Played one game of DrFw^Sif (got yellow scales, +2 Forgecraft, lucky me!).
https://crawl.xtahua.com/crawl/morgue/PaperRat/morgue-PaperRat-20241128-190422.txt
Overall the school feels quite context sensitive and mechanically complex, which is very much on theme for industrial magic, IMO. Lots of unusual interactions and mechanics.
Starting book:
Kinetic Grapnel (L1)
Quite average for a lvl 1 spell. It does its job, but looses effectiveness quite rapidly. There’s probably some cute interactions, like picking up a very early two-hander on D:1 and using grapnel to always guarantee a hit with it.
It feels like the spell has low accuracy (the irony), so be vary of using it against early quokkas and such.
Construct Spike Launcher (L2)
Strong and reliable. More restrictive in placement than Frozen Ramparts, but more permissive for movement after. Good kiting spell. Will consume your Grapnel debuff on hit (not sure if this is intended).
Launch Clockwork Bee (L3)
Feels way too good for a single school lvl 3. Can clear a pack of orcs and a pack of gnolls in one cast. Can kill many early uniques in one cast, while keeping the caster totally safe to boot.
It’s maybe okay to have a standout spell in a starting book, but considering the power of Fw lvl 4 spells it feels like a bit too much of a good thing. Windup time quickly makes it not worth casting later in the run though.
Forge Lightning Spire/Forge Blazeheart Golem (L4)
Pretty much as they were before - very strong spells that can be used all the way into Elf and Vaults (and even later, if you do a challenge of some sort).
Starting book feels very strong (outside of XL:1, where it’s just average), on par with Su (to no big surprise).
Some other spells (that I got to use):
Hoarfrost Cannonade (L5 FC/Ice)
This one felt a bit weak. It feels like it does less damage than Lightning Spire. It takes more space as well, and space is a precious resource for a Forgewright. The range at which the cannons get summoned means that sometimes one will be way out there in the sticks not hitting anything, or it will block your LoF or block your summon’s pathing etc. Which would be fine if the damage was higher, but it only gets high with ramp time and the cannons are quite fragile, so they often do little of use.
I liked this spell more in Alchemy, cause there was less space pressure overall. It probably still is fine when you go more into Ice, than into Forgecraft, and it does leave water puddles for some emergency steam creation.
Alistair’s Walking Alembic (L5 FC/Alch)
Got this one pretty late, but it felt quite solid, you probably can do a lot of work with it in the mid game. Beefy summon, with poison clouds and a random buff (that won’t go off later in the run most of the time, cause the summon stops being beefy and dies to random AoE). Shares some player-killing potential with Blazeheart.
Fortress Blast (L6 FC)
Radius 2 explosion that scales its damage entirely with your AC. So you can in theory have no int (maybe a wiz ring), load up on armour and still do very good damage with it. My char wasn’t that, and, when you have your other summons gumming up the works, this spell often doesn’t hit the stuff you want it to hit (due to delay and no-move clause). Probably better for a more melee oriented hybrid. Doesn’t hurt your metal friends (maybe also your fleshy friends, not sure?).
Forge Phalanx Beetle (L6 FC)
It’s a tanky, low-ish damage summon and a buff of like 6 AC. Pretty good to have, but not anything game-changing. Summon AI will make it stick to you like glue, which is very handy for creating gaps, and running away, and blocking LoF.
It falls in the category of “spells you want to always have up”, which is unusual for DCSS design. Maybe it should only be castable with enemies in sight? Doesn’t really bother me though, cause I cast it that way anyway.
Forge Monarch Bomb (L6 FC/Fire)
Very strange (but cool) spell, it summons a summon, that summons more small summons (by doing range attacks), and when you recast it they all blow up in a 3x3 fire+physical explosions (is it the only place in the game where irresistible damage is called “physical”? should be “physical” everywhere IMO, less confusing).
So to get any meaningful damage done you need to spend 12 MP and several turns of buildup, on the flip-side the damage can be quite meaningful indeed. Good against beefy single targets that can get swarmed in bomblets, bad in corridors and against packs that just kill the small summons too quickly.
Takes a lot of space and hurts everyone but the caster, so is slightly awkward to use with your other summons/forgelings.
Hellfire Mortar (L7 FC/Fire/Earth)
Big damage spell, clears Vault packs in one cast. Partially resistable (or fire+physical :), eh?). Huge utility as well: paints over traps, temporarily (!!) digs through walls, makes lava that non-flying monsters can’t cross at all, blocks LoF.
It’s a crazy good spell, crazy good!! But it’s also three school lvl 7. Before using it this last run I was fairly sure it wasn’t worth the XP, now I think that it’s just slightly below of what I would expect from a three school lvl 7. If you can get it, it’s pretty much worth it, IMO.
The problem is that, due to XP cost, it’ll become like lvl 9 spells, very rare to get much use of in a three rune game, which is a shame, cause it’s a fun spell to use. Maybe it could eat a numbers nerf and become a lvl 6 three school spell, to make it slightly more common (it will become a higher level Freezing Cloud/Irradiate then though).
Diamond Sawblades (L7 FC)
The reason to go deep in Forgecraft, like Ignition for Fire, or MCC for Air, or Gell’s Gavote for Translocation (shout out to Gell’s Gavote btw, such a freaking spell!).
Big and very reliable damage, big AoE, LoF blocking, kiting potential, fun placement puzzle, nice flavour. Favourite for me most definitely. Blades become quite fragile later in the run, so good placement becomes even more important.
Platinum Paragon (L9 FC)
It’s like you have a Hep ancestor… that you can resummon at will… in a tile of your choosing… and it’ll do some damage instantly… and it can equip any fixedart or randart melee weapon that you’ve found… and when it charges up you can recast it to make a huge manass-like attack… and it attacks more if you attack next to it… and it protects you from damage if you’re in range. Mine was wielding Obsidian Axe and summoning demons all the time.
It’s a lvl 9 spell, it’s strong. Probably the most generally useful lvl 9 as well, good in any terrain, good versus packs, single monsters, when you need to escape, when you need to tank up etc. As a downside - “probably won’t clear a Zig for you”.
That’s all the spells I got to try out. I like Forgecraft a lot, looking forward to seeing how it works when you mix and match with other schools.
Off-topic tip for patient (or impatient) readers: Try Gell’s Gavote with a Formicid.