Dungeon Master Forum

Hi all,

Have any of you noticed that the same type of monster (e.g., a mummy) can apparently have varying levels of difficulty depending on where you encounter them in the dungeon? For example, you can generally kill the mummies on Floor 1 of the dungeon very easily by throwing one or two items at them. However, mummies deeper in the dungeon seem to be able to take significantly more hits from ranged weapons before they actually die. I also just noticed that it took me forever to kill a rockpile blocking the way about 2/3 of the way through Floor 3 of the dungeon, whereas the rockpiles on Floor 2 of the dungeon and the earliest part of Floor 3 went down with far less effort. Finally, I've noticed that when you encounter a monster type that normally comes in a group of 2-4 by itself (e.g., a single mummy or magenta worm), that it will often be more difficult than monsters of the same type when you encounter them in a group. Does this phenomenon get worse as you go deeper into the dungeon? In other words, will a trolin on one of the dungeon's deepest levels generally be much more difficult than the trolins you encounter on Floor 2 of the dungeon?


--Jay

I could be wrong, but I don't think their attack strength or rate differ. I think they just have higher HP.

The monsters get higher health the deeper you go. That is known. It's talked about here
http://dmweb.free.fr/?q=node/1198
http://dmweb.free.fr/?q=node/1363
The screamers on level 4 will take a surprising beating, about as much as a worm, but their attacks are still pathetic. Good time to work on ninja levels by switching to daggers or just kicking them.

Also, occasionally a monster on a level will have slightly stronger health than the rest. This is most noticeable on level 3 with the trollins in the secret chamber past the three locked doors near the stairs down. All other trollins on the level will die to a LO level poison bolt (DES VEN), but these can survive one and you need UM or better.
A similar thing happens with the wasps on level 6. All the wasps on that level except one group of two can be defeated with a LO level poison cloud (OH VEN), although I can never for the life of me remember which group that is.
These slightly stronger monsters are fixed and don't regenerate.

I know there are others, but those are the most noticeable and the only two I can name.

Thanks for the info. I was just killing those screamers on the worm level for some screamer slices and saw one survive a blow of ~168 damage from one of my characters - they do seem to have quite a bit of HP...


--Jay

That's when and where I noticed it too. Screamers have high HP on level 4, but pathetic attacks. Which means they are the best place to work on your ninja levels.