Post your last instadeath

[Nick]

I've really over-achieved here. Comp 145 HE mage, the sequence of events is this:

1. Recall into dungeon, find Elven Cloak of Magi - +2INT, pConf, +1 speed
2. Descend, find hat of seeing - pBlind covered now too (first source for both)
3. Post dump to ladder in celebration, mentioning that I'll probably die to Shelob who is on the level
4. Encounter Shelob, start casting pathetic fireballs at her
5. Die from unresisted darkness breath

Notable points are that I was playing in a few spare minutes first thing in the morning while I finished my first coffee for the day, and that the death dump last messages still included the "Character dump successful" message from the previous dump.

[Estie]

Playing before first coffee is prime killer.

[HugoVirtuoso]

Playing before first coffee is prime killer.

Another prime killer is attempting to finish off a monster like a *one-star* Stormbringer while I have <50 HP left AND *mortally wounded* at the same time! I playing PosChengband 2.0.3 as a Possessor in Great crystal drake form. Initially, I was so (over)confident with my +10 Speed that I neglected to use any !Speed and ?Teleportation.

[Bostock]

Boring, perhaps? Ironman Sangband, DE mage-school caster who's just unlocked teleportation (a major stage in survivability). It's D:12. (No namby-pamby 50-foot multiples for me.) Wander into detection range of a jelly pit, mobile inhabitants start moving out, I start faring poorly against one of them. "Oh, I'll just blink."

I land right in the middle of the pit.

1RKO'd from about 50% health from there.

When will I ever learn?

[Bostock]

I'll cheat and list my second-to-last instadeath as well, since it was more interesting.

Ironman Sangband again. D:60ish. Was mopping up a G-dominated undead pit, had found no !RestExp yet and hadn't cured drains with spare XP instead, so my skills and Con were a bit low, but that wouldn't have saved me. Thranduil and its telepathy would have, but I had discarded it a while back because I figured I should learn to live without telepathy since I would likely soon be forging powerful, but telepathyless, hats.

Cruising around far from the pit, temporarily unhasted. Dreadmaster emerges from a corridor wall, and immediately:

The Dreadmaster hurls a nether lance!
You feel your life slipping away!
The Dreadmaster hurls a nether lance!
You feel your life slipping away!
The Dreadmaster hurls a nether lance!
You feel your life slipping away!
You die.

Was probably one of the ones I'd TO'd earlier, too.

[MattB]

So my dwarf paladin finds a vault on a superb level containing Kavlax about 20 levels OOD. I did everything right (short of recalling to town ) and speeded up so I was faster than him, cast resist fire and cold and chugged a potion of rPoison. Then I opened the vault and TO'd him away. Feeling very pleased with myself, I looted the vault and then travelled slowly, detecting constantly until I found Kavlax again to see if it was safe to visit the last room on the level which was guarded by a pack of gravity hounds. Delighted to find that Kavlax was now in a room that was completely blocked off by rubble, I went to take on the hounds. They were in a long, twisty corridor and I was doing loads of archery damage, so I figured I had a good chance of dealing with them and finding out what the last two items on the level were...

The first six or seven hounds went down easily enough, and then one of them gravitied me through the wall right into Kavlax's new lair.
He breathed.
I died.

Aaaaarrgghhhh!
(I just had to tell someone; I feel better now.)

[Patashu]

Lesson learned: Never fight <strike>Kavlax</strike> Gravity Hounds

[MattB]

Lesson learned: Never fight <strike>Kavlax</strike> Gravity Hounds

Too true - but where's the fun in that?

[jasric]

Level 32 Half-Orc Paladin DL 42

Clearing a vault, encountered The Great Crystal Drake. A new monster for me. It's only a few levels OOD, I think, and I'm +23 speed w/ !speed.. Lets try it. 3-4 turns exchanging blows and using CCW, had him down to 6 stars. Not too bad... I wonder if it breaths? I'm at 200+ hp still, risk use rod of probing. The Great Crystal Drake breaths shards. You die.

[Derakon]

That's not a unique, and yeah, their shards breath is quite dangerous. For the Great Wyrms/Drakes, figure out what element they're associated with, and if you don't resist it (or double-resist it in the case of the basic elemental ones) or have less than 500 HP, don't try to fight them. All dragons can breathe something, which means all dragons have a nuke they can use on you.

[Timo Pietilä]

All dragons can breathe something, which means all dragons have a nuke they can use on you.

My favorite early nasty dragon is Ethereal dragon. Those seem to have very large detection radius and they are fast so they are very hard to avoid and low-level tele-other is only temporary relief. They are a bit less dangerous now that confusion is no longer a breath-weapon: getting confusion resist before meeting those first time was luck, but they are still very dangerous.

[dzilla77]

That's not a unique, and yeah, their shards breath is quite dangerous. For the Great Wyrms/Drakes, figure out what element they're associated with, and if you don't resist it (or double-resist it in the case of the basic elemental ones) or have less than 500 HP, don't try to fight them. All dragons can breathe something, which means all dragons have a nuke they can use on you.

Yeah, I was two shotted by whatever the fire breathing drake unique was when I was on DL 40 (with a CL33 dwarven paladin). He was well OoD I think (I got a nervous feeling on the level and his name was red.) I TO'd him away once when I was fighting a bunch of other stuff, but figured I could take him by himself - WRONG!

So if you guys come across a nice crispy dwarf on DL40, that's me.

[Quendus]

http://angband.oook.cz/ladder-show.php?id=15440

Gnome mage diving very aggressively, at CL30 on DL55, 168 HP. Was in a jam because light and recall had run out. Was lucky enough to find one flask of oil, but still on the lookout for items.

I had successfully taken down some ancient dragons by opening with blue DSM breath and following up with bolt/ball spam. No telepathy, relying on detection to tell what's around. I saw a sleeping white D, and decided it would be worthwhile to take it on. I had rCold, so the maximum damage per move would be around 70.

Fired lightning breath at the white D's detected location as usual, and started casting fireballs (iirc) down the corridor. Then got one-shotted. By an AMHD.

Lesson learned: double-check what big monsters are before waking them up.

[Timo Pietilä]

I saw a sleeping white D, and decided it would be worthwhile to take it on. I had rCold, so the maximum damage per move would be around 70.

For future reference: max damage from single-resisted basic element is over 500. Monster HP /3 = raw breath damage /3 = single resisted damage. It takes great wyrm or some unique to get that much HP though.

[Therem Harth]

In ToME 2:

My Troll archer (level 17) is doing his first lost temple quest for Tulkas. He's a bow-master, but is temporarily wielding a (+5, +4) sling that he found in the weapons shop. I figure he'll forge some ego shots from rubble during the quest.

So, bumbling along and handily slicing through all the leveled Orcs and whatnot with my Tulwar of Westernesse, I happen across Vort the Kobold Queen. She's a few spaces north of me. Hmm, leveled up because this is a quest; but I have some artifact arrows I forged earlier, that should do the trick...

Slice slice slice, there goes her escort. Aim. Fire! Oh wait I'm still wielding sling, and just took a step towards her instead. She closes the gap, shouts some insults, and hits me thrice... Dead.

Whoops.