Kavlax drops four artifacts

[Thraalbee]

Just killed Kavlax in the current comp and he dropped four artifacts! Can't say I've seen that often. Two of the drops came in handy - Sting and the Phial.

a) the Short Sword 'Sting' (1d7) (+7,+8) <+1, +3, +2>
 Dropped by Kavlax the Many-Headed at 3100 feet (level 62)

f) the Phial of Galadriel <+3>
 Dropped by Kavlax the Many-Headed at 3100 feet (level 62)
 
u) the Battle Axe of Balli Stonehand (3d8) (+8,+11) [+5] <+3, +1>
 Dropped by Kavlax the Many-Headed at 3100 feet (level 62)
 
v) the Battle Axe 'Lotharang' (2d8) (+14,+13) <+3, +1>
 Dropped by Kavlax the Many-Headed at 3100 feet (level 62)

[Rowan]

Originally Posted by Thraalbeast

Just killed Kavlax in the current comp and he dropped four artifacts!

Very cool! Kavlax is one of my least favorite- he always seems to appear either too early to be killable or too late to be useful. Nice to see he managed to give you some good presents this time

[Ingwe Ingweron]

Originally Posted by Rowan

Very cool! Kavlax is one of my least favorite- he always seems to appear either too early to be killable or too late to be useful. Nice to see he managed to give you some good presents this time

Kavlax and Gorlim are considered by many to be a little bit "gotcha" monsters. They are quite powerful for the levels that they start to show up. I tend to avoid them until later in the game when they are more easily killed.

[PowerWyrm]

In one of my previous comp chars, Golfimbul dropped both Dal-i-thalion and Dor-lomin, two of the best artifacts in the game. Usually he drops a piece of crap +2 +3 weapon...

[Fluster]

Originally Posted by Ingwe Ingweron

Kavlax and Gorlim are considered by many to be a little bit "gotcha" monsters. They are quite powerful for the levels that they start to show up. I tend to avoid them until later in the game when they are more easily killed.

Speaking of Gorlim, I had a funny incident with him in my previous game. I found the Helm of Gorlim on a level and carried it in my bag for a moment, and just a few corners later Gorlim himself appeared and tried to claim it back. I defended my new artifact fiercely of course and managed to kill him. Aside his dead body I took a closer look on the helm, estimated it worthless and tossed it away.

[PowerWyrm]

Originally Posted by Fluster

Speaking of Gorlim, I had a funny incident with him in my previous game. I found the Helm of Gorlim on a level and carried it in my bag for a moment, and just a few corners later Gorlim himself appeared and tried to claim it back. I defended my new artifact fiercely of course and managed to kill him. Aside his dead body I took a closer look on the helm, estimated it worthless and tossed it away.

Gorlim gives +8 tohit/todam, which is awesome on a helm. If you're a warrior and don't care about the INT/WIS/searching penalty, you can use it during the Morgoth fight.

[Fluster]

Originally Posted by PowerWyrm

Gorlim gives +8 tohit/todam, which is awesome on a helm. If you're a warrior and don't care about the INT/WIS/searching penalty, you can use it during the Morgoth fight.

Can't recall the details of the item, but I was playing ranger.

[Timo Pietilä]

Originally Posted by Ingwe Ingweron

Kavlax and Gorlim are considered by many to be a little bit "gotcha" monsters. They are quite powerful for the levels that they start to show up. I tend to avoid them until later in the game when they are more easily killed.

Kavlax is a bit Russian roulette - thing when you first meet it. It isn't especially big monster but it has couple very dangerous attacks, so if you manage to injure it badly before it uses those you can kill it with low level char, if it uses those immediately you are toast.

Thing is that if it doesn't use those at first encounter, it still has that "gotcha" potential until it actually does that. Meeting it once might not teach you that lesson unlike meeting most other monsters.

[fph]

OTOH, I find the idea behind the Tarrasque very instructive, although deadly. The message is "be prepared, because that thing is a frigging high-damage-breath machine gun".
There are some other "1 cast every 2 turns" monsters, but most of them have junk spells in their list, so the Tarrasque is a truly unique encounter.

Maybe there should be earlier, less deadly monsters on the same theme? Or there should be a warning level for spell frequency in the monster recall, like "casts spells very frequently" in red?

[gglibertine]

Speaking of great drops -- Brodda the Easterling just dropped the Katana Aglarang at 750', quadrupling my average damage per round.

SWEET.