Setting up an Ettin?

[Szumo]

Anyone has some interesting builds for an Ettin (3 hand slots, 2 head slots, one body, one feet, one misc slot). I think it could become a nice thug but i can't find an idea how to use this unusual item slot setup well.

Assume all school of magics are available, with items up to const 6.

[Kristoffer O]

Shiels and twohanded weapon, like wraith sword perhaps. A couple of helmets is always nice. Starshine and spirit, unless you go for artifacts. Or horror helmet.

[Potatoman]

I think a cool setup would be 4 Lantern Shields, 2 spirit helmets, chi shoes, Skull Talisman, and Jade Armor. Make him a summoning platform

[Lazy_Perfectionist]

Here's a few brainfarts.
Scroll to IDEA to skip my though process and go straight to my suggestion.

High strength, right?

Hands:
Three Main Gauche of Parrying = +12 defense. A length of zero means no attack penalty.

Three Duskdaggers. Again zero length, but now with armor negating. Leaves the ettin vulnerable, though.

three snake bladders- poison stacks. If a character can dodge attack, just one snake bladder stacks very quickly. Three? Just get yourself some PR.

Gloves of the Gladiator + Sword of Quickness + Boots of Quickness: 12 attacks a round.

Heads:
2 Horned Helmets (adjacency?) two more attacks, 4 with quickness.

If you don't depend on boots of quickness, but have a mage cast it, then you can equip Chi Shoes, or Boots of Stone.

Obviously, regeneration is a big plus, but continuing along atheme..

Stone Bird.

Exact stats of Ettin can be found in Edi's database "Base U" worksheet, no 488.

So, lets refine this a little.
3 Snake Bladder Sticks - gains no benefit from Ettin's strength. It's out.
Armor - it's just going to be hard to protect from counters, so Elemental Armor, while tempting, is out.
I'd go with either the Shroud of the Battle Saint (flaming weapons and attack bonus), Marble Armor, Stymphalian Wings. Monolith armor would be nice, as would Robe of Shadows, but they are out. Hydraskin Armor has some potential, with regen.

IDEA

So, the following build will have some obvious weaknesses, but is an extreme idea you could tamper with some practicality.

Supporting Spellcasters will cast the following, at minimum:
Luck, Iron Warriors, Regeneration, Berserkers, Quickness, Flight, Mist, Fog Warriors.

1 Gloves of the Gladiators for 4 attacks (8 w/quick)
1 Duskdagger, to handle unusually well protected units.
1 Shroud of the Battle Saint with a fire or nature bless, or Hydra Skin Armor
2 Horned Helmets
1 Chi Shoes
1 Stone Bird

So, with this setup, before quickness you get
4+1+2+1+4= 12 attacks. Facing a defense 40 unit? the last attack comes in with the defender penalized 20 points for successive attacks. If flaming weapons is included, you also get a couple of fire damage, though I don't think that counts as another attack.

After quickness has been cast, you're generating 24 attacks a turn.

Obviously, there are some changes you can make to increase survivability, but this is the extreme version. It will the Ettin to survive if you have some other large units around.
Switch to three Main Gauches of Parrying, and you get +12 defense, and instead of 5 attacks from arm slot weapons, 3. So, 20 attacks after quickness is cast? Not a huge loss.

[Evil Dave]

Sort of OT, but I did once outfit a Machaka Bane Spider w/ two Lantern Shields and a Skullface. He was a very effective assassin.

[NTJedi]

If I recall the Ettin has a major weakness with magic resistance.

[Szumo]

Base magic resistance is 15. That's not so bad.
He has ambidexterity 6. It means longer weapons will work at full attack skill too.
I want him to be thug (eg. he will support a chaff army, along with smaller thugs), so he's task would be to take out tough enemy units not fight whole armies by himself.

[Potatoman]

For killing big stuff I'd give him FireBrand, Faithful, Jade Armor, Flying Shoes, Eye Shield, wraith crown & Horned helmet, and a ring of regeneration. That's the expensive, full luxury model. For economy thugging all you really need is quickness, the flying shoes, a survivability misc item (luck or regen) and a couple good weapons.

The Eye shield is good for both thugs and SCs because there is no resisting the eyeless. You attack him and *shhlck* one of your eyes plops out . This means that if your target fights back he will be weakened or become useless. FrostBrand and FireBrand exploit elemental weaknesses and let you damage targets with super-high def (with the aoe effect). Faithful gives luck, and everyone needs quickness.

Survivability is a concern, but he'll kill stuff real good.

[Taqwus]

Any interesting blessings?

Might be amusing to use both Vision's Foe and Faithful, and task him with shooting enemies' eyes out (17 AN + eyeloss is pretty nasty -- perhaps comparable to a m00se bite). Give him an eye of aiming, and rename him 'Irony'. But then, I've a really twisted sense of humor... and Firbolgs (the Sleeper version) make better snipers with their base PREC of 15, anyway.

With three arms, you can use a frost blade, a luck sword, and a charcoal shield all at once -- luck, 50% FR/CR, which goes to 100% if you stack with elemental armor (but watch the enc). If you don't need both FR and CR, but you have blood, consider Blood Thorn for the one-handed lifedraining. Or Hell Sword + Lucky Coin -- lifedrain, 50% FR, luck, berserk.

[NTJedi]

Szumo said:
Base magic resistance is 15. That's not so bad.

My perfect memory must be failing... I thought it was 12.