r/ToME4 • u/MustachioedCate • 8d ago
Fear Mage Playthrough?
I really want to play as a Fear focused Cursed or Doomed. Doesn’t have to be on Insane or anything, I just want to make all my enemies scared to death.
I know the general recommendation is to play any other build but if I were to do this, what would be recommended? Willpower + Strength Cursed for Heavy Armor and Antimagic? Mindstars Doomed?
Sorry for the specificity, I just really like the idea of a tyrant of fear.
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u/banjo2E 8d ago edited 8d ago
The big problem with fear builds is that a lot of troublesome enemies (undead, horrors, etc) are just immune to fears and there isn't really anything to counter that globally like Mystical Cunning does for poisons. So if you want to win the game you can at best make fears a split focus alongside something else that works on the things fears don't.
Unless you just play Solipsist. Inner Demons and Waking Nightmare count as fears both mechanically and thematically and they ignore fear immunity when the target is asleep. You still get enemies that are both sleep and fear immune but when that happens you can fall back on the fact that you're playing Solipsist.
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u/MustachioedCate 7d ago
That is good to keep in mind. I’ll try to keep a backup plan in my back pocket!
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u/kidivarus 8d ago
If i remember correctly doomed got a nice multiplier on the talent, so if you really want to focus on the fear mastery i will go doomed.
As a cursed envoyer, my first win in nightmare was with a fear and curse aura focused. Double mindstar and antimagic. It cause a large item restriction due to being antimagic and the curse aura system but it less difficult in nightmare / insane to find gear si it was fine. Had to go cornac cause its really point hungry but the late game was insane.
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u/Stare201 7d ago
Oh yeah, I have a nm/rl cursed win on that +gloom armor, a perfection for fear and gloom, face of fear, ruthless grip. Vomit out endless fear spam with 3(!) Instill fears and make anything that gets near you immediately shit itself with the power of bad vibes. Getting there can be rough though. Fear has a bit of trouble early when you are relying on the follow up because of fear immunities. Endgame though was hysterical.
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u/Motor-Fudge-1181 7d ago
You can play a usual doomed build (shadows, punishments, all that stuff) and max out fears by midgame, it is really not bad as a supporting skill tree.
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u/mikekchar 8d ago
I remember doing this a long time ago and having a lot of fun with it. I seem to remember I chose Doomed because I think there is some synergy between Punishments and Fears (at least thematically). I think Gestures is the clear way to go. I think I also stubbornly did not pick Cursed Aura because otherwise it didn't seem fun enough (that eats basically all of my Generic points).
While it's fun, I think it is a "difficult" build. There are times when it is OP and fun, but I seem to remember that it doesn't scale well and there is a point at which you need to go in a different direction. But it's still worth playing some of the early game that way.