Hounds

[Wraitheist]

I'm hanging around 900-1000 right now until I get some kind of free-action equipment, but the various types of hounds are a major pain, especially those that destroy my equipment. Now, I have armor with acid resistance on it, but that doesn't stop acid from destroying my stuff, right? So how do I stop losing items from fire/acid, etc.? Also, any tips on fighting hounds? Do you guys keep monster detection items around? I'm a fighter and I think it would be costly and tedious to be be casting something like that constantly.

[d1sc0nnected]

Items with acid resistance will not be harmed by acid. Anything with "Not harmed by the elements" in the description will..well not be harmed by the elements. But having an amulet of resist acid does not protect all of your equipment.

I just run away from water hounds, and usually fire and cold hounds as well, as they're just not worth the aggravation. As a fighter, You want to be looking for rods of detection. When playing fighters I'll carry a stack of them so I can pop them off just as if I was a mage.

[Rizwan]

Absolutely hate the nasty little buggers By the time you get the kit to be able to deal with them its not even worth it. Just head down to about 1500 and they thin out a bit and also you can find stat gain potions there. Its just not worth fighting them at all but after I get the kit I kill them all just on general principles

[Mondkalb]

But, deeper in the dungeon there are even nastier hounds. You'll never get rid of them.
For me, hounds and undead creatures are by far the most annoying monsters in the game.

[Pete Mack]

If you have detection equipment, definitely use it. However, warriors are unlikely to get full detection until fairly late, and detect evil doesn't help on hounds.


Check the black market and armory for Free Action gear. 1000 is the worst level for equipment damage--all the elemental hounds are native, and their density has not yet been diluted by deeper monsters. If you can't kill hounds in a single turn, try to run away.
* Close doors behind you. Hounds like to stand behind closed doors waiting to get the drop.
* Teleport away. Using your staff of teleportation once to get away from water hounds is a lot cheaper than losing the whole thing to acid.

Hounds are much easier to kill with ESP. Later in the game, some of the high-level hounds are easy to kill for a lot of experience.

[Nick]

Hounds are much easier to kill with ESP.

What, Darth Vader style?

[zaimoni]

* Close doors behind you. Hounds like to stand behind closed doors waiting to get the drop.

Hounds also like to break down doors. It depends on the door arrangement which ones should be closed.

[Big Al]

But at least you can see them coming if you close the doors...

[Pete Mack]

I missed one useful tactic. Illuminate hallways with light rods (and rooms with rods of illumination or the phial.) This helps against a lot more than hounds.

[Malak Darkhunter]

I usually just phase door, or run to the nearest corridor and hide around a corner.They can't use their breath weapons on you that way, and your only fighting them one at a time.

[Pete Mack]

I usually just phase door, or run to the nearest corridor and hide around a corner.They can't use their breath weapons on you that way, and your only fighting them one at a time.

That doesn't usually work very well with smart-packs enabled (the default). They won't come around a corner unless they think you are vulnerable to multiple attacks. You need to go around a corner into a room, and kill them instantly as they enter. But it only works if you can kill them in a single turn. If you have stone to mud or good tunneling, you can create a small room in an existing hallway; that's safer than using a full-sized room.

   # #
####Z####
# @Z
#
#

With smart-packs and insufficient killing power, you probably need to run. Eventually you will outdistance your pursuers.

[roustk]

That doesn't usually work very well with smart-packs enabled (the default). They won't come around a corner unless they think you are vulnerable to multiple attacks.

They will also pursue you if you are sufficiently hurt. (The threshold seems to be about 50%.)

On very rare occasion I will step into a room of hounds, take a couple rounds of breaths, and then back into the hallway to finish them one by one. Light and dark hounds are good early candidates for this, earth hounds are okay later. Inertia hounds practically beg for it. Vague rule of thumb: you need to be able to take a dozen or two breaths safely, be able to kill a hound in a couple blows, and have a corner close to the room.

Kevin

[zaimoni]

That doesn't usually work very well with smart-packs enabled (the default). They won't come around a corner unless they think you are vulnerable to multiple attacks.

True (although in V under 50% hp counts as vulnerable). Recall that you pretty much need ESP/telepathy to target smart packs intelligently: both near-misses from ball spells, and hockey-puck targeting, work in V. [They will not enter los, but will enter the hockey-puck projectability zone. Hockey-puck targeting obviously doesn't work in variants that have explicitly quashed such targeting.]