An interesting death

[Siegurt]

So I'm playing a DeEn, and happily whiling away, not very far into the game, step around a corner on D:4 and a pack of orcs is unfortunately awake and in melee range of me (well specifically *an* orc is in melee range, but there's also a wizard and two priests 1 step further away)

Hm, well, I can step *back* around the corner, but this being D:4 I don't have much in the way of escape consumables yet (say.. none) Stepping back around the corner will get me out of LOS for 2 rounds, so I do that, and head towards a passage which would give me good odds of keeping the nasties from beating on me while I retreat to a staircase (Being a DE, my max hp is only 40 at this point, so it seems prudent to tackle that mob in a controlled way, and having two priests in LOS, but not LOF such that I could confuse them is bad juju)

So I walk two steps away from the corner with bad dudes in tow, and on my third step (of six that it will take me to get back out of LOS again) I get hit for 17 points, with two priests in LOS this qualifies as an emergency, so i check out what i have available. I have !invis, !curing, !resist, 2 ?remove curse, and 2 unknown scrolls and 3 unknown potions.

Curing *might* give me the hps I need to escape, but it might not too, resist will help reduce damage from the wizard, but he's not my primary concern at the moment, I can block his LOF with the regular orc by stepping in the right places, but two orc priests can smite me for well over 23 damage in 3 rounds of walking, so what are my other options, !invis is risky, things can still smite/shoot me if I'm invis, although they're less likely to do so. I haven't identified blink yet (which would be the optimal way to get out of the situation) and I'm unlikely to die in *one* round, so I decide to try one of my unidentified scrolls, It's immolation, which doesn't help, but doesn't really present me with any more danger (since I'm not planning on killing any of these dudes) and no-one hits me for any damage (yay) the priests in the back get one step closer, but not close enough to make a difference, and the wizard hasted and the regular orc just plain missed.

Alrighty, well, I'm in the same situation as before minus one unidentifed scroll, however if the priests get another step closer they'll be in my LOS for another turn, and the wizard's hasted, so he's now going to be a problem from an escape-standpoint (Although I'm confident I can handle him without his buddies even with 23 hps), so I go with invis, it may cause them to miss me, possibly (since I'm fairly stealthy) give me good odds of getting away.

So I drink the invis potion, and:

  Code:

 Dungeon Crawl Stone Soup version 0.17-a0-989-gada8a91 (console) character file.

641 Barbling the Vexing (level 7, -4/40 HPs)
             Began as a Deep Elf Enchanter on June 6, 2015.
             Killed from afar by an orc wizard (9 damage)
             ... with an exploding inner flame
             ... hexed by the player character
             ... on level 4 of the Dungeon.
             The game lasted 00:22:04 (5020 turns).

Barbling the Vexing (Deep Elf Enchanter)            Turns: 5020, Time: 00:22:05

Health: -4/40      AC:  9    Str:  6    XL:     7   Next: 26%
Magic:  2/15       EV: 15    Int: 20    God:   
Gold:   151        SH:  0    Dex: 16    Spells: 5 memorised, 2 levels left

rFire  . . .     SeeInvis .     a - +1 dagger
rCold  . . .     Clarity  .     k - +1 robe
rNeg   . . .     SustAb   .     (no shield)
rPois  .         Gourm    .     (no helmet)
rElec  .         Spirit   .     l - +2 cloak
rCorr  .         Warding  .     x - +1 pair of gloves
rMut   .         Stasis   .     s - +0 pair of boots
MR     .....                    (no amulet)
Stlth  +++.......               (no ring)
                                (no ring)


  Code:

Drink which item? (? for menu, Esc to quit)
You fade into invisibility!
The orc closely misses you. Something hits you but does no damage.
You are very lightly contaminated with residual magic.
You hear some strange, mumbled words.
A puff of flame appears from out of thin air!
The puff of flame hits the orc.
The orc explodes!
The fiery explosion engulfs you!
Ouch! That really hurt!
* * * LOW HITPOINT WARNING * * *
The fiery explosion engulfs something.
The fiery explosion engulfs the orc priest.
The orc priest explodes!
Your Fighting skill increases to level 2!
The fiery explosion engulfs you!
You die...


Err, ok? on further examination, the orc wizard somehow fired in the wrong direction (seriously the orc he hit wasn't inline with me at all), hit the plain old orc instead of me, blew him up taking both of them and myself out in a blaze of fiery glory.

Ah well, c'est la mort.

[Berder]

DEEn master race!

(being invisible makes enemies sometimes aim at the wrong square)

[Siegurt]

DEEn master race!

(being invisible makes enemies sometimes aim at the wrong square)

Yes, it was just strange beacause while it makes perfect sense that a creature would aim at the wrong square if I'm invisibile, it *doesn't* make sense for him to aim at a square where I cannot possibly be, because his orc buddy is there.

I realize (now) the algorithm just isn't that smart, I think though if I was writing it, I would've had it re-roll if it picks a square with a known ally. (at least that's the behavior I expected)


FWIW the situation was like this:

  Code:

w
o@


where the w was the orc wizard the o was the regular orc and the @ was me (invisible)

[Pollen_Golem]

The orc wizard knew that if you lived, you'd come back to murder them all, so by hastening his own and his buddy's deaths he saved hundreds of orc lives. And maybe he hoped to survive the explosion that killed you.

[celem]

The really stupid thing I just noticed is that they are this dumb even when its just them that is invis, not you.

I'm heading down a very long 1-wide corridor, it ends in a room with orc pack, wizards, warrior, normal orcs. I retreat back down the corridor from the warrior who gives chase. Behind him is an invisible orc wizard who spends his time pelting the warrior in the back of the head with fire until he dies. I dont even... he had no LoF, and everyone in his LoF plus his target was visible, but he tried to fire through anyway. I cant say I remember them trying that when everyone involved is visible.

  Code:

####################
w ->        O   @
####################


[Sandman25]

It would be cool if the wizard actually calculated the way to kill the character using that immolation.

[Sandman25]

he had no LoF, and everyone in his LoF plus his target was visible, but he tried to fire through anyway. I cant say I remember them trying that when everyone involved is visible.

It makes some sense IMHO. Invisible and hasted wizard is more dangerous than normal speed Orc Warrior, also it hoped the warrior would be lucky to dodge the bolts since it didn't suffer from EV penalty (the warrior was seeing the wizard I think).