Most Lethal and Most Irritating Non-Uniques?

[Egavactip]

What is your top 10 list for most lethal non-uniques? What about most irritating ones?

I like the tactical aspects of Angband more than anything else, so I like to seek out a battle and find ways to win it, rather than run away. But sometimes, ya just gots to run away, unless you can teleport or banish them away.

Grand Master Mystics probably are on my Top 10 list in both categories. They seem to be able to kill anybody, and they are extraordinarily aggravating. Even minor mystics are aggravating.

Quylthulgs are always irritating and deep in the dungeon, the nastier ones can be a royal pain in the ass, if in a hard to get to place, because they just pop out nasties at you. A game or two back, I had a randart with banishment, and every vault I'd tackle, I'd sweep out all the Quythulgs first, as a matter of principle.

Hellhounds may be my top most irritating non-unique and I absolutely adore it when I get what ever powers/equipment I need so that they are no longer a bother to me. When that happens, I will go out of my way to squash a hellhound, so much residual irritation I still have at them. I view them like many people view house centipedes.

Obviously, hounds in general are irritating and some of the later ones are also pretty deadly. Time Hounds seem particularly irritating to me; I had one randart which protected me from them (restoration? I forget what exactly it had), so then I didn't have to avoid them. But most of the time, I don't like to have to deal with them.

I don't like the major vampires, primarily because the experience points you get for killing them do not seem equal to their irritation.

Drujs I also find very irritating and a good subject for banishment if I have that handy.

[Bogatyr]

What is your top 10 list for most lethal non-uniques? What about most irritating ones?

Your list is good. Gravity hounds can be extremely lethal. Jabberwockies are extremely lethal, they breath chaos fairly frequently for really big damage and hallucination, I usually do not approach one without an endgame level of hitpoints and chaos resist. Arch Lichs or any really strong wall passers who also summon, like DreadLords, also usually warrant careful attention

[Monkey Face]

Let's face it, there's nothing more embarrassing than getting killed by a fruit bat!

[fizzix]

Death Knights have ended a few characters of mine. They hit for a lot of damage and have damaging spells.

Emperor Wights can surprise one-shot you with a nether bolt, but I usually kill them before they get that attack off. Nether wraiths can do the same, I usually treat them with respect.

Cave spiders are the big early game threat. Don't see them in a dark room, and get surrounded = you're dead.

Hummerhorns are the big breeder threat of death. If you get locked in perma-confuse you're done for unless you have a teleport staff.

Drolems and AMHD's of course. AMHDs are much easier to avoid.

Dracolisks and Dracolichs both have very large nexus and nether breaths which can kill you. The Dracolich is the more dangerous of the two. That breath hits for 500 unresisted I think. Similarly, Great Crystal Drakes can one shot an unwary character when they first show up with a 300 hp shards breath.

Dreads will surround and kill if you're not careful. If you are careful, you'll just get your strength drained in an annoying manner. Later in the game Ethereal hounds will do the same, but by then you better have a means of escape.

Storm Giants, only because they can teleport you into dangerous areas that you'd rather not be. One of the Ainu does the same. Titans can teleport you next to them and then peram-confuse you. They can also one-shot many characters in melee when they first appear.

[debo]

Aranea!!!!!!

[quarague]

I dislike the late game xp drainers that have been mentioned before. Even if you have sustain xp they usually drain more xp than they are worth if you melee them. But then they drop decent loot so usually I just kill them anyway.

[donalde]

For me, I think gravity and plasma hounds are top of list, I have lost quite a few chars when I teleport away from tricky situation into room where there is pack or two of mentioned houds, knocked char out and then slowly killed.

Grand master mystic are real PitA like mentioned earlier posts.

Drolems are killers when they manage to suprise you, and since they are not seen by ESP, running to detection edge is occasionally risky when drolem is out of sight

11 headed hydras in pack are also lethal, as they breath hellfire which stuns

[PowerWyrm]

Once they're added to V: Dark Elven Warlocks
Sky Drakes are nice too

Oh and if you play PWMAngband, try to fight an Ancient Wyrm of Power. It should be a nice surprise...

[Ingwe Ingweron]

Black Reavers.

[Bogatyr]

Black Reavers.

Oh, I HATE those things. Banish!

[Lord Tom]

Irritating: acidic cytoplasms
Lethal: agree with the above, I'd add Death Drakes and Ethereal dragons - both show at level 45, are invisible, go through walls, and can breath light/dark/nether for a fair amount (they have 1848hp)

[mushroom patch]

Aether hounds, chaos hounds, time hounds, and gravity hounds, hands down. Not easy to avoid, often make an otherwise profitable situation not worth it.

[Nomad]

I think Nexus Qs top my 'most irritating' list. All the other annoying monsters are damaging and hard to fight back against, but at least they're something you can run from given the opportunity; Nexus Qs are trivial to destroy but just ping you back across the level again and again and again when you're trying to get to that vault treasure or staircase that you've already cleared all the rest of the monsters from. I have died multiple deaths to frustration because I've just held down the arrow key to fight through a corridor of orcs or something trying to get back to the same corner of the level for the thirty-fourth time. And usually been relieved when I died. (That game where I cleared a zoo of everything but the FOUR Nexus Quylthulgs sitting in there guarding the floor treasure... fun times.)

Hummerhorns are pretty evil as well, because you just can't stay clear-headed long enough to get away. And I actually find Ochre Jellies more of an annoyance than Acidic Cytoplasms - at least by the time you meet the Cytoplasms you've probably got better melee damage, ranged weapons and some escapes, while the Ochre Jellies usually hit you well before you've got the tools to do anything but stand there and get slimed for a few dozen turns of poking it with your pathetic +3 dagger.

[Derakon]

Aether hounds, chaos hounds, time hounds, and gravity hounds, hands down. Not easy to avoid, often make an otherwise profitable situation not worth it.

Aether hounds are nigh-totally neutered by having access to every single breath attack, because they pick elements at random. There's a lot more non-threatening breaths than threatening ones, really. In particular, stuff like gravity, force, and plasma is much less dangerous when you're only getting hit by it once.

Chaos hounds are a pain without resistance, no question, and time/gravity/plasma hounds are all rightfully dangerous, though.

[fizzix]

Aether hounds are nigh-totally neutered by having access to every single breath attack, because they pick elements at random. There's a lot more non-threatening breaths than threatening ones, really. In particular, stuff like gravity, force, and plasma is much less dangerous when you're only getting hit by it once.

Translation: Derakon thinks Aether hounds should breathe only Time, Gravity, Force and Plasma.