Monsters
Encounters with monsters are the backbone of FrogComposband. It is
mostly by killing monsters that you acquire treasures, gain experience
and become more powerful; but not all monsters are hateful enemies who
need to die.
Monster Races
Each monster in the game represents some specific monster kind, usually
known for convenience as the monster's race. (The term is somewhat
misleading in that it does not necessarily imply a distinct species or
ethnicity; human novice mages, human novice priests and human novice
archaeologists are three separate monster races; also, I use semicolons
too much.) Race determines most things about a monster: which melee
attacks (if any) it can hit you with, which spells (if any) it can use,
which of your attacks (if any) it can shrug off.
Two monsters of the same race are not completely identical - there is
some variation between individuals in terms of details such as hit
points and speed - but most of the time you can ignore that variation
and treat all members of a monster race as interchangeable, as impolite
as that might seem. Distinct races, on the other hand, are far from
interchangeable; each poses a unique challenge, apart from the few who
pose no challenge at all.
Monster Species
Monster races can be grouped into categories (or species). Two monsters
of the same species are always represented on the map by the same
letter symbol; for example, all orcs share the letter o. Monsters of
the same race also share the color (all orc warlocks are o). It is
possible, but relatively rare, for a monster race to share both its
letter and its color with another race of the same species.
The symbols for all monster species are listed below.
Monster Symbols
a Ant A Angel
b Bat B Bird
c Centipede C Canine
d Dragon D Ancient Dragon/Wyrm
e Eye E Elemental
f Feline/Fox F Dragon Fly
g Golem G Ghost
h Humanoid H Hybrid
i Icky Thing I Insect
j Jelly J Snake
k Kobold K Killer Beetle
l Aquatic monster L Lich
m Mold M Multi-Headed Hydra
n Naga N (special - shadower)
o Orc O Ogre
p Human P Giant
q Quadruped Q Quylthulg
r Rodent R Reptile/Amphibian
s Skeleton S Spider/Scorpion/Tick
t Townsperson T Troll
u Minor demon U Major demon
v Vortex V Vampire
w Worm/Worm Mass W Wight/Wraith
x (special - easy mimic) X Xorn/Xaren
y Yeek Y Yeti
z Zombie/Mummy Z Zephyr Hound
$ Creeping Coins , Mushroom Patch
# Ent/Mist creature
Unlike the race, the species of a monster does not tell you anything
about how dangerous a monster is; the almost harmless giant green frog
is a reptile/amphibian with the symbol R... but so is a tyrannosaurus.
The species does, however, allow some generic assumptions; for example,
nearly all dragons and zephyr hounds breathe something or other. You
can also assume something with the d or D symbol will take extra damage
from a weapon that slays dragons.
Assessing a Monster
The cheapest way to tell who a monster is and how much damage he deals
in combat is by picking a fight with them and finding out. This can
lead to complications such as death, though, so you may want to take a
more measured approach.
Use the * targetting command or the l look command to inspect a
monster. Here I have used the * command to discover that the h to my
north-east is a Nibelung:
Monster: a Nibelung [r,q,t,p,o,x,j,+,-,?,<dir>]
LEVEL 1
EXP 15
AU 32
| ~(
STR : 16
INT : 18
WIS : 9
#.. h DEX : 18/40
#.** CON : 17
#@.. CHR : 12
#### AC 6
HP 37/ 37
SP 14/ 14
h[*********]
Quest: L5
If you are playing for the first time, just knowing the monster is a
Nibelung does not help that much - what are Nibelungs like?! You can
press r at this targetting prompt to bring up some additional
information:
Monster: a Nibelung [r,q,t,p,o,x,j,+,-,?,<dir>]
Name : Nibelung (h) L 1
Level : ? Speed: +0 15
AC : ? Type : Male 32
HP : ? ~(
: 16
Attacks : ? : 18
: 9
Kills : 0 : 18/40
: 17
Night dwarfs collecting new riches for their master, Alberich. : 12
#### AC 6
HP 37/ 37
SP 14/ 14
h[*********]
Quest: L5
Had we met Nibelungs before, this screen would be populated with useful
information. We haven't, so there's really just the speed and the
flavor description... but the latter does strongly suggest that
nibelungs might be thieves. (Jumping ahead of ourselves for a bit, it
also implies there might be a unique nibelung called Alberich!)
If I let the nibelung hit me a couple times, we find out I was right
about nibelungs being thieves, and the monster recall updates with this
new information:
Monster: a Nibelung [r,q,t,p,o,x,j,+,-,?,<dir>]
Name : Nibelung (h) L 2
Level : ? Speed: +0 21
AC : ? Type : Thief, Male 0
HP : ? ~(
: 16
Attacks : Type Effects : 18
Hit Hurt : 9
Touch Steal Gold : 18/40
: 17
Kills : 0 : 12
6
Night dwarfs collecting new riches for their master, Alberich. 15/ 48
SP 18/ 18
h[**-------]
Quest: L5
Notice also the monster status bar on the right - that little
h[**-------]? It indicates how healthy a monster is: I hit that
Nibelung a couple times in return, and the seven empty slots next to
the two red stars tell me he is already down to a fraction of his
original health. Nibelungs probably aren't too tough if I could do so
much damage so quickly! (See [a] below for a more detailed explanation
of the status bar.)
Unique Monsters
While there are many humans in the world, there is only one of you.
Likewise, many monsters can only be killed once, and these monsters are
called unique monsters or simply uniques. A large part of the game
involves killing as many uniques as possible. In fact, you need to kill
a certain unique to win the game: the Serpent of Chaos. Many quests
also involve killing a unique.
Uniques are typically some of the toughest monsters you will meet at a
given depth. Many uniques, especially in the early game, are just
bigger, badder versions of a regular monster; Mughash the Kobold Lord,
for example, could be fairly described as a normal kobold who hits
harder, has extra hitpoints and takes a posse of friends with him
everywhere he goes. It is not unusual, however, for a unique to truly
be one of a kind and have little in common with anybody else.
The flipside to uniques' toughness is that they also drop some of the
best treasures. A number of uniques even have special drops - the
unique Arthur Pendragon, for example, might drop the highly valuable
sword Excalibur. But that is a long way from guaranteed!
A unique does not belong to any other monster race; from the game's
point of view, each unique is a monster race of its own.
Uniques' Resistance to Magic
Unique monsters tend to be more resistant to magic than the other
dungeon inhabitants. In particular, almost no magic is powerful
enough to slow uniques or make them fall asleep. Uniques who resist
Teleportation are always completely immune to it (most normal
monsters only get a saving throw). In addition, Genocide and
Mass-Genocide effects (see [b] below) will never work on a unique.
Speaking Uniques
Occasionally, you will find that a unique monster will speak to you
as it approaches. Typically, a monster will shout insults and
challenges to combat; but they may also mention topics relating to
themselves, or just engage in friendly chatter if they are less
hostile. The game has no mechanism to allow you to respond (other
than with violence). Speaking is not strictly limited to uniques, but
is much rarer in normal monster races.
Wanted Uniques
For every character you play, the game rolls a new random list of
twenty wanted uniques. You can view this list at the Bounty Offices
in Outpost, Thalos and Anambar, and review it at any time through the
~ knowledge-menu command. When you kill a wanted unique, you are
reminded of the price on its head; pick up the corpse or skeleton and
turn it in at the Bounty Office, and you will receive one or more
valuable items as a reward for your good work.
The list of wanted uniques is sorted by the native depth of the
unique; killing deeper uniques gives better rewards.
Listing All Monsters in View
Using the * command to inspect a single monster is great when you only
have to worry about one monster, but often dozens of monsters will be
nearby at once. Here's a more advanced character who has just walked
into a quest and cast a magical monster-detection spell - who are all
these guys?
You sense the presence of doors! You sense the presence of AU 475k
monsters! You hear a door burst open! ||}~=="~((]]
Z Z.Z STR : 18/113
#++Z# INT : 10
#...# WIS : 18/10
#...# } DEX : 18/161
^ T #...# - ^ p CON : 18/153
#...# O O CHR : 16
p TuT ######...###### z AC 93
[ hh T +.............+f ^ HP 502/ 503
| h h = T+......@......+ ff j V | SP 100/ 100
F h +.............+f d
h ######...######f f
h h #...# f G
K h h #...# f
#...# f
#...#
#+++#
Fast (+8)
Full
O Study (8)
g Y p
,
Quest: L35 DTrap
Even if you had been playing long enough that you could guess who a
monster is from just the symbol, that would still be an awful lot of
information to process. The solution here is to press Y (or [ if you
have switched to the roguelike keyset) to bring up the monster list:
You see 2 monsters, 2 are awake: LEVEL 33
Z Energy hound (2 awake) EXP 22.5k
AU 475k
You are aware of 67 other monsters, 8 are awake: ||}~=="~((]]
D Ancient green dragon N 17 E 1 STR : 18/113
d Fire angel S 1 E 25 INT : 10
u Bodak N 2 W 10 WIS : 18/10
V Master vampire N 0 E 21 DEX : 18/161
p Logrus master N 2 W 18 ^ p CON : 18/153
p Ivory monk N 4 E 20 CHR : 16
O Ogre shaman S 10 E 6 z AC 93
# Granite wall N 9 E 4 ^ HP 502/ 503
Y Giant land sloth S 11 W 2 V | SP 100/ 100
= Ring mimic N 0 W 11 d
, Corpser N 10 W 4
g The Ultimate Dungeon Cleaner (asleep S 13 E 4 G
p Clairvoyant S 17 W 1
O Ogre mage (2 asleep)
q Beast of Nurgle N 13 W 8
p Agent of Benedict (11 asleep)
z Ghoul N 2 E 19 Fast (+8)
j Black ooze N 0 E 12 Full
K Killer stag beetle S 4 W 17 Study (8)
H Nue N 16 E 5
Z Energy hound (7 awake)
[Press ESC to exit. Press ? for help]
That is still a lot of information; but the list is ordered primarily
by line-of-sight (the two energy hounds go first because they are in
direct view) and secondarily by the native depth of the monster, which
is a rough indicator of the threat level. So the monsters near the top
of the list are the ones we should worry about the most.
The highest level monster in there is an ancient green dragon, a very
nasty enemy in the wrong circumstances. My experience with the game
makes me even more worried about the bodak and in particular the logrus
master - but those are still near the top, so I spotted them easily.
Luckily for me, the list has colored these monsters black rather than
white, indicating they are still asleep. (Unique monsters, here the
Ultimate Dungeon Cleaner, are listed in violet.)
Not all of the monsters listed were actually visible in that earlier
screenshot - many were offscreen, but still within detection range, so
they show up on the monster list. All the better for us!
You can press R to bring up additional information through the monster
list; I chose the fire angel for this purpose here because that
happened to be a monster this character already knew things about:
[Monster Info, Line 0/22] LEVEL 33
EXP 22.5k
Name : Fire angel (d) AU 475k
Level : 37 to 70 Speed: +10 ||}~=="~((]]
AC : ? Type : Evil, Dragon STR : 18/113
HP : ? INT : 10
WIS : 18/10
Spells : 14.28% (1 of 7 moves) Intelligent DEX : 18/161
Breathe : Plasma (1x) CON : 18/153
CHR : 16
Attacks : Type Effects AC 93
Claw Hurt HP 502/ 503
Claw Hurt SP 100/ 100
Bite Hurt, Fire
Bite Hurt, Fire
Info : Shining, Suitable for Riding
Kills : 1
Exp : 1.59k at CL33
Drops : Up to 3 Objects Fast (+8)
Full
A level 37 evil dragon with +10 speed who breathes plasma... you can
see why the fire angel was also listed near the top.
Monster Colors
Monsters associated with a particular element (damage type) are often
color-coded. The most common and reliable associations are Red with
fire and White with cold/frost - a red dragon, for example, breathes
fire, bites to burn and is resistant to your own fire attacks. (This
does not mean all red monsters will be fire-based, only that most
fire-based monsters are red.)
Other similar associations include Blue with lightning/electricity,
Black and Slate with acid, Green with poison, Bronze with confusion,
Gold with sound and Silver with inertia. Pink monsters often hit to
drain strength in melee. Multi-hued monsters flicker in all colours and
are typically associated with multiple elements; multi-hued dragons and
multi-hued hounds both breathe and resist all of the five common
elements (acid, cold, fire, electricity and poison).
These general rules are not completely airtight - the acid-breathing
Water Hounds, for example, are Z instead of the expected Z or Z. (This
is to avoid confusion with other hounds; the darkness-breathing Shadow
Hounds are Z, and the infamous Gravity Hounds are Z.)
Eldritch Horrors
Some of the monsters in the dungeons are so fearsome that just to look
upon them can have serious repercussions. When you see one of these
sanity-blasting monsters, one (or more) of several nasty things may
happen to you; these include having your intelligence and wisdom
temporarily reduced, becoming scared or confused, and suffering an
attack of hallucinations or amnesia.
If you can cope with your first sighting of a sanity-blasting monster,
you can then safely keep that monster in view; it will not trigger the
Eldritch Horror effect as long as it remains in view. It is possible
for the effect to be triggered if the monster walks out of view and is
then seen again, but a single monster very rarely blasts your sanity
more than once.
Although all player characters have some chance to resist sanity
blasting, only a handful ever become fully immune to it.
Pets and Riding
What could be nicer than a loyal pet? People sometimes worry their pets
will trample them underfoot; but in FrogComposband, pets will never
attack you by mistake. You can walk around safely as your pet Great
Hell Wyrm obliterates your enemies. Better still, some pets can summon
new pets.
One might think that pets can make the game much easier. It is of
course highly satisfying to send your pet Wyrm into a troll pit and
wait outside listening for the howls of agony and terror, the sounds of
guts splattering, bones crunching and so on; but one should not expect
to gain much experience from this. You only earn full experience when
you deliver the death blow yourself.
Pets retain some self-preservation instincts; at low health, a pet may
decide to quit the fight (and the level) rather than to die for his
master. Another limitation to the usefulness of pets is the rule that
unique monsters can only be killed by you and never by another monster,
including pets; pets can harm uniques, but not finish them off. (This
is relaxed for player Quylthulgs due to their exceptional reliance on
pets.)
The practical approach to pets varies widely from player to player;
some successful players like keeping pets, while others just ignore the
possibility. Pets are not needed to win (on most characters), but they
are fun!
Obtaining a Pet
You may obtain pets in several different ways. Some magic realms
offer the ability to summon pets magically or to charm the creatures
you meet. Mindcrafters may 'dominate' their opponents. Chaos patrons
may grant pets as a gift to their devotees. Magical figurines can be
thrown to create a pet (though they might be cursed and create an
enemy!); and wands of charm monster may be used as their name
suggests.
The Capture Ball is a useful tool that (almost) any player can use.
Capture Balls can often be bought at a General Store. To use one, you
must wield it on your hand, then Activate it, and choose a target
monster to be captured; if successful, you can then Activate the ball
again to release the monster as your pet.
Hostile monsters will attempt to resist capturing, and can only be
captured if they are critically injured. Beastmasters are very good
at using Capture Balls, and this limitation is relaxed for them.
Level guardians are immune to being captured; uniques and monsters on
town quest levels can only be captured if they are already pets, so
they need to be charmed or otherwise tamed before capture.
Keeping Pets Happy
Pets will accept punishment from you; hurt a pet, and it remains your
pet. But what pets do expect from you is attention! This is called
pet upkeep and consumes some of your mana; the more pets you have,
and the stronger they are, the higher the upkeep. At low upkeep
(below 100%), no mana is actually lost, the upkeep just slows mana
regeneration (this allows characters with no mana to keep some pets).
But at higher levels of upkeep, you will lose mana; run out of mana,
and you have no option but to dismiss enough pets to bring the upkeep
level down. This often happens if you have a pet who likes to
summon...
At grossly excessive upkeep levels (starting around 500%), a red
upkeep warning appears in your status bar. At this point, pets have a
chance to feel neglected from lack of attention. Neglected pets
sometimes turn hostile, but more often they just think "bugger this
for a game of heroes" and leave the level.
Pet Evolution
Pets, like players, receive experience when they kill a hostile
monster. With enough experience, some pets may evolve into stronger
monsters; for example, your baby multi-hued dragon might become a
young multi-hued dragon, then a mature multi-hued dragon, and
eventually a mighty Wyrm of Many Colours!
One problem, though: evolving into very strong forms takes a long
time, and placing a pet into a Capture Ball causes the pet to lose
all experience. It will not devolve back into its original form, but
loses any progress it had made towards the next form.
Commanding Your Pets
Your pets are fairly well trained and will respond to a variety of
commands such as following you closely, staying nearby and searching
out your enemies. You can command your pets using the pet command
menu which can be found be pressing p.
Here is a list of available pet commands:
Dismiss Pets
Dismiss specified pets. Dismissed pets will immediately disappear
from the current level. FrogComposband asks you whether you want to
dismiss each pet in order from high level named pets to low level
unnamed pets. You can press 'U' to dismiss all unnamed pets.
Specify Target of Pet
Choose a target monster; all your pets will begin to chase the
target. This command causes pets to pathfind much more aggressively
in cases where enemies are not in their line of sight.
Stay Close
Command your pets to slay as close as they can.
Follow Me
Command your pets to follow you as you move about.
Seek and Destroy
Command your pets to chase monsters near you.
Give Me Space
Command your pets to go away from your line of sight.
Stay Away
Command your pets to go away as far as they can.
Pets Open Doors
Toggle permission of pets to open doors.
Pets Pick Up Items
Toggle permission of pets to pick up items. Pets will drop any
items picked up earlier.
Allow Teleport
Toggle permission of pets to cast teleport spell and teleport away
spell.
Allow Cast Attack Spell
Toggle permission of pets to use breaths and attack spells.
Allow Cast Summon Spell
Toggle permission of pets to cast summoning spells.
Allow Involve Player in Area Spell
Toggle permission of pets to use ball spells or breath attacks even
when you are close enough to take collateral damage.
Ride a Pet
Ride on a specified pet.
Get Off a Pet
Dismount from the pet you were riding.
Name Pets
Specify a target pet and name it.
Highlight Pets on Map
Toggles highlighting all pets in yellow.
Highlight Pets in Lists
Toggles highlighting all pets in yellow on the monster list. Also
highlights friendly monsters in green.
Use Both Hands for a Weapon
Use One Hand to Control a Riding Pet
Toggle use of your left hand when you are riding. You can wield a
weapon two-handed for maximum damage in melee, and command the
riding pet to chase your target using the 'specify target of pet'
command.
Riding
Not all pets are suitable for riding, but many are - horses, most
dragons, and many others. To control your mount, you must keep one
hand free for holding the reins; but your pet will attack your target
together with you, and enemy attacks will be dispersed between you
and your mount. As a result, you will take less damage in combat.
The most important feature of riding is speed. When you are riding on
a pet, your speed does not depend on your original speed but only on
the speed of your mount and your skill at riding. Quaffing a potion
of speed has no effect on your mount's speed, but throwing it at a
wall will hasten your pet if it is nearby. You can also simply use a
wand or a spell of Haste Monster.
Note that your proficiency level for riding is very low at first (see
'Proficiency' in the ~ Knowledge Menu). When your proficiency level
is low, you cannot make good use of riding, and your speed while
riding will be very low. You need to practice riding to gain the full
speed of the creature you ride. Your riding proficiency will increase
a little when you attack monsters in melee or shoot them with missile
weapons while riding. Ride on low level creatures at first, and then
switch to higher level mounts little by little.
You can also use the ~ Knowledge Menu to check your class-dependent
proficiency cap for riding. If the cap is low, you will never get
good at riding and are likely better off with another plan.
Friendly Monsters
You will occasionally find a monster in the dungeon that isn't out to
get you. Such monsters are described in game messages as being
'friendly'. A friendly monster will not attempt to hurt you, but
neither will it necessarily attack your enemies.
Unlike pets, if you hurt a friendly monster it will turn against you.
Like pets, any monsters a friendly monster summons will also be
friendly (except in the case of really stupid friends, who summon
indiscriminately). Unlike pets, friendly monsters require no mana
upkeep and cannot be commanded using the pet commands.
Note that the loyalty of friendly monsters' friendly summons may be to
the original friendly monster, not you; if you piss him off, his
summons might not take your side in the fight...
Since uniques can never be killed by another monster, only by you, a
friendly unique is a huge asset - who's going to stop them from killing
everyone for you? Friendly uniques are very rare, though; and
Politicians (the class most likely to have friendly uniques on their
side) may find them escaping as their health is depleted.
Mimics and Shadowers
A number of monsters disguise themselves by assuming the shape (and
symbol) of common objects found in the dungeon. These include the |, (,
?, !, &, =, ~, $ and * symbols. Some players find this unfair (or
unfun); to provide for them we have the easy_mimics display option [c],
which changes the symbols for most of these monsters to the special
symbol x. This reduces immersion a bit, but if you hate being chopped
to pieces by something you had thought was a cloak, go for it!
These traditional mimics are not the only monsters who are trying to
hide their identity. There are also shadowers, who might seem easily
recognizable by the distinctive N symbol... except that shadowers are
not a distinct race at all. Shadowers are monsters of other races,
hiding their true identity. At times it is obvious who a shadower
really is, at other times you may have to think. Most of the time
shadowers are fairly harmless, but don't rely on it completely.
Shadowers are quite rare, and uniques never appear as a shadower.
Two further monster races like to play games with their appearance: the
chameleons and the tanuki. Chameleons are true shape-changers: they
assume not just the appearance but also the characteristics of another
monster, and act like that monster in every way except that they might
suddenly change shape. Tanuki, on the other hand, only look like
monsters of another race; they are actually quite harmless, but might
spook you into thinking otherwise.
Breeding Monsters
There are a few monsters with the ability to breed explosively - they
can multiply very fast, and fill entire rooms with new monsters of the
same type. (It is probably best not to think too closely about exactly
how they do this.) Breeders are rarely dangerous (with one notable
exception), but they can be extremely annoying, especially on quest
levels.
It is best to kill breeders before they multiply out of control. They
are very rare in town quests (where the stipulation for completion is
often that you must empty the entire level of monsters!), but when they
do appear in a town quest, they should always be your top priority.
Breeders are particularly likely to be a pain if you select the Sexy
personality; most characters can hope to catch the breeder asleep and
kill it before it has the chance to multiply, but the aggravation on
Sexy characters wakes everybody up and removes this possibility.
Even in extreme cases, an entire level will never be filled with
breeders (unless it's a really tiny level): there is a strict limit of
no more than 100 breeders at a time. Farming breeders by deliberately
letting them multiply so you can kill them for XP does not work very
well in this game; the experience you can gain this way is very limited
and tails off rapidly. There are many other ways to level up that are
more interesting and productive.
Monster Knowledge
Because there are so many different kinds of monster (about 1300) and
many of them share similar colors and symbols, it is very difficult to
keep track of what each of them can do, especially when you are still
new to the game. Luckily, the game automatically keeps track of your
experiences with each monster; you will remember the melee, spell and
breath attacks you have suffered, which of your own magical attacks it
resisted, whether it dropped treasure, whether you saw it multiply, and
how much XP you got for killing it.
There are several ways to access this monster lore. Two were already
shown above - pressing * to target a visible monster and then r to
recall the information, and pressing Y to view the monster list and
then R to recall the lore on a particular monster.
These approaches only work if the monster you would like to know more
about is currently visible, but you can use the ~ knowledge menu
(select the Known Monsters submenu) to access the lore on any monster
at any time. This is about what you will see:
Knowledge - Monsters
Group Name Sym Kills
==============================================================================
Uniques | Jasra, Brand's Mistress n alive
Ridable monsters | Scylla M alive
Wanted monsters | Castamir the Usurper p dead
Egyptian | The Minotaur of the Labyrinth H dead
Ant | King Koopa D alive
Bat | Othrod, Lord of the Orcs o dead
Centipede | Xylibbogaz, the Disembodied Mouth f dead
Dragon | Azog, King of the Uruk-Hai o dead
Floating Eye | The Ultimate Dungeon Cleaner g alive
Feline/Fox | Alberich the Nibelung King h alive
Golem | Grendel O dead
Hobbit/Elf/Dwarf | Orcobal the Mighty o dead
Icky Thing | Ulwarth, Son of Ulfang p dead
Jelly | Bolg, Son of Azog o dead
Kobold | Mime, the Nibelung h dead
Aquatic monster | Hagen, Son of Alberich h dead
Mold | It . alive
Naga | Orcogar, Son of Orcobal o dead
Orc | Old Man Willow # dead
<dir>, '?' to recall, 'v' for visuals, 'c' to copy, ESC
If you now press ? or r on a particular monster, everything you know
about that monster will be displayed.
This monster knowledge is still incomplete, though - it only tells you
what you have learned through your experiences; if you want to know all
there is to know about a monster without having to fight it over and
over again, there are three ways to reach that goal.
You can probe a nearby monster with the Probing spell (or item effect);
this will reveal everything about both that individual monster and
about its race. Another option is to find your local Beastmaster (most
though not all towns have one; the Library serves this function in the
no-wilderness town) and pay to have a monster race researched; this
also reveals everything about that race. The final way is to just turn
on the Easy Lore birth option ([d]), which gives you full monster lore
at birth; this does make the game a bit easier, but maybe that's what
you want!
You will retain your monster knowledge for as long as you use the same
savefile, even if your character dies; the monster memory is not just
for your character, but for you.
It Resists...
Your cool bag of magical tricks is not guaranteed to have the same
effect on every enemy; many monsters have an inherent resistance,
sometimes even an immunity, to a particular damage type or status
effect. An immunity means such an attack has no effect on the monster
at all. A resistance to an element (for example fire) means the damage
taken by the monster is greatly reduced, but a small amount of damage
is still taken. Resisting against a status effect means a monster
survived a saving throw against the effect; the higher the monster's
level compared to the attack power, the better the monster's chance to
resist. (Typically, this does not require a specific resistance; most
status effects give all monsters a chance to resist, while some are
completely immune.)
Some monsters have immunities just by virtue of what they are; for
example, all Nonliving monsters, Demons and Undead are immune to
vampirism. Undead monsters also cannot be harmed by nether.
The various feedback messages of the type "so-and-so is immune",
"so-and-so resists" and "so-and-so is unaffected" sometimes leave
players unsure as to whether it might be worth trying the same attack
again; though "so-and-so is immune" reliably means you can forget about
it. In the case of resistances noted in the monster lore (elemental
resistances, status effect resistances, teleportation) you can look in
the lore if you are uncertain; if the message you just got means the
monster has a resistance or an immunity, that information will now
appear in the lore.
Genocide
Some powerful magical spells and devices allow you to genocide a
monster species (all monsters sharing a given letter symbol). Genocide
attempts to remove all monsters of the specified species from the level
you are currently on.
Genocide is not always fully effective; it does not affect uniques or
quest monsters (including town quest monsters), and monsters other than
uniques have a level-dependent chance to resist. Monsters who
successfully resist genocide have a small chance of acquiring immunity
to future attempts. Another downside is the strain involved in casting
genocide: you will take some damage for each monster affected. The
damage taken per monster is very small, but if the number of monsters
is high, casting genocide can hurt you seriously or even kill you.
(This does not happen if your chaos patron offers you a free genocide;
in this case, it is the patron casting genocide, he is just letting you
pick the species.)
Two other spell effects are closely related and follow the same basic
rules as Genocide does. Annihilation targets a single monster (even
this is enough for it to be very valuable!), and Mass Genocide affects
all non-unique monsters regardless of species, but is limited to your
immediate surroundings (monsters within 20 squares of you) instead of
affecting the entire level.
Genocide is based on the underlying "true" letter symbols of monsters,
and ignores any changes made by the player to the visual appearance of
a monster. For example, casting genocide on the symbol x would have no
effect on mimics even if you turned the easy_mimics option on, because
x is not these mimics' true symbol. Similarly, genociding D would
affect ancient dragons even if you had changed their visual appearance
to something else.
Chameleons are genocided as if they truly belonged to their current,
apparent race. Tanuki and Shadowers, on the other hand, are genocided
by their underlying species, which for Tanuki is quadrupeds (q) and for
Shadowers the species of the race the shadower actually belongs to.
Friendly monsters will always be turned hostile by a failed attempt to
genocide them, even if they are uniques and there was no chance the
genocide would harm them personally. Genocide can affect pets (it will
not turn them hostile), although your mount will never be affected.
New players with previous experience in other roguelikes, but not in
Angband variants, sometimes expect Genocide or Mass Genocide to remove
a monster race or species from the game permanently. This does not
happen; genocide only affects monsters on a single level, and even
there, they have a chance to resist. In spite of these limitations,
sources of Genocide and Mass Genocide are extremely valuable, and many
players stockpile them for the end fights.
Health Bar Colors
The number of stars in a monster's status/health bar always indicates
the monster's health; the color of the stars reveals some additional
information about the monster. Here is a quick guide to health bar
colors, ordered from highest priority to lowest (if multiple colors
apply, the color with the highest priority is used):
U[*********] Monster is invulnerable
U[*********] Monster is paralyzed or sleeping
U[*********] Monster is confused
U[*********] Monster is stunned
U[*********] Monster is afraid
U[*********] Monster is slowed
U[*--------] Monster is below 10% health
U[**-------] Monster is below 25% health
U[*****----] Monster is below 60% health
U[*********] Monster is below 100% health
U[*********] Monster is at full health
U[********-] Monster is at full health but has reduced max HP
U[---------] Monster's status and location are unknown
The coloring of the empty slots and surrounding brackets provides some
additional information:
U[*****----] Monster is current target
U[*****----] Monster is current mount
U[*****----] Monster is very powerful (>133.3% normal)
U[*****----] Monster is hasted
Original : (??)
Updated : (??)
Updated : Zangband DevTeam
Updated : Hengband 1.0.11
Updated : PosChengband 4.0.0
Updated : FrogComposband 7.1.liquorice
Updated : FrogComposband 7.1.salmiak