Dead to nexus breath (spolier question)

[TJS]

Well I died again.

Thought I'd be alright fighting a dracolisk with fire immunity and rNexus with > 300 HP. Dead with one nexus breath.

How exactly is the damage from breaths worked out? I looked in constants.h and saw BR_NEXU_MAX = 400 and BR_NEXU_DIVISOR = 6 and assumed that meant the maximum nexus breath is 400 and if you have the resist you divide it by 6. Obviously that didn't work out too well.

[pav]

[bad bad bad]

[TJS]

It means HP / 6 capped 400. Ie. for Dracolisk ~3000 / 6 = 500 unresisted

RES_NEXU_ADJ(dam, dam_aspect) (((dam) * 6) / (damcalc(1, 6, dam_aspect) + 6))

which means 3000 / 7 = 428 worst case scenario when resisted (best would be 250)

Thanks, but I'm still a little confused.

What does capped at 400 mean if the max damage is 500? Also why do you divide by 7 for the resisted damage? Do you just add 1 to the number you divide for non-resisted damage?

Am I right in saying that in this case the resist only reduced the possible maximum damage from 500 to 428? It doesn't seem like the resist makes all that much difference really (apart from the secondary effect).

How do hobbit mages ever fight monsters that do high breath damage?

[pav]

[delete bad advise]

Hope I'm reading the source right... I'm not

[Tobias]

BR_NEXU_DIVISOR = 6 means that a nexus breather does 1/6 of its hp in damage. Or 400 as a maximum.
Resistance is defined in RES_NEXU_ADJ which means that with resistance you recieve 6/(1d6+6) of the damage (about half to full).

So the Dracolisk does 200 to 342 nexus damage to someone who resists. You should have had 50 HP more. The Dracolisk's fire breath also does 342 damage through a single resist.

[PowerDiver]

(1) Divide hp by some number to get breath
(2) If value > max, reduce value to max
(3) Apply resistance

However, with poor luck resistance for high elements only reduces 400 -> 400 * 6 / 7. High resists are more about avoiding the side effects than about reducing the damage.

[TJS]

Thanks for the information. So in a worse case scenario (which is what you plan for) the resist only takes off 1/7 damage, which seems a bit miserly. I guess the harshness is what makes Angband the game it is.

Another question, does the breath damage come from current monster HP or the maximum HP?

[Tobias]

Thanks for the information. So in a worse case scenario (which is what you plan for) the resist only takes off 1/7 damage, which seems a bit miserly. I guess the harshness is what makes Angband the game it is.

Another question, does the breath damage come from current monster HP or the maximum HP?

Maximum. If you get the life-rating (after 304 / monster_level +4 kills) (or ca 2-5 kills for uniques) in the monster recall you will also get the breath damage displayed.

[Derakon]

Maximum. If you get the life-rating (after 304 / monster_level +4 kills) (or ca 2-5 kills for uniques) in the monster recall you will also get the breath damage displayed.

Are you sure about that? I could've sworn that I've seen almost-dead ancient dragons try to breath on me to no effect, which leads me to believe that it's current HP that's used to determine breath damage.

[d_m]

Source code says it uses current HP for breathing:

(m_ptr->hp / BR_FIRE_DIVISOR) > BR_FIRE_MAX ? BR_FIRE_MAX : (m_ptr->hp / BR_FIRE_DIVISOR)

[PowerDiver]

Another question, does the breath damage come from current monster HP or the maximum HP?

Current. However, for the big hp monsters you can hurt them a lot without any reduction in damage, because HP/6 > max for so long.

[Magnate]

Current. However, for the big hp monsters you can hurt them a lot without any reduction in damage, because HP/6 > max for so long.

Yep. My best character ever died to a half-dead Huan, who managed to breathe for the full 500 damage. (My fault for deciding that his first breath, which took me from 923 to 423hp, had done me precisely 400 damage ...)

[TJS]

Yep. My best character ever died to a half-dead Huan, who managed to breathe for the full 500 damage. (My fault for deciding that his first breath, which took me from 923 to 423hp, had done me precisely 400 damage ...)

How do character types with low HP ever handle the big breathers? Do you have to keep healing with spells and/or consumables?

[Pete Mack]

How do character types with low HP ever handle the big breathers? Do you have to keep healing with spells and/or consumables?

Run away!
(Also, wait to 18/200 CON)

EDIT:
My most recent winner killed only 58 uniques. The only ones I really care about killing either:
a) have very good drops. (Saruman, Ar-Pharazon, etc)
b) have dangerous escorts (Ancalagon, 'L' uniques, unique Balrogs, Gabriel)
c) are otherwise annoying and dangerous (Maeglin, Azathoth(!) in NPP)

Also kill any that are vulnerable to slays, and won't damage equipment. (Pazuzu with Taratol or Vilya, etc), but don't go out of your way (level scum dl 98) to do it.
And leave ones with non-dangerous escorts ('T', 'a', 'O', 'o') alive. Especially queen ant.