A few of my (least) favorite things

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Who's at the top of your hit list?

Death Orbs
1
1%
Great Wyrms of Power
2
3%
Random Number Generators
22
29%
Cyberdemons
0
No votes
Hrus
14
19%
Any Capital Q
11
15%
Those damn Death Swords
14
19%
All of the above
11
15%
 
Total votes: 75

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Lord Dimwit
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A few of my (least) favorite things

#1 Post by Lord Dimwit »

Since I seem to have given everyone the impression that I fear no monster whatsoever and would gladly take on a room full of Death Orbs if it meant proving this point, I thought I'd put up a list of (non-unique) monsters we hate and how to deal with them. Here's a few:

Beholder Hive-Mothers: My personal least favorite; they have that awful summon that puts MORE Beholder Hive-Mothers right next to you. Kiss your sanity goodbye if this happens. I have the awful ability of getting these monsters for quests all the time.
Solution: Summon a monster to keep the Hive-Mother busy while you bombard it from a distance. Surround yourself with trees and shoot arrows at the Hive-Mother as it floats toward you. Get a bunch of potions of Cure Insanity and lure the Hive-Mother into an anti-summoning corridor.

Star-Spawn of Cthulhu: Whose idea was it to give a normal monster the Hand of Doom? :evil: :evil:
Solution: Damned if I know. Use the Anchor of Space-Time to prevent it from getting away. Hit it with Fireflash about a million times. Cast Lay of Protection to prevent it from summoning horrible things right next to you.

Aranea/Dark Elven Warlocks: Yes, we all have lousy saving throws, and these things, which show up in groups, all have very nasty distance attacks.
Solution: A Wand of Stone Prison works wonders in this case. Surround yourself with rock, make a little tunnel out, and take them on one at a time. If you're a Mage and you've got Fireflash, you can often kill them all in one hit, though if you don't you're in for some hurtin'.

Great Wyrm of Power: They've got more hit points than almost anything, they breathe everything, and they're no suckers in melee.
Solution: I still think that you should fight the Wyrm at close range. Cast a shielding spell or three on yourself and go toe-to-toe with it. Cast Vampirism or a healing spell whenever it breathes.

Like I said, these are all very nasty monsters, and I for one would like more advice for dealing with them... Anyone else?
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Tachyon
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#2 Post by Tachyon »

There is one solution I know of for dealing with Star-Spawns: GET THE HELL AWAY!!! Those guys have more than just the hand of doom, they also have radiation storm, which is irresistable and can easily take you from full HP to 0, that's why never play with Cth monsters on. Also, if you turn on the full monster memory cheat option and press /^np, then look through the monsters, you'll notice that star-spawns are the most powerful non-unique, non spirit monster in the game.*

*Actually, old posessors have a higher level, but the only reason they're dangerous is that they can animate a corpse.

Edit: Last time I fought a star-spawn, things got so bad I had to turn on the cheats, but I died anyway :evil:
Last edited by Tachyon on Fri Jul 11, 2003 12:01 am, edited 1 time in total.

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#3 Post by Blackdog »

Z

(water hounds)
Last edited by Blackdog on Thu Jul 10, 2003 11:52 pm, edited 1 time in total.

Lord Dimwit
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#4 Post by Lord Dimwit »

Blackdog wrote:Water hounds.
Good lord! I'll second that. I almost lost a level 50 to those damn things! And I have lost a level 45 to them.
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Blackdog
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#5 Post by Blackdog »

Lord Dimwit wrote:
Blackdog wrote:Water hounds.
Good lord! I'll second that. I almost lost a level 50 to those damn things! And I have lost a level 45 to them.
Yes, one wrong teleport, and your high-level sorcerer drowns in a huge whirlpool.

Tachyon
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#6 Post by Tachyon »

Actually, my mindcrafter-symbiants don't really have a problem with water hounds; they use adrenalinse channeling to heal and cure the stunning, followed by a dozen or so mindwaves in rapid succession. Next time they get hungry, those chars usually treat themselves to water hound stakes roasted over open lava :)

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#7 Post by Atarlost »

Hrus are insane on fumblefingers quests or in giant pits in levels without princess quests. With something preventing earthquakes they're doable, but earthquakes interfere with most of the options for dealing with tough foes, the best being, IMO, a greater draconic Q or master Q, high symbiosis skill, and lots of mana.

Actually, water channeling would probably do wonders against them since they don't have ranged attacks.
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Wastrel

#8 Post by Wastrel »

I assume all of the monsters we are discussing are part of princess/lost sword quests. If not, then my simple solution to an out of control situation is a junk art that activates for mass genocide.

I finally learned something that makes ToME much easier than Angband in some respects. I refer to the mountain (^) grids. Nothing that I know of can travel through them except me (if I have a set of climbing tools anyway). So when a princess screams let me alone nasty Hrus, Black Reavers, and such; I look out for an area where they can't surround me. I'm not sure, but I don't think an Earthquake effects the mountain squares.

Greater Q's: Their biggest irritation is that they teleport away just after you use a scroll/potion/etc.. to prepare yourself to fight them and their hordes. Sometimes I can get lucky and pound one to death, but the best guarantee seems to be any spell that can hit them from a distance inspite of blocking hordes. Which reminds me, the princess is waiting at the top of Angband with 6 greater demonic Q's. I've given up on that quest a couple times already. Maybe 8 levels later, it'll be easier.

Wastrel

#9 Post by Wastrel »

Oh Yeah! My least favorite monster for low levels is not in the poll list. NEVER NEVER NEVER go into Barrow Downs with only a 1 radius light source (the starting torch). Those Floating Eyes always seem to be just around the corner or in the dark green trees that anybody can walk through.

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#10 Post by Neil »

I like GWoPs by the time I run into them. They summon me nice things to kill down in Erebor. Their disintegration breaths do get a little annoying if I'm not careful, because they destroy my Stone Prison walls that make up my dragon pens, but eventually they bring out a Sky Drake which allows me to kill the GWoP.

As for saving throws, some of us don't play Thunderlord Zombie Swordmasters set to berserk and running all the time, so Araenas don't really bother all of us. :-)

I don't play with optional monsters on, so all the silly, stupid, or unfair monsters I don't see (that eliminates Cyberdemons, Death orbs, RNGs, and most sanity-drainers). That leaves my worst two nemeses being Hrus and Water hounds.

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#11 Post by Tachyon »

I don't have a problem with Hrus, I just keep my distance and mindwave them. After one casting, they get confused and stop trying to move towards me; from then on I just hold down 'n' until they are dead.

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#12 Post by Tachyon »

Got another one: aether hounds. They resist everything, breath nearly everything, and have an insane number of HP, plus they come in groups of twenty or so. I mean, who the hell's idea was it to give a breather that comes in big groups so many HP? I've lost almost all of my best mages to those stupid magical pooches...

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#13 Post by The Archmage »

Tachyon wrote:There is one solution I know of for dealing with Star-Spawns: GET THE HELL AWAY!!! Those guys have more than just the hand of doom, they also have radiation storm, which is irresistable and can easily take you from full HP to 0, that's why never play with Cth monsters on.
Edit: Last time I fought a star-spawn, things got so bad I had to turn on the cheats, but I died anyway :evil:
If you would have used a backup instead of cheating, the star-spawn wouldn't have been a problem. :)

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#14 Post by The Archmage »

Tachyon wrote:Got another one: aether hounds. They resist everything, breath nearly everything, and have an insane number of HP, plus they come in groups of twenty or so. I mean, who the hell's idea was it to give a breather that comes in big groups so many HP? I've lost almost all of my best mages to those stupid magical pooches...
As I know Aether Hounds only show up in the Nether Realm. How can you survive there without backing up????? :?: :?

Tachyon
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#15 Post by Tachyon »

Aether hounds do not show up in the Nether Realm only, they show up below level 72 I think. If you go down into Angband, you will run into them, and you will probably die - in Angband everything is leveled up, so any aether hounds you meet will be level 90 or so. In the Nether Realm, there will also be aether hounds, and they'll be level 150, so you'd best have a lot of potions of invulnerability and some means of long-range teleportation.

Also, Archmage, would you please do me a favor and stop blabbing on about hte virtues of backing up savefiles? First of all, I'm sick of it; second of all, it's cheating; and third of all, if you have to cheat, your savefile should be marked for it.

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