mentioned in the skill description made me a bit paranoid.

I think I misunderstood how the range of the freeze spell works, probably the kraken was out of range and I misinterpreted it as 'boss immunity'.

I suppose the first pip is worth it in the late game as a boss-killing tool then, particularly for the end boss. And it sounds like Killing Strikes would let you snipe low-%hp enemies with the bow? For the most part I wouldn't be willing to put in that effort.

Dominate is the big one.

I felt like the skill that freezes enemies in a block of ice also refuses to trigger on bosses. I had a fight with an Enchanter against the octopus (with the tentacles) where only my Discord and Confuse skill did anything at all, I had to blow a lot of resources on that fight. Though I can't remember what spells I had precisely, and it's possible I misunderstood other game mechanics.

Killing Strikes also fits here, somewhat. My initial interpretation was that it would auto-kill an enemy if it had less than 20% health left after a melee attack, or if you end your turn next to an enemy with less than 20% hp. (I wasn't sure which.)

Does it trigger on bosses? I don't know how I'd be able to know, and other skills have had unexpected exceptions for bosses before.

I'm particularly looking at the Barbarian's bloodlust, and considering whether +3 melee damage for 5 turns will ever be worth the loss of a turn. You already have to be on blood, which already makes it situational. If it was an instant ability I think it'd be cool and worth having.

So having used it, I feel like bloodlust is actually instant, but that could have been clearer in the UI?

Earlier I lost a character because Second Wind cost a turn, which I didn't anticipate. Second Wind is strong enough that I can see you justifying it should cost a turn. Then again, instant or not is worth about 1sp, which brings it back to a question of preferred design.

I've also had a character killed the turn he cast Evade, because a monster noticed (and killed) him immediately. That also felt somewhat unfair.

Hi,

Playing a game with the ranger, it took me a while to figure out that left-clicking on an enemy tries to move towards it because it tries to execute a melee attack. And right-clicking tries to execute a ranged attack. Even after I figured out how it worked I kept left-clicking because it felt like that was more natural, until it eventually killed me.

As for how to fix this, I'm not sure. I can see what you're trying to do I think. Maybe other players have ideas.

BTW, thanks for the game! It looks great!

Got it below 10 minutes. 3 early enlargements, 2 early accelerations, freezing, too much reflection, and 3 multiplications for 6 damage per hit.

I've changed my mind a little; attraction without multiplication is often a risk.

I beat the dev score too. Attraction + reflection, enlargement, and acceleration, and NO multiplication ensures you one-shot everything, and you hit everything fairly quickly.

I'd love to see a more fleshed-out version, with more different types of enemies.

PS: attraction and freezing are vastly overpowered compared with everything else. multiplication is only worth it if you get freezing, but if you do it is amazing.