Frogcomposband Demonic Summoner Counterplay

[archolewa]

Anybody have any counter-play for warrior-types against Demon summoners? Many of them are immune to Confusion and they. Just. Keep. Summoning. Demons. Over. And. Over. And. Over. Again. I'm doing the Old Castle Quest, and I've spent the last like 45 to an hour just fighting summoned demons.

In a normal dungeon I would just avoid greater demons, but that isn't an option in these quests. Plus, the quest itself is mostly large empty rooms, and the summoning enemies in Frocomposband are too smart to get lured into anti-summoning corridors, though I can mostly deal with their summons that way.

[Sideways]

Demon summonspam getting out of hand in quests is very bad, so the top advice has to be 'don't let demon summonspam get out of hand in quests.' Helps to be famiiliar with the demons - which ones summon, which ones are confusable, which ones can be killed fairly quickly - so you can prioritize the top targets.

If massive demon summonspam does happen in a quest, try to minimize the number of summoners in LOS at any one time. Optimal is fighting the summoners one by one; helps to lure them into corridors and other cramped areas, even if they're not traditional ASCs, but even in open areas one summoner is better than 10 or 100. If the demons absolutely want to stick together at the far end of a big open room and refuse to separate or close in, you can try to approach them very carefully and TO the nearest demons while the others are too far away to react, it will of course throw the nearest demons into unpredictable places but at least it will separate them from the main pack.

Old Castle has more favorable terrain for fighting demonspam than the Cloning Pits, but also a higher probability of seeing nycadaemons. Don't fight other demons with a nycadaemon in sight; if you cannot immediately engage the nycadaemon (because it's too far away or because it would allow too many summons from other summoners) then it's better to teleport or occasionally to teleport it.

Sometimes there's just no hope, and you have to grab what loot you can and abandon the quest (unless you are bostock, in which case you pretend the situation isn't hopeless and pull some magic trick out of the bag and kill everybody).

[archolewa]

Old Castle has more favorable terrain for fighting demonspam than the Cloning Pits, but also a higher probability of seeing nycadaemons..

Yeah, I once had a Qulythug unique spawn in the Cloning Pits,sitting right smack dab in the middle of the south room. It did not go well.

What you suggested is pretty much what I did. The problem was the castle spawned some Lesser Balrogs. They have lots of HP. Dont think I saw Nycademons. A lot of demons whose name starts with B. A few eldritch horrors. Father Dagon.

But I managed to kill them all. Polearm masters are kind of awesome.

Thanks for the suggestions!

[CyclopsSlayer]

Depends if you can tunnel a classic Anti-summoning corridor. Zig-zag tunnel so that at most you are fighting 2 mobs at a time. A few bends and all you need to worry about is a mere fraction of the foes that appear out in the open.
A caveat, the recent increase in tunnelers can easily ruin your day. High stealth, a ranged weapon, pick off the tunnelers before they can get started.

[archolewa]

Anti-summoning corridors are my go-to strategy. The tricky part is that many enemies are smart enough not to engage me in one, though most of the time a long enough corridor means they will come in part way and I can close the gap.

However many quest levels have few to no places to build a corridor, and you cant even use Earthquake to block some LOS!

Basically quests negate or mostly negate the tools my warriors have for controlling LOS, so I was wondering if anyone had alternate strategies.

[CyclopsSlayer]

Anti-summoning corridors are my go-to strategy. The tricky part is that many enemies are smart enough not to engage me in one, though most of the time a long enough corridor means they will come in part way and I can close the gap.

However many quest levels have few to no places to build a corridor, and you cant even use Earthquake to block some LOS!

Basically quests negate or mostly negate the tools my warriors have for controlling LOS, so I was wondering if anyone had alternate strategies.

Kind of an extreme reaction, but, a non-corporeal race, *might* be an option. Just step into a wall, stone-to-mud a one space hideout to rest in. Admittedly I've never tried it, but have thought about it.

[Thraalbee]

Yeah but those tend to be less buff and kill slower so tend to be tedious to play in such a situation