(Tried to post this on Reddit, but for some reason my posts aren’t showing up)
I’ve now won as gargoyle with all backgrounds (that exist in a recent version). There’s an unsightly gap for skald, but there’s no way I’m going back to v0.25 to fill that in (hunger, ewwwwww).
The hardest background was transmuter. Gargoyle has bad aptitudes for transmutation and dodgins, and most forms negate gargoyle’s innate AC while also melding armour. In the end, I won by only using beastly appendage and blade hands. Blade hands has enough damage for the endgame and you can wear most armour (except gloves).
Shapeshifter presented similar difficulties, but even more so. 18 skill is needed to negate the AC penalty of blade hands, and gargoyle has a -4 aptitude. In the winning game, I ignored shapeshifting completely (apart from some early use of beast form), and went pure unarmed melee.
Air elementalist was also difficult due to aptitudes. After several attempt to force a win with air magic, I switched for fire/earth to get the win,
The main thing I learnt from all this is go with your aptitudes. People say they don’t matter, but I found trying to go against them made life really difficult.