Talk:Water demon

Will zapping a wand of cold at a water demon kill him instantly? --Anonymous

No, not necessarily; a water demon is base level 8, so will have 8d8 hit points (average 36hp). A wand of cold will do 9d6 damage against them, as they are not cold resistant but fire resistant, which increases the damage done; that's an average of 31.5 damage. So, on average it will take two shots, although of course one beam can hit the demon twice if you bounce it off a wall. -Ion frigate 17:10, April 20, 2010 (UTC)

I think Anonymous was considering turning him to an ice statue (a variation of stoning?). More likely, you're lucky a wand of cold doesn't turn it into an Ice devil. --FJH 19:47, 22 November 2010 (UTC)

"ElberethElbereth"

(Context: edit by User:Bulwersator, edit by User:Tjr)

I think saying "use ElberethElbereth" does make the text a bit strange, though it is good to point out you can engrave two Elbereths at once.

I'd prefer a less strange text over stating explicitly what to engrave directly like that, especially as Elbereth has speed notes and the text already states you can engrave two Elbereths per turn (it even specifies when not to do so). (Admittedly, the "Yes, …" would seem out of place without the Elbereth duplication before; that should probably be changed.)

Thoughts? —bcode ^{talk | mail} 08:08, 25 May 2013 (UTC)

• I am not convinced that is it so good idea to mention here that it is possible to engrave multiple Elbereths, but phrasing it as "engrave ElberethElbereth" would be far better, as at least for me "use Elbereth" means "use strategy of engraving text Elbereth" and "use ElberethElbereth" means "use something called ElberethElbereth" what is a bit confusing Bulwersator (talk) 08:45, 25 May 2013 (UTC)
• When I encounter a water demon in my own games, it's usually by a very vulnerable wizard. This is my course of action. 1) Step away and gain momentary safety from Elbereth. Since the demon is as fast as I am, it will always be in melee range while I retreat and engrave. My character is guaranteed to survive one turn of attacks (but very rarely two). So I take damage engraving ElberethElbereth, then (hopefully with success) a second single Elbereth if necessary. With this strategy, I have (1-0.7265)^3 = 2.045% chance that all the Elbereth fail, which means certain death on the second turn of attacks. The "classical" strategy is to engrave two single Elbereth, and die to the second turn of attacks if both are misspelt. This means a (1-0.7265)^2 = 7.48% chance of death. In summary, double Elbereth noticeably lowers the chance of death. 2) Lock away the demon with gold coins on Elbereth. I will drop a coin and add (single or double) Elbereth until stepping off the square will not smudge all of them. While the demon a few tiles away due to Elbereth, I walk to corridor entrances and other strategic spots. Those precious turns until the demon comes in melee range are enough to engrave a few ElberethElbereth. 3) After the demon is safely jailed in the fountain room, I can explore and leave the rest of the level.

In conclusion, a water demon encounter is 97.95% survivable if you work with double-Elbereth. I feel the article should point this strategy out in some concise way. --Tjr (talk) 11:01, 30 May 2013 (UTC)

Somebody removed the entire section again, without any comment. However, lots of people die to water demon, and even experienced players often don't realize they can flee, lock away the demon, and avoid the risk of a chain summon. If there's no comment here, I'm going to restore it on 2013-07-30. -Tjr (talk) 05:04, 25 July 2013 (UTC)