Dungeons of Dredmor has been patched a couple times now, and now I'm having fun with it! Anyone tried playing as a vampire yet? It's quite a twist from the normal gameplay of having to heal in place all the time. Actually, it feels like it solves one of the major drawbacks in the mechanics. So far, I'm not a big fan of necromancy but the sleep spell actually does work, and I think that clever use of that spell could help get over the initial jump in enemy strength when you go up one floor.
The problem with Vampirism is it prevents you from eating to regain health. There's no real way to retreat and regen, you either win or you die.
My favorite skill so far is actually the Fungal Arts skill. You have a skill that puts out an item called "Spores" and you can plant them in corpses or in dirt to produce a random mushroom. The mushrooms themselves are like potions, some of which are extremely powerful; the Greedy Blungecap, for example, which allows you to steal health by attacking a la Vampirism. There's a mushroom that allows you to turn invisible for 6 rounds, there's a mushroom that gives you armor for a certain number of attacks, there's a mushroom that gives you a bonus to your max life for 60 rounds, a mushroom that gives you food-like regen that stacks with food, one that gives you magic power and another that regens mana, one that summons a bunch of thrown spores that cause AoE confusions, and some others. On top of this, you get the ability to summon two pets (you can only have one out at a time) mana-free, that cause AoE confusion when they spawn.
My biggest problem with the skill is that there's a lot of micromanagement involved in constantly creating and planting spores, but it's definitely not as annoying as the crafting skills. It's a great support skill, and it's allowed my Rogue-type character to go toe-to-toe with tougher enemies. Also, you can sell the mushrooms you don't want for a good profit early on.
