Favourite unique?

[galehar]

Though I'm pretty sure I've teleported away, went upstairs and waited for 200 turns, only to come back downstairs with her seeing me and going berserk again.

I don't see how that could be possible. I tried to reproduce it in wizmode, and I couldn't.

[szanth]

Well it definitely happened in v7; it's the reason I'm so afraid of her.

[KoboldLord]

One possibility is that she found a potion of berserk rage. She can use this potion even if she's used up her special berserk. The other possibility is that she didn't actually berserk when you killed Dowan. She only berserks post-Dowan when she actually sees you, so if she was unaware of you when he died she will still wail in despair but will not berserk. If you teleported out before she saw you at all, her berserk would not trigger until you came back.

[danr]

Yeah, I've seen the same thing happen. When you hear the "distant scream of rage" I assume that this means Duvessa is now raging, and that if I go away her rage will expire before she ever sees me.

[Stormfox]

The "distant scream of rage" is simply Duvessa realizing that Dowan is dead. (There's an equivalent message for Dowan, but since I tend to kill him first, I don't see it as often.) It doesn't mean that her berserk has been triggered -- as was stated earlier, that only triggers when she lays eyes on you.

[danr]

In that case I think the use of the word "rage" has a strong risk of confusion, because in DCSS "Rage" is closely linked to "Berserk rage".

How about if the message was - "You hear a distant wail of despair / cry of sorrow".

This would be the first unique to start going through the stages of grief! To despair and anger we just have to add denial, bargaining, etc.

[smock]

This would be the first unique to start going through the stages of grief! To despair and anger we just have to add denial, bargaining, etc.

Wiglaf could probably use a 12-step group.

[Blade]

So, out of all the unique monsters that you face time and time again, which one do you like the most?

I'd have to go with Agnes; her description is awesome, and lajatangs are far and away the coolest-seeming weapons in Crawl. Mennas is a close second, simply because of the engaging fights he provides; I have fond memories of hasting myself up to yellow glow as I led him all around a cleared level, desperately trying to stay outside his Silence so I could cast Freezing Cloud behind me in a drawn-out, tense fight to the death. Shoutitis 1? Absolutely worth it.

edit: woah, old existing thread. Thanks for the merge.

[ilpalazzo]

Usually I'm most pleased to meet Erica (for her fine hydra blade).
For fighting style Sonja is really cool.

[nicolae]

http://crawl.akrasiac.org/scoring/killers.html

What does it mean to get killed by "stupidity", currently with 627 kills?

[absolutego]

that's stat drain, intelligence ("you forgot to breathe").

[Pteriforever]

Favourite? Menkaure. Least favourite? Josephine.

[Eaki Godsbane]

My favorite arch nemesis would be Mennas, especially if I'm playing demonspawn/undead and he spawns with an Eudemon blade and a randart shield.

Craziest challenge you can find in the late dungeons!

He's faster then you
He silences and confuses you, while healing himself
He sees invisibility and is flying

He is probably the most troublesome unique to me, other than Mara.

[Pteriforever]

New most hated unique: Erica. invises the moment her last invis runs out. Freaking ^%&*W*&

[greepish]

Someone needs to make an unseen horror unique just to piss people off

[hayenne]

Donald and Crazy Yiuf - for speech.

[TehDruid]

My favorite arch nemesis would be Mennas, especially if I'm playing demonspawn/undead and he spawns with an Eudemon blade and a randart shield.

Mennas is that kind of unique where you really have to watch what equips they have on, since when I get a Mennas carrying a large shield it's almost impossible to damage him fast enough on a physical character.
Of course the weapon is something you should watch out for... Luckily the last 2-3 times I've found him he was carrying a blessed falchion only.

[Blade]

My favorite arch nemesis would be Mennas, especially if I'm playing demonspawn/undead and he spawns with an Eudemon blade and a randart shield.

Mennas is that kind of unique where you really have to watch what equips they have on, since when I get a Mennas carrying a large shield it's almost impossible to damage him fast enough on a physical character.
Of course the weapon is something you should watch out for... Luckily the last 2-3 times I've found him he was carrying a blessed falchion only.

Yeah, Mennas with a large shield is nasty. It blocks lots of nice conjurations like IOOD also, meaning a lot of casters will have similar trouble handling him.

[AtT]

Mennas the Menace!

[molari]

Most of the newer uniques have something going for them. The older ones were just incredibly bland and uninteresting. Favourites are Sonja (for coolness) and Saint Roka (for being difficult enough for epic fights but not quite as insanely powerful as Mennas). Also shout out to Nikola and Pikel as I wrote up the original design for them on the old tracker

[Pteriforever]

Oh yeah, Pikel's a pain too. Grum usually means "GET TO THE NEAREST STAIRWAY AS FAST AS POSSIBLE". Nessos is insanely brutal. His arrows of flaming poison remind me of the glitchy arrows with two brands the same I kept finding in ToME -- Things CAN have two brands there, but it's really weird seeing "poisonous poisonous arrows" or "arrows of annihilation of annihilation"

[Pteriforever]

Can't forget Maurice.

[Jeremiah]

http://crawl.akrasiac.org/scoring/killers.html

What does it mean to get killed by "stupidity", currently with 627 kills?

I'm also rather intrigued by "you" with 475 kills and "something" with 405 kills.

Is "you" when a monster reflects your own missile back at you with a shield of reflection?

[MyOtheHedgeFox]

Or by casting a spell on yourself.

Stupidity is, well, stupidity (null or negative Intelligence). Something is the famous "it" that likes to hit you after somebody turns invisible nearby.

[Jeremiah]

I also saw "targeting" as a cause of death and assumed that was when you cast a spell on yourself.

I thought of invisible creatures for "something," but assumed the actual monster that killed you would be credited as the cause of death even if you didn't know it in game.

[Stormfox]

"Bad targeting" kills a lot of Makhlebites ("a lot" meaning "me", at least). Don't use Major Destruction on anything within 3 grids.

Heck, for the piety cost and the lack of damage, just don't use Major Destruction. I try not to anymore.

[Blade]

I once killed myself with bad targeting using a char who couldn't have died any other way. Pressed the wrong button, cast fire storm instead of fball, did 100 damage to myself

Good times

Anyway, my new favorite unique is Khufu. In my most recent game, I noticed his presence because greater mummies, and so I went away and later returned to cTelestab them all.

[Pteriforever]

You know what's not fair? If my summons kill a mummy I get 50% XP but the full 100% of the death curse.

[greepish]

Wait is that in the trunk or something? I don't think I've ever gotten cursed by summon kills.

[Tiber]

I've been getting messages aimed at me when my summon kill bog mummies too. It's not consistent though, so I wonder if it's a bug. I hope it is anyway. I thought the whole point of the death curse was to make people consider changing their strategies and try to kill it indirectly.

[cjo]

My all-time favorite unique is Crazy Yiuf. To start with, he just entertains me. Besides that, I had many fun hours using his quarterstaff of chaos before I had any idea just how dangerous it was. I still look at it wistfully whenever I find it, and wish I were gutsy enough to use it.

[Jabberwocky]

I like Gastronok, he's entertaining. I like Crazy Yiuf, it's funny seeing what his quarterstaff does. And I like Kirke. I love pressing @ when I'm porkolated. (You are a filthy hog.)
Edit, Wiglaf. He has such a harmless description and is so deadly. I just lost two HeWz to him in quick succession.

[joellercoaster]

I just

don't use Major Destruction

at all!

[AtT]

You know what's not fair? If my summons kill a mummy I get 50% XP but the full 100% of the death curse.

Did you hit the mummy directly at any point during the fight? This might cause you get the death curse. Also, 50% may not be correct, (apparently) exp scaling based on %damage has been implemented for a while (.8 or something)

[Zelkelion]

Favorite?

Jessica.

Doesn't matter what level, what skills, what race, she's DEAD ON SIGHT.

She did kill me once. Just once. And I felt like trash.

[Sojiro]

I love love love Gastronok. The intelligent wizard hat-wearing snail? That's just priceless. The bit about the salt is also hilarious. And the speed, toughness and spell selection makes him widely different from other creatures. Not to mention that many of my draconians only found his Wizard Hat to fill their head slot, so they were happy to see him ("finally something to wear on my head!").

I really like Crasy Yiuf's. The vault is nice and an interesting change of pace from the dungeon around, the hammers all over the place are a nice touch, the staff is crazy fun, and the cloak is often handy. And he has some really funny lines.

[Jabberwocky]

I've just discovered that I really like Purgy. Well he can be a little bit tricky for me at the depths he appears at, it's awesome having D4 troll leather armor.

[Konebred]

Yo DJ, spin that shit!

What's the matter dog, you embarrassed?
He ain't a monster, his real name is Terrence
Terrence lives in Zot with both parents
and Terrences parents have a real nice marriage

[Roderic]

Are uniques of every species/cathegory of creature there in the game ?

I want a tengu unique.

I miss some h (dog like) unique or a felid, some w (worm-like), some n (necrophague), a W (wraith-like) and a P plant unique sounds cool

[TehDruid]

Are uniques of every species/cathegory of creature there in the game ?

I want a tengu unique.

I miss some h (dog like) unique or a felid, some w (worm-like), some n (necrophague), a W (wraith-like) and a P plant unique sounds cool

New Plant Type Unique for forest branch end (if it is ever implemented):

The Tree of Life (neutral if a Fedhas worshipper):

Appears in a vault with oklobs, oklob saplings, plants, balystomycytae and regular shrooms surrounding it.
It can use evolve on any of those like a fedhas worshipper.
It can also spawn hostile spores (especially If the player moves out of it's LOS).
It heals all plant types and mushroom types in its LOS by a small amount every bunch of turns.

EDIT: I'd love it if uniques only spawned in appropriate levels for them thematically. For example, Nessos in the forest branch, Nicola in an appropriate wizlab, orcish uniques in the Orcish Mines. I love how Polyphemus (and sometimes, Kirke, although not always) spawns in Shoals for example. It's very flavourful. And it would also make the player more aware of what uniques he might run into. The main dungeon could be populated with "the misfits". Other adventurers together with Sonja, Grum, etc are a pretty big group.

[XuaXua]

I like Prince Ribbit because he tragically turns into a human when he dies.

I guess he's mad (insane), otherwise there should be a way to turn him back. In fact, I think there should be unique-specific ways to "save" certain uniques (like Pikel's slaves) and turn them into allies or at least friendlies.

Like, for example, you can pay off that bounty hunter unique with gold and he will go away instead of killing you or if you're an @$$hole you can re-enslave Pikel's slaves and make them travel with you.

[khalil]

Most hated? I think I'd have to go with Mara. He's so ridiculously powerful and impossible to kill, his appearance always signals a speedy retreat, and the liberal application of travel exclusions. Pretty much every character I've had that's survived to the vaults has a floor somewhere with a level annotation reading {Mara, freaking Mara!}

I'm partial to Crazy Yiuf. At one point I had a string of 10 games or so where he showed up every time. He sorta became an old friend. "Hello again! *Axe to face* Thanks for the chaos staff and cloak- see you soon!"

I like to give uniques credit with inscriptions when I take their loot- I feel it adds to flavor. If I managed to take Sigmund's scythe, I want it to say {Sigmund's}!

Really?
My favorate is Mara. Unlike Sigmund, who I know I can't beat and will run away from, or Meneas, who I teleport away from, every time I face Mara I think I have a chance of killing him. That doesn't mean he's not difficult for me, quite the opposite. Most of the time, I end up having to run away.
Plus, he gave me the best story ever:
I'm a MuNe. I'd tried to fight Mara numerous times, and each time one of us ran away. After one praticulary disasterous attempt in which I almost was killed by my own freezing cloud, I went upstairs to heal before returning to the floor. No sign of Mara. I was rather paranoid, not being sure as to if he can cast invisibility. Eventually, after combing through the entire level, I find myself back where I started. I found two items there: a robe, and a runed demon blade. There wasn't even a body. I felt a bit sad there. He didn't get a climatic end or a dramatic battle. He was killed offscreen by a cloud spell.
Sad end.

If I had to pick a favourite, it would probably be Mara. Most of the really unique uniques have one special ability. Mara gets three (!), and all of them are cool.

So true. Far as I'm concerned, every unique should have at least one unique special ability.

[BlackSheep]

I like Crazy Yiuf for the free cloaks.

[rebthor]

How can you not like Donald? He hates that!

[Moose]

I'd love to see a mobile named Oklob plant that is invisible, drains INT with smite targetting, torments, casts hellfire, moves like a bat, paralyzes, blinks, can clone itself like Mara, and heals like an imp.

[Frelus]

I'd love to see a mobile named Oklob plant that is invisible, drains INT with smite targetting, torments, casts hellfire, moves like a bat, paralyzes, blinks, can clone itself like Mara, and heals like an imp.

...Aaaand off to the crocodile and Sigmund pit you go!

[prozacelf]

I like Wiglaf and Gastronok for their silly hats, Yiuf for his lines, and Snorg for being a morbidly obese troll!

And I freaking hate Erica and Maud because they are exceptionally good at murdering me if I don't get the jump on them.

[Davion Fuxa]

Out of the many Unique's I come across, the one that now causes me the most concern is Nessos. He'd be cool if he just wasn't so deadly - nothing worse then a hasted, blinking, gatling arrow cannon.

Favorite Unique has to be Frederick. His mix of spells is interesting as is Fighter/Mage playstyle. Not to deadly, but not outright weak.

[Tarp]

Let me count the deaths:
Nikola
Azrael
Aizul
Urug
Harold x2
Joseph
Gastronok
Pikel
Ijyb ( ... with a wand of lightning)
Blork the Orc (I am ashamed of this)

So I apparently almost never die to the same unique twice. Cool.
I actually really love Duvessa. Sometimes I like to trap her in the temple for safekeeping; I hate killing her, it makes me feel unclean.
But my all-time favorite is Donald, or what's his name, Frederick. Both very cool dudes, although completely incapable of killing me ever.

EDIT: We really, really need a unique ghoul. My first thought is some kind of heretical ex-Fedhas worshipper.

[prozacelf]

Wow. It almost takes work to actually get killed by Gastronok, given how easy he is to get away from. Did he slow you and swift himself or what?