How to lure a sleeping monster?

[all before]

So the standard advice for luring a monster away from its pack is to plink it quietly with a spell or ranged weapon, then retreat a safe distance and take it out. This works if the monster is wandering, but if it's still asleep, it will usually shout on waking and so also wake anyone nearby. Like let's say one sleeping death yak appears on the edge of your line of sight, or a single orc. How do you draw it away from the herd without waking the rest?

[dck]

Toss a stone to the tile orthogonally adjacent to the monster you want to wake up. Monster in question doesn't need to be in your LoS itself.

[Patashu]

Toss a stone to the tile orthogonally adjacent to the monster you want to wake up. Monster in question doesn't need to be in your LoS itself.

Magic dart works with this too (wherever it lands it creates a 'ball of noise radius 1' that wakes up things adjacent to it and attracts them to the noise at the center). Probably lots of other spells too, experiment.

[Merlin]

You can shoot the monster with a blowgun and it won't shout.

[Patashu]

You can shoot the monster with a blowgun and it won't shout.

I heard about someone else saying this before, too. I wonder why it is? Does being hit by a blowgun run different code to being hit by other stuff? (Is it to do with it not causing damage?)

[wheals]

You can shoot the monster with a blowgun and it won't shout.

I heard about someone else saying this before, too. I wonder why it is? Does being hit by a blowgun run different code to being hit by other stuff? (Is it to do with it not causing damage?)

There's nothing special at all about blowguns, AFAIK all ranged weapons/spells work like this, in that the monster has a lower chance to shout when woken up like that than when waking up normally or noticing you. This is kind of spoilery I admit, possibly the chance should always be the same (potentially lower than now to not be too big a nerf). Unless maybe this behaviour was changed and missed the commit?

[Merlin]

There's nothing special at all about blowguns, AFAIK all ranged weapons/spells work like this, in that the monster has a lower chance to shout when woken up like that than when waking up normally or noticing you. This is kind of spoilery I admit, possibly the chance should always be the same (potentially lower than now to not be too big a nerf). Unless maybe this behaviour was changed and missed the commit?

I don't think that can be true. In my experience a (previously sleeping) monster hit with a poisoned needle never shouts, whereas if I throw stones at the monster or hit it with the corona spell, it (maybe nearly) always shouts. That behaviour could also be explained if the projectile actually has to hit for the monster to wake up silently because i'm usually throwing untrained and needles are guarateed to hit sleeping monsters. It wouldn't explain why it doesn't work with corona though.

[duvessa]

You can shoot the monster with a blowgun and it won't shout.

I heard about someone else saying this before, too. I wonder why it is? Does being hit by a blowgun run different code to being hit by other stuff? (Is it to do with it not causing damage?)

If you throw the needle instead of shooting it, the monster shouts, so needles doing 0 damage doesn't seem to be 100% of it.

[Patashu]

You can shoot the monster with a blowgun and it won't shout.

I heard about someone else saying this before, too. I wonder why it is? Does being hit by a blowgun run different code to being hit by other stuff? (Is it to do with it not causing damage?)

If you throw the needle instead of shooting it, the monster shouts, so needles doing 0 damage doesn't seem to be 100% of it.

I don't mean 'to do with it not causing damage' as in 'it tried to roll for damage but rolled 0', I mean 'to do with it not causing damage' as in 'it doesn't even call the normal code pathways involved with attempting to deal damage'.

[duvessa]

I don't mean 'to do with it not causing damage' as in 'it tried to roll for damage but rolled 0', I mean 'to do with it not causing damage' as in 'it doesn't even call the normal code pathways involved with attempting to deal damage'.

  Code:

 You shoot a poisoned needle.
 missile [poisoned needle] (21,24) to (21,23): gl=96 col=15 flav=1 hit=0 dam=0d0
 range=8
 you: Base to-hit: 22, Final to-hit: 41; to hit: 41; ev: 0; result: hit (41)
 The helpless orc fails to defend itself.
 The poisoned needle hits the orc in a vulnerable spot for 53!!!
 cturn: 64, raw_duration: 795
 The orc is poisoned.
 the orc takes poison damage.
 poison damage: 8
 You kill the orc!

  Code:

 You awkwardly throw a poisoned needle.
 missile [poisoned needle] (21,24) to (22,24): gl=96 col=15 flav=1 hit=0 dam=0d0
 range=8
 you: Base to-hit: 22, Final to-hit: 10; to hit: 10; ev: 0; result: hit (10)
 The poisoned needle hits the orc for 9!
 The orc shouts!

[Patashu]

Huh.
So, what's the reason why shooting a needle never wakes up the monster then?

[duvessa]

[ololoev]

Hit it with LCS, it wont make a squeak!

[Sprucery]

Noise from LCS: loud.

[tompliss]

... that was part of the joke ...

"cast shatter, it wont shout" ... understand ?

[Sprucery]

OK I would have realised it's a joke if Shatter or Fire Storm had been proposed ;)

[stickyfingers]

Except LCS does more damage to a single target than either shatter or fire storm (though it can be dodged).

[Sprucery]

Yes but it makes less noise.

[crate]

shouldve suggested chain lightning instead, clearly