ToME: the Tales of Maj'Eyal

Is it just me or can the shade of Angmar be a real pain for non-fighter characters? I met him as a level five archer who was taking everything in the dungeon down pretty well. Then he came around a corner and before I could do anything gave me one hit. 203 damage and I'm dead. Poor AC I guess, but are archers really expected to wear lots of heavy armor? Did I just get unlucky?

I think you were unlucky.

I just killed him with my Archer! and he never fired off a shot at me...

I've had the same experience on multiple characters. I just did a mage without trying to level him and killed him at level 5. Maybe you were over leveled. You may have just been unlucky though.

I found a very easy way to nail him, quite unintentionally, with my level 8 hobbit slinger.

I was in the vault where you find him, trying to lure him up from the wide open lower area into the upper part with all the corners that one might hide from spells behind. As I ran back and forth trying to lure him around the corner so he would come up to the top part, he kept chasing me on the other side of the wall, running repeatedly across the fire trap there. By the time he came around the corner, it took a single light hit to knock him out. What if damage from the fire trap had killed him? Would I still succeed in the quest?

He's instakilled me every time I get to him (4 characters or so). Not 1 shot, but a freeze or a stun of some kind and before I could give another step I'm dead.

if you think he is bad, try the greater mummy lord

the shade in the alpha stages could do 128+ damage in one hit, so I learned to never go down there unless I had 130+ hp now his damage is less, but you still need some care.

I dont think I have seen him cast freeze on me though, it is always manathrust and flame, hmmm

He has something with knockback as well. 99 dam is still much faster than lesser healing potions work, and I've usually had all my phase doors burnt up by this time.

At least in beta1, he definitely will spit freeze at you. I had one fellow that lost ~250 hp to the shade firing a freeze->manathrust combo. About the only way I've taken the bugger (and only once legitimately) was to survive the first volley, then manage to retreat around the corner and wait for the shade to approach. If I can stun 'im, then I'll probably manage to kill 'em. If not, well, time to restart again.

Bill, in comparison, is a joke; I've yet to have him kill any character. Stun->Hit/Hit/(Hit)->Back->Stun->Repeat for melee, and just waste from a distance with everything else. Had less trouble taking down that ent bugger than the shade. I've actually skipped Amon Sul a couple of times already, taking out the trollshaws and just heading on to the forest. Safer that way, heh.

Yep, mine was also at least 200, but probably 250 hp instadeath.

Honestly, I've started to find for melee characters (especially those willing to use 2-handed weapons) to go to Trollshaws first, then the Maze. Helm of Hammerhand in this game is just too awesome to pass up, and the complete Trollshaws dungeon plus Bill is practically easy mode compared to the Shade.

Here's a tip I found to be useful for melee characters, similar to what ushumgal said:

The Vault with the Shade in it is always this oval at the south end of floor 5. The top section is crooked, you have to keep going diagonally up and down through it to get through, so you should notice before you get to the shade. Take ONE step around the corner, and immediately go back around and wait behind the edge. Going around the corner should get it to follow you before you get hit with spells, and waiting right behind the wall will get it to show up right next to you, allowing you to get the first blow. I suppose you still need to get lucky but at least you aren't getting blasted with spells before you get to melee range.

I've never really had any problems with him, I've always rather thought he was easy if I got through all the skeletons to him.