Monster Difficulty Considerations?

[DreadArchon]

I just had a promising level 10 Assassin get snuffed by a Hill Orc Sergeant under circumstances that seemed very favorable to the Assassin. I know they're tough, but he seemed a bit much.

This makes me wonder--what goes into the difficulty of a monster?

I know:

• Base monster (including damage resistance, etc.)
• Die rolls (combat luck, including Doomed, etc.)
• Possibility of monster leveling up
• Player level and abilities
• Possibility of monster equipping floor items

I'm guessing that last one is what got me killed here, but am I missing anything?

(Also: Is there any distinction between physical damage types? Do skeletons resist spears, for example?)

[JellySlayer]

The important factors, AFAIK are:

Monster type: obviously an average werewolf lord does more damage than an average rat

Monster experience: this comes from four places. First is danger level: areas with high DL will produce higher level monsters. SMC is the classic example: a rat in the SMC is often stronger than an ancient dragon spawned elsewhere. Second is uberjackel effect: the more of a particular kind of monster you kill, the higher level future monsters of that type will spawn. Killing 500 jackals means that future jackals will be ridiculously powerful. Third is special experience boosting areas: monsters that come from vaults, tension rooms, etc. will on average be stronger than regular spawns. Fourth is monster kills: an individual monster can kill things and level up. This is almost never a significant effect.

Dooming: Monsters do more damage, penetrate armor more, and get more critical hits.

Berserk/enrage: berserking monsters get about 2-3x as many attacks per round as normal, with some bonuses. Monsters who are enraged (eg. walk on a corpse of their type) will receive extra attacks as well.

[DreadArchon]

Third is special experience boosting areas: monsters that come from vaults, tension rooms, etc. will on average be stronger than regular spawns.

Ooh, that's interesting. That explains why those Kobolds and Goblins in that vault today were surviving so many hits from my shiny new Sword of Sharpness. Thanks for mentioning that.

[rmcin329]

ah yes swords of sharpness can be nice. But they rust so dang easily

[gut]

there is also a room message "chilling silence"
where mob attack damage is multiplied. by 10 (?)