Fighting Master Kaen
Janis Papanagnou
I have built a fort of boulders and wanted to kill him with
missiles. But waking him up from my distant position failed.
So I left my fort, zapped a wand of sleep two times to no avail.
And Kaen appeared adjacent to me. Since he reduced my HP by a
significant (and critical) amount in a single turn, I teleported
him away to reach the stairs and leave the place. Pondering now
what to do. I have spells of magic missile and fire ball, but
the former won't be effective, I think, because Kaen now has the
Eyes of the Overworld. My MR comes from hindering body armor, a
GDSM, and I have reflection from a shield which affects my spell
casting abilities. I am Master in bare handed combat and I can
use Mjollnir at Basic proficiency. With that gear I don't always
hit high level foes. My stats are HP:~100, AC:-28 (with GDSM, and
SoRefl), PW:~50(?). Maybe I should try to find a cockatrice corpse;
but hitting is not guaranteed, and Kaen hits hard. Any ideas?
Janis
ArthurDent
> but hitting is not guaranteed, and Kaen hits hard. Any ideas?
>
> Janis
A rubber chicken doesn't help against any quest nemesis; I believe
they're all stoning resistant.
stth
> Any ideas?
Stoning is out as it does not work on quest nemeses.
A high-level, hard-hitting pet can kill him for you while you hide in
your boulder fort.
Polyself into black dragon and #monster to disintegrate him.
Or throw darts. I do this routine all the time:
- Get out everything required and go >.
- Read blessed ?ofLight to alert MK.
- Read blessed ?ofEarth to protect yourself.
- Burn Elbereth against X and E.
- Wait for "5" to appear outside the fort. That's MK.
- Throw darts at "5".
It takes only a dozen or so +6/+7 darts, even at unskilled.
I once even had to do it with +0 darts. Took about 70(!). Luckily, I
came with 130 or so. LOL.
/stth
Janis Papanagnou
>
> A high-level, hard-hitting pet can kill him for you while you hide in
> your boulder fort.
>
> Polyself into black dragon and #monster to disintegrate him.
Currently I don't have the necessary tools to do that.
> Or throw darts. I do this routine all the time:
This I can do.
> - Get out everything required and go >.
> - Read blessed ?ofLight to alert MK.
Blessed scroll of light will wake him up? - Wow! Learned something new.
My own tries to repeatedly play a bugle(!) did not work; but switching
on the light does. Great 8-)
> - Read blessed ?ofEarth to protect yourself.
Already done for my bugle plan. (But opened and left the fort to wake
him up with a sleep ray. So currently the fort is not intact.)
> - Burn Elbereth against X and E.
Already cleared those when I was in the fort.
> - Wait for "5" to appear outside the fort. That's MK.
I even have an amulet of ESP.
> - Throw darts at "5".
>
> It takes only a dozen or so +6/+7 darts, even at unskilled.
>
> I once even had to do it with +0 darts. Took about 70(!). Luckily, I
> came with 130 or so. LOL.
I have not so many darts, but also daggers, and crossbow bolts (though
yet unskilled, as with the rest of my missiles proficiency). I also do
not have enchant weapon scrolls.
The main problem that I recall to have had with that approach - I already
did that in some other game before - is that Kaen jumps around and often
left the straight line-of-fire.
Anyway, I'll use my last scroll of earth and do that. But first I'll have
to recover my luck (pet incident), and probably enchant my yet unused
gauntlets of dexterity.
Janis
stth
> Blessed scroll of light will wake him up? - Wow! Learned something
> new. My own tries to repeatedly play a bugle(!) did not work; but
> switching on the light does. Great 8-)
I don't know the logic behind the light, maybe he just needs to see
you #-).
The scroll has to be blessed for its 9-square radius. This reaches
both potential MK positions from the upstairs. Uncursed scrolls or
wand/spell of light simply don't reach that far (5-square radius).
I think you can also kick at the air (or something) to wake him up.
This works with other quest nemeses (Chromatic Dragon for example),
but often requires multiple tries.
> I have not so many darts, but also daggers, and crossbow bolts
> (though yet unskilled [...]). I also do not have enchant weapon
> scrolls.
You usually find a few dart/arrow traps you can disarm to get 100+
missile weapons. Or just use rocks. As I said, even +0 stuff kills
him eventually. Being unskilled doesn't really matter.
> The main problem that I recall to have had with that approach - I
> already did that in some other game before - is that Kaen jumps
> around and often left the straight line-of-fire.
Well, just wait till he is in line-of-fire again #-). He might also
cast a healing spell or two at himself, but so far I always got him
sooner or later with this method.
> [...] and probably enchant my yet unused gauntlets of dexterity.
With monks, I'd rather go with gauntlets of power. I'd even spend a
wish on them (only role where I'd do that). But I usually try to keep
my monks vegan/vegetarian these days which makes getting strength
difficult. If you eat meat (giants), GoP aren't important.
/stth
Janis Papanagnou
> Janis Papanagnou wrote:
>
> > I have not so many darts, but also daggers, and crossbow bolts
>
> You usually find a few dart/arrow traps you can disarm to get 100+
Well, re-inspecting my inventory I see that I already have tons of
missiles; when I was posting I somehow forgot that I am a pack-rat.
> > [...] and probably enchant my yet unused gauntlets of dexterity.
>
> With monks, I'd rather go with gauntlets of power. I'd even spend a
> wish on them (only role where I'd do that). But I usually try to keep
> my monks vegan/vegetarian these days which makes getting strength
> difficult. If you eat meat (giants), GoP aren't important.
I am already at strength 18/94, and do not have the GoPs, but I do
have the gloves of dexterity. I thought to use the latter to have a
higher to-hit probability (since I often miss with my body armor).
I am still missing some items that I want to use the Castle wand for;
amulet of reflection (to get rid of the shield) and a magic marker are
my top priorities at the moment. Then I can wear my helm of telepathy
(to replace my amulet of ESP) and the gauntlets of dexterity. (Though,
it just occurs to me, that with the Eyes of the Overworld - provided
I'll be able to get them - I may not need ESP any more.)
Janis
Janis Papanagnou
>>
>> You usually find a few dart/arrow traps you can disarm to get 100+
>> missile weapons.
Killed Kaen easily with, I think, less than 30 +0 darts. (On my way
back I stumbled across those two guaranteed dart traps in the entry
of the quest mentor's house; didn't even think of this source. :-)
Janis
Pat Rankin
> Janis Papanagnou wrote:
>> Blessed scroll of light will wake him up? - Wow! Learned something
>> new. My own tries to repeatedly play a bugle(!) did not work; but
>> switching on the light does. Great 8-)
>
> I don't know the logic behind the light, maybe he just needs to see
> you #-).
That's exactly right. He's not asleep, so noise doesn't
matter. He'll come out of his meditation when he can see you, or
when his health is less than maximum (which is why pet mind flayers
can wake the Wizard from afar), or when he becomes angry (which
will happen if you attack him even if the attack happens to inflict
no damage).
Bug C343-187 is relevant here. In the hypothetical future
post-3.4.3 version, noise will "wake" meditating monsters whether
they can see you or not.
> I think you can also kick at the air (or something) to wake him up.
> This works with other quest nemeses (Chromatic Dragon for example),
> but often requires multiple tries.
That won't work with Kaen. It works on the Chromatic Dragon
because she starts out asleep (and she starts that way because
you'll be within sight the moment you arrive).
Raisse the Thaumaturge
> wake him up with a sleep ray.
That's a neat trick!
Raisse, killed by a Green-elf
--
Status of Raisse (piously neutral): Level 8 HP 63(67) AC -3, fast.
LegoHack: http://www.valdyas.org/irina/stuff/legohack/
Janis Papanagnou
> Janis Papanagnou wrote:
>
>> wake him up with a sleep ray.
>
> That's a neat trick!
LOL - until you quoted it here I didn't notice how absurd that
sounds what I wrote. 8-)
(But indeed, I had the feeling that I will miss with the sleep
ray, and in any case I'd wake him up when zapping an attack at
him.)
Janis
TJR
> Janis Papanagnou wrote:
>
> > Blessed scroll of light will wake him up? - Wow! Learned something
> > new. My own tries to repeatedly play a bugle(!) did not work; but
> > switching on the light does. Great 8-)
>
> I don't know the logic behind the light, maybe he just needs to see
> you #-).
Indeed. This is also a neat trick for Medusa's titan: If he is far
enough away in the dark, or on the other side of the boulder, he will
not summon monsters. So engrave Elbereth if you fall onto the boulder,
then step aside.
stth
> This is also a neat trick for Medusa's titan: If he is far enough
> away in the dark, or on the other side of the boulder, he will not
> summon monsters.
I get the boulder, because it is blocking line-of-sight.
But titans have infravision and your character is infravisible. So
unless something is blocking line-of-sight, he should be able to see
you even if he's farther away in the dark.
But then again, I have just found this: [include/monflag.h:159]
| /* Infravision is currently implemented for players only */
Lucky us, I guess #-).
/stth