Ridiculous death due, in my opinion, to flawed design.

[Nile]

+1

All of them show up relatively early, and each have some combination of fast movement, summoning, and hard-hitting spells/breath. I'd agree that this makes them some of the most interesting enemies as well. Most games I find myself spending a good amount of time and/or resources avoiding them and their summons. Makes for a nice change of pace, and sometimes some fun close calls (sometimes some tragic ones as well).

I'd add Lorgan to this mix, though he can be dispatched a bit earlier on usually.

I'd second adding Lorgan to the list. While he himself is not that bad, summoning death nights and mystics can make him a real pain.

[paboperfecto]

I'm with one of the above posters, I've taken a six month break playing other roguelikes but his thread made me want to play Angband again. Guess I'll give the shiny new 3.2 version a try!

[Timo Pietilä]

I don't think the Cat Lord has ever given me difficulty. As long as you resist his melee attacks (which you should at that depth), he's basically harmless; just a standard melee opponent with a completely pointless summon and lots of hitpoints.

I think the same. Phoenix and Gabriel are also very dangerous not to mention Tarrasque, but those are late game monsters at which point instant death is more likely and you are better suited to handle "one turn and you are toast" situations. Gorlim usually appears way before that, and do surprisingly high amount of damage in very short time.

[Derakon]

I don't think the Cat Lord has ever given me difficulty. As long as you resist his melee attacks (which you should at that depth), he's basically harmless; just a standard melee opponent with a completely pointless summon and lots of hitpoints.

[Magnate]

eek~ gorlim is a killer of me, so is kevlax~ eek.. i dont get kevlax~ a few chars i just raged him... i think i won the first time but ive lost 2 nice chars to him since then... i avoided azriel on the char i saw hm on.. and gorlim is also a killer of me LOL ... i dont know about arpharazon or fundin!

wat about EOL the dark elf!?`! he has slaughtered one of my good chars!?~

Eol and Ar-Pharazon are both JLE additions IIRC, so I don't have as much experience with them, but they could well belong in this category. Kavlax, Gorlim and Azriel are I think the top three in terms of deadliness for their depth. Fundin slightly less so simply because he is quite a lot deeper I think. Cat Lord is also very dangerous but a shade less so than the big three IMO.

[dos350]

Kavlax, Gorlim, Azriel, ArPharazon, Fundin Bluecloak are all delayed till the endgame. I cant remember any stories surrounding them, its been too long ago, but I have this mental note saying "dont touch" and that must be for a reason.

eek~ gorlim is a killer of me, so is kevlax~ eek.. i dont get kevlax~ a few chars i just raged him... i think i won the first time but ive lost 2 nice chars to him since then... i avoided azriel on the char i saw hm on.. and gorlim is also a killer of me LOL ... i dont know about arpharazon or fundin!

wat about EOL the dark elf!?`! he has slaughtered one of my good chars!?~

[Hariolor]

Kavlax, Gorlim, Azriel, ArPharazon, Fundin Bluecloak are all delayed till the endgame. I cant remember any stories surrounding them, its been too long ago, but I have this mental note saying "dont touch" and that must be for a reason.

+1

All of them show up relatively early, and each have some combination of fast movement, summoning, and hard-hitting spells/breath. I'd agree that this makes them some of the most interesting enemies as well. Most games I find myself spending a good amount of time and/or resources avoiding them and their summons. Makes for a nice change of pace, and sometimes some fun close calls (sometimes some tragic ones as well).

I'd add Lorgan to this mix, though he can be dispatched a bit earlier on usually.

[Estie]

Kavlax, Gorlim, Azriel, ArPharazon, Fundin Bluecloak are all delayed till the endgame. I cant remember any stories surrounding them, its been too long ago, but I have this mental note saying "dont touch" and that must be for a reason.

[Timo Pietilä]

One of my favourites is Gorlim. I don't know whether I just meet him too early, or I keep forgetting how deadly water bolts are, but he's killed several of my characters, and he doesn't seem to get easier with experience.

I too have that same problem. Something in Gorlim makes him look less dangerous than he is, which is why I also almost every game try to kill it too soon. Usually I don't die, but it happens every now and then.

[Magnate]

I think pretty much everyone has. Thing is that it might be deadly only at your 50th time you meet it, so it can be surprise even for relatively experienced player.

If it chooses to breathe gravity as its first move you are in trouble. If it chooses to do any other action you are safe.

One of the most interesting monsters in the game, and as such one of the best designed as well. That's a bit like AMHD in Moria, but not quite as deadly.

One of my favourites is Gorlim. I don't know whether I just meet him too early, or I keep forgetting how deadly water bolts are, but he's killed several of my characters, and he doesn't seem to get easier with experience. He's one of the reasons I like purple uniques, 'cos I keep thinking he's a ranger or archer or something.

[Timo Pietilä]

I've done the ol' "Kavlax is only a lowercase d, how hard could he be?" thing before...

I think pretty much everyone has. Thing is that it might be deadly only at your 50th time you meet it, so it can be surprise even for relatively experienced player.

If it chooses to breathe gravity as its first move you are in trouble. If it chooses to do any other action you are safe.

One of the most interesting monsters in the game, and as such one of the best designed as well. That's a bit like AMHD in Moria, but not quite as deadly.

[rdermyer]

I was running around with Bard dropping 'D's like they're Snagas and I see a unique 'd' so I think Bard will tear through this one too.

It breathes, you die.

I've done the ol' "Kavlax is only a lowercase d, how hard could he be?" thing before...

[Timo Pietilä]

Seems to be along the same line of the Death Mold in V.

Silver jelly?

[Max Stats]

This reminds my of one monster I made on purpose to indicate that instadeath was definitely a possibility in Animeband. Perhaps a variation of this unique should be put into V? Death has -10 to speed, so you really have no excuse for getting killed by him, especially since he can't be summoned. He also has an ALWAYS_HIT flag so that he will never miss if he gets a melee chance on you....which would really be your own damn fault.

Seems to be along the same line of the Death Mold in V.

[Zappa]

I've died a lot and only won once.

One death in particular I give a lot of credit for my win: Kavlax.

I was running around with Bard dropping 'D's like they're Snagas and I see a unique 'd' so I think Bard will tear through this one too.

It breathes, you die.

That was the last time that happened.