» Contents
» (0) Quickstart
» (1) Introduction
» (2) Installation & setup
» (3) Creating a character & starting to play
» (4) The world
» (5) Item and flag details, elements
» (6) Monster details
» (6.4) Monster attack mechanism, armour class, damage caps
» (7) Character details
» (8) Tactics & strategy
» (9) Miscellanous

Search
Previous
(6.3a) Special item drops of monsters
Next
(6.5) Monster attack types and brands
(6.4) Monster attack mechanism, armour class, damage caps                       
---------------------------------------------------------
Monsters may try to attack you in three different ways:
-Hitting you.
-Shooting you.
-Casting a spell that may wound you.


Monster is trying to hit you:
-----------------------------
If a monster tries to hit you, the following happens:
1) Any shielding magic around you is evaluated and may prevent the attack.
   (Note: Disruption shield is currently evaluated later on.)
   If this doesn't succeed..
2) your character may dodge. If this doesn't succeed..
3) your character may try to parry with a weapon or block with a shield.
   It will mostly choose the action (either parry or block) where it is more
   proficient, although it won't always be able to use the preferable method
   of those two, and sometimes randomly has to rely on the other one.
   If this doesn't succeed..
4) your armour class is evaluated and might catch the attack, in which case
   you don't take any damage, ie the monster misses you. If this doesn't
   succeed..
5) your character takes damage, but your armour class will at least reduce it.
   If disruption shield is active, the damage will instead hit your mana pool
   instead of your hit points (unless you don't have enough mana).

Note that some attacks can bypass some of those defenses.
More info further below.


Monster is trying to shoot you:
-------------------------------
If a monster tries to shoot you, the following happens:
1) Your character may dodge. If this doesn't succeed..
2) any shielding magic around you is evaluated and may prevent the attack.
   (Note: Disruption shield is currently evaluated later on.)
   If this doesn't succeed..
3) if you have REFLECT (see (5.8)) you will try to reflect the shot.
   If this doesn't succeed..
4) your character may try to block the shot with a shield.
   If this doesn't succeed..
5) your character takes damage. Armour class has no effect.
   If disruption shield is active, the damage will instead hit your mana pool
   instead of your hit points (unless you don't have enough mana).


Monster is casting a spell that wounds you:
-------------------------------------------
If a monster casts a spell at you, the following happens:
1) Your character may dodge if it's a bolt spell. If this doesn't succeed..
2) any shielding magic around you is evaluated and may prevent the attack.
   (Note: Disruption shield is currently evaluated later on.)
   If this doesn't succeed..
3) if you have REFLECT (see (5.8)) and if the spell is a bolt spell, you will
   try to reflect it. If this doesn't succeed..
4) if it's a bolt spell, your character may try to block it with a shield.
   If it isn't then your character may still try to cover behind a shield.
   If this doesn't succeed..
5) your character takes damage. Armour class has no effect.
   If disruption shield is active, the damage will instead hit your mana pool
   instead of your hit points (unless you don't have enough mana).

For details about parrying and blocking see (7.11).


Armour class:
-------------
First off: Armour class does not help against ranged attacks or spells, only
against melee attacks (hits, kicks, etc)!

Armour class helps you twice:
-It makes monsters miss you more often with attacks that don't bypass armour.
 The more AC the better, it's weighed against the level of the attacking
 monster. If the monster is (heavily) stunned it gets penalties here.
-It reduces the damage if a monster manages to hit you with a physical attack.
 This effect caps at 200 AC.


Critical hits by monsters:
--------------------------
Monsters can score critical hits which can (depending on the attack type)
result in a cutting or stunning effect against the player.

Attacks of HIT, CLAW or BITE type can result in a cut,
attacks of HIT, PUNCH, KICK, BUTT and CRUSH type can result in stun.
Cut and stun cannot both be applied by the same hit. If both effects are
eligible it's a 50-50 chance which one will make it.

For a hit to count as critical it must must deal at least 95% of its potential
damage maximum (rounded down), so for example a monster hit dealing 5d5 damage
must deal 24 or 25 damage.
Monsters that hit you for less than 20 damage aren't able to score critical
hits at all.
The intensity of the resulting cut/stun depends on the dealt damage too,
so a high armour class helps a lot, to avoid critical monster hits and to
further reduce their power.
For related information see (4.11), "melee-induced cuts and stuns".


Monster melee damage cap:
-------------------------
Basic monsters (that means before any ego-power such as 'Warrior' or 'Holy'
is applied as in 'Hill troll warrior' or 'Holy 5-headed hydra') have a cap on
melee attacks, which limits their attacks to an _average_ of 700 total damage
points per round (Monsters, depending on their race, can perform up to four
melee attacks each round they can move/act).
Note that the monster may attack for more damage, it's just the averaged value,
the real damage is random and can fluctuate above or below the average.
Wearing armour will further reduce the total average damage you can expect to
take per round from that monster. The cap will be used on the monster's raw
damage output _before_ the player's AC is factored in.
Sanity-draining melee attacks are capped at 55 points of _average_ sanity
damage per _blow_ (not per round).

WARNING: If the monster is an ego-monster (eg the aforementioned 'Warrior'
or 'Holy' ego power) this will modify its damage output _after_ the cap was
applied. That means that some very powerful ego-monsters may deal even more
than cap damage on average per round, although that's very rare.

Note that there are melee attacks that cannot be reduced by armour. It depends
on the way the melee attack is performed. See (6.5) for details.
Previous
(6.3a) Special item drops of monsters
Next
(6.5) Monster attack types and brands