More sensible group monster amounts

[fizzix]

I think that Bill, Tom, and Bert are fine, really -- they're not too difficult to avoid, and by the time you can face one, odds are decent you can face the others too back-to-back (or at least teleport away and rest up). I'm less fond of the giants showing up in groups though.

What changes if any would you like to see for the giants? The two Umbar-ians?

[Derakon]

I think having solo giants appear with a smattering of hounds is fine; the giants don't need to appear in groups. I always imagined giants as being rather solitary creatures anyway.

If you do want them to appear in groups, that needs to happen well after they first start showing up. An individual giant is actually a fairly challenging melee opponent when you first see them; they don't need the power boost from showing up in groups until later after they're individually less of a threat. A weird analogy would be if you first started seeing Forest Trolls singly at 400' or something -- they'd be difficult but doable. If they started showing up in groups at that depth, though, then you'd have a problem.

[PowerWyrm]

I'm just porting this for my variant, and it will be fun to do the same with all extra monsters that had FRIENDS or ESCORT flags...

In the process, I've found a couple (minor) issues:
- typos: I don't know if it matters, but some names don't have the right case (for example: Greater balrog when it should be Greater Balrog)
- alignment: in standard D&D, an adventuring party can't have both good and evil members, so I would change some of the friends for them (for example: don't put Black knights with Paladins)

[fizzix]

I'm just porting this for my variant, and it will be fun to do the same with all extra monsters that had FRIENDS or ESCORT flags...

In the process, I've found a couple (minor) issues:
- typos: I don't know if it matters, but some names don't have the right case (for example: Greater balrog when it should be Greater Balrog)
- alignment: in standard D&D, an adventuring party can't have both good and evil members, so I would change some of the friends for them (for example: don't put Black knights with Paladins)

I'll try to fix the case typos, but I'm pretty sure they don't matter.

I'm also pretty sure that the enemy paladins in angband are "evil" paladins, whatever that means.

[Derakon]

I'm also pretty sure that the enemy paladins in angband are "evil" paladins, whatever that means.

Angband is pretty inconsistent about which enemies are evil. Acolytes aren't evil, but priests are. Soldiers aren't evil, swordsmen aren't evil, hardened warriors are. The last two are especially weird because "swordsman" has been renamed to "Easterling warrior", and "hardened soldier" to "Easterling champion"! So the champions are evil, but the rank and file aren't.

In any case, I'm pretty sure none of the paladin line are evil; just misguided and overzealous.

[takkaria]

I'm just porting this for my variant, and it will be fun to do the same with all extra monsters that had FRIENDS or ESCORT flags...

In the process, I've found a couple (minor) issues:
- typos: I don't know if it matters, but some names don't have the right case (for example: Greater balrog when it should be Greater Balrog)

If you're not getting errors at game load then it's finding them fine - the comparisons are case-insensitive.

[LostTemplar]

I'm also pretty sure that the enemy paladins in angband are "evil" paladins, whatever that means.

Maybe they are just trying to avenge all that innocent townsfolk, killed by @.

[Timo Pietilä]

Maybe they are just trying to avenge all that innocent townsfolk, killed by @.

"evil" is subject to the point of view. I'm pretty sure all the orcs see you as evil while they are good.

[PowerWyrm]

I've checked monster.txt again and all liches now have friends except Demiliches. Also they can't appear in Feagwath's escort. Any reason?

[PowerWyrm]

Gothmog should probably have a chance to get Horned Reapers too...

Maybe have Carcharoth and Huan generated together also, although it would make the encounter a tough one.

[fizzix]

I've checked monster.txt again and all liches now have friends except Demiliches. Also they can't appear in Feagwath's escort. Any reason?

I actually removed escorts from Archlichs recently. The skeleton escort was pulling up druj's which isn't cool. Also Archlichs will go through the walls at you so a non-passwall escort is kind of meaningless. I thought ghosts might be ok here.

I could give demilichs escorts. What would you recommend?

I don't like horned reapers as escorts because they trample other monsters.

and Huan + Carcharoth is too hard, although by that point you're definitely going to teleport one away and deal with the other. So maybe.

[LostTemplar]

"evil" is subject to the point of view. I'm pretty sure all the orcs see you as evil while they are good.

In real life good and evil have subjective meaning only, however in general RPG (at least in DnD and similar) 'evil' is not like 'enemy', it is something else, some supernatural purpose of a creature maybe.

[Timo Pietilä]

Gothmog should probably have a chance to get Horned Reapers too...

Horned reapers trample over other demons, so what would be left after that would be those Horned Reapers, Gothmog, Pit Fiends and Greater Balrogs, all others getting wiped out.

[PowerWyrm]

I actually removed escorts from Archlichs recently. The skeleton escort was pulling up druj's which isn't cool. Also Archlichs will go through the walls at you so a non-passwall escort is kind of meaningless. I thought ghosts might be ok here.

I could give demilichs escorts. What would you recommend?

I don't like horned reapers as escorts because they trample other monsters.

and Huan + Carcharoth is too hard, although by that point you're definitely going to teleport one away and deal with the other. So maybe.

Forgot about drujs. Sure isn't a good idea to have a druj escort... or a non-passwall escort anyway for a passwall monster. Ghost escort sounds reasonable.

Demiliches could have the same escort as Master Liches, or only the "zombie" part if the code allows drujs to be generated (Demilich is mlvl54, first druj is mlvl57). Also Feagwath should have them as escort (he can get all three other ones).

[fizzix]

Forgot about drujs. Sure isn't a good idea to have a druj escort... or a non-passwall escort anyway for a passwall monster. Ghost escort sounds reasonable.

Demiliches could have the same escort as Master Liches, or only the "zombie" part if the code allows drujs to be generated (Demilich is mlvl54, first druj is mlvl57). Also Feagwath should have them as escort (he can get all three other ones).

Yeah, we could do that. Demilich's won't pull drujs, if they're deeper, so that's fine.

I think I was surprised that Demilichs weren't half-demon, half-undead which was what I always thought of them as.