Don't fight the demented ratling

[meh]

I was about to do the last dwarven quest, when I noticed that the demented ratling was wandering about near the stairs to the ogre cave. To make sure he wouldn't be killed by the demon, I took him downstairs first. Unfortunately, I had forgot that my stash of ultra items was next to the stairs and he picked them up before I could do anything.

A while later, I had cleared all the pre-tower/Khelly areas and given the ratling his artifacts. I wanted to get crowned lawful before doing the tower, because I had a 50% chance of fire immunity, so decided to kill the ratling. I had read that giving him artifacts makes him stronger, but since I had just killed Waldenbrook and the muscular dwarves without any problem at all (unholy aura corruption), I thought I might as well try my luck. After all, if things went bad, I could just flee.

Turns out the powered up demented ratling is not just tough, he is Cat Lord kind of tough. I went from full health to dead in one turn.

[ragface]

I was about to do the last dwarven quest, when I noticed that the demented ratling was wandering about near the stairs to the ogre cave. To make sure he wouldn't be killed by the demon, I took him downstairs first. Unfortunately, I had forgot that my stash of ultra items was next to the stairs and he picked them up before I could do anything.

A while later, I had cleared all the pre-tower/Khelly areas and given the ratling his artifacts. I wanted to get crowned lawful before doing the tower, because I had a 50% chance of fire immunity, so decided to kill the ratling. I had read that giving him artifacts makes him stronger, but since I had just killed Waldenbrook and the muscular dwarves without any problem at all (unholy aura corruption), I thought I might as well try my luck. After all, if things went bad, I could just flee.

Turns out the powered up demented ratling is not just tough, he is Cat Lord kind of tough. I went from full health to dead in one turn.
Ouch..
I wonder if you get lots of xp from killing him after given the artifacts?? or if there are any secrets in him becoming so powerful??

[mike]

The sick part is that he doesn't just level up; he gets a speed boost and all this stuff too. What would be cool would be if there were some 'flavor' based on what artifacts you feed him. Like feed him emerald dagger and he gets poison attacks, preserver and he gets regen, etc. Or feed him crown of science and beat him down cause he's doomed. =P

[Ars]

You should [l]ook into tough enemies' stats - that way you would have seen at least his speed, which would've told quite enough.

[sgeos]

I think I recall killing him for about 30k exp. This was with a level 50 walking tank. It didn't seem worth it. I think I fed him first.

[mike]

Fed him 17 times yesterday for no good reason. IIRC, he was only worth 3 mil w/ a 120 speed PC.

[sgeos]

Regardless of your alignment or the number of times you have fed him already, he gets stronger whenever you feed him, right?

[ragface]

There's gotta be some secret behind him, other than the revealing the location of the stone circle..

[mike]

Regardless of your alignment or the number of times you have fed him already, he gets stronger whenever you feed him, right?
I think you have to be chaotic... not sure. But he gets 10 levels and 20 speed per artifact eaten, with the only limit being number of artifacts in the game. NPC hp doesn't go up that much with levels, so you could probably pump him up then kill him from afar if you really need the exp.

Oh yeah, but if you're going to play with his stats, be careful not to switch places with him or you could get a beatdown. =P

[sgeos]

What is his starting level? Yours when you generate him?

[mike]

Starting level is 1.

[omega_red]

He almost killed my UCG mindcrafter in 1 turn..

Demented ratlings seem to have 392 hitpoints on the average. Usually they
attack 16 times. A hit causes 86-159 points of damage (114 on the average).
They seem to have a speed of 124-244 (140 on the average).
Yeah, nasty.