Can't *Destroy* uniques?

[chandergovind]

Am I right in assuming that Staff/Scroll of *Destruction* let's uniques escape away unscathed?

Was facing the Balrog of Moria and got irritated that it was draining the charges from the Staff that I was saving, and I used it out of spite.

The monster knowledge still shows it as alive. So I am guessing the in game explanation is that the floor gives away and while normal monsters would die from the tumble down, Uniques find them selves in another part of the dungeon and roar futilely knowing that they can't reach the insolent intruder. :-)

I was hoping that I would find the Balrog knocked out and some cool artifacts under the rubble.... :-)

[fph]

That is correct. *Destruction* removes items and monsters from the area, but it does not kill them. In particular, you will find no loot, and uniques don't count as killed. You need to kill them the old-fashioned way.

[Derakon]

There are a few ways of removing monsters from levels, and they all work the same way: no experience, no loot, and the monster can be re-generated later. Destruction is the most common by far, but Earthquake can also do it to non-uniques, and monsters (including uniques) can be trampled by a few other monsters. Trampling in particular is a little hard to explain why the unique can come back. But just take it as given that unless you personally deliver the fatal strike, the unique is still alive and will show up again later.

[PopTart]

What if you've damaged a unique almost to the point of death, and then another monster delivers the killing blow with such as a breath attack? Does your character still get the XP and does the unique stay dead?

[Derakon]

Last I checked, monsters are unable to reduce other monsters to zero HP. The player is the only entity that can kill uniques.

[wobbly]

Monsters can die to friendly fire. All kills go to the player.

[Nick]

To clarify:

• Monsters can kill other non-unique monsters, but not uniques.
• If a monster does damage to a unique that would have killed it, the unique's HP is set to 0.
• The player only gets experience from a monster kill when it results from the player's action.

[Derakon]

Er, right, I meant to say "monsters are unable to kill uniques", not "monsters are unable to kill monsters".

And Angband is a strange game in that 0 HP is still alive. That one-HP grace has saved my characters' lives on more than one occasion though.