Hunting Smeagol

[krugar]

Hello everyone, first post here. Playing 3.1.2v2 with a Dunedain Ranger.

I've recently found Smeagol in 300' (L7). I wasn't ready for him because I had no means of detecting invisibility and had no infravision. I had one potion only which did help me identify him.

I've visited town when I finished that level and stocked myself. I'd like to encounter the sneaky bastard again. He's terribly difficult to kill for me. I'm doing 2x Blows with a Trident (1d10) (+3,+5). So I'd like to try some strategies, like confusing him or making him sleep. All to try and avoid him phasing everytime he successfully steals money.

Can I hope to encounter him back again on 300' (L6)? Or since I went to town, he will be spawned again randomly?

[Derakon]

Every level in Angband is regenerated randomly each time you visit it, and that includes the monsters on the level. So no, you can't count on meeting Smeagol again -- ever! But statistically speaking, you'll likely run into him again eventually.

Generally speaking I wouldn't recommend spending too much effort on killing him at this stage. He has way more hitpoints than anything else in the area, he's fast, he's invisible, and he constantly runs away. Confusion won't make a difference (he's basically always confused), and sleeping won't accomplish much as he'll wake up as soon as you hit him. And besides, his drop stinks.

Wait until later and you'll be able to walk over him without any serious effort.

[nullfame]

I often don't kill him at all. I don't hunt him down in depth since, as you're seeing, it is a major resource drain early. By the time I can kill him with ease he runs away because I am too powerful and he isn't worth chasing.

[krugar]

Thank you folks. Will surely do as you suggest.

[Tiburon Silverflame]

He's a lesson to the newbies...you don't have to kill everything you see.

Also, melee's my last choice against him. He tries to steal from you, then teleport away. And he's healing while you try to find him. At this point, money's still an issue, so odds are it's just a losing proposition.

The one situation where I might try taking him out early, is if I've gotten lucky with wands, where I don't mind burning out 3 or 4 of them. I can still get a decent price for them empty, and some (magic missile, maybe stinking cloud) probably aren't valuable enough. BUT, note that I said, 3 or 4 wands. It'll take a long time to get him just with wand MMs; he really does have a sick number of hit points. Oh, and the goal here would be a nice, big room and some phase doors. And, preferably something reasonably high-damage to finish him off once I actually wear him down to * or **.

[Derakon]

Tiburon: remember also that you need either See Invisible or a strong infravision to spot him; at the depth he first shows up that means you're playing a High-Elf or a Dwarf. A Dunedain will only know what's stealing from him if he has an appropriate potion or Detect Invisible spell handy -- and the latter only last for one turn.

[Pete Mack]

There's one other point about Smeagol: his drop at native depth isn't likely to be all that good. Deeper in the dungeon it gets better. The same holds for Wormtongue, who has a guaranteed excellent (ego or artifact) drop. So for any number of reasons, they aren't worth hunting down the first time you see them. Later on, your AC relative to Smeagol will be so high that he pretty much can't hit you. Then you can pick him off, even with minimal infravision.

[krugar]

Well, I did find him again on 350' (L7). He was on a spacious room and a potion of infravision kept him visible for enough time for me to finally be able to kill him with a combination of magic missile and arrows. Everytime he came in melee range I would use a Lance of frost (cold damage). With only 39 AC, I'm somewhat surprised he was never able to actually hit me during those brief melees.

I was unfortunate however. He dropped nothing. Just a measly 64 copper pieces. Nothing in the way of equipment.

[Hariolor]

I remember when I started playing Angband a couple years ago I loved to kill Smeagol within the first ten levels - he was basically a guaranteed way to get the Phial and/or a couple other nice overpowered (for that depth) items.

Nowdays he seems to be guaranteed to drop nothing but gold, and is a huge waste of time. I usually end up accidentally killing him around DL 30 these days with collateral damage, or out of frustration if he tries to steal from me (the nerve!).

As Tiburon said, at some point he went from a viable target to a living lesson in futility.

[buzzkill]

Well, I did find him again on 350' (L7). He was on a spacious room and a potion of infravision kept him visible for enough time for me to finally be able to kill him with a combination of magic missile and arrows. Everytime he came in melee range I would use a Lance of frost (cold damage). With only 39 AC, I'm somewhat surprised he was never able to actually hit me during those brief melees.

My 2 scents. Avoiding uniques is easy. Killing them is fun, though it's seldom worth the trouble. Do what makes you happy. Personally, if I think that i might be able to kill a particular unique when I encounter it, I will certainly try. My approach may not be the best strategy in the long run, but (aside from killing uniques) what else is there to do. I like using WoW's to soften up early uniques that are probably too tough for me. A lucky ball spell or two can erase half their HP.

[krugar]

My approach may not be the best strategy in the long run, but (aside from killing uniques) what else is there to do.

Yes, I do tend to agree. I get a lot of enjoyment from planning strategies around the concept of uniques (and I'm certain around certain non-uniques I may find in the future).

The trick is, of course, not getting killed. But that too is one step closer to winning the game in the future. In any case, uniques do have an aura of excitment and the promise of rewards that are hard to ignore. I certainly don't play the game to kill everything on a dungeon (albeit I have for the past 9 levels). But I'm not ready to ignore a monster on sight either, unless death is obvious.

[Tiburon Silverflame]

I like taking out the uniques too; to me, they're the True Enemies to be beaten on the way to taking out the Big Guy. (This applies most heavily to any of the humanoid uniques, and of course the Ringwraiths.)

But Smeagol, the first or sometimes even second time you run across him, is just a nuisance. He probably can't kill you; even if he can hit you, he can't do that much damage, and he's so erratic in his movements that he's not likely to attack, attack, attack. The one thing he *does* have, is boatloads of hit points...FAR more than even the rest of the early dungeon uniques.

[Derakon]

By way of comparison, here's the uniques near Smeagol:

Fang: level 2, 25 HP, fast, per-round damage cap 8
Grip: same as Fang
Bullroarer: level 5, 60 HP, fast, per-round damage cap 32
Mughash: level 7, 150 HP, normal speed, per-round damage cap 30

Smeagol: level 3, 400 HP, very fast, per-round damage cap 12

Of course, Fang, Grip, and Smeagol all move erratically and thus are unlikely to get anywhere near their damage caps. Smeagol has a 1d4 eat-gold attack and nothing else; he'd have to try to walk into you three times (odds of, what, 1 in 27 if you're standing next to him in a corridor?) and then get very lucky with his rolls to even hit you.

[Tiburon Silverflame]

Keep going with just the hit points.

Wormy: level 8, 250 hp
Lagduf: level 8, 190 hp
Grishnakh: level 10, 230 hp
Golfimbul: level 12, 240 hp
Ufthak: level 14, 320 hp
Ulfast: level 16, 340 hp

The first unique to have more hp than Smeagol, is Nar...DL 17. And @ is usually going to be dealing considerably more damage by the time one reaches DL 17, by comparison to DL 5.