Is there a reason Keethrax's lair's DL is so high?!

[daft inquisitor]

Frankly, I'm getting pissed at being melted by those stupid slugs every other time I make it to Keethrax's lair. This time I even saw a cave bear in there! At level 8! (I had lucked into some good armor items and was at P18/D12 at the time, so he was no problem, but in general that would have been an awful fight.)

But the slugs! Super high DV (even going Berzerker I barely hit them), a lot of HP, and a stupid acid breath attack that takes *at least* half of my health bar and a few pieces of gear. A lot of the time, I'll think to myself, "Phew, just barely got away!"... just to have the damn thing hit me on the last panel of it's range on the acid attack. Very not amused, I lost a great Ranger not ten minutes ago because of that very situation.

Grr.

But seriously, I'm wondering if there is a *reason* the DL is so high there. Is it intentional? Or just a weird bug having to do with Keethrax? Floor 7 of the Village Dungeon is not NEARLY that bad, and that's the DD's "sister" dungeon...

[Silfir]

Those creatures are created independently of danger level. Everything you encountered is completely intentional. You are fighting an evil corrupted druid. Why would he not have bears, and tons of them? If I had nature at my command and needed fearsome creatures to do my bidding, you bet I would get myself some bears.

The giant slugs are a nasty surprise the first time around, not so much every time after that. There is nothing that forces you to enter the final level of the Druid Dungeon before you're ready to do so. There are ways to get acid resistance in the game, fairly early, too. The most straightforward one involves a guaranteed dungeon feature in PC:2 and a strong stomach.

ADOM's getting some makeovers these days, but make no mistake about it; it's still a deeply unfair roguelike RPG of the old school variant. It's a game about everything trying to kill you, not tea parties.

Let that hate flow through you and make you cunning. Play more carefully, prepare, get some acid resistance, mutilate them without quarter and feast on their acidic flesh. Slime. Whatever they're made of.

(Yes, I am being quite literal. Feast on them.)

[psy_wombats]

Giant slugs are very slow and with decent speed you should be able to kite them with missile weapons and greatly reduce the number of times they get an acidspit in.

[mimhoff]

Yriggs is just a crazy guy who wants to kill you.

Keethrax is a real end of level boss! He even has his own artifact!

[Blasphemous]

Get to PC:2 first and eat a near-guaranteed ant corpse.
That should cut down on HP losses to slugs.
Besides, slugs are gooood, tasty and grant that precious acid immunity when eaten.
Stands to reason they can't be pushovers like orcs and kobolds.
Also, DD:7 is the only place with an eventual guaranteed spawn of slugs so technically you can always get the immunity.
They're tough early game monsters but it's a small price to pay for the reward.
Also slugs are best done in missile combat, just avoid direct line of fire.

[daft inquisitor]

Wait, ants grant resistance to acid? Since when? I never knew about that. I've tried eating them before with characters, and I think they made me sick or something.

But anyway, I know about playing smart, I just play fast and don't pay a ton of attention to what I'm doing. You wouldn't believe the number of times I've died to an acid-based attack (giant slug, acid vortex, etc.) knowing full well I had a ring of acid resistance in my inventory. I just didn't bother holding on for a second and giving any thought to it.

I fear I'm not as patient with video games as I once was. :(

[Blasphemous]

I understand the impatience but when I wanted to actually achieve something, I had to play carefully.
Yes, eating a giant ant worker/warrior corpse grants resistance to acid.
It's very useful against later vortices and acid traps.
Vortices are especially dangerous because once you get the elemental gauntlets and ring of the high kings, you may feel like double resistance to fire, shock and cold is enough to just melee stuff and move on.
One acid vortex is enough to put that to question. I always try to get at least that single corpse to ease things a bit against acid traps and vortices.
An occasional baby or adult black dragon is quite nasty but most importantly early game giant slugs and akhegs can make your life miserable with acid.
Slugs are especially useful because their corpses grant acid immunity.

[daft inquisitor]

I don't think I've ever had an issue with Ankhegs. Compared to any other acid-based enemy, their breath attack doesn't do much damage, and they can be killed fairly easily. But literally *anything else* with acid is just death.

I know that, as a roguelike, this game is supposed to be hard. I just get so burnt out sometimes on sinking four or five hours into a character, just for one small mistake to make it all for nothing.

[BoloDigby]

I've had 6 PV melted off of my thief in one turn to one acid trap, despite 'Alert' and 'detect trap' both in the 80's. And I have never gotten a miserable slug's corpse.