Attacking and Weapons
Attacking is simple: if you move into a creature, you attack it
provided you are wielding a weapon (including digging implements which
are considered to be weapons). Unlike most other classes, monks and
forcetrainers can attack using their bare hands to great effect and
generally prefer not to use a weapon at all. Also, if you are playing
in Monster mode, there is a good chance that you have innate attacks
rather than weapons (e.g. Hounds, Dragons, Beholders, etc). Again,
simply move into a monster to attack.
Melee can do more damage per turn than any other form of attack, and
the basic equipment (a weapon) is easy to find. On the other hand,
melee only works against adjacent monsters and takes a great deal of
training and equipment to come into its own deeper in the dungeon.
Upgrading to weapons with higher base damages is vital but heavy
weapons are harder to master. You will have to find a compromise,
depending on class, experience level, and available equipment (use the
~W screen to see how various weapons affect your melee skill).
You may wield both a primary weapon for melee combat, and a bow or
other missile launcher for launching missiles at the same time. Most
classes will benefit from carrying an assortment of attacking magical
devices.
Attacking from a Distance
You can attack creatures from a distance by firing a missile from a bow
or other missile launcher, by throwing an object or by using magical
items such as wands, rods and staves. If you have chosen to play a
spell casting class, you may be able to learn some spells which allow
you to attack a creature from a distance. You can use distance attacks
even when your target is next to you.
Whenever you give a command to fire a weapon, cast a spell, or use an
attacking magical device (unless the spell or device has an area
effect), you will be prompted for a direction. You may choose any of
the eight movement directions or press '*' to enter targeting mode. A
detailed explanation of targeting mode can be found in the section on
Command Descriptions (see [a]).
You may also wish to make use of the use_old_target option which
automatically selects the last target. This prevents you from having to
target the same monster every time you attack it. An explanation of
this option is found the section on User Interface Options (see [b]).
Attacking Monsters in Walls
You should note that some creatures, for example ghosts, can pass
through the dungeon walls. You can attack a creature in a wall with
your weapon by trying to move into the wall space which contains the
creature. If the creature is invisible and you do not have the ability
to see invisible creatures, you must tunnel into the wall space
containing the creature.
Bolt spells do full damage to such creature in a wall, but ball spells
will be stopped and blow up just in front of a wall doing only half
damage. Conversely, when you have ghost like form, and are in a wall,
you will take only half damage from ball spells and breathes of
monsters, which is very important privilege.
Melee Weapons
Carrying a weapon in your backpack does you no good. You must wield a
weapon before it can be used in a fight. A secondary weapon can be kept
by keeping it in the backpack, and switching it with the primary weapon
when needed.
Weapons have two main magical characteristics, their enchanted ability
to hit and their enchanted ability to do damage, expressed as, say,
(+3,+4). A normal weapon would be (+0,+0). Many weapons in PosChengband
have bonuses to hit and/or to damage. Some weapons are cursed, and have
penalties that hurt the player. Cursed weapons cannot be unwielded
until the curse is lifted. Identifying a weapon will inform you of the
magical bonuses and penalties and whether or not it is cursed.
PosChengband assumes that your youth in the rough environment near the
dungeons has taught you the relative merits of different weapons, and
displays as part of their description the damage dice which define
their capabilities. Any damage enchantment is added to the dice roll
for that weapon. The dice used for a given weapon is displayed as XdY.
The first number, X, indicates how many dice to roll, and the second,
Y, indicates how many sides they have. A 2d6 weapon will give damage
from 2 to 12, plus any damage bonus. The weight of a weapon is also a
consideration. Heavy weapons may hit harder, but they are also harder
to use. Depending on your strength, dexterity, character class, and
weapon weight, you may get several attacks per turn.
Missile Launchers
Firing a missile while wielding the appropriate launcher is the only
way to get the "full" power out of the missile. You may of course throw
an arrow at a monster without firing it from a bow, but you will find
the effects may not be what you had hoped. Slings will fire pebbles or
shots, bows will fire arrows and crossbows will fire bolts. Missiles of
varying type and quality can be bought in the town and may be found
throughout the dungeon.
Missile launchers, have their characteristics added to those of the
missile used, if the proper weapon/missile combination is used, and the
launcher multiplier is applied to the total damage, making missile
weapons very powerful given the proper missiles. This is especially
true if both the launcher and the missile are enchanted.
Hits and misses are determined by your ability to hit versus your
target's armor class. A hit is a strike that does some damage; a miss
may in fact reach a target, but fails to do any damage. Higher armor
class makes it harder to do damage, and so leads to more misses; it
will also reduce the damage from a strike that actually occurs.
The varying types of missile launchers each have their own strengths
and weaknesses. Which can be summarized as follows (Note: This
information is subject to change):
Shots per turn Multiplier Range
Sling 1.25 2 Full
Short Bow 1.00 3 Reduced
Long Bow 1.00 3 Full
Light Crossbow 0.83 4 Reduced
Heavy Crossbow 0.75 4 Full
Bows tend to be good at dealing constant streams of damage. A sling is
good for killing many small monsters - it even does more damage per
round than a short bow if you can carry enough ammunition. Crossbows
deal enormous amounts of damage in one shot. However, the reload time
is such that a longbow will deal more damage over time.
Certain classes automatically receive additional shots as they become
more experienced. Rangers and Cavalry receive some additional shots
with a bow. Rogues receive some extra shots with a sling. Archers and
Warriors receive some additional shots with any missile launcher.
Ego Weapons and Artifacts
In addition to the ordinary weapons your character may find in the
dungeon, some of them may be endowed with additional powers. These
weapons fall into two types: (1) artifacts; and (2) ego weapons. Unlike
artifacts which are unique and may only be found once in each game, it
is not unusual to find several ego weapons of the same type during the
course of a character's adventures.
In general, artifacts and ego weapons may boost one or more of your
primary statistics, may confer certain abilities upon your character,
may grant resistance to certain forms of attack and may be especially
deadly against certain types of creature. Take note that if your weapon
has two attributes that make it deadly to your opponent (for example
you are fighting a demon and your weapon slays both evil and demons
(demons are evil)), only the most effective slay will apply. Also keep
in mind that slays work by increasing the base damage dice roll of you
weapon; that's the XdY we discussed above. And this increase is by a
specific multiplier, such as 2x, 3x or perhaps as high as 5x. So, for
example, slay evil on a (1d4) dagger is not so good, but slay evil on a
(6d5) blade of chaos is nice, indeed.
There are many different types of ego weapons. Some, like weapons of
slay orc, will have obvious bonuses that your player automatically
knows about. Others, like (Trump) weapons, must be learned as you play.
You will need to *Identify* an object of the given type to learn the
base ego bonuses. After this, the next time you find a (Trump) weapon,
for instance, your player will be aware of its base ego attributes. But
keep in mind that many ego types grant additional random powers above
and beyond their base bonuses, so *Identification* is usually a good
idea if you are dealing with a strong ego type. Over time, you will
learn which egos are potentially good (and some are potentially very
good) as well as which ego types are "junk".
A list of the ego types and their bonuses is considered a spoiler, so
won't be presented here. You can probably find out about them by asking
on forums, or by viewing character dumps on the wonderful Angband
ladder (angband.oook.cz). But keep in mind that this is one of my
favorite areas of the game to modify, so what was true last release
might be different now :)
Magical Aids to Physical Combat
There are several magical means of increasing your physical combat
ability. The most common of these are potions of heroism and berserk
strength and various scrolls (blessing, holy prayer, etc.). Typically,
these grant small cumulative bonuses to your combat skill. Some magic
realms contain equivalent spells.
Martial Arts
Monks, Mystics and Forcetrainers prefer to fight using martial arts
rather than with weapons. Indeed, they are much more powerful attacking
barehanded then with normal weapons. As they gain experience, they gain
more powerful forms of attacks and more of them. Higher level attacks
also have a chance to stun your opponent, which is very powerful since
stunned monsters often miss turns and fail when casting spells.
The exact types of attacks are displayed in game by using the Weapon
Damage screen (~W).
Basic Tactics
Pillardancing
-------------
Not recommended since monsters move at irregular speeds. Monsters will
also "splash" the player with area of effect spells, curses, or
summoning, so this tactic is probably the last thing you will want to
try. It is mentioned here because it is a popular tactic in other
variants.
Shoot'n Scoot
-------------
Requires a large room, Phase Door, and some type of missile weapon.
Stand at one end of the room, your enemy at the other. Fire your
missile weapon at him until he gets close, and then Phase Door. Fire
again, until he gets close, and repeat. By the time you run out of
ammunition, he should be dead or weak enough for you to finish him HTH
(Hand to Hand). However, note that monsters get angry when players use
this tactic, and will cast spells/breathe more often as a result.
Sometimes your best course of action, even as a spellcaster, is to
attack while next to the monster. Try things out to see what works best
as results will vary from monster type to monster type.
Wail'n Bail
-----------
Requires Teleport items. Fight the monster until you're almost dead,
teleport out, find him, and resume fighting. This is dangerous, because
you could teleport right next to some nasty that will kill you. Also,
it is not generally useful for killing unique monsters, as they
regenerate damage very quickly, and by the time you find them again,
they will have healed what you did to them.
The Anti-Summoning Corridor
---------------------------
Requires a little time to set up. This can be done just about anywhere.
Dig a twisting corridor into the rock, and station yourself at one end
of it. However, most monsters that summon are smart about this as well,
and will refuse to approach if they detect the player using this
tactic. If you are quick enough, you can bull rush them and still fight
in somewhat contained quarters. Hey, getting a stray summon or two
behind your back is still much better than fighting in large open
rooms, right?
Original : (??) Chris Weisiger and Leon Marrick
Updated : (??)
Updated : Zangband DevTeam
Updated : Hengband 1.5.2
Updated : PosChengband 1.0.0
Updated : PosChengband 4.0.0