chenr@tilt.UUCP (Raymond Chen ) (04/11/84)
<Why haven't people fixed this yet?>
The PROPER use of a staff of cancellation is NOT on a medusa or
umber hulk except for one condition: when you're in a lit room and
the M/U is still asleep. Then zap it, and kill it. The problem is that
if you SEE a U/M and it sees you, it's too late. Either it's confused
you or it hasn't. This is real bummer in a dark room, because the only
way to find a U/M is to be next to it and they usually wake up.
What I like to use staffs of cancellation on are VAMPIRES !! Much worse
than wraiths. Wraiths take ep, which you get back (and sometimes end up
with more hit points than before). Vampires drain hit points, leaving
you in the unenviable position of being 12th level with 11 hit dice of hit
points instead of 12, and having to earn 19,000 ep, say instead of 9,500
in order to back to where you were. This is a REAL BUMMER at the deep
levels. Five vampires later, you might as well be 10th level instead
of 15th for all the good it does you against the dragon.
Sure, U/M's are deadly. I personally think they're the deadliest things
in the game, but by the time you realize they're there, it's usually too
late...
--
From the Random Fingers of --
Ray Chen
{allegra | ihnp4 | mhuxi}!princeton!down!tilt!chenr
"It's amazing what a thousand monkeys and a few typewriters can accomplish..."