FAAngband 1.4.4 Monster Mana

[Saru]

tl dr: Is there any way to remove monster mana consistently?

Are there any ways to destroy or drain monster mana pools other than the assassin specialty ability? I think I've had chaos strike remove some of their mana with a necromancer, so I was wondering if there is a way to do this consistently somehow. Maybe using mage's chaos ball in the 8th book?

Not adept enough to understand all the source code, so I'd be grateful if somebody knew the odds for this kind of effect to happen, or any additional ways to remove a spellcaster's mana.

Thanks!

[Nick]

The only things that reduce a monster's mana are:

• Using it to cast spells
• The Mana Burn specialty ability
• If a monster walks over a rune of mana, some of its mana will drain into the rune
• Disenchantment attacks (I think the only way a player can get these is from Chaos or Balance DSM)
• Chaos attacks have a chance to set monster mana to a random value (so if it's more than half gone already, it's more likely to increase than decrease)

So basically it's just a matter of waiting until it runs out.

[Saru]

Cool, thanks! Do you know about how likely it is for the chaos effect to trigger? I'm sort of caught up in the idea of actually interacting with and making monster mana relevant, since I always seem to be able to kill spellcasters before they even use 1/2 of their pool.

As an aside, does rune of mana drain a percentage of their pool, or a set amount?

Thanks!

[Nick]

The mana randomisation is one of 14 chaotic effects; they trigger one in five times when hit by a chaos spell, and one in ten when hit by a weapon of Chaos in melee.

Rune of mana drains a flat 20 mana (same as mana burn). For reference, a novice mage has 40 mana, Mim has 72, Vecna has 185.