Light hounds

[fyonn]

a thought just occurred to me, if dark hounds breathe on me, they darken the whole room. surely then if a light hound breathes on me, should it not light the whole room? or bit of corridor etc? with the possibility of waking other monsters?

dave

[SaThaRiel]

Actually hounds shouldnt breath at all - they should go and catch some sticks or bones/skeletons!

Honestly, youre right. They should light up the room/corridor when they breath. And also light sensible monsters like orcs should be harmed.

[Derakon]

In my experience, dark hounds don't darken the entire room; they just darken the squares hit by their breath. Likewise light hounds brighten the squares hit by their breath.

There's the "gestures in shadow" spell, which darkens the room you're in. But breath attacks only ever affect the tiles they hit.

[Malak Darkhunter]

I'm not sure why hounds breath at all ,let them do elemental damage with there attack, ie.. fire hounds bite you or claw you and add 1d6 fire damage or soemthing, makes more since to me, than them having a breath attack.

[fyonn]

In my experience, dark hounds don't darken the entire room; they just darken the squares hit by their breath. Likewise light hounds brighten the squares hit by their breath.

There's the "gestures in shadow" spell, which darkens the room you're in. But breath attacks only ever affect the tiles they hit.

okay, good point, but then shouldn't light hounds just light up the squares they hit then? and damage light sensitive creatures (I like this)?

as for breath weapons on a dog.. have you smelt a dog's breath? that aside, it's an interesting point, why do zephyr hounds have a breath attack?

dave

[SilverD]

They do light the squares they hit - you probably don't have the right display settings enabled to see them.

But you're absolutely right. Why DO Zephyr Hounds have a breath attack? I mean.. wait a second. How can stupid orcs be shaman that cast spells? Woah.. Magic Mushroom Patches? What?

Man come to think of it, this fantasy game is absurd - nothing in it makes any realistic sense.

[Hariolor]

Why do hounds have a breath attack? because, with breath, the Z is a frighteningly well-balanced enemy. Without breath it is not much different from a j.

Part of the reason everyone loves to hate hounds is not just that they are plentiful, but that they are fairly intelligent and unforgivingly powerful.

A dragon-like creature that is fairly weak at close range but travels in packs and is devastating at distance is a good stopgap until the really big wyrms show up. young and adult dragons are less scary, because they usually appear alone. They are individually harder to take down, but they won't send you running like a room full of Z's will.

My big gripe with hounds is that they are so wildly out of flavor for a Tolkein-themed game. But that's just a flavor-text issue.

[Malak Darkhunter]

Yes it is a tolkein-themed game(if loosley) and I certainly don't remember Zephyr hounds as part of tolkein's world. There's a lot of things not part of tolkeins world in this game. Some of it purely made up. Does anybody even know what a Zephyr hound is, or where the idea came from? If you want to throw in breath attacking dog's then the hellhound is the obvious choice. But wait a minute you don't see quite so many packs of those do you?

[Derakon]

I wouldn't be surprised if zephyr hounds came from the same place as quylthulgs, Kavlax, dreads, drolems, etc. The original Angband developers created plenty of creatures out of whole cloth. Zephyr hounds are just one of the more notorious.

[Malak Darkhunter]

Just like Evil Iggy's, what exactly is an Evil Iggy? I think the only visual replica I have seen is from a mod from neverwinter nights called Moria Eternal, in which the evil iggy in that game was a halfling looking creature with wings.

[Djabanete]

Zephyr hounds make Angband the game that it is.

[Malak Darkhunter]

Don't breath attacks from hounds already hurt other creatures? Does light and dark attacks not? Can't say I've ever noticed those other attacks hurting other creatures.

[Nick]

Just like Evil Iggy's, what exactly is an Evil Iggy?

I believe he was named after a successful character in the very early days of Angband.

[Malak Darkhunter]

I believe he was named after a successful character in the very early days of Angband.

believe it or not nick, I remember the evil iggy way back to my old moria day's actually I think one of the first winners of moria ,was a halfling rogue called the evill iggy. And Robert allan koneke made the evill iggy a monster in moria, as a congratulations to the player who beat the balrog.

[Derakon]

From this page:

In the following two years, I listened a lot to my players and kept making enhancements to the game to fix problems, to challenge them, and to keep them going. If anyone managed to win, I immediately found out how, and 'enhanced' the game to make it harder. I once vowed it was 'unbeatable', and a week later a friend of mine beat it! His character, 'Iggy', was placed into the game as 'The Evil Iggy', and immortalized… And of course, I went in and plugged up the trick he used to win…