Nion the stealthy warrior

[Glorfindel]

- Are the staff/wands/rods of slow/stun/hold/confuse/sleep monsters useful the entire game? I use them in the early game then tend to ignore them completely afterwards once my inventory is full.

In my experience, too many midgame and endgame monsters are unaffected by them to make it worthwhile carrying confuse and sleep devices. Around as many monsters resist 'hold monster', but total paralysis is so good that it's worth carrying a little longer, just for the monsters you can still get with it. As the game goes on, however, monsters seem to snap out of it more and more quickly, until it reaches the point where it just isn't doing you any noticeable good, and it should be dropped.

'Slow Monster' and 'Stun Monster' are endgame tools. The vast majority of living monsters can be stunned, and it usually lasts long enough to kill the monster in question. Stunning can make a very big difference to how many blows it takes to bring down a wyrm, and when that is combined with reducing the chances of a 'summon ancient dragons' spell, I wouldn't want to be without it. It's also great for greater demons, who can get you into a horrible runaway summoning chain reaction.

'Slow Monster' isn't as good as 'Stun Monster', I have the impression that both increase your chance of a critical hit, and I want all the help I can get while fighting a black reaver. It works, as far as I can recall, on any monster.

[Pete Mack]

Originally Posted by Glorfindel

In my experience, too many midgame and endgame monsters are unaffected by them to make it worthwhile carrying confuse and sleep devices. Around as many monsters resist 'hold monster', but total paralysis is so good that it's worth carrying a little longer, just for the monsters you can still get with it. As the game goes on, however, monsters seem to snap out of it more and more quickly, until it reaches the point where it just isn't doing you any noticeable good, and it should be dropped.

'Slow Monster' and 'Stun Monster' are endgame tools. The vast majority of living monsters can be stunned, and it usually lasts long enough to kill the monster in question. Stunning can make a very big difference to how many blows it takes to bring down a wyrm, and when that is combined with reducing the chances of a 'summon ancient dragons' spell, I wouldn't want to be without it. It's also great for greater demons, who can get you into a horrible runaway summoning chain reaction.

'Slow Monster' isn't as good as 'Stun Monster', I have the impression that both increase your chance of a critical hit, and I want all the help I can get while fighting a black reaver. It works, as far as I can recall, on any monster.

Stunning reduces monster melee a lot (danage and hit probability) and means the monster occasionally loses a turn. I don't think it has other effects, but these are very good in themselves. I have beaten a horned reapee in melee with a mage just using occasional Ice storms to keep it stunned. (Weapon was MoD of Gondolin, but still.)