Somewhat good start.

[Twilight]

Originally Posted by Timo Pietilä

FA isn't actually much a problem in current vanilla if you just have high AC and decent saving throw. I made some testing and you can recover from completely surrounded by ghouls if you just have high enough HP, AC somewhere in 75+ and saving throw in 75-80% or something which shouldn't take long to achieve with Dwarf Priest (32 + 9 + (1.2 x 24) = ~70% already without counting WIS-bonus. Against single ghoul in corridor I suspect that much less than that is required to survive. High AC helps to avoid paralyzation attacks and those that get thru has saving throw size chance to fail to paralyze you.

Later in game when even one turn without action can be fatal you would need to be more careful.

Ah - I've just avoided FA situations as per usual. I hadn't really thought about the change regarding FA. Thanks for the info! Now I must immediately go hug carrion crawlers/ghouls just to check the limits with this character ... or perhaps not.

Edit: ... of course stripping one armor piece off one at the time to some mood music to see the AC-limits ... but perhaps it's not my dwarf alter ego that'll be paralyzed in that case, but probably the poor ghoul's.

Edit: ... and died to a Trappers paralyze melee at 2200'. I guess the crappy AC caught up with me there (80% save). And also a mistake to not see it I guess. Oh well - next!

[Timo Pietilä]

Originally Posted by Twilight

Edit: ... and died to a Trappers paralyze melee at 2200'. I guess the crappy AC caught up with me there (80% save). And also a mistake to not see it I guess. Oh well - next!

IIRC monsters have some level-based chance to hit you, so it isn't flat AC vs attack. Trapper is native to 1800, while ghouls are 1300', and carrion crawlers (two versions) 1250' and 1700'. Also Trapper hits hurt a lot more than carrion crawlers or ghouls. It also has two 15d1 hits, which in addition to paralyzation also stun like master mystic. Much nastier.

[Twilight]

Originally Posted by Timo Pietilä

IIRC monsters have some level-based chance to hit you, so it isn't flat AC vs attack. Trapper is native to 1800, while ghouls are 1300', and carrion crawlers (two versions) 1250' and 1700'. Also Trapper hits hurt a lot more than carrion crawlers or ghouls. It also has two 15d1 hits, which in addition to paralyzation also stun like master mystic. Much nastier.

Yes, you're right. The different attacks have different bonuses and monster level affects it IIRC from sourcediving for it several years ago. I most probably got knocked out while being paralyzed then. I clicked past it quickly to see if I recovered, so I most likely missed it.

The Trapper is quick as well with 2(?) paralyzing attacks. So I guess it may be the most dangerous foe if you don't have FA. It's not that easy to detect and avoid, since it's not even evil.

Learned something from this anyway. Trapper without FA at depth might even be near Stormbringer (Z2.2.8) in danger ... or perhaps not! That sword-mimic knocked out and killed more high-level characters than I care to remember back when I played Z. "Ah - must pick up that shiny sword ... oops!"

[Derakon]

Ahh, Stormbringer.

On the plus side, it had no non-melee attacks and you were guaranteed to get the ludicrously overpowered artifact Blade of Chaos 'Stormbringer' (vampiric with no per-round HP gain cap, among other useful abilities) when you killed it.

I had a Klackon Warrior who once farmed Great Wyrms with Stormbringer, without bothering to use an anti-summoning corridor. Sure, if they all breathed at once he was dead, but they didn't, and any non-fatal damage they dealt could be healed back up by attacking something.