RPG - What Combinations of Adversaries are Tougher than their Parts?

[MattyBoy]

...Killed Medusa (forgot to avoid gaze, but fortunately reflected of my amulet
...Murdered Priest of Moloch (is that poor form?)
...Killed Asmodeus, paid off Dispater (regret that later?)
...Killed Juiblex.

Who wants to be next?

[MattyBoy]

Did anyone detect a hint of arrogance in that last note. It seems Odin did for a barged thru a disenchanter with my Mjollnir and now it's only +5 (very hard to fix that).

In the meantime, killed Baalz and Orcus (phew!).

[MattyBoy]

The lieutenant hits you with the cockatrice corpse.

Looks like the AI is getting smarter!

You have turned to stone. You are a statue. But wait...

Close call, that one.

[MattyBoy]

What Combinations of Adversaries are Tougher than their Parts?

I just came across another example:
Master Lich is tougher in a tight hallway when peaceful gray unicorn is in the way and teleport is not allowed.

[MattyBoy]

Now I've lost most of my fireproofing (have no means of fixing that) and wasted most of my holy water. It shows that, no matter how strong you are, if you play in too much of a hurry. You cannot win this game.

Nethack is such a great game. You guys really should try it as Valkyrie. It is winnable, but never really easy.

[loinburger]

I've never managed to kill Demogorgon. If only "doesn't get deathly ill" were an intrinsic...

[MattyBoy]

Yes,
That deathly illness takes a lot of getting used to.
Juiblex took me a long time to work out.

[MattyBoy]

Now I've been killed 3 times in total (have two life savers left)

I've killed Asmodeus,
Found the bottom level
Found (but not killed) the Wizard.
Genocided all mind flayers and liches

But I cannot find Vlad the Impaler.
Maybe they've done away with him in this version of Nethack? Does anybody have any clues?

Once I find him, the Wizard will be in trouble:
Jack the Lady St:18/** Dx:24 Co:18 In:18 Wi:23 Ch:11 Neutral
Dlvl:29 $:0 HP:520(520) Pw:203(203) AC:-34 Xp:30/100371379 T:96534

[loinburger]

In the last version that I played (which was a pretty recent version), Vlad couldn't be found by just heading down in Gehennom. He now lives at the top of a small 3 or 4 floor castle that rises off of one of Gehennom's levels, so you need to look around for an "up" staircase or ladder that doesn't just take you up to the next level of Gehennom. The levels of Vlad's tower are quite small, so that'll be a dead giveaway.

[loinburger]

Now I remember what Nethack enemy combo caused me so much trouble: Medusa plus a Lich (maybe a Master Lich or Arch-Lich, I forget). I had a towel over my face so that Medusa couldn't stone me (I was telepathic so I could still tell where she was), but Medusa fled down the stairs. I chased her, and found a Lich waiting down there. Well, I finished off Medusa, but while I was doing so the Lich kept throwing curses at me. Medusa went down with only a few more hits, after which I took out the Lich. However, I then discovered that my towel couldn't be removed, since it had been cursed by the Lich. I didn't have any "remove curse" scrolls on me, and even though I had empty parchment and a magic marker I couldn't write any new "remove curse" scrolls (since I was blind). I couldn't dip my towel in holy water, either, because I was wearing it. That really sucked.

[MattyBoy]

I didn't have any "remove curse" scrolls on me, and even though I had empty parchment and a magic marker I couldn't write any new "remove curse" scrolls (since I was blind). I couldn't dip my towel in holy water, either, because I was wearing it. That really sucked.

You truly couldn't dip?
That really does suck.
You wouldn't be able to read a remove curse scroll either.
I'm beginning to think that leaving nymphs behind on some levels is smart for situations like that (they steal items like that from you).
The arch-liches and master-liches have easily been the toughest monsters in this game for me, especially on the levels where they can teleport but nobody else can.
(I get "a mysterious force prevents you from teleporting")
Let me know if you want me to PM you a hint that lets you counter deathly sick. You may prefer to work it out for yourself, but I never could.

[MattyBoy]

Well, Mr Loin, I haven't found any Demogorgon yet and I am about to head up to the planes with the Amulet.
Thankyou for your help with Vlad. It turned out that I had left a box covering those up stairs so that was making them hard to find.
I only found them by cheating. I saved my game many times and reloaded then travelled to each Gehennom level, one at a time and read a scroll of forgetting, then a blessed scroll of magic mapping on each level. This makes you forget where the box (or whatever) is, then maps any up-stairs on that level, so it revealed the stairs for me.

Then I returned to my loaded game with an uncanny ability to find those stairs.

Enough for today. That bottom level was very tough this time.

[loinburger]

IIRC, I finally got out of my cursed towel predicament by dropping everything remotely flammable and having some pyrolisks repeatedly set fire to me until the towel was destroyed. In the future I'll be taking out the lich before I finish off Medusa.

[MattyBoy]

IIRC, I finally got out of my cursed towel predicament by dropping everything remotely flammable and having some pyrolisks repeatedly set fire to me until the towel was destroyed.

That sounds like fun
Why wouldn't you want to do that again?

[MattyBoy]

Just ran into some trouble (note Wizard next to me).