Baalz, thank you very much. Now AlpineJoe used this against me.
I couldnt use my thug oracles (Agartha) against those thug werewolves because of the chest wound of those dreaded axes, but they showed late enough so my magic-3 earth readers researched petrify and suddenly werewolves were like puppies. Ok ive been lucky to find astral mages and gear my petrifier oracles (earth4) with eye of the void and earthboots. But if i had astral on my pretender i wouldnt need any luck.
I think early giants would have been scarier (i hurried to const to gear my pretender risen oracle and umbrals to stop hypotetical giants) but all in all before I could reach petrify i couldnt stop them apart from my pretender geared with const 4 items.