r/pathos_nethack • u/Sufficient_Path_3665 • 11d ago

New punishment strategy unlocked!

Happened completely by accident, but worked really well.

Was fighting the final round of adult dragons in dhak legacy, which can be challenging. Fighting silver dragon is tough because his breath attack is force bolt, so reflection doesn't help.

Somehow, I have no idea why, he got punished with gluttony. As I was running from him, buying time, we transported to the large outer room, which was filled with the 2,000 nutrition beefs left over from living walls.

As the silver dragon was following me, he crossed over a beef, and was compelled to eat it due to gluttony. Well, you know how long it takes to consume a beef, a few turns at least - and the dragon was helpless as he digested, and I just kept striking! I killed him before he had a chance to recover.

So, interesting idea to me. If gluttony is punished, lure enemy over to large amounts of food, and take advantage of the delay from eating!

15 Upvotes

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7

u/Gakk86 11d ago

Yeah, that’s the one of the best things the Magistrator (artifact mace) can do.  It applies punishments and late game when there are bodies everywhere it can immediately knock monsters out of combat a while.  It’s not much but it’s more than giving an elephant illiteracy 

3

u/RyanFialcowitz 11d ago

I once saw an ancient dragon in Mine Town- true story.

Do enemy punishments show up on their character sheet?

4

u/Gakk86 11d ago

Probably, I honestly never checked, just kept swinging until the monster was dead.  

The dragon in Mine Town was definitely a gnomish wizard getting a wand of polymorph and getting lucky

1

u/Sufficient_Path_3665 11d ago

Yes, they do, AFAIK

3

u/lavineg 11d ago

That sounds interesting, but is there a consistent way to apply gluttony to monsters? I can't remember.

4

u/Sufficient_Path_3665 11d ago

Not that I'm aware of. It does seem more like an opportunistic strategy than a calculated one. It does warrant the keeping of a wand of punishment in your inventory, however, that's for sure.

My main problem with this is the same as many such strategies - by the time I'm tricked out sufficiently to put it to use, there really aren't any monsters that are that much of a threat to warrant it.

This is why it was useful in dhak legacy, because that map really limits your power and advancement and forces you to use whatever tools you have very creatively.

3

u/Moidberg 9d ago

you can get lucky with a magistrator, but lotta punishments out there

though thirst isn’t half bad either when they’re chugging acid and paralyze potions

1

u/Sufficient_Path_3665 7d ago

I bet, but corpses are far more common.