The Hardest part of Angband

[fph]

Use asymmetric LoS as helper:

   #.#
####x#
..@..#
######

You are safe at that position.

Yet another powerful trick that long-time players use but one must know in advance... this kinda proves the OP's point.

[Timo Pietilä]

(On a related topic, I thought Angband used to preserve what you learned about Monsters across all your characters; you'd get things like 'you ancestors have killed 54 of these creatures, and 3 of your ancestors have been killed by this creature' type information + all the regular information those characters has found out; but I've not seen that in a long time - why was it taken out?)

It's still there, but you have to use previous savefile to get it. Instead of selecting "new" open an old char. Monster memory is saved into savefile.

[Timo Pietilä]

That sounds to me like very good advice; but saying "avoid the poison-breathing monsters" (if one lacks rPoison) is only helpful to players who know which monsters those are. I agree that ultimately the way one learns, and gets better at Angband is to descend (deep), die, and learn.

Use probing. That's what it is for.

Use asymmetric LoS as helper:

   #.#
####x#
..@..#
######

You are safe at that position.

[Quendus]

That's why full monster knowledge should be a birth option, not a cheat option.

[Mark]

So...

...I've noticed a few times on the forums, it is espoused that a good choice or strategy is to avoid monsters that can kill you. (i.e. you don't necessary need resistances to withstand them, or to stay above a certain depth as a safeguard, but simply avoid them when you detect them.)

That sounds to me like very good advice; but saying "avoid the poison-breathing monsters" (if one lacks rPoison) is only helpful to players who know which monsters those are. I agree that ultimately the way one learns, and gets better at Angband is to descend (deep), die, and learn. But we can hardly call that easy. (So when someone says "it's easy, just avoid such monsters", it is in fact not easy). I find it a pretty depressing way to learn my lessons and build up a knowledge of things that can one-shot you.

I like that 'player knowledge' is a key part of the game, it rewards the long-time player; but it feels it comes at too cruel a cost for newbies.

There are some especially dangerous monsters that the game warns the player about up front - namely Uniques. You can identify them immediately from the name, description and sometimes from being rendered in purple. (Some Uniques of course are not particularly dangerous, but better a false positive than a false negative where danger is concerned)

What if there were another category of monsters - Powerful Monsters. These are those that can breathe (or melee?) over X raw damage in one shot. This could be communicated as an early line in the description "It is powerful". Or possibly through naming the monster "The <X>". "The Winged Horror"; "The Dracolisk" vs "a black orc", "a ghost". That doesn't tell you anything specific about the monster's attack; just that you should proceed with caution.

While for some monsters, like an Ancient Red Dragon it is fair to assume will breathe a high amount of fire damage and a Shardstorm will breath Shards; it doesn't seem fair that the only way players learn "A Winged Horror" breathes deadly amounts of Nether, Poison or Darkness, is after the fact!

(On a related topic, I thought Angband used to preserve what you learned about Monsters across all your characters; you'd get things like 'you ancestors have killed 54 of these creatures, and 3 of your ancestors have been killed by this creature' type information + all the regular information those characters has found out; but I've not seen that in a long time - why was it taken out?)