I was having fun with this until I got to the part where I had to go into the sewers and got molested by roving gangs of imps and the combat turned into a slog. I probably just have to enchant my gear, which I've not bothered doing up until now.
Anybody have some tips to make the combat a bit easier? I really just want to wander around and do all the cool content.
Well... enchanting you gear is step one.
You can massively increase your own health (energy) and magic reserves. You can boost your elemental damage, physical damage, melee damage (feels like those two should be combined) or lust damage by
huge amounts.
Most items have five slots. The top-level enchantment is +5 in one stat.
That totals to +25 per item. You can easily equip ten items simultaneously. Not counting piercings and tattoos. (enchanting a tattoo doesn't cost essence either, just cash)
Getting a decent weapon is key too (I prefer melee so it doesn't waste my essences) A knight-sword or something.
I don't really bother with spells myself, but some of them are probably pretty powerful.
Elemental summoning gives you a whole new minion. Their magic is incredibly powerful, but they tend to be super fragile since they usually have zero body stat,
Easily fixed with potions or equipment though.
Elementals have the exhibitionism trait, so they don't want to cover up (and gain stat bonuses for exposure) but you can still equip all kinds of things on them without covering groin or chest.
You can even give them proper clothes then just set them to be permanently displaced. (A permemently unzipped leather jacket with nothing under it is a nice image)
Elemnentals also have their own stat-tree which governs which spells they can use.
You can also bring one non-elemental party-member with you. Get a slave, equip her much like yourself then level her in combat.
You can also teach slaves spells the same way you learn them, via the books.
Might be worth teaching a slave just the helaing spell, so she'll save her mana for that. I don't know how good the party AI is though.
End result is your party of you and two levelled and well equipped minions going up against groups of four powerful but poorly equipped imps.
The difficulty spike between the main city and the underground is huge though. It kinda feels like there should be a mid-tier dungeon, and there really isn't.
I guess Harpy Nest counts, but that's probably even easier than the regular city.
Oh, also. Impish Brew can very easily be converted into a +60% heal for both HP and MP. You can even stack the effect twice on a single potion to make full heals.
You can drink these between battles to recover, and even give them to your slaves.
Apparantly slaves can also summon elementals, but I don't know how to make them cast spells.