Beating Master Kean with a monk

Archived from groups: rec.games.roguelike.nethack (More info?)

While I'm certainly not the most experienced nethacker, I do know a bit
about master Kaen, as monks are the only class I play much of. First
of all, you can't fight him at level 13. It's not just a bad idea,
it's strictly forbidden. You have to reach level 14 to go on the
quest. Find some magic traps, raise your cha, and sleep with
incubus/succubus! Or just kill monsters.
There should be no reason you're being teleported upwards, at least
none I know of. Is a teleportation trap? Maybe a monster is
teleporting you (can they do that?), but you should be aware if either
of those are the case. My recommendation is you should definately have
the sleep spell learned before fighting Kaen. He's magic resistant
1/12 or 1/13 (bad memory) of the time, but otherwise he can be put to
sleep fairly easily, better chances the more over level 14 you are.
Fighting him while asleep is probably the only way (short of tricks
like wands of death) a level 14 can do it safely. Otherwise I'd get
close to level 17+ or so for the safety.

About the equipment, a ring of free action shouldn't be needed, he
doesn't stun/confuse. Magic resistance would be very nice, for his
cause wounds spells, and I think he does magic missile or some other
spell as well. Look for a spoiler which has more information, or for
someone who can actually remember this stuff to reply. I'm sure about
the cause wounds one, though it may be light wounds, or some version of
that.

Micha Pringle wrote:
> Hi guys,
>
> I am back into Nethacking and having a particularily decent character
> (for myself at least).
> My stats are St 18/14 Dx 18 Co 18 In 14 Wi 17 Ch 9 Neutral
> HP 137(137) Pw 78(78) AC -16 XP 13/56960 T 21847
>
> I was hunting around for the castle first, thought I'd kill Medusa
and
> get the wand of wishing before beating Kean, but I can't get past DL
> 24 without getting teleported way back up in the dungeon and it
> occured to me I probably have to beat Kean first. Anyhow, first
> question is, Is this above supposition true?
> Next question is, I have a blessed ring of free action, and about 10
> wands of teleport and a potion of paralysis (which I can bless
> anytime). Am I prepared to take on the bad monk dude, or do I need
> more stuff, or do you folks need more info to help you help me?
>
> Cheers,
> Micha

Archived from groups: rec.games.roguelike.nethack (More info?)

Is Master Kaen generated carrying the Eyes? At least some quest
nemesises start out standing on the same space as the quest artifact,
but without having picked it up yet. If that were the case, you could
possibly kill him with a wand of death so long as you did it before he
woke up.

- John H.

Archived from groups: rec.games.roguelike.nethack (More info?)

"Shteven" <swarkentin@gmail.com> writes:

Please reply below the quoted AND trimmed message.

[fighting master kaen]

> Fighting him while asleep is probably the only way (short of tricks
> like wands of death) a level 14 can do it safely. Otherwise I'd get
> close to level 17+ or so for the safety.

> About the equipment, a ring of free action shouldn't be needed, he

IMO the best way is to whack him with the !oParalysis when wearing
=FA. Works every time as long as you hit him. /oDeath won't work, since The
Eyes confer MR. The !oParalysis is my favourite also for the other tough
guys, like Death and Demogorgon. (/oDeath and Finger won't work).

--
Panu
"You haven't really been anywhere until you've got back home",
Twoflower in "The Light Fantastic"

Archived from groups: rec.games.roguelike.nethack (More info?)

Micha Pringle wrote:

> My stats are St 18/14 Dx 18 Co 18 In 14 Wi 17 Ch 9 Neutral
> HP 137(137) Pw 78(78) AC -16 XP 13/56960 T 21847

> Next question is, I have a blessed ring of free action, and about 10
> wands of teleport and a potion of paralysis (which I can bless
> anytime). Am I prepared to take on the bad monk dude, or do I need
> more stuff, or do you folks need more info to help you help me?

As others have replied, paralysis and sleep are both good
solutions. I recently ascended a monk and was very
apprehensive of Master Kaen. I did the castle and the VotD
(all those pretty boxes!) then some serious AC work first. I
had -33 AC when I went on the quest and he pretty much
couldn't hurt me. Of course I had a very small sample, he
only got two or three attacks but there aren't (m)any single
monsters in the game that pose a serious HP threat when your
AC dips below -30.
--
Wes
The early bird may get the worm,
but the second mouse gets the cheese.

Archived from groups: rec.games.roguelike.nethack (More info?)

michapringle@yahoo.com (Micha Pringle) writes:

> Hi guys,
>
> I am back into Nethacking and having a particularily decent character
> (for myself at least).
> My stats are St 18/14 Dx 18 Co 18 In 14 Wi 17 Ch 9 Neutral
> HP 137(137) Pw 78(78) AC -16 XP 13/56960 T 21847
>
> I was hunting around for the castle first, thought I'd kill Medusa and
> get the wand of wishing before beating Kean, but I can't get past DL
> 24 without getting teleported way back up in the dungeon and it
> occured to me I probably have to beat Kean first.

I don't think so. My last monk did the castle, then
went for Kaen without any trouble. The only explanation
I have is that you repeatedly hit level-port traps.

> Next question is, I have a blessed ring of free action, and about 10
> wands of teleport and a potion of paralysis (which I can bless
> anytime). Am I prepared to take on the bad monk dude, or do I need
> more stuff, or do you folks need more info to help you help me?

One potion will paralyze him for 1-50 turns, IIRC. Thus, I
would advise to have three or more potions to be sure.
Additionally, it is a good idea to have two !ofH at hand,
since your HP can go down quite fast when dealing with
Master Kaen. I always down a !ofH when I'm below 60 HP
in this fight.

But try to do the castle first, there's no reason against that.

Best,
Jakob

Archived from groups: rec.games.roguelike.nethack (More info?)

"John H." <JohnWH@gmail.com> writes:

[Strategy to get Kaen; /oD bad idea]
> Is Master Kaen generated carrying the Eyes?

No. In theory, one can exploit this with precise timing
of the descend, thus getting a free move, but it still
is a very risky business to rely on the one beam of
death/sleep to hit him. Hence, you would need a plan b,
and the best plan b I know of is the paralyze option.
But then, there's no need for plan a at all, since
the paralyze option works perfecty well by itself ;-).

Best,
Jakob

Archived from groups: rec.games.roguelike.nethack (More info?)

On 17 Feb 2005 18:36:49 -0800,
michapringle@yahoo.com (Micha Pringle) wrote:

> Subject: Re: Beating Master Kean with a monk

I can no longer resist:

What do you want to wield? [- a or ?*} b
b - a monk
You begin bashing monsterw with your monk.

Sorry.

Regards,
Dan

--
Dan Sommers
<http://www.tombstonezero.net/dan/&gt;
Never play leapfrog with a unicorn.

Archived from groups: rec.games.roguelike.nethack (More info?)

Jakob Creutzig schrieb:
> "John H." <JohnWH@gmail.com> writes:
>
> [Strategy to get Kaen; /oD bad idea]
>
>>Is Master Kaen generated carrying the Eyes?
>
>
> No. In theory, one can exploit this with precise timing
> of the descend, thus getting a free move, but it still
> is a very risky business to rely on the one beam of
> death/sleep to hit him. Hence, you would need a plan b,

There's not much to rely on with sleep. The eyes don't protect against
that. Without a ring of free action, a wand of sleep is certainly a
good option. And if the first attempt misses, the PC should be strong
enough to try several times (and to kill Kaen in the few turns that he
will stay asleep).

> and the best plan b I know of is the paralyze option.
> But then, there's no need for plan a at all, since
> the paralyze option works perfecty well by itself ;-).


--
Klaus Kassner

Archived from groups: rec.games.roguelike.nethack (More info?)

Hahaha, you guys are great. Thanks for the tips, I really appreciate
them. What I think I will do then is finish the castle, get some of
the armor I am missing, probably a cursed ?ofG and do some nurse
dancing, maybe get my hands on a hawaian shirt and bump my AC up more.
If I come across some sleep wands, I'll be sure to pick those up.
Now, If I were a priest, maybe I could go on a quest where I have to
"beat the bishop", I'm not sure it sounds quite right to "beat the
monk", I just hope I don't die trying. Will post on a new thread when
I have improved this character sufficiently.

Cheers,
Micha

Archived from groups: rec.games.roguelike.nethack (More info?)

Ooops. Died. Wasn't strong enough for the castle level. Somehow my
boots of speed vanished and then I could not escape an owlbear whilst
tons of monster beat me to a pulp.

Archived from groups: rec.games.roguelike.nethack (More info?)

michapringle@yahoo.com (Micha Pringle) writes:

> Ooops. Died. Wasn't strong enough for the castle level. Somehow my
> boots of speed vanished and then I could not escape an owlbear whilst
> tons of monster beat me to a pulp.

You didn't have magic resistance? And the E-word might have saved
you. Better luck next time :-)

--
Panu
"You haven't really been anywhere until you've got back home",
Twoflower in "The Light Fantastic"

Archived from groups: rec.games.roguelike.nethack (More info?)

Panu Lahtinen <pnuu@iki.fi> wrote in message news:<878y5kbvxd.fsf@jt1ca-357.tky.hut.fi>...
> michapringle@yahoo.com (Micha Pringle) writes:
>
> > Ooops. Died. Wasn't strong enough for the castle level. Somehow my
> > boots of speed vanished and then I could not escape an owlbear whilst
> > tons of monster beat me to a pulp.
>
> You didn't have magic resistance? And the E-word might have saved
> you. Better luck next time :-)

I had the monks cape, which confers magic resistance (IIRC). And I was
right on the staircase so I could go up whenever i wanted, and around
the topstaircase I had engraved the E word on every square surrounding
it. It just wasn't meant to be, which is fine, cause now I can play
Baldur's Gate 1. HA!

Archived from groups: rec.games.roguelike.nethack (More info?)

michapringle@yahoo.com (Micha Pringle) writes:

> Panu Lahtinen <pnuu@iki.fi> wrote in message news:<878y5kbvxd.fsf@jt1ca-357.tky.hut.fi>...
>> michapringle@yahoo.com (Micha Pringle) writes:
>>
>> > Ooops. Died. Wasn't strong enough for the castle level. Somehow my
>> > boots of speed vanished and then I could not escape an owlbear whilst
>> > tons of monster beat me to a pulp.
>>
>> You didn't have magic resistance? And the E-word might have saved
>> you. Better luck next time :-)
>
> I had the monks cape, which confers magic resistance (IIRC). And I was

Robe doesn't give MR but enhances spellcasting abilities.

> right on the staircase so I could go up whenever i wanted, and around
> the topstaircase I had engraved the E word on every square surrounding

Did those squares contain any objects? And did you have E-word on the
staircase?

--
Panu
"You haven't really been anywhere until you've got back home",
Twoflower in "The Light Fantastic"