>1. How badly are the sleep spell (and others) nerfed for dumb
>races? Or conversely how greatly are they juiced for smart
>races? If I go fire giant will my sleep spell totally suck?

It's a sliding scale, affecting mostly the save but potentially the duration a tiny bit (e.g. probably not more than 1 tick difference). Being a d-elf a-p is almost like having spellcraft for sleep, except instead of everyone being half a dozen levels down on you like when you're a human necromancer, it's the other way around.

By the time you get to fire giant dumb, the save is about as easy as any save against something from someone in your PK could be. That said, I've still killed a lot of people with sleep as a fire a-p. Sometimes people dump their saves for other stats, and sometimes you just get lucky.

>2. Vessel of the Pit Fiends. What does this do? Bloodlust
>just gets "better" (how?) the more unholy controls you have?

The stat mobs on the spell get marginally better with each control. By the time you have a full set of controls it's a nice little bonus in my opinion.

>3. Demonskin. The helpfile for this says that you become
>resistant to blessed weapons if you're not already resistant
>to that weapon's attack type. If I took both Demonskin and
>Unrepentant Sinner would the limited resistance from
>Unrepentant Sinner nerf Demonskin for positive damage from a
>blessed weapon?

That statement only relates to resistance in your traditional immune/resistant/normal/vulnerable to a damage type sense.

>4. What are the pros/cons to each physical method of starting
>combat on a slept person? Vault, cleave, faceslash...etc.
>I've heard vault has a chance to guarantee next command for
>the attacker. Is that true? But faceslash has a chance to
>lag too, right? Plus they both cause bleeding? Is vault
>bleeding just way better than faceslash bleeding?

Vault, IIRC, is trip lag. It's a hell of an opener and would almost always be my preferred choice, except in the sense that it requires getting a spear into your hands in time and, depending on what you're doing with it and how much of a gambler you are with irongrip and losing unholies, potentially keeping a spear in your hands for a time.

It's a hell of an opener against awake targets, too, but that's a little riskier.

Vault bleeding is generally way better than faceslash bleeding. It's also guaranteed (again, if I remember correctly) lag if it hits, whereas faceslash only has a chance, and I wouldn't call it a great chance.

That being said, dual wield is a wonderful thing if you're not a felar, and I've been on both sides of lucky kills that otherwise wouldn't have been possible when faceslash decides to do its thing.

>5. How heavily influenced are the physical skills by str/dex?

Depends on the skill. Most care a fair bit about their relevant stat(s), probably on the order of what you expect from a statbound warrior skill like flurry or jab. Some care about size, with crippling strike caring the most.

>Would lashes be more or less useless on a fire giant?

I wouldn't say useless, but it wouldn't be my first choice in most situations and I wouldn't probably UB a whip just to use it as a fire.

>6. At what point does iron grip become undispellable? Or does
>that come from an edge? I didn't see any in the AP edges list
>that gave that effect.

It's the first control, if a control-that's-not-a-control.

It beats dispel magic / dispel and similar skills; however, note that there are still things that aren't dispel that can get rid of your irongrip affect, the most obvious being Force of Will.