Zangband tk Noob Question (Big Dragon Inside)

[Camcolit]

Correct me if I'm wrong but isn't this guy 2500 feet out of depth? How out of depth can monsters get? Is any of that treasure worth sneaking in with my good stealth to get? Will a wand of teleport other work on it? Many thanks.

[Derakon]

Vanilla's monster.txt has great storm worms native to dlvl 63 (3150'), which is well within the range given by certain tiles in vaults, that allow monsters up to 40 levels out of depth. I wouldn't be surprised if ZAngband's monster data is different, but I don't think that it'd have storm worms pushed back that far compared to Vanilla. When all's said and done, the elemental wyrms are relatively easy foes.

[Camcolit]

This is the info I got from http://www.thangorodrim.net/zangband...monsters7.html. Not sure how accurate that is, but level 79 means 3950 feet right?



The Great storm wyrm (Blue 'D' : 'D')
=== Num:728 Lev:79 Rar:2 Spd:120 Hp:1700 AC:65 Exp:939588
A vast dragon of power. Storms and lightning crash around its titanic form. Deep blue scales reflect the flashes and highlight the creature's great muscles. It regards you with contempt.
This evil dragon moves normally. It is always created sluggish. It is surrounded by electricity. It may breathe lightning powerfully, and is also magical, casting spells which terrify, blind, or confuse; 1 time in 6. It can push past weaker monsters, bash down doors, and fly. It resists lightning. It cannot be confused or slept. It pays little attention to intruders, which it may notice from 300 feet. It will carry up to 8 good objects. It can claw to attack with damage 4d12, claw to attack with damage 4d12, claw to attack with damage 4d12, and bite to electrocute with damage 5d14.

[Camcolit]

Oh wait, no it doesn't - this site doesn't seem to give the depths though. Nevermind, I'm sure my brain 1.0 will figure it out eventually.

[camlost]

You can glean the info you want for /lib/edit/m_info.txt or something similar.

While the elemental dragons are reasonably high reward/risk foes, they are still tough; they breathe for a lot of damage, have highish HP, and good melee.

Without a character dump (and more personal experience with Z), I can't say whether you have a reasonable chance of:
1) Killing it by itself
2) Killing it with other stuff around.
3) Safely teleport othering it.

[Camcolit]

I don't think I have any chance of killing it whatsover given that I had to avoid Barney the Dinosaur only a few levels ago!

[ZAngbandTk 2.4.0 Character Dump]

 Name     Kremlath III    Age       112          Self  RB  CB  EB   Best
 Sex      Male            Height     58   STR:     18  +3  +2  +2  18/70
 Race     Vampire         Weight    140   INT:     18  +3  +2  +7 18/120
 Class    Warrior-Mage    Status      3   WIS:     13  -1  +0  +3     15
 Title    Champion        HP    272/272   DEX:     18  -1  +1  +2  18/20
 Realm 1  Arcane          SP    125/125   CON:     13  +1  +0  +2     16
 Realm 2  Death           Maximize    Y   CHR:     17  +2  +1  +1  18/30
 Patron   Khorne          Preserve    Y

 Level           29       Fighting               Saving Throw     Superb
 Cur Exp     169703       + to Skill      18     Stealth          Superb
 Max Exp     169703       Deadliness    196%     Fighting      Excellent
 Adv Exp     187500       Blows/Round      2     Shooting           Good
                                                 Disarming     Excellent
 Gold         88222       Shooting               Magic Device     Superb
                          + to Skill      11     Perception    Excellent
 Armor     [36,+62]       Deadliness    166%     Searching     Very Good
 Burden   134.2 lbs       Shots/Round    1.0     Infravision       80 ft

     In life you were a powerful noble.  You have a hairless
     head, blank white eyes, and a deathly pale complexion.

[Miscellaneous information]

Autoscum: OFF
Small Levels: ON
Arena Levels: ENABLED
Hard Quests: OFF
Num. Random Quests: 20
Nightmare Mode: OFF
Recall Depth: Level 31 (1550')

You have defeated 17467 enemies.


[Character Equipment]

a) The Small Sword 'Sting' (2d6) (+7,+10) (+2)
b) (nothing)
c) a Ring of Slaying (+9,+10) {uncursed}
d) a Marble Ring of Confusion Resistance {uncursed}
e) a Brass Amulet of Brilliance (+3)
f) The Incandescent Light of Edison (+3 to infravision)
g) The Metal Scale Mail of the Unseen (-2) [13,+19] (+4)
h) an Elven Cloak [4,+10] (+4 to stealth)
i) a Large Metal Shield of Resistance [8,+13]
j) an Iron Helm of Beauty [5,+9] (+1) {uncursed}
k) (nothing)
l) a Pair of Metal Shod Boots of Stealth [6,+9] (+2 to stealth)


[Character Inventory]

a) 2 Arcane Spellbooks [Cantrips for Beginners]
b) an Arcane Spellbook [Minor Arcana]
c) 3 Arcane Spellbooks [Major Arcana]
d) 4 Death Spellbooks [Black Prayers]
e) 2 Death Spellbooks [Black Mass]
f) a Clotted Red Potion of Speed
g) 7 Dark Blue Potions of Cure Critical Wounds
h) 3 Yellow Potions of Healing
i) a Metallic Green Potion of Restore Mana
j) 7 Scrolls titled "jahab argtue" of Teleportation
k) 6 Scrolls titled "gop aks odorg" of Word of Recall
l) 11 Scrolls titled "seerhov danvom" of Satisfy Hunger
m) a Hexagonal Rod of Detection
n) a Cast Iron Wand of Teleport Other (11 charges)
o) a Staff of Perception (12 charges)
p) a Lapis Lazuli Ring of Intelligence (+2)
q) a Dwarven Shovel (1d3) (+0,+0) (+3)

[Camcolit]

About the level feelings - for this level I only get 'You have a very bad feeling', not visions of death etc. But I'm pretty sure that this dragon can one-shot me with a breath attack even if I resist lightning. So the level feeling is based on the number of out of depth monsters and not how out of depth they are? I'd be much more comfortable on a level with 20 10-levels OOD monsters than one 40-levels OOD one that could insta-kill me - coming from someone who doesn't know the game. I can understand that the latter might be better for someone who knows what to avoid.

[camlost]

I'd skip the vault, or at least his section if it's compartmentalized. I'd guess he can one-shot you, and he's probably fast to boot.

Lots of things "increase" the level feeling. OOD monsters, good items, etc. I'm not sure of the exact algorithm.

[Camcolit]

I boldly (read 'stupidly') entered the vault and it woke up after I took out a few monsters around it. I immediately teleported and then walked back towards the vault. It had come out on its own a fair bit. So I cast resist lightning to give myself double resist and got into line of sight and used the wand which worked. I explored the vault which had a couple of uniques one of which was Grendel who I couldn't handle but teleport other worked on him too. Nothing but crap stuff in the vault except a scroll of acquirement which gave me.. some bolts

[Camcolit]

Re Breathers in General

What should I do against something like this when there is little access to those high resistances at this depth? There are some rings of resist sound and shards, haven't seen anything for nexus or gravity. Is it just a matter of covering as many as possible and praying it doesn't breathe the others? I have no way of doing a lot of damage quickly to reduce the breath damage. I could just teleport past him like with Barney and come back later but that is cheap and not much fun. Just seems way too powerful for my character. When I got the low hitpoint message with just the breath I though I was dead for sure, but ended up with 1HP.

[U] Kavlax the Many-Headed (Violet 'd' : 'd')
=== Num:616 Lev:61 Rar:3 Spd:120 Hp:800 AC:40 Exp:172272
A large dragon with a selection of heads, all shouting and arguing as they look for prey, but each with its own deadly breath weapon.
This evil dragon moves normally. He is always created sluggish. He may breathe nexus, sound, acid, frost, fire, confusion, lightning, gravity, or shards powerfully

Kavlax the Many-Headed breathes nexus.
You resist the effects!
*** LOW HITPOINT WARNING! ***
Kavlax the Many-Headed bites you.
*** LOW HITPOINT WARNING! ***
Kavlax the Many-Headed misses you.
Kavlax the Many-Headed bites you.
*** LOW HITPOINT WARNING! ***
Kavlax the Many-Headed bites you.
*** LOW HITPOINT WARNING! ***
You have 9 Scrolls titled "jahab argtue" of Teleportation.
You have a Yellow Potion of Healing.

[Derakon]

Kavlax is a ravening badass; you shouldn't be fighting him until much later. He's fast, he has plenty of hitpoints, and above all he breathes gravity, which is unresistable and slows you. If you got a quest for him, well, sorry! Guess you'd better teleport past him. Quests are always tricky to balance, doubly so in ZAngband where there are so many more nasty monsters.

[Camcolit]

Ok cool, thanks for the advice. Yeah, he's a quest monster for me. I'm really enjoying ZAngband but the monster power variance seems very high. I can cruise through most of the stuff with little challenge and then along comes some unique or OOD who can insta-kill me - irritating to get depth-fixed quests to kill something you have zero chance against . I know this variant is not in development any more but I just like complaining.