Hybrids

Hybridisation is quite a difficult idea for the melee-only or magic-only player to understand. Specialists are quite a bit simpler in terms of skill investments, as you are usually limited to Fighting, Weapon Skill, Armour and Dodging for a melee with a few points in supplementary schools, and relevant Spell schools for casters. With a hybrid, you are suddenly met with the challenge of having to balance your melee skills and your magic skills. Furthermore, if you are new to magic, you also have to ask the question of "What spells do I need"? This article will hopefully clarify what the strengths and weaknesses of hybrids are, spells that are useful to a standard hybrid are, tips to starting and finishing one and a few other topics. For the purpose of simplicity, this will mostly cover characters that rely on weapons to deal damage with Charm/Translocation support. Specific leveling goals will not be provided, as each character is different. You should never look for specific "magic numbers" to hit unless you are referring to mindelay on weaponry.

What are the strengths and weaknesses of a Hybrid?
Strengths:
 * Higher utility due to spellcasting; higher defense, access to free utilities, etc.
 * Doesn't get destroyed by ranged attacks quite as much as the standard XXBe with heavy armour and a two-hander.
 * Often gets access to Haste. Haste can be achieved through other means, such as potions or wands of hasting, but being able to abuse it is extremely potent.
 * Very effective with extended endgame transition, in comparison to standard berserkers who either have to suffer god wrath to change religion if they want to get spells.

Weaknesses:
 * More difficult to learn how to train, often frustrating players who try to hybridise in the early game.
 * Occasionally more fragile than a specialist (ie, you'll have less melee skills or less magic skill than a specialist).

What kind of spells should I go for?
The three main schools that a hybrid will usually go for are:
 * Charms - The basic melee support spell school. Provides utilities, defense and buffs. This spell school is usually not too difficult to invest into: arguably the biggest spell in the school that you will pursue is Haste, which will nearly always cost around 12-18 charms to get reliable.

A few vital spells you should look for in this school:
 * Repel Missiles
 * Flight
 * Regeneration
 * Spectral Weapon
 * Haste
 * Ozocubu's Armour (ice-related)


 * Translocations - Many Spells in this school are helpful to a fighter. In particular, repositioning and defenses are attractive features to the school.
 * Apportation
 * Blink
 * Shroud of Golubria
 * Controlled Blink (Very expensive)


 * Necromancy - A respectable school to pursue for hybrids, Necromancy offers utility, summons and strong responses to the Undead. Note that worshipping Kiku is probably what you want to do if you want to play a half-melee with necromancy focus due to the pain weapon.
 * Animate Skeleton
 * Regeneration
 * Control Undead (usually useless)
 * Dispel Undead (useless)
 * Death Channel

Past this point the spells are usually too expensive:
 * Borgnjir's Revivification
 * Death's Door
 * Lichform (not recommended unless you've already invested in necromancy AND transmutation)


 * Other notable spells for melee hybrids:
 * Statue Form (Bring haste!)
 * Stoneskin
 * Summon Butterflies (restricts enemy movement and interferes with ranged combat)

Shields?
Pursuing a shield is perfectly reasonable for a hybrid: An extra layer of defense is provided at the cost of additional training. For normal sized non-draconian races, the targets you want to hit for bucklers/shields/large shields are 4/15/25. At these points the spellcasting penalty for holding a shield is removed, so you want to get to the relevant target fairly quickly.

As of 0.15, shields are slightly better when enchanted. A standard shield with an enchantment would probably be the optimal mixture of defense and convenience, as large shields are far too difficult to train for and bucklers don't provide enough defense to justify losing a two-handed weapon (barring an extremely strong one-handed weapon such as an eveningstar or demon weapon, but in this case you would still pick a shield).

If you are wearing 0 encumbrance armour (robes or naked) you need less skill to reach 0 spellcasting penalty on shields. This is really only applicable for Draconians, as they can't wear body armour.

Armour
For hybrids leaning towards melee in a standard 3-5 rune game, Fire Dragon Armour is usually the armour of choice. There are a few reasons for this choice: First, Orbs of Fire in Zot make rF++ extremely desirable. Second, Fire Dragon Armour provides a balance-able mix of dodging and armour. Finally, the armour does not impede spellcasting too harshly, allowing most characters to access haste with relative ease.

Mottled Dragon, Swamp Dragon and Quicksilver Dragon Armour are very acceptable alternatives, as they offer little spellcasting penalty. However, since they cannot be enchanted as highly as Fire Dragon Armour, melee fighters should probably opt to pick the heavier armours. Note that Steam Dragon Armour allows you to cast Ozocubu's Armour in it, granting you extra armour on top of Mottled Dragon, but gives slightly less Guaranteed Damage Reduction (which is a hidden stat and therefore honestly not worth considering).

It's probably not feasible for a non-extended character to get a Large Shield penalty free while also casting spells. Most hybrids will use a two-hander, but finding a good shield and a demon weapon is certainly enough to win the game.