New spoiler - Instadeath
Trevor Powell
Compiled and edited by Trevor Powell from postings to RGRN and spoilers
written by Dylan O'Donnell and others. Corrections and additions can be
sent to vulpine at zikzak dot net.
----
In the interests of the hacking community at large (and due in large part to
a conversation on rgrn), I've compiled a list of known insta-deaths within
Nethack, coupled with known methods of avoiding said insta-deaths. Most or
all of this information is probably already known to any Nethack veteran;
this spoiler is intended to be used as a survival guide for the intermediate
Nethacker who has learned to deal with floating eyes, and is now trying to
survive against some of Nethack's nastier surprises.
For the purposes of this document, an insta-death is defined as a single move
death which does not involve the player's hit points dropping to zero. (So
for example, being killed by deadly poison is an insta-death, but being killed
by regular poison is not an insta-death). For each insta-death, I give tips
on how to avoid that particular hazard, and items that will help make each
less likely.
I have also included a second section, 'Delayed Insta-Deaths' which covers
causes of death which do not qualify as insta-deaths because of a delay
between the event and the moment of death (For example, turning to stone
because you ate a cockatrice corpse is an insta-death, but turning to stone
a few turns after a cockatrice hisses at you is a delayed insta-death). For
each type of delayed insta-death, I provide tips on how to avoid the hazard,
as well as remedies that may be applied to save yourself during the delay
between the event and the actual death. Of course, avoiding the hazard in
the first place is always the preferred option. :)
Except where noted otherwise, all insta-deaths and delayed insta-deaths can
be survived by wearing an amulet of life saving.
Insta-deaths
------------
choking:
Caused by trying to eat too much. Generally, when you try to eat too
much, Nethack will warn you that you're "having a hard time getting it
all down", and ask you if you want to stop eating. When asked this, it
is highly recommended that you say YES.
However, you won't get this warning if you're already very full (which you
are, immediately after having been asked the previous question). If you
then try to eat anything -- even something as small as a fortune cookie or
as insubstantial as a wraith corpse, you will choke and die instantly.
The moral of the story: Be extra-careful to give yourself time to digest
your food before eating more food if you know you're nearly full! Take off
your ring of slow digestion, if you're wearing one, to help in this process.
(You don't want to be satiated for a long period of time anyway, as it
will eventually cause your dexterity to drop). The smartest idea is to
being satiated as much as possible, and not to eat anything at all when
you're feeling satiated.
Preventatives: An Amulet of Magical Breathing will keep you from choking on
your food no matter what (though it won't save you from the other negative
effects of being satiated). Wearing rings and amulets will make you digest
your food faster, and will make it necessary to eat more often, so that
you're less likely to choke to death if you're wearing lots of them
(especially ring of hunger and/or ring of regeneration).. but will also
increase your likelihood of running out of food and starving to death, or
of fainting from lack of food at an awkward moment.
stoning:
Being turned to stone can be caused instantly by catching sight of Medusa
while she's alive, or by making direct flesh-to-flesh contact with a
cockatrice/chickatrice; even a dead one.
Direct contact with a cockatrice includes attacking them bare-handed,
kicking them if you aren't wearing shoes, picking them up or wielding
them without gloves, stepping over their corpse while blind and not
wearing gloves ("you feel around to determine what's here"), eating
their corpses, being burdened and falling down stairs while wielding
their corpses, eating one of their eggs, tinning them, sacrificing
them, and probably a bunch of other activities involving 'trices that
haven't yet occured to me. In case the above hasn't made it obvious,
I have to repeat that 'trices are DANGEROUS, even when long dead, and
should only be handled if you're certain that there's no chance they'll
come in contact with your bare skin. When in doubt -- run away!
Stoning can also occur in combat versus a live 'trice without direct
flesh-to-flesh contact, when the cockatrice hisses. In this case, the
stoning is a somewhat slower process, and so is not technically an
'insta-death'. Look in the delayed insta-deaths section below for
information on 'stiffening' for further information on dealing with
'trices in combat.
In all other cases, stoning is instantaneous and irreversable; your only
recourse is to practice prevention. Stoning by cockatrice is probably the
leading cause of "Yet Another Stupid Death"s (although floating eye/newt
combinations are a close second).
Preventatives: For 'trices, wear gloves and don't carry a 'trice corpse
around if you're burdened. If you do decide to carry a 'trice corpse,
always double-check your burdened status before going down stairs, as
attacks by xans, land mines, kicking sinks, and many other things can
temporarily wound your legs and make you burdened. Poison can cause
similar problems, and you may wind up burdened without noticing the
change. For preventing Medusa's stoning ability, wearing a blindfold or
wrapping a towel around your head will keep you safe. While it might be
reasonable to expect an amulet of unchanging to prevent the change to
stone, this will not work.
drowning:
Stepping into deep water (moats, puddles from a broken fountain, etc) may
cause instant drowning if there isn't a square of land available for you to
escape to (for example, if your potion of levitation wears off while you're
floating over the middle of a lake). However, by far the most frequent
cause of drowning is being grabbed by sea serpents or krakens (;).
What you can do to protect yourself: Don't walk next to (or float over)
(;)-infested waters. If you must do so, wear an amulet of magical breathing.
Preventatives: Amulet of magical breathing to prevent the drowning.
Wearing an oilskin cloak or any greased armour will prevent (;) monsters
from grabbing you so that they can't drown you (this won't prevent you from
accidentally falling into water, though) Wearing boots/ring of
levitation or boots of water walking will prevent you from falling into
water if you accidentally walk over it, but won't protect you from being
grabbed and drowned by (;) monsters.
death-ray:
Death rays are nasty, and you can never predict what enemy soldier might
be packing a wand of death. A single zap hitting you means instant death,
unless you're prepared.
The best defense is magic reflection. Not only will magic reflection stop
the ray from affecting you, it will make the ray bounce back at the enemy
who fired the ray, hopefully killing him in the process. Almost as good
is magic resistance, which will simply nullify the effect of the death
ray. If you have neither of these, your only hope is to either be invisible
or to be wearing a cloak of displacement, either of which will give you
some chance that your opponent will guess your position wrong, and so the
death-ray will be fired away from you, which can buy you enough time to
kill the bearer of the wand or to run away until you're better-protected.
Preventatives: Magic reflection (typically silver dragon scale mail,
amulet of reflection, or shield of reflection.) Magic resistance (typically
Magicbane, grey dragon scale mail, or cloak of magic resistance)
genociding own race:
This one falls squarely in the category of "Doctor, it hurts when I do
this," except in one case:
A frequent use of blessed scrolls of genocide is to kill mind flayers (for
reasons discussed further below). Mind flayers have the symbol (h), which
is also shared by hobbits, dwarves, and bugbears. If your character is
a dwarf, even though you're represented on-screen by the symbol (@), you are
actually an (h) in the game. If you're a dwarf and forget this fact and
blessed-genocide the (h) class of monsters, you die instantly.
So don't do that!
beheading:
Vorpal Blade has a 5% chance of beheading any target which posesses a head
each time it hits, with no way to defend against this attack.
Preventatives: Don't give Vorpal Blade to your pet (if your pet can even
use weapons). Don't leave Vorpal Blade lying around where a monster might
pick it up. If you must fight someone who has Vorpal Blade, either attack
them from long range or polymorph into something which doesn't have a head.
Obviously, attacking from long range is preferred, as polymorphing oneself
into something without a head is a tricky business!
bisection:
Each hit from the Tsurugi of Muramasa (Samurai class quest artifact) has a
5% chance of bisecting any target which isn't classified as a large target.
Unless you've done something unusual (like polymorphed yourself into a
dragon), you're not a large target, and so have a 5% chance of death
each time an enemy wielding the Tsurugi attacks you, exactly the same
as Vorpal Blade, above.
Preventatives: See the above section on beheading, which applies
equally here, except substituting polymorphing into a large monster for
polymorphing into a headless monster. Again, attacking from a long
range is the preferred option (since it's much easier than managing to
polymorph oneself into a large monster!)
drawbridges:
There are many instant-deaths possible with drawbridges. Two of the most
common involve being crushed under the drawbridge while it's lowering, and
standing on one when it's destroyed by the blast of a wand of striking or
a force bolt spell.
Preventatives: Use caution. Use levitation rather than cross drawbridges
whenever possible, and stay far (far!) away from them when they're closed.
touch of death:
Similar to a wand's death-ray, except without the ray, so reflection won't
help you survive. Luckily, you're unlikely to meet anyone who uses the
touch of death until very late in the game, so you have time to prepare
yourself.
Preventatives: The only true defense against touch of death is magic
resistance, as described in the death-ray section, above. If you don't
have magic resistance and have reason to believe that your foe may posess
a touch of death attack, you need to kill that foe from a long distance,
so they don't get in range for them to perform the attack!
eating Death, Famine, Pestilence, or green slime corpses:
Well let's face it, this is just plain stupid. So don't do it!
level-teleporting to dungeon level 0:
Dungeon level 0 is considered to be nowhere. If you try to teleport
yourself to that level, your body will be twisted and warped, and even
an amulet of life saving won't save you! So don't do it!
level-teleporting above dungeon level 0:
Technically, you don't die if you do this and have intrinsic flight, but it
_does_ immediately end the game without any chance of recovery. Again,
this falls into the category of _don't do it!_ unless you have intrinsic
flight and are intending to escape the dungeon without successfully
retrieving the amulet.
level drain to level 0:
You've got lots of warning, here. Enemies which drain levels don't appear
until the deeper parts of the dungeon, and you should be of a high
level by the time you meet them. If you do find your levels dropping
dangerously low, escape back upwards in the dungeon to recover!
Defense: Wielding Excalibur, the Staff of Aesculapius, or Stormbringer
will make you resistant to level-drain attacks (You may only want to wield
these if you're of the appropriate alignment, however). Also, polymorphing
into an undead or demonic creature will generally provide you with
level-drain resistance.
death by brainlessness:
Mind flayers attack your intelligence directly ("The mind flayer sucks
your brains!"), which causes you to forget previously explored levels of
the dungeon and identified items, and also drains your intelligence.
If your intelligence ever drops below 3, you die of brainlessness.
Like the level drain above, you have lots of warning; if your
intelligence drops very low in an attack against a mind flayer; run
away! Remember that intelligence cannot be exercised like other
statistics, so the only way to raise it again is potions of gain
attribute, a potion of restore ability, or repeated application of
a unicorn horn! (Forgotten levels and objects will not be recalled
by recovering points of intelligence)
Preventatives: A Helm of Brilliance will stop death by brainlessness,
even if your native intelligence drops below 3. Just don't remove the
helmet (or let a nymph steal it or a succubus remove it...). The most
frequent solution, though, is to blessed-genocide (h), which means you
won't ever have to worry about mind flayers again (But if you're a
dwarf, see 'genociding own species' above for an important exception!)
blast of disintegration:
This is the breath weapon of black dragons. A single hit can destroy
your armour, your weapons, your items, as well as the rest of you!
Preventatives: Blasts of disintegration count as ray attacks, so
may be avoided in the same manner as any other sort of ray; magic
reflection. Magic resistance will NOT help you against disintegration!
Black dragon scales or black dragon scale mail will also grant you
disintegration resistance.
deadly poison:
Poisoned needles in trapped doors or chests, spikes in pit traps, poisoned
arrows, and many other poisonous items and attacks may not be simply
poisonous (which reduce your strength, hit points, and hit point max), but
deadly-poisonous (which will cause death instantly.)
Preventatives: Try to avoid pit traps; particularly those in the gnomish
mines, which is where pits with poisoned spikes seem to be the most common.
Be careful with locked doors and boxes until you've got poison resistance.
Watch out for mordor orcs (which frequently wield poisoned weapons). And
most importantly, gain poison resistance as soon as you can; I recommend
gaining poison resistance before entering the gnomish mines, where poison
traps seem to be most common.
For what it's worth, this is a relatively rare death. But that
doesn't make it any less unpleasant when it happens to you.
Delayed insta-deaths:
------------
sickness:
Generally caused by food poisoning, but can also caused by the touch
of Pestilence (anything else?). "Ulch - that meat was tainted! You
feel deathly sick." If your sickness isn't healed within only a few
turns (approx. 10, though it varies), you'll die.
Preventatives: Don't eat corpses which you didn't see die within the
past few turns. (undead corpses are never truly safe to eat).
Remedies: If you do become deathly sick, pray to your deity (if they
aren't upset with you) or Apply a unicorn horn (preferably blessed,
for best likelihood of success) or cast the Cure Sickness spell.
stiffening:
As discussed above, if a cockatrice hisses at you in combat, you run the
risk of slowly turning to stone. Generally when this happens, you have
at least one turn to stop the stoning process, depending on how fast and
burdened you are at the time.
Preventatives: Kill cockatrices from long range with spells or missile
weapons. Note that you're much more likely to have the stoning process
begin in combat if it's Friday the 13th and you're not carrying a
lizard corpse. So if it happens to be Friday the 13th, be sure to carry
a few lizard corpses around with you!
Remedies: You can stop the stoning process by eating a lizard corpse,
eating an acidic corpse, or casting Stone to Flesh on yourself. Of these
options, lizard corpses are by far the favorite of experienced players.
Since lizard corpses never rot, they're an important thing to pick up and
tote along with you. Remember to keep them OUTSIDE of any containers you
may be carrying things in, since you almost certainly won't have time to
pull the lizard out of a bag AND eat it before you've turned into a statue!
As mentioned under stoning, you might expect an amulet of unchanging to
keep you from turning to stone, but this does not work.
sinking in lava:
Don't try to cross lava, even if you're heat-resistant and are wearing an
amulet of magical breathing. You will become stuck in the lava, and unless
you manage to pull yourself out in time, you will sink into the lava and
die.
Preventatives: This is a "just don't do that" item. Stepping into lava is
always a Bad Idea.
Remedies: If you do find yourself in lava, here's what you
can do: Teleport. Zap a wand of cold downwards to freeze the lava, then
apply a pickaxe or wand of digging downwards to dig your legs out of the
frozen lava. (Is there anything else? There must be other options here..)
If you can't do any of the above, then try to walk back out of the lava and
onto solid ground; you may get lucky and manage to pull yourself out, but
it's not guaranteed!
sliming:
Green slimes (generally not seen outside certain parts of Gehennom) can
slime you with their 'touch' attack. If you're slimed, you will slowly
turn into another green slime over the course of several turns.
Preventatives: Always kill green slimes from a distance. Don't let them
get close to attack you. (This implies that you should have some way to
spot them from a distance) An amulet of unchanging will protect you from
being slimed.
Remedies: If you get yourself slimed, you can pray to your god for help,
if they're happy with you (But not if you're beneath the Valley of the
Dead, which you almost always are when you're facing a green slime).
Putting on an amulet of unchanging will halt the sliming process.
Reading a scroll of fire or casting 'Fireball' on yourself will burn the
slime away (but will also hurt you and probably destroy many carried
scrolls and potions at the same time). Casting 'Cure Sickness' on
yourself will heal sliming more safely. Applying a unicorn horn will
NOT stop sliming!
ManderRed
>
> Don't try to cross lava, even if you're heat-resistant and are wearing an
> amulet of magical breathing. You will become stuck in the lava, and unless
> you manage to pull yourself out in time, you will sink into the lava and
> die.
>
> Preventatives: This is a "just don't do that" item. Stepping into lava is
> always a Bad Idea.
>
> Remedies: If you do find yourself in lava, here's what you
> can do: Teleport. Zap a wand of cold downwards to freeze the lava, then
> apply a pickaxe or wand of digging downwards to dig your legs out of the
> frozen lava. (Is there anything else? There must be other options here..)
> If you can't do any of the above, then try to walk back out of the lava and
>
> onto solid ground; you may get lucky and manage to pull yourself out, but
> it's not guaranteed!
If there is too much lava in your level, and you might have to do a lot of lava
crossing, it is prefered to use a ring of levitation just in case your wands of
cold or frost horns are very limited. It may also prevent some of the YASDs of
accidently getting traped in the lava.
@John the Samurai - ascended on November 10, 2000.
c a cockatrice. They make great pets! Just don't polymorph into one.
) a weapon (Fire Brand). The holy sword of fire. Enemies and their
pesky items shall burn with justice!
Mooz
> Instadeaths-331
> stoning:
>
> Direct contact with a cockatrice includes attacking them bare-handed,
--snip--
> their corpses, eating one of their eggs, tinning them, sacrificing
Eating a cockatrice egg isn't (luckily) an insta-death?
That would make eating eggs outright impossible :|
The result is actually:
"This egg is delicious! You are slowing down."
It should also be noted that monsters know about cockatrice
corpses... A soldier wielding one is a Bad Thing.
> drowning:
>
I have seen "Drowned in a moat by a couatl." in a high-score list
and was rather surprised. Is this a widely-known cause of death?
> death-ray:
--snip--
> ray. If you have neither of these, your only hope is to either be
invisible
> or to be wearing a cloak of displacement, either of which will give you
> some chance that your opponent will guess your position wrong, and so
the
> death-ray will be fired away from you, which can buy you enough time to
> kill the bearer of the wand or to run away until you're
better-protected.
If you don't have those either, teleport, read an unknown scroll
in case you don't know teleportation etc., a wand and a wall behind
the monster to reflect the ray might also let you kill it first. An
electrical
attack is known to sometimes destroy wands in a desperate case.
> genociding own race:
>
> This one falls squarely in the category of "Doctor, it hurts when I do
> this," except in one case:
--skip ignorant dwarves--
And don't read those nice scrolls when confused =)
> drawbridges:
>
> There are many instant-deaths possible with drawbridges. Two of the
most
> common involve being crushed under the drawbridge while it's lowering,
and
> standing on one when it's destroyed by the blast of a wand of striking
or
> a force bolt spell.
>
> Preventatives: Use caution. Use levitation rather than cross
drawbridges
> whenever possible, and stay far (far!) away from them when they're
closed.
I've developed such a paranoia that I make sure I'm always
the one who shatters the bridge and then start thinking about
ways to cross it. Monsters have wands of striking so often
that crossing a drawbridge is extremely dangerous, since even
an open drawbridge will get shattered.
> death by brainlessness:
>
> Preventatives: A Helm of Brilliance will stop death by brainlessness,
> even if your native intelligence drops below 3. Just don't remove the
> helmet (or let a nymph steal it or a succubus remove it...). The most
> frequent solution, though, is to blessed-genocide (h), which means you
> won't ever have to worry about mind flayers again (But if you're a
> dwarf, see 'genociding own species' above for an important exception!)
I tested this in wizard mode and it seems that even if your
intellicenge is, say, 8 with the helm and 3 without it, the helm
of brilliance will NOT help you. You'll die anyways and even
that "oLS won't help. Fix this, please!
> blast of disintegration:
>
> Preventatives: Blasts of disintegration count as ray attacks, so
> may be avoided in the same manner as any other sort of ray; magic
> reflection. Magic resistance will NOT help you against disintegration!
> Black dragon scales or black dragon scale mail will also grant you
> disintegration resistance.
Eat a black dragon (everyone knows this though...)
> deadly poison:
>
> Poisoned needles in trapped doors or chests, spikes in pit traps,
poisoned
> arrows, and many other poisonous items and attacks may not be simply
> poisonous (which reduce your strength, hit points, and hit point max),
but
> deadly-poisonous (which will cause death instantly.)
>
> For what it's worth, this is a relatively rare death. But that
> doesn't make it any less unpleasant when it happens to you.
Always kill rabid rats etc from distance. I've gotten killed by one
numerous times. Poison resistance is THE most important intrinsic.
> sickness:
>
> Preventatives: Don't eat corpses which you didn't see die within the
> past few turns. (undead corpses are never truly safe to eat).
>
> Remedies: If you do become deathly sick, pray to your deity (if they
> aren't upset with you) or Apply a unicorn horn (preferably blessed,
> for best likelihood of success) or cast the Cure Sickness spell.
Blessed potions of healing, uncursed potions of full/extra healing
are nice.
-mooz
Philipp Lucas
white...@wonderland.zikzak.net (Trevor Powell) wrote:
This is a very good collection, but for completeness sake I have some
additions.
> Direct contact with a cockatrice includes
[...]
>probably a bunch of other activities involving 'trices that
>haven't yet occured to me.
Trying to help one out of a pit, sacrificing one without gloves. I can
assure you that both have occured to me, so it's not entirely academic.
>level-teleporting above dungeon level 0:
>
> Technically, you don't die if you do this and have intrinsic flight, but it
> _does_ immediately end the game without any chance of recovery.
Well, _technically_, even without levitation you don't die if you
teleport to level -10 or above.
>stiffening:
>
> As discussed above, if a cockatrice hisses at you in combat, you run the
> risk of slowly turning to stone.
This can also happen when an enemy wields a cockatrice corpse in combat.
You should also note that a character wielding a cockatrice corpse
should be especially careful around nymphs and in-/succubi.
> Reading a scroll of fire or casting 'Fireball' on yourself will burn the
> slime away
Another elegant solution is to light a potion of oil and throw it to the
ceiling.
--
Philipp Lucas
phl...@online-club.de
Mooz
> I tested this in wizard mode and it seems that even if your
> intellicenge is, say, 8 with the helm and 3 without it, the helm
> of brilliance will NOT help you. You'll die anyways and even
> that "oLS won't help. Fix this, please!
Oh yeah, a dunce cap is an excellent form of protection.
Put it on, kill the flayer, uncurse it and take it off. No harm
done. You can also give them wands, if you're lucky the
critter picks it up and starts zapping at you with a wand of
cold while you happily whack it to death =)
-mooz
Jukka Kuusisto
> Instadeaths-331
Nice work! I'll add some comments in addition to those already made by
others.
> Preventatives: For 'trices, wear gloves and don't carry a 'trice corpse
> around if you're burdened. If you do decide to carry a 'trice corpse,
> always double-check your burdened status before going down stairs, as
> attacks by xans, land mines, kicking sinks, and many other things can
> temporarily wound your legs and make you burdened.
It is safe to carry the corpse around an even downstairs while you're
burdened, as long as you're not wielding it.
> However, by far the most frequent cause of drowning is being grabbed
> by sea serpents or krakens (;).
I'd say eels instead of sea serpents.
>death-ray:
> Preventatives: Magic reflection (typically silver dragon scale mail,
> amulet of reflection, or shield of reflection.) Magic resistance (typically
> Magicbane, grey dragon scale mail, or cloak of magic resistance)
Being polymorphed into an undead being.
>genociding own race:
>
> This one falls squarely in the category of "Doctor, it hurts when I do
> this," except in one case:
Another case: reading a ?oGenocide while confused. Preventative: don't
read unknown scrolls while confused.
>drawbridges:
>
> Preventatives: Use caution. Use levitation rather than cross drawbridges
> whenever possible, and stay far (far!) away from them when they're closed.
I'd make that: "Destroy the drawbridge from afar and use levitation rather
than..."
>touch of death:
> Preventatives: The only true defense against touch of death is magic
> resistance, as described in the death-ray section, above. If you don't
> have magic resistance and have reason to believe that your foe may posess
> a touch of death attack, you need to kill that foe from a long distance,
> so they don't get in range for them to perform the attack!
Or be polymorphed into an undead being.
>level drain to level 0:
> Defense: Wielding Excalibur, the Staff of Aesculapius, or Stormbringer
> will make you resistant to level-drain attacks (You may only want to wield
> these if you're of the appropriate alignment, however). Also, polymorphing
> into an undead or demonic creature will generally provide you with
> level-drain resistance.
Having a magic cancellation level of 3 usually nullifies the level drain
attacks.
>blast of disintegration:
> This is the breath weapon of black dragons. A single hit can destroy
> your armour, your weapons, your items, as well as the rest of you!
Or a pissed-off god. Preventative: Never pray in Gehennom (including the
Valley of the Dead) or when you're god is really mad at you. It's safe
to pray in Vlad's tower (provided your god is not mad).
>deadly poison:
> Preventatives:
Play a race or class that has poison resistance or gains it with levels.
>sickness:
> Generally caused by food poisoning, but can also caused by the touch
> of Pestilence (anything else?).
Demogorgon or a cursed unicorn horn.
> "Ulch - that meat was tainted! You feel deathly sick." If your
> sickness isn't healed within only a few turns (approx. 10, though it
> varies), you'll die.
Also, if it's caused by Pestilence or Demo, their additional successful
sickness attacks will make you die quicker.
> Remedies: If you do become deathly sick, pray to your deity (if they
> aren't upset with you) or Apply a unicorn horn (preferably blessed,
> for best likelihood of success) or cast the Cure Sickness spell.
Or quaff a blessed or uncursed potion of full healing.
>sliming:
>
> Remedies: If you get yourself slimed, you can pray to your god for help,
> if they're happy with you (But not if you're beneath the Valley of the
> Dead, which you almost always are when you're facing a green slime).
> Putting on an amulet of unchanging will halt the sliming process.
> Reading a scroll of fire or casting 'Fireball' on yourself will burn the
> slime away (but will also hurt you and probably destroy many carried
> scrolls and potions at the same time). Casting 'Cure Sickness' on
> yourself will heal sliming more safely. Applying a unicorn horn will
> NOT stop sliming!
Zapping a wand of fire at yourself, or activating a fire trap?
-Jukka
--
Jukka Kuusisto
Mooz
> white...@wonderland.zikzak.net (Trevor Powell) writes:
> > Instadeaths-331
>
>
> > Generally caused by food poisoning, but can also caused by the touch
> > of Pestilence (anything else?).
>
Juiblex and Scorpius.
> > Remedies: If you do become deathly sick, pray to your deity (if they
> > aren't upset with you) or Apply a unicorn horn (preferably blessed,
> > for best likelihood of success) or cast the Cure Sickness spell.
>
> Or quaff a blessed or uncursed potion of full healing.
Not necessarily full. Eucalyptus leaves do the trick too,
as well as polymorphing into a new [role].
-mooz
Pekka Savola
>blast of disintegration:
>
> This is the breath weapon of black dragons. A single hit can destroy
> your armour, your weapons, your items, as well as the rest of you!
>
> Preventatives: Blasts of disintegration count as ray attacks, so
> may be avoided in the same manner as any other sort of ray; magic
> reflection. Magic resistance will NOT help you against disintegration!
> Black dragon scales or black dragon scale mail will also grant you
> disintegration resistance.
A thing to mention:
Gods like to blast the desecrators with bolts of lightning, and if
reflecting or shock-resistant, wide-angle disintegration beams.
Pekka Savola pekkas at netcore dot fi
---
Across the nations the stories spread like spiderweb laid upon spiderweb,
and men and women planned the future, believing they knew truth. They
planned, and the Pattern absorbed their plans, weaving toward the future
foretold. -- Robert Jordan: The Path of Daggers
Edward Jones
<slrn92hvmb.kc...@wonderland.zikzak.net>:
> Instadeaths-331
>level drain to level 0:
> Defense: Wielding Excalibur, the Staff of Aesculapius, or
> Stormbringer will make you resistant to level-drain attacks (You may
> only want to wield these if you're of the appropriate alignment,
> however). Also, polymorphing into an undead or demonic creature will
> generally provide you with level-drain resistance.
You list all the ways of getting intrinsic "level drain resistance," but
IME the most common and effective defense against level drain is magic
cancellation. Level 3 magic cancellation reduces the chance of being
drained to almost nothing. You might want to detail this, or add a
pointer to the armor spoiler.
--
-Mew!
Ed, the Sabre // Cat
Galaxy Corps Interactive Fiction: http://www.galaxy.dabsol.co.uk/
Ascended (Nethack 3.3.1): rVW
Chi.
> stoning:
<snip!>
> Direct contact with a cockatrice includes attacking them bare-handed,
> kicking them if you aren't wearing shoes, picking them up or wielding
> them without gloves, stepping over their corpse while blind and not
> wearing gloves ("you feel around to determine what's here"), eating
> their corpses
Or the corpse of Medusa.
>, being burdened and falling down stairs while wielding
Or falling into a pitwhile wielding one.
What about falling over randomly due to gauntlets/boots of fumbling? I
haven't checked, but since TDTTOE I'd guess that probably does the same...
> their corpses, eating one of their eggs
Not an instadeath, merely begins stoning...
> , tinning them, sacrificing
...Without gloves. Both activities are safe with gloves I think.
> In all other cases, stoning is instantaneous and irreversable; your only
Note also Soldiers (and other monsters) can (w)ield c*ckatrice corpses, and
being hit will begin stoning. The stoning process also permanently removes
intrinsic speed... (but of course you can get it back again by any activity
that grants the speed intrinsic).
> drowning:
>
> Stepping into deep water (moats, puddles from a broken fountain, etc)
> may cause instant drowning if there isn't a square of land available for
> you to escape to (for example, if your potion of levitation wears off
> while you're floating over the middle of a lake). However, by far the
> most frequent cause of drowning is being grabbed by sea serpents or
> krakens (;).
(Giant) eels are the main cause according to YASD'd posted here... rather
than sea serpents.
> death-ray:
>
> Death rays are nasty, and you can never predict what enemy soldier might
> be packing a wand of death. A single zap hitting you means instant
> death, unless you're prepared.
>
> The best defense is magic reflection. Not only will magic reflection
> stop the ray from affecting you, it will make the ray bounce back at the
> enemy who fired the ray, hopefully killing him in the process. Almost
> as good is magic resistance, which will simply nullify the effect of the
> death
Also being dead already helps... (e.g. poly'ed into a Zombie)
> touch of death:
>
> Similar to a wand's death-ray, except without the ray, so reflection
> won't help you survive. Luckily, you're unlikely to meet anyone who
> uses the touch of death until very late in the game, so you have time
> to prepare yourself.
>
> Preventatives: The only true defense against touch of death is magic
> resistance, as described in the death-ray section, above. If you don't
> have magic resistance and have reason to believe that your foe may
> posess a touch of death attack, you need to kill that foe from a long
distance,
incidentally, its "possess" ;-)
> so they don't get in range for them to perform the attack!
Magic cancellation helps against touch of death I think (but not death
rays)... I could be mistaken though.
> eating Death, Famine, Pestilence, or green slime corpses:
>
> Well let's face it, this is just plain stupid. So don't do it!
Well said! :-)
> level drain to level 0:
>
> You've got lots of warning, here. Enemies which drain levels don't
> appear until the deeper parts of the dungeon, and you should be of a
> high level by the time you meet them. If you do find your levels
> dropping dangerously low, escape back upwards in the dungeon to recover!
Magic cancellation helps reduce the risk of this quite considerably...
> death by brainlessness:
<snip>
> Preventatives: A Helm of Brilliance will stop death by brainlessness,
> even if your native intelligence drops below 3. Just don't remove the
> helmet (or let a nymph steal it or a succubus remove it...). The most
> frequent solution, though, is to blessed-genocide (h), which means you
> won't ever have to worry about mind flayers again (But if you're a
> dwarf, see 'genociding own species' above for an important exception!)
A dunce cap helps as well...
Note that death by brainlessness can not be prevented with a "oLS...
> blast of disintegration:
>
> This is the breath weapon of black dragons. A single hit can destroy
> your armour, your weapons, your items, as well as the rest of you!
I think a ray will destroy your armour first (it always seemed to when I got
zapped). If you are armourless then it will destroy you. Of course, I've
not read the source of this bit so I could have been lucky, and as such
could be wrong...
A wide-angle beam will fry you to a crisp regardless though... (worth
mentioning them, as they are rather deadly, and even reflection will not
help)
> Preventatives: Blasts of disintegration count as ray attacks, so
> may be avoided in the same manner as any other sort of ray; magic
> reflection. Magic resistance will NOT help you against disintegration!
> Black dragon scales or black dragon scale mail will also grant you
> disintegration resistance.
Or munching a BD corpse...
> deadly poison:
<snip!>
> For what it's worth, this is a relatively rare death. But that
> doesn't make it any less unpleasant when it happens to you.
Indeed.
"You fall in a pit! You land on some sharp spikes--More--
The spikes were poisoned--More--
The poison was deadly..."
Grrr.
There goes another Samurai...
> Sickness
>
> Generally caused by food poisoning, but can also caused by the touch
> of Pestilence (anything else?). "Ulch - that meat was tainted! You
being engulfed by Juiblex, being stung by Demogorgon. (a)pplying a cursed
unicorn horn might also cause this one (randomly, along with its other
effects).
> feel deathly sick." If your sickness isn't healed within only a few
> turns (approx. 10, though it varies), you'll die.
It depends on CON. Theres a spoiler somewhere about all this...
> Preventatives: Don't eat corpses which you didn't see die within the
> past few turns. (undead corpses are never truly safe to eat).
>
> Remedies: If you do become deathly sick, pray to your deity (if they
> aren't upset with you) or Apply a unicorn horn (preferably blessed,
> for best likelihood of success)
Certainly not a cursed one though. A cursed unicorn horn won't cure you and
might make you even worse.
Uncursed/blessed Extra/full healing will do the trick. Does blessed healing
do the same trick?
Also, eating a eucalyptus leaf. Also also, making yourself throw up (eating
an egg for instance), but be warned you might turn up your boots before you
get a chance to throw up...
> stiffening:
>
> As discussed above, if a cockatrice hisses at you in combat, you run the
> risk of slowly turning to stone. Generally when this happens, you have
> at least one turn to stop the stoning process, depending on how fast and
> burdened you are at the time.
There is a more precise formula, but it escapes me at the moment.
Regards,
Chris.
Timo Korvola
brain is eaten, thus preventing death by brainlessness. Not much
of a comfort, as your memory will still be gone.
About lava: you can levitate over it and if you are stuck, out of it.
Fireproof boots of water walking allow you to walk on it.
About sickness: Juiblex and Demogorgon should be mentioned. Successive
disease-causing attacks greatly reduce your life expectancy: I think
you can count on lasting three turns against Demogorgon's or
Pestilence's disease attacks, not more. Juiblex is much less trouble
than the other two.
--
Timo Korvola <URL:http://www.iki.fi/tkorvola>
Pekka Savola
>> blast of disintegration:
>>
>> This is the breath weapon of black dragons. A single hit can destroy
>> your armour, your weapons, your items, as well as the rest of you!
>
>I think a ray will destroy your armour first (it always seemed to when I got
>zapped). If you are armourless then it will destroy you. Of course, I've
>not read the source of this bit so I could have been lucky, and as such
>could be wrong...
>A wide-angle beam will fry you to a crisp regardless though... (worth
>mentioning them, as they are rather deadly, and even reflection will not
>help)
Note that innate disintegration resistance helps, but you still lose a
few bits of armour if you were wearing any...
Antti Kuosmanen
>white...@wonderland.zikzak.net (Trevor Powell) writes:
>> Instadeaths-331
>others.
Agreed.
>> However, by far the most frequent cause of drowning is being grabbed
>> by sea serpents or krakens (;).
>I'd say eels instead of sea serpents.
One important addition: Couatl can do this too. Found out this when that
usually harmless green A that was generated by Rodney pulled me to the
moat around the Wizard's tower...
ouch
>>touch of death:
>
>> Preventatives: The only true defense against touch of death is magic
>> resistance, as described in the death-ray section, above. If you don't
>> have magic resistance and have reason to believe that your foe may posess
>> a touch of death attack, you need to kill that foe from a long distance,
>> so they don't get in range for them to perform the attack!
>
>Or be polymorphed into an undead being.
Being hallucinated works against the touch of death. "You have an out of
the body experience".
antti
--
Antti Kuosmanen | remove .remove to email ...
http://smurffi.dna.fi/~akuo/ @@.
o/~ Rock over London. Rock on Chicago o/~ ...
Joseph N. Hall
castle (with a ring or boots). It's a pain to have to take off the
ring/boots to pick something up, but it beats falling through trapdoors.
If you're proficient with a bullwhip you can pick items up with it
while levitating.
-joseph
ManderRed wrote:
>
> >sinking in lava
Joseph N. Hall
> >drawbridges:
> >
> > Preventatives: Use caution. Use levitation rather than cross drawbridges
> > whenever possible, and stay far (far!) away from them when they're closed.
>
> than..."
I've never felt comfortable going in the front door of the castle. I always
levitate around the moat.
-joseph
Joseph N. Hall
> >
> > Remedies: You can stop the stoning process by eating a lizard corpse,
> > eating an acidic corpse, or casting Stone to Flesh on yourself. Of these
> > options, lizard corpses are by far the favorite of experienced players.
> > Since lizard corpses never rot, they're an important thing to pick up and
> > tote along with you. Remember to keep them OUTSIDE of any containers you
> > may be carrying things in, since you almost certainly won't have time to
> > pull the lizard out of a bag AND eat it before you've turned into a statue!
> > As mentioned under stoning, you might expect an amulet of unchanging to
> > keep you from turning to stone, but this does not work.
>
> meat <meat stick, meat ring, and don't THOSE sound perverted>
A very snazzy solution is a blessed tin of acid blob (or other acidic
creature). Opens "like magic" in one turn and solves the problem.
-joseph
Pekka Savola
>>>touch of death:
>>
>>> Preventatives: The only true defense against touch of death is magic
>>> resistance, as described in the death-ray section, above. If you don't
>>> have magic resistance and have reason to believe that your foe may posess
>>> a touch of death attack, you need to kill that foe from a long distance,
>>> so they don't get in range for them to perform the attack!
>>
>
>Being hallucinated works against the touch of death. "You have an out of
>the body experience".
This seems to be so.
However, there is one thing that might be clarified. Confusion only
works against a 'spell' cast against you, as defined in mcastu.c, case
AD_SPEL, case 20.
There is a different touch of death, which may give exactly the same
death message, in mhitu.c, case AD_DETH. Being undead protects
against this, among other things. This is what Death does,
apparently.
StarChaser_Tyger
said,
>choking:
These and all section headers should be capitalized.
>stoning:
> The smartest idea is to
<'avoid' missing here>
> being satiated as much as possible, and not to eat anything at all when
> you're feeling satiated.
> In all other cases, stoning is instantaneous and irreversable; your only
> recourse is to practice prevention. Stoning by cockatrice is probably the
> leading cause of "Yet Another Stupid Death"s (although floating eye/newt
> combinations are a close second).
Eating a cockatrice egg is not instant death, you get the 'slowing
down' messages.
> While it might be
> reasonable to expect an amulet of unchanging to prevent the change to
> stone, this will not work.
Hadn't considered that, but you're right, it should...
>eating Death, Famine, Pestilence, or green slime corpses:
> Well let's face it, this is just plain stupid. So don't do it!
Unless you're trying to avoid dying of stoning, and have a source of
fire handy to stop the sliming process...Death, Famine and Pestilence
don't make good meals under any circumstances...
>death by brainlessness:
>
> Mind flayers attack your intelligence directly ("The mind flayer sucks
> your brains!"),
"The mind flayer's tentacles suck you! Your brain is eaten!"
>blast of disintegration:
> This is the breath weapon of black dragons. A single hit can destroy
> your armour, your weapons, your items, as well as the rest of you!
>
> Preventatives: Blasts of disintegration count as ray attacks, so
> may be avoided in the same manner as any other sort of ray; magic
> reflection. Magic resistance will NOT help you against disintegration!
> Black dragon scales or black dragon scale mail will also grant you
> disintegration resistance.
Eating a black dragon grants disintegration resistance as well.
>Delayed insta-deaths:
>------------
>
>sickness:
>
> Generally caused by food poisoning, but can also caused by the touch
> of Pestilence (anything else?). "Ulch - that meat was tainted! You
> feel deathly sick." If your sickness isn't healed within only a few
> turns (approx. 10, though it varies), you'll die.
Being engulfed by Juiblex.
> Preventatives: Don't eat corpses which you didn't see die within the
> past few turns. (undead corpses are never truly safe to eat).
>
> Remedies: If you do become deathly sick, pray to your deity (if they
> aren't upset with you) or Apply a unicorn horn (preferably blessed,
> for best likelihood of success) or cast the Cure Sickness spell.
Or a potion of extra/full healing.
>stiffening:
<find a succubus. <snort>
> As discussed above, if a cockatrice hisses at you in combat, you run the
> risk of slowly turning to stone. Generally when this happens, you have
> at least one turn to stop the stoning process, depending on how fast and
> burdened you are at the time.
>
> Preventatives: Kill cockatrices from long range with spells or missile
> weapons. Note that you're much more likely to have the stoning process
> begin in combat if it's Friday the 13th and you're not carrying a
> lizard corpse. So if it happens to be Friday the 13th, be sure to carry
> a few lizard corpses around with you!
>
> Remedies: You can stop the stoning process by eating a lizard corpse,
> eating an acidic corpse, or casting Stone to Flesh on yourself. Of these
> options, lizard corpses are by far the favorite of experienced players.
> Since lizard corpses never rot, they're an important thing to pick up and
> tote along with you. Remember to keep them OUTSIDE of any containers you
> may be carrying things in, since you almost certainly won't have time to
> pull the lizard out of a bag AND eat it before you've turned into a statue!
> As mentioned under stoning, you might expect an amulet of unchanging to
> keep you from turning to stone, but this does not work.
Potion of acid. Stone to Flesh spell turns anything on your person to
meat <meat stick, meat ring, and don't THOSE sound perverted>
>sinking in lava:
>
> Don't try to cross lava, even if you're heat-resistant and are wearing an
> amulet of magical breathing. You will become stuck in the lava, and unless
> you manage to pull yourself out in time, you will sink into the lava and
> die.
>
> Preventatives: This is a "just don't do that" item. Stepping into lava is
> always a Bad Idea.
>
> Remedies: If you do find yourself in lava, here's what you
> can do: Teleport. Zap a wand of cold downwards to freeze the lava, then
> apply a pickaxe or wand of digging downwards to dig your legs out of the
> frozen lava. (Is there anything else? There must be other options here..)
> If you can't do any of the above, then try to walk back out of the lava and
> onto solid ground; you may get lucky and manage to pull yourself out, but
> it's not guaranteed!
Boots of jumping, if they don't go poof when you step into the lava
will let you jump out.
Hmm. A ring of levitation pulls you up but you keep being dragged
under. I think this should at least stop the process. And a ring of
free action doesn't help either.
>sliming:
> Green slimes (generally not seen outside certain parts of Gehennom) can
> slime you with their 'touch' attack. If you're slimed, you will slowly
> turn into another green slime over the course of several turns.
> Preventatives: Always kill green slimes from a distance. Don't let them
> get close to attack you. (This implies that you should have some way to
> spot them from a distance) An amulet of unchanging will protect you from
> being slimed.
> Remedies: If you get yourself slimed, you can pray to your god for help,
> if they're happy with you (But not if you're beneath the Valley of the
> Dead, which you almost always are when you're facing a green slime).
> Putting on an amulet of unchanging will halt the sliming process.
> Reading a scroll of fire or casting 'Fireball' on yourself will burn the
> slime away (but will also hurt you and probably destroy many carried
> scrolls and potions at the same time). Casting 'Cure Sickness' on
> yourself will heal sliming more safely. Applying a unicorn horn will
> NOT stop sliming!
Zapping a wand of fire, applying a potion of oil and throwing it
upward <direction "<"> so it drops back on your head, red dragon
breath, fire trap, fire trap effect of a magic trap, etc. Any source
of fire.
Well done spoiler...Don't want you to think I was just bitching...Sent
it to Sascha?
--
Visit the Furry Artist InFURmation Page! Contact information, which artists
do and don't want their work posted. http://web.tampabay.rr.com/starchsr/
Address no longer munged for the inconvienence of spammers.
(Yes, this really is me.)
StarChaser_Tyger
>About lava: you can levitate over it and if you are stuck, out of it.
>Fireproof boots of water walking allow you to walk on it.
Yes and no. You must still have the intrinsic fire resistance, or you
die. <a pair of boots standing on a pool of lava with charred bones
sticking out of them...> It is also hard on scrolls, potions and
spellbooks.
Interesting...if you're wearing non-fireproofed boots of water walking
when you step onto lava, they go foof and disappear...but you're still
standing on the lava safely.
David Goldfarb
Trevor Powell <vulpine at zikzak dot net> wrote:
> Instadeaths-331
>
>Compiled and edited by Trevor Powell from postings to RGRN and spoilers
>written by Dylan O'Donnell and others. Corrections and additions can be
>sent to vulpine at zikzak dot net.
A good job. I have a couple more comments; I'll try to avoid duplicating
those of others.
> The smartest idea is to
> being satiated as much as possible,
It looks like the word "avoid" got dropped out of the middle of this
sentence.
> Wearing rings and amulets will make you digest
> your food faster, and will make it necessary to eat more often, so that
> you're less likely to choke to death if you're wearing lots of them
> (especially ring of hunger and/or ring of regeneration)
Also a ring of conflict increases your hunger more than other rings.
> Preventatives: For 'trices, wear gloves and don't carry a 'trice corpse
> around if you're burdened.
This is actually safe so long as you're not actually *wielding* the corpse.
Make sure you are wielding the corpse *only* in actual combat, and
immediately unwield it when it's not needed.
> For preventing Medusa's stoning ability, wearing a blindfold or
> wrapping a towel around your head will keep you safe.
You might want to change this to "blinding yourself", since there are
several ways to do this besides the above. Also, having reflection will
protect you -- though I admit that I've always been paranoid enough to
blind myself anyway just in case.
[against death rays]
> If you have neither [reflection nor magic protection], your only hope
> is to either be invisible
> or to be wearing a cloak of displacement, either of which will give you
> some chance that your opponent will guess your position wrong, and so the
> death-ray will be fired away from you, which can buy you enough time to
> kill the bearer of the wand or to run away until you're better-protected.
Having an AC of -17 or better gives a decent chance that the ray will
miss. "The death ray whizzes by you!" (I once got that message in
the Castle. I levelported out of there PDQ.)
> Preventatives:
> Magic resistance (typically
> Magicbane, grey dragon scale mail, or cloak of magic resistance)
Also about half of the Quest artifacts -- the Magic Mirror of Merlin,
the Eye of the Aethiopica, the Sceptre of Might, the Orb of Detection,
the Eyes of the Overworld, and the Platinum Yendorian Express Card
>beheading:
>
> Vorpal Blade has a 5% chance of beheading any target which posesses a head
> each time it hits, with no way to defend against this attack.
>
> Preventatives: Don't give Vorpal Blade to your pet (if your pet can even
> use weapons). Don't leave Vorpal Blade lying around where a monster might
> pick it up. If you must fight someone who has Vorpal Blade, either attack
> them from long range or polymorph into something which doesn't have a head.
> Obviously, attacking from long range is preferred, as polymorphing oneself
> into something without a head is a tricky business!
Also, putting the monster to sleep or paralyzing it can work. For bisection
with the Tsurugi, ditto.
> If you don't
> have magic resistance and have reason to believe that your foe may posess
> a touch of death attack, you need to kill that foe from a long distance,
> so they don't get in range for them to perform the attack!
Which can be quite difficult, since most of them are teleporters.
>level drain to level 0:
>
> You've got lots of warning, here. Enemies which drain levels don't appear
> until the deeper parts of the dungeon, and you should be of a high
> level by the time you meet them. If you do find your levels dropping
> dangerously low, escape back upwards in the dungeon to recover!
>
> Defense: Wielding Excalibur, the Staff of Aesculapius, or Stormbringer
> will make you resistant to level-drain attacks (You may only want to wield
> these if you're of the appropriate alignment, however). Also, polymorphing
> into an undead or demonic creature will generally provide you with
> level-drain resistance.
Wearing the right armor will prevent 98% of level-drain attacks. Such
armor includes: elven or dwarven mithril-coats; cloak of protection;
cloak of magic resistance; elven cloak; robe; oilskin cloak.
>death by brainlessness:
>
> Preventatives: A Helm of Brilliance will stop death by brainlessness,
> even if your native intelligence drops below 3. Just don't remove the
> helmet (or let a nymph steal it or a succubus remove it...).
As others have noted, a dunce cap will fix your intelligence at 6.
(Personally I think of this as a bug: it should *cap* your intelligence
at 6, but not prevent lowering.) Also, wearing a ring of sustain ability
will fix all your abilities at their current value, including
intelligence -- it won't protect your memories, though.
> deadly poison
>
> Preventatives: Try to avoid pit traps; particularly those in the gnomish
> mines, which is where pits with poisoned spikes seem to be the most common.
I'm almost sure this is not true. There's more open space for pit traps
to be in, but the pits are not more likely to be spiked than elsewhere.
>sickness:
>
> Generally caused by food poisoning, but can also caused by the touch
> of Pestilence (anything else?). "Ulch - that meat was tainted! You
> feel deathly sick." If your sickness isn't healed within only a few
> turns (approx. 10, though it varies), you'll die.
>
> Preventatives: Don't eat corpses which you didn't see die within the
> past few turns. (undead corpses are never truly safe to eat).
I find that undead corpses which are extremely fresh are safe more often
than not, and I'll eat the corpses of elf zombies/mummies if I don't
have sleep resistance, as well as the corpses of undead giants in order
to gain strength. I do make sure I have some way of curing illness though.
By the time I'm encountering giant zombies I usually have a unicorn horn.
> Remedies: If you do become deathly sick, pray to your deity (if they
> aren't upset with you) or Apply a unicorn horn (preferably blessed,
> for best likelihood of success) or cast the Cure Sickness spell.
There are a number of remedies, some of which are safer than others.
100%: prayer (if safe); quaff a blessed potion of healing, a noncursed
potion of extra or full healing, or a potion of holy water; #invoke
the Staff of Aesculapius. (Quaffing holy water especially seems to be
little-known; it can be useful, since most characters will have some around.
Use with care when your alignment is Chaotic, however!)
Eating a non-cursed eucalyptus leaf will cure your illness. However,
there is some chance that eaten food will be rotten and knock you out
for a few turns. Perhaps some source diver will give us the exact chance
of this happening. It's possible to be knocked out long enough to die,
especially when facing a foe that can make you sicker. (I lost a good
character to Pestilence this way recently.)
80%: Blessed unicorn horn.
Variable%, but you'll know what it is: spell of cure sickness.
A unicorn horn is good enough for just one round of illness, as when
eating a rotten corpse or facing Juiblex (who is slow and has a well-known
Achilles heel); however, it is *not* good enough against Demogorgon or
Pestilence.
> Preventatives: Kill cockatrices from long range with spells or missile
> weapons. Note that you're much more likely to have the stoning process
> begin in combat if it's Friday the 13th and you're not carrying a
> lizard corpse. So if it happens to be Friday the 13th, be sure to carry
> a few lizard corpses around with you!
For Friday the 13th, subsitute "the night of a new moon". Friday the 13th
affects your Luck but does nothing directly to cockatrices.
The lizard corpses can be cursed, incidentally, and will still work.
> Remedies: You can stop the stoning process by eating a lizard corpse,
> eating an acidic corpse, or casting Stone to Flesh on yourself.
Also quaffing a potion of acid.
>sinking in lava:
> Preventatives: This is a "just don't do that" item. Stepping into lava is
> always a Bad Idea.
Levitation, from a ring or boots or a potion or a spell, will allow you
to cross lava safely.
> Remedies: If you do find yourself in lava, here's what you
> can do: Teleport. Zap a wand of cold downwards to freeze the lava, then
> apply a pickaxe or wand of digging downwards to dig your legs out of the
> frozen lava. (Is there anything else? There must be other options here..)
Prayer may help.
>sliming:
> Preventatives: Always kill green slimes from a distance. Don't let them
> get close to attack you. (This implies that you should have some way to
> spot them from a distance) An amulet of unchanging will protect you from
> being slimed.
As with level drain, the right armor will nearly always protect you.
> Remedies: If you get yourself slimed, you can pray to your god for help,
> if they're happy with you (But not if you're beneath the Valley of the
> Dead, which you almost always are when you're facing a green slime).
> Putting on an amulet of unchanging will halt the sliming process.
> Reading a scroll of fire or casting 'Fireball' on yourself will burn the
> slime away (but will also hurt you and probably destroy many carried
> scrolls and potions at the same time). Casting 'Cure Sickness' on
> yourself will heal sliming more safely. Applying a unicorn horn will
> NOT stop sliming!
There are numerous other sources of fire: zap a wand of fire at yourself;
a)pply a wand of fire, breaking it; step on a fire trap; step on a magic trap
and get the "tower of flame" effect; have a flaming sphere explode at you;
have a monster with fire breath (red dragon, hell hound pup, hell hound)
apply it at you when you don't have reflection. You might simply want to
note that any source of fire damage will cure sliming.
As others have noted, polymorphing yourself will cure sliming.
#invoking the Staff of Aesculapius will cure sliming.
--
David Goldfarb <*>| "Oh, death from on high. Neat."
gold...@ocf.berkeley.edu |
aste...@slip.net | -- Tom Servo, Mystery Science Theater 3000
gold...@csua.berkeley.edu | "Gamera"
Dylan O'Donnell
> As others have noted, a dunce cap will fix your intelligence at 6.
> (Personally I think of this as a bug: it should *cap* your intelligence
> at 6, but not prevent lowering.)
It's not a bug, since it's intentional; it may be a design
misdecision, of course (but the justification seems reasonable to
me). From acurr() in attrib.c:
/* yes, this may raise int/wis if player is sufficiently
* stupid. there are lower levels of cognition than "dunce".
*/
> As others have noted, polymorphing yourself will cure sliming.
Only into a fire vortex, fire elemental, or green slime. Polymorphing
into a "new man" will reset the sliming counter to 10, but not cure
it. "Your body transforms, but there is still slime on you."
--
: Dylan O'Donnell http://www.spod-central.org/~psmith/ :
: "The sun has gone. It must be brought. You have a rock." :
: -- Dan Schmidt, "For a Change" :
Raisse the Thaumaturge
> In article <slrn92hvmb.kc...@wonderland.zikzak.net>,
> Trevor Powell <vulpine at zikzak dot net> wrote:
>> Remedies: You can stop the stoning process by eating a lizard
>> corpse, eating an acidic corpse, or casting Stone to Flesh on
>> yourself.
>
> Also quaffing a potion of acid.
Remember that stone to flesh will also turn any stone items you're
carrying to meat. If you have one turn to spare, drop any marble wands,
granite rings, luckstones, etcetera. (Imagine the wand of wishing you
just got and haven't got round to using yet because the cockatrice
attacked you is marble!)
Raisse, petrified by a cockatrice
--
@ a human or elf (peaceful thaumaturge called Raisse)
-------< Ascended 12 times, but never in 3.3.1 yet >-------
ir...@valdyas.org (myself) http://www.valdyas.org/irina
Ray Chason
>There is a different touch of death, which may give exactly the same
>death message, in mhitu.c, case AD_DETH. Being undead protects
>against this, among other things. This is what Death does,
>apparently.
There's a "touch of death," which can be used by monsters of at least
21 that have the AD_SPEL attack, and gives the message "Oh no, (s)he's
using the touch of death!" and the following outcomes:
* If you are undead, a golem, or a demon, "You seem no deader than
before." No effect.
* If you have magic resistance, or in any case with probability of
12/monsterlevel, then "Lucky for you, it didn't work!" No effect.
* If you are hallucinating, "You have an out of body experience."
No effect.
* Otherwise, you die.
There's also a "deadly touch," which is limited to Death and Yeenoghu.
The message is "<foo> reaches out with his deadly touch." The outcome
is:
* If you are undead, you wonder "Was that the touch of death?"
Loss of hit points.
* If you have magic resistance, or in any case with 15% probability:
o With 20% probability, "Lucky for you, it didn't work!" No effect.
o Otherwise, "You feel your life force draining away..." Loss of
hit points.
* Otherwise, you die.
--
--------------===============<[ Ray Chason ]>===============--------------
PGP public key at http://www.smart.net/~rchason/pubkey.asc
People should respect the law, and the law should respect people.
Delenda est Windoze
Ray Chason
>eating Death, Famine, Pestilence, or green slime corpses:
>
> Well let's face it, this is just plain stupid. So don't do it!
Add Medusa to that list.
>level drain to level 0:
>
> You've got lots of warning, here. Enemies which drain levels don't appear
> until the deeper parts of the dungeon, and you should be of a high
> level by the time you meet them.
Kicking sinks too early can get you in this fix. Of course, dishwashers
or no, kicking sinks before you can deal with black puddings is not a
very bright thing to do.
Sir Dies-A-Lot
Trevor Powell wrote in message ...
>stoning:
>
> Being turned to stone can be caused instantly by catching sight of
Medusa
> while she's alive, or by making direct flesh-to-flesh contact with
a
> cockatrice/chickatrice; even a dead one.
>
> Direct contact with a cockatrice includes attacking them
bare-handed,
> kicking them if you aren't wearing shoes, picking them up or
wielding
> them without gloves, stepping over their corpse while blind and not
> wearing gloves ("you feel around to determine what's here"), eating
> their corpses, being burdened and falling down stairs while
wielding
> their corpses, eating one of their eggs, tinning them, sacrificing
> them, and probably a bunch of other activities involving 'trices
that
> haven't yet occured to me. In case the above hasn't made it
obvious,
> I have to repeat that 'trices are DANGEROUS, even when long dead,
and
> should only be handled if you're certain that there's no chance
they'll
> come in contact with your bare skin. When in doubt -- run away!
You can also get insta-stoned by being polymorphed into a monster that
bites as well as attacks and foolishly attacking the 'trice.
Pat Rankin
contradicts itself. Please come up with some other term that
isn't so absurd.
Most of the inaccuracies have already been pointed out,
but I didn't notice anyone mention this one: drowning by sea
monster is not an instant death. You get grabbed on one turn
and then pulled under the water on the next, so do have time
to try to save yourself if your movement rate is normal or
better.
David Goldfarb
Ray Chason <johnn...@southland.smart.net.SPAMMEN.VERBOTEN> wrote:
>Of course, dishwashers
>or no, kicking sinks before you can deal with black puddings is not a
>very bright thing to do.
Black puddings are easy to deal with. Just kick them to death, backing
up as you go. Any character that's normal speed and unburdened, or
fast and burdened, is fast enough to alternate a kick with a move and
never let the pudding get an attack in. You'd better have the level
mapped out beforehand, of course, so that you don't get unexpectedly
trapped in a cul-de-sac.
--
David Goldfarb <*>|"...I'm a member of the Centre Extremist party.
gold...@ocf.berkeley.edu | We have very moderate views, but if you don't
aste...@slip.net | agree with them, we'll kill you."
gold...@csua.berkeley.edu |
james_k...@my-deja.com
gold...@OCF.Berkeley.EDU (David Goldfarb) wrote:
<snip>
> A unicorn horn is good enough for just one round of illness, as when
> eating a rotten corpse or facing Juiblex (who is slow and has a well-
> known Achilles heel); however, it is *not* good enough against
> Demogorgon or Pestilence.
I would note that Demogorgon has the potential to kill instantly
because of his speed and multiple attacks. When his free move comes
up, he can kill you before you cure yourself, if enough of his
poisoning attacks are successful. How can this be avoided with 100%
certainty? Well, the only way Demogorgon appears in the game is if he
is summoned by Orcus (or the Wizard?), so for 100% certainty you would
have to have the means to dispatch in one round anyone who could summon
him.
James
james.j.k...@alum.dartmouth.org
Sent via Deja.com http://www.deja.com/
Before you buy.
Mandos D Shadowspawn Esq
>That would make eating eggs outright impossible :|
>The result is actually:
>"This egg is delicious! You are slowing down."
In 3.2 it was instant. I got caught out once and have never eaten an
egg since :-)
Mandos D Shadowspawn Esq
Dylan O'Donnell
[Attribution?]
Stoning from eating cockatrice eggs has been on the 5-turn timer since
different-monster eggs were implemented in 3.0.0. (Eating eggs is
still enough of a gamble that I don't do it, though...)
David Goldfarb
Not so. I ate an egg once playing 3.2 (I think it was the game I ascended
as an Elf) and had time to eat a lizard corpse and save myself. Being
*hit* by a thrown egg is instant death but I don't think any monsters
are smart enough to do that.
--
David Goldfarb <*>|
gold...@ocf.berkeley.edu | "Hey, mister -- your ninja's dragging!"
aste...@slip.net | -- MST3K, "Master Ninja I"
gold...@csua.berkeley.edu |
Dylan O'Donnell
> In article <3a2c31b5....@news.iconz.co.nz>,
> Mandos D Shadowspawn Esq <net...@spambegone.dragonquest.org.nz> wrote:
> as an Elf) and had time to eat a lizard corpse and save myself. Being
> *hit* by a thrown egg is instant death but I don't think any monsters
> are smart enough to do that.
_This_ has changed since 3.2; they are now :-) It's still only on
the 5-turn timer if you're hit by a monster-thrown egg, though,
as opposed to the instadeath from "elementary physics" if you
throw one upwards yourself.
Jeff Zeitlin
>Potion of acid. Stone to Flesh spell turns anything on your person to
>meat <meat stick, meat ring, and don't THOSE sound perverted>
Especially when you consider that at one time, "ring" was slang for
well-um...
--
Jeff Zeitlin
jzei...@cyburban.com
(Ask me via email about the ILink message network!)
StarChaser_Tyger
> "Delayed insta-death" is an oxymoron, a phrase which
>contradicts itself. Please come up with some other term that
>isn't so absurd.
'Delayed sure death', 'slow but sure death'
StarChaser_Tyger
>StarChaser_Tyger <StarC...@mindless.com> wrote:
>
>>Potion of acid. Stone to Flesh spell turns anything on your person to
>>meat <meat stick, meat ring, and don't THOSE sound perverted>
>
>Especially when you consider that at one time, "ring" was slang for
>well-um...
That being what I had in mind...
Get your mind out of the gutter! I don't like the crowding...
StarChaser_Tyger
>As others have noted, a dunce cap will fix your intelligence at 6.
>(Personally I think of this as a bug: it should *cap* your intelligence
>at 6, but not prevent lowering.) Also, wearing a ring of sustain ability
>will fix all your abilities at their current value, including
>intelligence -- it won't protect your memories, though.
I think it's a rather cool use of an otherwise utterly useless object.
It doesn't protect against dropped rocks, it doesn't give you much in
the way of armor unless you waste enchant scrolls on it, it has a
rather nasty drawback, especially for the only class that would be
likely to put it on, but like pretty much everything else in Nethack,
it has one use.
Brent Ross
StarChaser_Tyger <StarC...@mindless.com> wrote:
// >Delayed insta-deaths:
// >------------
// >
// >sickness:
// >
// > Generally caused by food poisoning, but can also caused by the touch
// > of Pestilence (anything else?). "Ulch - that meat was tainted! You
// > feel deathly sick." If your sickness isn't healed within only a few
// > turns (approx. 10, though it varies), you'll die.
//
// Being engulfed by Juiblex.
Yep. I don't think anyone's mentioned that the sickness counter gets
reduced to (counter / 3 + 1) if you get hit with a sickness attack while
sick. This isn't such a big deal for Jubilex (who's fairly easy to deal
with)... but Demogorgon can hit you twice with it in the same round (making
that 10 into a 3)... and that's a lot closer to instadeath.
Brent
Timo Korvola
> "Quick death"? "Almost-sure death"?
> "Situation Requiring Extreme Action"?
Or maybe just "other ways to die with full hit points"?
--
Timo Korvola <URL:http://www.iki.fi/tkorvola>
Brent Ross
Timo Korvola <Timo.K...@iki.fi> wrote:
// Jukka Lahtinen <wal...@clinet.fi.no.sp.am.invalid> writes:
// > "Quick death"? "Almost-sure death"?
// > "Situation Requiring Extreme Action"?
// Or maybe just "other ways to die with full hit points"?
Not-Quite-So-Instadeath?
Imperative Deadly Situtations?
--
Brent Ross | Ganymede 67N 57E
bwr...@csclub.uwaterloo.ca | Callisto 6N 37W
Ilkka Virta
O'Donnell) wrote:
>_This_ has changed since 3.2; they are now :-) It's still only on
>the 5-turn timer if you're hit by a monster-thrown egg, though,
>as opposed to the instadeath from "elementary physics" if you
>throw one upwards yourself.
g - a cockatrice egg.
What do you want to throw? [ab or ?*] (g)
In what direction? (<)
A cockatrice egg hits the ceiling. Splat!
Only c*ckatrice corpses seem to kill by elementary physics.
Dylan O'Donnell
There's a 1/5 chance of an egg not reaching the ceiling and falling
back down on top of you, with the predictable results.
StarChaser_Tyger
>On 04 Dec 2000 09:18:14 +0000, psmit...@spod-central.org (Dylan
>O'Donnell) wrote:
>>_This_ has changed since 3.2; they are now :-) It's still only on
>>the 5-turn timer if you're hit by a monster-thrown egg, though,
>>as opposed to the instadeath from "elementary physics" if you
>>throw one upwards yourself.
>
>g - a cockatrice egg.
>What do you want to throw? [ab or ?*] (g)
>In what direction? (<)
>A cockatrice egg hits the ceiling. Splat!
>
>Only c*ckatrice corpses seem to kill by elementary physics.
g - 5 cockatrice eggs
What do you want to throw? g
In what direction? <
A cockatrice egg almost hits the ceiling, then drops back on your
head.
Splat! You turn to stone.
Worked for me...
fish...@nerve.com
Raisse the Thaumaturge <rai...@valdyas.org> wrote:
>granite rings, luckstones, etcetera. (Imagine the wand of wishing you
>just got and haven't got round to using yet because the cockatrice
>attacked you is marble!)
Ouch! After you've identified (e.g., marble wand, granite ring),
the material isn't shown in your inventory.
Nesta, killed by a falling rock
Dylan O'Donnell
> In article <1105427.hNa4fbKqqX@turenay>,
> Raisse the Thaumaturge <rai...@valdyas.org> wrote:
> >just got and haven't got round to using yet because the cockatrice
> >attacked you is marble!)
>
> the material isn't shown in your inventory.
Though you can always find it out with the \ command, which doesn't take
a turn.
Ilkka Virta
O'Donnell) wrote:
>There's a 1/5 chance of an egg not reaching the ceiling and falling
>back down on top of you, with the predictable results.
Ok. I've only tried it twice now. Should have checked the source.
Jason Short
>
> Instadeaths-331
>
> bisection:
> Preventatives: See the above section on beheading, which applies
> equally here, except substituting polymorphing into a large monster for
> polymorphing into a headless monster. Again, attacking from a long
> range is the preferred option (since it's much easier than managing to
> polymorph oneself into a large monster!)
>
It is generally not possible to kill the monster from range, since the
quest nemesis who most often uses the Tsuragi will teleport right up to
you once you wake him up.
> level drain to level 0:
> stiffening:
> sliming:
All of these, and possibly others besides, can be made very unlikely
with an appropriate magic cancellation. I don't think it would be
inappropriate to give probabilities of them happening based on your
magic cancellation...you'd want to figure this out from the source, but
IIRC with a MC of 3 your chances of these happening drop to 1-3%.
--
jason short
David R. Throop
In article <slrn92hvmb.kc...@wonderland.zikzak.net>,
Trevor Powell <vulpine at zikzak dot net> wrote:
>Insta-deaths
>------------
>
>choking:
>
> Caused by trying to eat too much.
Certainly this section should mention the *particular* hazard of
eating after eating a dragon corspe: You are already overfull when
you've eaten the dragon even though you got no message. You won't get
a warning message if you attempt to eat again.
Also, another obscure demi-insta-death
Digested Completely
If you are swallowed by a purple worm, and you have very good armour,
and there is something very nasty outside the worm, you may be tempted
to just hang around inside the worm until your HP regenerate. Beware!
Those 'you get digested' messages are cumulative, even though your
hitpoints are increasing. Suddenly you get a "You are digested
completely!' message. And you're a goner.
I've done this at least twice.
David "the Uuuurrrppp" Throop
Russell Marks
> Excellent post! some comments:
>
> In article <slrn92hvmb.kc...@wonderland.zikzak.net>,
> Trevor Powell <vulpine at zikzak dot net> wrote:
>
> >Insta-deaths
> >------------
> >
> >choking:
> >
> > Caused by trying to eat too much.
>
> Certainly this section should mention the *particular* hazard of
> eating after eating a dragon corspe: You are already overfull when
> you've eaten the dragon even though you got no message. You won't get
> a warning message if you attempt to eat again.
Hmm. Maybe you should see my recent post on choking in the "YASD (with
the Amulet)" thread. [1] Key points (from source diving):
- Dragons do not appear to be intrinsically [2] special in this
regard.
- "You're finally finished" is as severe a warning as "Stop eating".
- Making u.uhunger >=2000 with your first bite of something is
instantly fatal, with no prompt or warning. (The above warnings mean
it's >=1500 and <2000.)
-Rus.
[1] Message-ID being <aW6Y5.3136$lw2....@news6-win.server.ntlworld.com>.
[2] If you'll excuse the pun. :-)
Rob Ellwood
>
> "Delayed insta-death" is an oxymoron, a phrase which
> contradicts itself. Please come up with some other term that
> isn't so absurd.
"Impending doom".
--
Rob Ellwood
To reply, delete the anti-spam stuff in the address.