[Crawl] Static Discharge -> Hippogriffs

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While currently trying to get into air elementalists ■, my level 9
GEAE encountered his first hippogriff. After realising he's not overly
impressed from shock attacks, I tried static discharge, currently my
most dangerous (not only for the monsters) attack spell. To my surprise
none of my 5(!) static discharges did affect him!

After a long fight with several retreats for backing up (where also a
mummy was involved and an orc blocking my way to the upstairs while low
on HP), I finally killed the hippo with shock alone (and the kindly help
of Vehumet).

Since a simple shock spell apparently works, I can exclude hippogriffs
being generally electro-immune. Ok, 5 times in a row still could be just
bad luck. But from my experience with static discharge I don't recall
any zero-effect so far, as long as the spell didn't fail at all and I'm
standing next to the monster (of course).

But what was it then?
________________________________________________________________________

■ I've got the idea of playing air elementalists from my (currently
parked, but still alive) grey elf wizard. I had some very unpleasant
attempts with air attack spells somewhere in the mid-game, which made me
curious about how a *real* air elementalist would feel. And actually
there is a great difference (mind you: both are grey elves), just from
boosting air magic from early on! So the roleplaying aspect of Crawl
seems very well supported (not forced, but highly encouraged), much more
at least than I recently was arguing about.

Rubinstein

 

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Rubinstein wrote:
// But what was it then?

Hippogriffs fly.

Brent Ross

 

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Brent Ross wrote:
> Rubinstein wrote:
> [static discharge doesn't work with hippogriffs]
>
> Hippogriffs fly.
>
Cause there's no grounding and not because there's no contact to the
monster, right?
Is there any difference in flying/levitating here (dunno, are there
any levitating monsters at all?)?
What happens if the player is flying/levitating and cast static
discharge? Since there's no grounding here I would expect no effect at
all, even when the monster is flying/levitating, too (spell fizzles).

Rubinstein

 

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In article <cudtkn$csc$01$1@news.t-online.com>,
Rubinstein <picommander@t-online.de> wrote:
// Brent Ross wrote:
// > Rubinstein wrote:
// > [static discharge doesn't work with hippogriffs]
// >
// > Hippogriffs fly.
// >
// Cause there's no grounding and not because there's no contact to the
// monster, right?

Correct.

// Is there any difference in flying/levitating here (dunno, are there
// any levitating monsters at all?)?

Levitating monsters don't fall to the ground when paralysed. The player
never has this problem as the code assumes that flight is always
controlled levitation, not mechanically self-powered.

// What happens if the player is flying/levitating and cast static
// discharge?

Nothing different... it doesn't check anything other than it's your
grid. It's probably wrong one way for the other.

Brent Ross