Spriggan Forest - What to Expect?

[bobross419]

I just encountered my first dungeon level Spriggan Forest. I'm curious what I can expect here. I started poking around and almost got my big troll ass handed to me by midgets on fireflies and another one wearing a big mask.

Is lighting the whole forest on fire a viable tactic? Any particular resists I'll be needing?

Thanks in advance

[XuaXua]

It is a tactic. It might not be that great, but it gets rid of trees. Run and come back later when you are more powerful. Avoid the Enchantress if she is there.

[KoboldLord]

Try to find something that hits highly evasive targets. All the spriggans have really high EV, but relatively low hp, just like your own player spriggans. Several types have effective summon spam, and all monster spriggans are perfectly capable of surprising damage spikes if you don't deal with them quickly. They're also effectively permanently hasted, since monster movement rate isn't separate from monster attack rate like it is for the player.

If you're a non-caster troll, you should probably just dive to the next level or backtrack to another branch.

[Happy Corner]

Watch out for Spriggan Druids, too. If you see one, kill it or get out of the forest as fast as you can. Because it will cast Animate Trees, causing you to be completely ass-raped if you are still surrounded by tree tiles.

[bobross419]

If you're a non-caster troll, you should probably just dive to the next level or backtrack to another branch.

TrMo of Oki... Very limited spells with horrible cast rates

Thanks for the advice guys, but I think I'll play this one smart and follow KL's advice to skip it.

Kobold, would you mind elaborating on why a non-caster troll should skip it just for anyone that comes across this topic in a search?

[KoboldLord]

Remember how in Swamp, you occasionally run into packs of insubstantial wisps? They can't really hurt you, and they don't have much in the way of hit points or durability, but you have to attack them a dozen or more times just to get a hit in? Spriggan Forest is kind of like that, only the spriggans can totally hit back just fine. You can't stand in the open to fight because most of the non-vanilla spriggans have some sort of summoning ability to use against you, and you can't stand in a corridor because the druids can make them deal damage like non-elemental Slime walls. You can't even lure them back to the stairwell, because every monster on the level moves substantially faster than you.

I guess if you have a rod with Freezing Cloud or something in it, that would work okay. But the loot is mostly spriggan gear, which includes short blades, staves, bucklers, and robes, so if you're a non-caster it'll either be useless or you'll already have found what you wanted. I suppose you might find a robe of resistance for your troll, but the chances of finding robes better than whatever you already have by this point are really low and probably not worth the hassle.

[slowcar]

if you wear light armour the faerie dragon armour from the enchantress can be a very nice piece - but if you have problems with the normal spriggans there skipping is the best option.
the air elementalists on the final vault can deal lots of damage, and the druids were already mentioned. there are also spriggan berserkers, and the guardians of the vault have strong branded weapons like quicklblades.

[Jeremiah]

The druids aren't just dangerous because of animating trees; their ray of light ability does 3d19 unresistable damage - Lair hellfire?

Unlike hellfire (AFAIK), it can miss, but can't be deflected by deflect/repel missiles.

[bobross419]

Just a follow up. I ended up encountering the Enchantress on my trek through the forest and she died without any problems (faerie armor she dropped was rather lackluster). None of the other Spriggans really gave me any problems either, except for the Druids. Their tree spells just do way too much damage.

I ended up clearing a 3 wide path from one staircase to another with exclusions on the rest for safe travels through the woods. If I were a caster I'd probably be just fine spamming Meph Cloud all over the place, but that forest is a nasty place for a melee character.

[Happy Corner]

The druids aren't just dangerous because of animating trees; their ray of light ability does 3d19 unresistable damage - Lair hellfire?

Unlike hellfire (AFAIK), it can miss, but can't be deflected by deflect/repel missiles.

Ray of light can be defeated by invisibility.

[Daydreamer]

the guardians of the vault have strong branded weapons like quicklblades.

Related question: the only time I cleared this level 3 or 4 of those guys had distortion branded weapon. Is this normal or did I just get 'lucky'?

[bobross419]

I came across at least 1 distortion brand that was ID'd. I go unarmed, so I don't usually bother IDing weapons.. I only cleared about 1/3 of the level too.

[Stormfox]

Distortion is Crawl's way of saying, "I love you, you're perfect, now change."