Rutabagas are Evil!

I was having a successful Dual Wielding Communist Run when I opened a monster zoo on DL 5. I set about the usual pace of annihilation, a couple of AoE items thrown in and then retreat to a bottleneck around the corner to fight it out.

After killing the first few enemies I went back to the main hallway to draw out some more and was struck by two charging Ancient Rutabagas in succesion. This sent me from full health of about 125 HP to death. In 2 turns. It was only after the death screen came up that I realized what had happened.

Rutabagas were easy enough to deal with in melee at this point and I had seen them charge before so I knew they could do it, but turning the corner with them only a couple of squares away I had almost no warning.

I think the charge is a really cool effect, but the damage should probably be toned down a bit. The only thing that has ever hit me for that much damage in that small a span of time is Dredmor himself.

This put a real damper on my spirits as I was only two or three character levels away from constructing the Dwarven Atom Smasher.... sigh.

 

Roguelikes. They are not kind.

 

As far as I can discern:

-Charges can only travel in straight lines. Sidestep them.
-Charges can be interrupted by damage. (Or not, but most can as per the xml flag)
-Charges hurt the monster if the monster runs into a wall or obstacle.
-Rooting a monster will not prevent it from charging.

My Radiant Wizard is on level 4 so far (playing it again just because of worrying about charging), and it isn't too bad so far.

 

Again, I'm aware of the mechanics of charging. I think they're pretty cool. I don't really mind losing a character, lord knows it's happened often enough, I'm just trying to provide useful feedback on game balance. If the post came off as a bit whiny, it was intended to be tongue in cheek.

The more relevant data is that my character had 20+ and died in 2 turns from two charging rutabagas attacks.That's 80+ damage from each one unless they are doing purely elemental damage. I don't remember exactly what my resists were and I can't check the save since it was on perma death. I may have had some kind of negative from communist debuffs.

This is only on the fifth floor mind you. Is this threshold of damage correct? or am I crazy?

 

Well, here's the spell the level 4 rutabagas use:

<spell name="Toxic Dash Attack Crush" type="target" attack="1" >
<effect type="damage" crushing="10" crushingF="1.0" secondaryScale="2" /> <!-- scale by melee -->
<effect type="damage" toxic="8"/>
<effect type="trigger" spell="Food Poisoning" />
</spell>

So, you're essentially being hit for their base damage + 10 crushing + 8 toxic + 2*melee power from a single dash attack. You might have wanted to check your debuffs, but it's too late for that. Or maybe you were crit, since it is an attack="1" spell.

 

I suspect there was some serious critting involved there, as I don't think there's really another way to get that kind of damage in two turns, even with Communism debuffs. They're not that bad...

 

actually, it's 3*melee power, because spells flagged as attack="1" are considered attacks that inflict base melee power damage, this also allows them to critical.

 

Oh, right. Forgot to add in the fact that each damage effect separately triggers melee power.

So yes, it is 3*melee power. Which is a bit much...

 

Well, this is weird. I just got charged by an ancient rutabega, with 15 AA, and it did 5 damage to me?!!
I don't know what's going on here.
Was it maybe two uniques that charged you?
And they both crit? I don't know if something can double critical, but I think one of them did against you.

 

I remember telling my mom, when I was a kid, that Asparagus were evil -- just learned about the Rutabagas. Thank god we never had any in the house. I'm just praying that they don't corrupt the broccoli.

 

Rest assured my Brother, Nothing can tarnish the Purity of Broccoli; the most Innocent and Tender of cabbages.

 

Oh geez, after an exceptionally good run I died to the hands of one of these...One of those green fellas.

I was taking about 1 or 2 damage with a very high block stat, nothing was really touching me. Then out of the blue, I go from 70something health down to 0. Doesn't seem right that a standard critter can take off almost all your health in one hit

 

Exactly same thing happened to me today. I was clearing level 5 zoo. Bottle necking them behind the corner. After slaying all I went to get some more from the zoo and immediatly after stepping in view of the entrance one Ancient Rutabaga charges me. Next thing I notice is my character going through the dead animation with HP pool showing 1/0. I had 30 stacks of Food Poisoning. Also noticed the rutabaga having tons of the same debuff. I tried to skim through .xml files to see what could have caused it but couldn't find anything.

 

Man, this is weird. How come none of the times I've been hit by Ancient Rutabegas they never did that insane damage.
I don't think it can only happen on Going Rogue.

 

Well I was playing DM. It wasn't until floor 5 that I actually took a heavy hit from one. The rest hit hard, but hit comfortably hard.

I was also on a floor 5 zoo, if that means anything.

 

I haven't seen them hit extraordinarily hard yet, but maybe it's because I've been lucky or have had the right resists or armor (I do tend to favor tank-like characters). That said, since I've read about them, I've been extraordinarily careful when I see one.

 

I'm running a gish type character now and have been threshing through Rutabagas without issue. I think this may have been a fluke with perhaps some other factors involved.

I really wish I still had the save file.

 

Been butchering rutabagas all over the place. I never even knew they could charge - To be honest, my strategy for killing anything and everything lately is so simply jump on it. You can't really charge me if I am in your face, ya? Or can you? Whatever the case, the only times i've died is via diggle hell. However, i fully then start farming the damned place for stuff, so that's cool with me.