Kavlax breathes chaos...

[Oramin]

Agreed, if adding "Many a mid-level adventurer has died instantly to its noxious breath." or some such warning to the description isn't sufficient then they deserve what they get. I wouldn't have problem with the color being changed to alert people that it is a new type of Golem, either.

[fizzix]

Wouldn't it be enough to add the 'great wyrm' reference, maybe throw in something of it being 'a creature that's nearly unique' and maybe a vague hint of poison somewhere along the way. I don't care for the whole lesser/greater thing in general. If you don't read the description of a monster you've never encountered before, it's your funeral.

The main problem with just referencing wyrms or making the text super obvious is there is really no metric of comparison. A player might get hit by an ancient green, and lose 200. Then they next encounter a drolem with some text saying, "this one is extremely dangerous". Maybe they extrapolate to 300 damage, at most 400.

Regardless, it's unlikely any of this will change in V, beyond some flavor changes to the text. It's too hardwired into the game's psyche for better or worse.

[Antoine]

Agreed, if adding "Many a mid-level adventurer has died instantly to its noxious breath." or some such warning to the description isn't sufficient then they deserve what they get. I wouldn't have problem with the color being changed to alert people that it is a new type of Golem, either.

How about a message 'This creaky old creature is stinky but harmless'? That way they learn two lessons at once- dont go near golems and dont trust the flavor text

a.

[Nick]

How about a message 'This creaky old creature is stinky but harmless'? That way they learn two lessons at once- dont go near golems and dont trust the flavor text

Also nerf all its other attacks so the poison breath is a bigger surprise.

[Oramin]

I see...

So you prefer a message like: "The drolem may look like a constructed dragon with an incredibly lethal poison gas breath weapon but it is really just big pussy cat. Go up to it and pet it a few times to hear it purr. Also be sure to take off any poison resistance gear you might have since you don't want to show distrust and hurt its feelings."

[PowerWyrm]

NPP is using 'M' for Kavlax and describes him as "a large hydra". Sounds like a nice idea to fix the problem without nerfing him...

[debo]

We should change Kavlax's chaos breath to a "controversy breath" -- does little damage, but causes confusion and maybe stunning.

[Timo Pietilä]

We should change Kavlax's chaos breath to a "controversy breath" -- does little damage, but causes confusion and maybe stunning.

Hallucination, never stunning. Chaos without resist causes you to hallucinate, drains XP and confuses you. Gravity stuns, blinks you around and slows you. Nexus scrambles stats, teleport, teleport to or teleport level. Shards causes wounds. All are in Kavlax arsenal.

So, two rounds against Kavlax with same speed you might be at lower XP level than you were, with CON swapped with you INT so that you are fragile, stunned, slowed, bleeding, confused, hallucinating and not in the position you used to be within sight of large pack of plasma hounds. (starts with gravity, so that next three moves are double-moves)

Or

you have suffered mild 1st degree burns from his (double-resisted) fire breath twice.

[EDIT] typo corrected
[EDIT EDIT] Forgot confused from that first list.

[jgbrowning]

I'd go with a "D" for him. The little "d" is a bit misleading, IMO.

joe b.

[emulord]

On the mangband forums I voted a multihued M for him. Its a unique character/color, and he's scary enough to deserve it.

[debo]

Oh hell, we should give him 'F'. For "oh FUCK"