I hate wyverns

[Nightmarjoo]

I keep losing characters to wyverns, they appear so relatively early and move twice as fast as normal monsters, and do 2d6 damage three times, once to poison. That's six 2d6 attacks if you're at base speed, poisoning you twice everytime. That's a lot of damage, combined with a very long poison duration if you don't have a way to neutralize it if you meet it. Why is this thing so strong? Yes obviously should just run from it instead of fight if you're too weak, but it's hard to flee from something that moves twice as fast. I'm picking on him because he just seems to me to stick out like a sore thumb against the other monsters at that depth. I even had a decent *slay* dragon weapon in this last game. He ran away, pushing through a whole line of orcs so I couldn't finish him (rogue), healed, then came back and finished me as I was trying to run away (while dying to poison). They're worse than young dragons, who appear later. I hate wyverns.

[Pete Mack]

By the time wyverns are native, you should have _Tele. Unless you're playing ironman?
And since they don't breathe, you can use distance attacks.

Anyway, I agree wyverns are annoying, but Basilisks are worse.

[Marble Dice]

N-headed hydra, wyvern, pukelman, and colbran are some of the enemies that I never engage at depth. Too many hp, too hard to damage, too much damage output, and/or comparatively low reward.

[Derakon]

In fact, all of the enemies you listed either drop nothing or only drop (piddling amounts of) money. So yeah, they're not really worth fighting.

Wyverns have about 20% fewer HP than young dragons and don't breathe; in exchange, they get slightly beefier attacks (2d6 vs. 2d4), move twice as fast, and appear seven levels earlier.

[thapper]

I was so into playing Posband Qs that when I read the title I was thinking "but why do you hate wyverns? They are the best dragon pets early on, they are fast and have poison attack and... oh, now I get it". So, yeah, I agree they seem very annoying for their native depth.

In FAangband I don't remember seeing wyverns and there are no hydras so I just hate Colbrans instead.

[Nick]

In FAangband I don't remember seeing wyverns and there are no hydras

Introduced into V after O forked from it, I believe.

[konijn_]

N-headed hydra, wyvern, pukelman, and colbran are some of the enemies that I never engage at depth. Too many hp, too hard to damage, too much damage output, and/or comparatively low reward.

COLBRAN!
I will take a wyvern over a colbran any time..

T.

[fizzix]

N-headed hydra, wyvern, pukelman, and colbran are some of the enemies that I never engage at depth. Too many hp, too hard to damage, too much damage output, and/or comparatively low reward.

Sounds like they need to have their EXP reward slightly boosted.

[Derakon]

EXP is usually a lousy reason to consider fighting an enemy, because there are plenty of easy monsters worth decent amounts of EXP wandering around for you to kill (c.f. most trolls, some zephyr hounds, mumaks, etc.). These monsters aren't necessarily always easy to kill when you first spot them, but their EXP reward continues to be worthwhile long after they've stopped posing a serious threat.

[Pete Mack]

@fizzix -- they're a nuisance monster. Doesn't matter what EXP you give them, unless it's insanely high, because they are just too much effort for essentially no gain.

Might as well leave it low.

[fizzix]

@fizzix -- they're a nuisance monster. Doesn't matter what EXP you give them, unless it's insanely high, because they are just too much effort for essentially no gain.

Might as well leave it low.

Yeah, I guess that's true. I never really liked the idea of nuisance monsters though. I always wish there were some benefit to fighting them.

Anyway, you left out one of my least favorite/most annoying monster. The undead beholder. Regular beholders are annoying too, but the undead one is a real bugger.

[Magnate]

COLBRAN!
I will take a wyvern over a colbran any time..

T.

I'm with you. I think colbrans are my least favourite non-pack monsters in V. (Nexus vortices, maybe? Dark elven sorcerors?)

I don't agree with Pete M about exp. The exp reward should be appropriate, whether the monster is meant to be a challenge or a nuisance. I'd happily see wyvern xp boosted a bit.