RPG - What Combinations of Adversaries are Tougher than their Parts?

[MattyBoy]

All good things come to an end, folks.

I got to the portal for the next level, but found that the Wizard
had taken my amulet and a silver dragon had picked it up later.
So I had to go back and get it.

Then, I made the mistake of letting the Wizard take the amulet a second time.

Then I killed him, but a giant picked it up.
When I killed the giant, the amulet was under boulder(s).
About 1500 hit points later, I have still not managed to break up the boulder(s) with my pick-axe
and now another giant has just picked it up.

I made the same stupid mistake twice and paid the price.
(should drop amulet so Wizard cannot steal)
If only I had found a ring of conflict somewhere I might have weathered this level anyway.

[MattyBoy]

I killed the wizard 10 times.
I don't think I will be able to win until I learn to avoid the Wizard without killing him each time.

Log:

You are dead (7th time!).
...
Killed:
Asmodeus
Baalzebub
Geryon
Orcus
Yeenoghu
Juiblex
The Wizard of Yendor (10 times)
9 arch-liches
a high priest
9 mastodons
Medusa
8 krakens
2 Archons
28 iron golems
3 master liches
5 ki-rin
9 storm giants
5 titans
7 glass golems
7 balrogs
28 purple worms
6 gray dragons
2 silver dragons
21 red dragons
12 white dragons
2 orange dragons
24 black dragons
10 blue dragons
19 green dragons
28 yellow dragons
40 minotaurs
27 jabberwocks
Lord Surtur
28 baluchitheria
7 Angels
8 demiliches
Vlad the Impaler
9 stone golems
10 master mind flayers
53 Olog-hai
3 Nazguls
...

[MattyBoy]

Continuing with this self-indulgent thread...

I restarted and learnt from my lessons and this time I got through the planes easily (now on Astral plane).

Here are the lessons learned.

Don't try to kill things - just get to next level
Switch to speed boots / levitation ring / power gauntlets instead of
levitation boots / ... / dexterity gauntlets.

Thus move twice as fast and can throw Mjollnir backwards to travel through plane, because you fly in the other direction. Target tough creatures and try to line up Dragons so they blast the other creatures around them.

[MattyBoy]

Well who said that cheats never prosper?

Farvel Jack the Demigoddess...

You went to your reward with 6622092 points,
The Platinum Yendorian Express Card (worth 7000 zorkmids and 17500 points)
The Orb of Fate (worth 3500 zorkmids and 8750 points)
Mjollnir (worth 4000 zorkmids and 10000 points)
Frost Brand (worth 3000 zorkmids and 7500 points)
Vorpal Blade (worth 4000 zorkmids and 10000 points)
Fire Brand (worth 3000 zorkmids and 7500 points)
Demonbane (worth 2500 zorkmids and 6250 points)
Sting (worth 800 zorkmids and 2000 points)
Werebane (worth 1500 zorkmids and 3750 points)
Cleaver (worth 1500 zorkmids and 3750 points)
2 rubies (worth 7000 zorkmids),
1 black opal (worth 2500 zorkmids),
3 amulets of life saving (worth 450 zorkmids),
2 amulets of ESP (worth 300 zorkmids),
1 amulet of change (worth 150 zorkmids),
1 amulet of reflection (worth 150 zorkmids),
1 amulet of magical breathing (worth 150 zorkmids),
and 206 pieces of gold, after 110167 moves.
You were level 30 with a maximum of 543 hit points when you ascended.

[Urban Ranger]

Originally posted by loinburger
(IMO liches and especially demi-liches are the most dangerous adversaries when they're roleplayed correctly)

Demi-liches have gross special powers (also rather illogical, but that's Gary Gayax) but they don't do anything if left alone. A demi-lich is just a skull on top of a pile of ashes, it doesn't do anything.

A lich has much more impact in game terms because it can do things such as gathering an undead army to attack a city. So liches are terrifying menances that must be destroyed.

Originally posted by loinburger Unfortunately, the real intelligence controlling the liches in my one foray into tabletop RPGing made the computer's liches look like friggin geniuses.

What happened?

[loinburger]

Originally posted by Urban Ranger
What happened?

In order to defend against the party's spellcasters, the liches put up anti-magic shells.

[Urban Ranger]

There were more than one lich?

Hohoho!

[loinburger]

Originally posted by Urban Ranger
There were more than one lich?

Three of them. The DM was so incompetent that the PCs kept defeating groups of monsters that ought to have easily wiped the floor with us, so the DM tripled the recommended number of liches (with the intention of killing off the party and regaining his dignity). However, he sent the liches in without any support (not even some skeletons or zombies), and then negated the liches' overwhelming magical superiority through his own overwhelming stupidity.

[Skanky Burns]

I take it that was the first and last game you played with him as the DM.

[Urban Ranger]

Oh man, my side hurts

*insert ROTFL smilie*

[MattyBoy]

That DM story is pretty ironic when you consider the amount of whining that bad AI's generate on Apolyton.

[loinburger]

I'd hope that the people who write the AI routines for the games I play are a tad bit smarter than that hapless DM.