Best melee?

[Derakon]

Drolems are non-evil and mindless, yes, so your only options for detecting them at range are Detect Monsters and Detection. However, in my experience the window between Drolems showing up and priest-types getting Godly Insights is typically quite small, so as noted, it's just the warriors getting screwed here.

[Magnate]

Originally Posted by Derakon

Drolems are non-evil and mindless, yes, so your only options for detecting them at range are Detect Monsters and Detection. However, in my experience the window between Drolems showing up and priest-types getting Godly Insights is typically quite small, so as noted, it's just the warriors getting screwed here.

And anyone who is blind, which is what started this whole conversation ...

[Swede2378]

But thankfully I'm a warrior with a rod of detection... and have only seen one so far and ran away as fast as I could...

[Derakon]

Originally Posted by Magnate

And anyone who is blind, which is what started this whole conversation ...

My point was that anyone except a warrior should be trivially able to detect the drolem before it starts marauding its way through the dungeon. Surely you don't spend anywhere near a significant fraction of your time blinded, right?

[Magnate]

Originally Posted by Derakon

My point was that anyone except a warrior should be trivially able to detect the drolem before it starts marauding its way through the dungeon. Surely you don't spend anywhere near a significant fraction of your time blinded, right?

Indeed not, but once you're blind, you don't know if the drolem you detected previously has woken up and moved. I once lost a promising char to *exactly* this - got blinded, had ESP so didn't care, got gassed by a drolem I had previously detected (asleep) and had forgotten about ...

[buzzkill]

Drolems are over rated and not all that common (IMO). I've been killed a lot, but only once by a drolem. A drolem I was fully aware of. I get that drolems are hard to detect, but the mindless drolem is usually the least of my concerns once I reach drolem depth.

[Tiburon Silverflame]

Methinks play style is crucial here. For the free-fallers, drolems are much more of a risk. For me, I'll agree they're a significant problem through DL 50-55, but after that, what worries me a LOT more, among the monsters invisible to ESP, are the Qs.

[Derakon]

Originally Posted by Tiburon Silverflame

Methinks play style is crucial here. For the free-fallers, drolems are much more of a risk.

I'd argue the exact opposite. Those that dive rapidly through the depth at which drolems are most prevalent are far less likely to encounter them than those who linger. Sure, encountering one would be comparatively more dangerous for a diver, since they're underpowered, but not significantly so; drolems are badass enemies regardless of how powerful you are.

[Timo Pietilä]

Originally Posted by Magnate

Aren't drolems both non-evil and invisible? That makes them pretty hard to detect IIRC, since Reveal Monsters is pretty expensive. Besides, if you're blind you can't cast spells, and your device success plummets too ...

Drolems are not invisible, but they are empty-minded which means they do not appear in ESP.

I don't think blindness affects your device skill. Melee yes, but devices are OK while blinded. Confusion wrecks your device success.

[Derakon]

Originally Posted by Timo Pietilä

I don't think blindness affects your device skill. Melee yes, but devices are OK while blinded. Confusion wrecks your device success.

Having recently looked at the device activation code, you're correct. Blindness has no effect. IIRC confusion halves your success rate.