deathblades

[taptap]

Deathblades are cool. There are several strong counters to deathblades, but this is probably not intentional:

Deathblades are really sitting ducks against "warbow" archery, both with strong longbows or dragon-horn longbows strong enough to break through their armour - because they don't move at all when attacked from outside their immediate area.

[Philip]

That's kind of a niche, I think. Still, it would probably be best to fix this somehow. Perhaps just attacking the moment they are attacked with archery?

[taptap]

That's kind of a niche, I think. Still, it would probably be best to fix this somehow. Perhaps just attacking the moment they are attacked with archery?

Yes, it is a niche, but still feels a bit like an exploit. There are other almost as easy ways to dispatch them (knockback + polearm mastery) but that felt more intentional than the archery exploit.

[BlueFish]

What's different about the deathblade AI that they don't chase you if you're shooting them?

[debo]

As an aside, deathblades are a neat but sort of ridiculous enemy for reasons like this -- how can one envision subduing a deathblade by shooting it with arrows??? I can see wacking it with a really big hammer, but with arrows?

Instead of e.g. giving them projectile immunity, I always thought it might be kind of neat to actually have a fast-moving wraith type that "wields a deathblade", and has basically the exact same properties as the deathblade has, just to make it a bit less weird. Delmereth could be dropped by a unique wraith!

(end random conjecture here)

[debo]

What's different about the deathblade AI that they don't chase you if you're shooting them?

They'll only chase you to a point -- e.g. I think they will halt at certain doors even if they still have LOS with you, which means you can shoot them with impunity there.

(For the record, I would consider this a very, very minor problem, but it is neat and I'd never really though of trying this before.)

[BlueFish]

I guess it's the "short_sighted" flag, which is only shared by Lurking Horrors among mobile monsters. And Lurking Horrors wouldn't be able to be targeted with ranged weapons, generally, due to their darkness effect.

[taptap]

I guess it's the "short_sighted" flag, which is only shared by Lurking Horrors among mobile monsters. And Lurking Horrors wouldn't be able to be targeted with ranged weapons, generally, due to their darkness effect.

You should try "Listen" and high perception

I always felt deathblades were made intentionally hard to kill for normal archers (high armour, critical, fire, poison resist all combined) but one of my archers who found Belthronding could suddenly shoot them with impunity.

The problem is not that they stop at certain points, they do this in melee as well, that would be fine with me - they simply don't move from the initial spot at all when shot at from some tiles away.

[half]

It is indeed the SHORT_SIGHTED flag, possessed by lurking horrors, deathblades and silent watchers. The idea is that they don't come looking for you, that you could leave them alone, but that they strike when you are near. I agree that archery seems a bit abusive on the horrors and deathblades (i.e. the ones that could move if they wanted to). It should probably trigger an AI change, like with orcs in corridors. I've made a note of this.

I don't consider the current situation too bad though. Feel free to use it to your advantage.