Unarmed Monk - Tons of Greater Karmic Wyrms

[sytar6]

So I'm making my way through the cavernous level just past the Cat King's level with my unarmed monk. All of a sudden, I notice a pack of like 30 Greater Karmic Wyrms. I try to get away, but they all start casting confusion on me in a bad way and throwing bolts at me. I have Sun's Messenger and like 5 or 6 rounds of dragon slaying ammunition. I have this weird feeling that they're sitting on the down staircase, but I haven't had a chance to explore the level yet. Is there a way to...like...kill them? Or is it just one of those things ADOM throws at you that you got to run the fuck away from?

[grobblewobble]

One thing you can try is to read a scroll of familiar summoning and hope you get something that can handle them.

Or read a scroll of magic mapping and see if you can just avoid them.

[Stingray1]

Confusion resistance, stay out of shot, trained poisoned boomerang/scurgari of returning. Otherwise locate the downstairs and teleport. Best luck.

[sytar6]

I think I'll be trying to escape first. I have some scrolls of familiar summoning. I'll give those a shot if they're standing on the staircase. Guess I should put on the water orb and a ring of mental stability. The -conf I'm getting from my shirt of the saints isn't cutting it.

[Frankie]

you can try wielding 2 shields, setting tactics to coward, and getting past them, swapping places whenever needed with your class power

[sytar6]

Alright, update. I read a scroll of magic mapping. Turns out they're not on the staircase. I ran to the staircase. Went down a level.

Killed three or four monsters, and one of them dropped a Wand of Wishing (5 charges)!

Is there a way to turn these wishes into dead greater karmic wyrms? Would a Wand of Death work on them? I remember clearing out tension room full of (regular or greater or ancient, can't remember) Karmic Dragons using a WoD.

-I'm going to be wishing for some magic writing sets so I can write some scrolls of chaos resistance/peace/defense/protection.

- I might want to use another wish on getting a way to level up. I'm still in the mid 20's. Not sure I should wish for the emperor moloch, as I doubt I can pierce greater molochs or manuever away from tons of them in a reasonable way.

Dunno want to use the rest of the wishes on. Maybe I should wish for some spellbooks of teleport. That would be helpful. Perhaps a wand of paralyzation and some slaying ammo.

[Stingray1]

Wow, great stuff. Wrt what Frankie said, for in case you need to in future, a monk can even swap places while confused.

[JellySlayer]

Alright, update. I read a scroll of magic mapping. Turns out they're not on the staircase. I ran to the staircase. Went down a level.

Killed three or four monsters, and one of them dropped a Wand of Wishing (5 charges)!

Is there a way to turn these wishes into dead greater karmic wyrms? Would a Wand of Death work on them? I remember clearing out tension room full of (regular or greater or ancient, can't remember) Karmic Dragons using a WoD.

-I'm going to be wishing for some magic writing sets so I can write some scrolls of chaos resistance/peace/defense/protection.

- I might want to use another wish on getting a way to level up. I'm still in the mid 20's. Not sure I should wish for the emperor moloch, as I doubt I can pierce greater molochs or manuever away from tons of them in a reasonable way.

Dunno want to use the rest of the wishes on. Maybe I should wish for some spellbooks of teleport. That would be helpful. Perhaps a wand of paralyzation and some slaying ammo.

Wand of death isn't a bad idea. Or a banshee if you have beeswax handy...

[anon123]

I think karmic wyrms were immune to death rays (shrugging them off 100 percent of the time). Banshee is a good idea.

[gosos]

will the banshee kill everything? is there anyway to survive the banshee if you dont have beeswax?

[JellySlayer]

Potion of deafness will last long enough to kill the banshee, but I wouldn't count on them for terribly much longer than that.

[TheCableGuy]

will the banshee kill everything? is there anyway to survive the banshee if you dont have beeswax?

Potion of deafness or a Harpy corpse.

[sytar6]

The following were vanquished:
[...]
29 Great Karmic Wyrms
[...]


Alright, so I ended up killing them. I went down to D:50, closed the gates, got to level 50, then dealt with them the old fashioned way. I should have probably have done it before I went to D:50 because, without the Water Orb, my willpower wasn't enough to deal with confusion all of the time. I had -Conf from my Shirt of the Saints. I then put on a Ring of the Clear Mind and a Ring of Mental Stability. When luring the pack toward the stairs, I was confused for the majority of the time. I ended up finding a Spellbook of Teleport, so I'd use that to get on the stairs once the confusion wore off. I had put most of my valuable items on another level with the exception of two healing potions and some food. I lured them up the stairs two to three at a time (the best I could do in light of the confusion) then brought them into a corridor. At that point, I just wailed on them with my bare fists. Actually, come to think of it, it's good that I leveled up first. Before I went down to D:50 I had 430~ health. When I came back I had 850~. I got pulled down to 150-200 three or four times over the course of the 29 battles. Once the herd was thinned I stopped luring them on the stairs and just attacked them head on in the cavernous level. All in all, it turned out pretty well. At the end of the day, the best way for a melee character to take out a large amount of Karmics is probably by meleeing them!

One of them dropped a corpse which I cooked using a wand of fireballs. I ate it after the battle to get the Doom off. They also dropped two scrolls of luck, which paired with the one I already had from much earlier. A whole lot of great items dropped (PoGA, SoCR, PoCC, Potion of [Stat]) though I didn't get any artifacts. Didn't really matter I suppose since the game was already over.

Scariest part of the game: fighting a Greater Moloch. Got him down to critically injured. Run out of room to maneuver. Don't want to waste a charge from my wand of teleportation. I go on Coward (I'm around 175/45 on Coward) and make the step I know will give the GM a chance at hitting me. He takes the chance, getting off some kind of ridiculous hit on me. I literally drop from full life (at this point somewhere between 430-520) to 1 HP! The game goes makes a DING sound. It takes me a second to register that I've just been taken down to 1 HP in a single hit. I use my teleport, drink some potions, and come back for the kill, this time being far more cautious than I was. My last monk got taken out on D:50 trying to faceroll a GM with a (+6, 1d8+8) Spear of Penetration. Thought I was invincible but ended up dying. Told myself it wouldn't happen this time, but damn, it almost did.

[Stingray1]

Potion of deafness or a Harpy corpse.

I doubt the Banshee will eat it.

Congrats sytar6. Fate smile can save a PC like that. Taking him down to 1 HP instead of dead.

You know you can cast spells while confused?

[sytar6]

I did not know that, actually. Knowing about that and the :s while confused thing is pretty damn helpful.

[TheCableGuy]

I doubt the Banshee will eat it.

Alright..... I'm face-palming now.

[tipo mastr]

i wouldn't waste more than 2 wishes on the karmic wyrms...after all, if you ignore them totally, you could just save those two wishes for AKW in the SMC when you're really ready....that would be exp christmas.

If I were you, I wouldn't wish for a banshee...I'd want all the exp for myself :)

karmic wyrms actually aren't that difficult, honestly. All you need is lots of confusion resistance, immunity to fire, and a reliable method of damaging them. I'm thinking slaying ammo. Have you robbed great treasure graves yet? those are great sources of slaying ammo.

bottom line: you can probably avoid them for now. so wait until you're strong enough to kill them and get all the exp and treasure for yourself :)

PS: in a wyrm fight of any kind, the wild card is confusion. everything else can be managed but if they can confuse you, you're done.



EDIT: oops, didn't read the last post <__<;

[sytar6]

I'd need an awful lot of slaying ammo to kill 29 GCW's.

[tipo mastr]

even regular ammo would work with enough time... IIRC they never heal their wounds

[Stingray1]

I did not know that, actually. Knowing about that and the :s while confused thing is pretty damn helpful. Yeah, wrt to casting, you might fail a confusion check(probably based on Wi and other), but pre-prerelease 9 you just keep trying as no turn passes on a failed attempt. Post pre9 a turn does pass on a failed check. :(