[MaxWilson]

Wow. I had not realized how amazing Blood Thorns on a high-strength unit can be--that's as good as Soul Vortex. In a quick test game, I had a Skratti whom I forgot to set to "attack," so he cast a couple of spells (including Quicken Self) and then got hit by an arrow and went berserk when he was around 53 fatigue. One disintegrated square of indies later he was down to 32 fatigue, and the next time I looked he was at zero. I have to admit I also had him blessed (via Shroud) with an E9N4 bless, but it's quite obvious that Blood Thorn is quite capable of draining enough to offset encumbrance and recover from buffs. The combination of high-strength, extra bite attack, quickness, and blood thorn for healing/reinvig is simply amazing.

I do agree with QM that E9N? bless still looks quite tasty (and lets you put cheap shrouds on skrattir to tide you through until blood thorns are available). Forging Crystal Coins doesn't seem like a big deal to me--save up 50 pearls and Empower your pretender to S1 and give him a skullcap. YMMV of course because there are consequencs to an S1 pretender (can't use him in combat).

Thanks, Baalz, for showing me where Blood is useful--forging magic items. From now on I will be about a hundred times more likely to wish for blood slaves... I may give Wraith Swords a spin, too.

-Max

P.S. You've also inspired me to write up a Skratti + Athame, etc. thug as a unit in order to drop it into battle replays as a test. Paralyze is still a great counter since Skratti MR is mediocre.