Tiamat

Tiamat d
HP	380
HD	22
XP	13,593
Speed	10
AC	30
EV	10
Will	146
Attack1	60 (hit: plain)
Attack2	45 (tail slap: plain)
Resistances	rPois+, Gains random other resistances
Vulnerabilities	Silver, Dragon Slaying
Habitat	land
Intelligence	High
Uses	Starting equipment
Holiness	Natural
Size	Medium
Type	draconian, draconian
Flags	Unique See invisible Flying Cold-blooded Speaks

A powerful dragon with mighty wings. Her scales seem to shimmer and change colour as you watch. He saith that Tiamat our mother hath conceived a hatred for us, With all her force she rageth, full of wrath, All the gods have turned to her, With those, whom ye created, they go at her side. They are banded together, and at the side of Tiamat they advance; They are furious, they devise mischief without resting night and day. They prepare for battle, fuming and raging; They have joined their forces and are making war. Tiamat who created all things, Made in addition weapons invincible; she spawned monster-serpents, Sharp of tooth, and merciless of fang; With poison, instead of blood, she filled their bodies. Fierce monster-vipers she clothed with terror, With splendor she decked them, she made them of lofty stature. Whoever beheld them, terror overcame him, Their bodies reared up and none could withstand their attack. -Enuma Elish, Third Tablet. circa 668 BCE.

Useful Info

Tiamat is a unique draconian who sometimes appears in the Realm of Zot. The most powerful unique to appear outside of the extended endgame, she is a draconian who constantly changes color, giving her access to any of the draconian breath weapons. She is always generated with the dragonskin cloak, and comes with a very large retinue of draconians.

Location

• The Realm of Zot

Tips & Tricks

Be prepared for a long, dangerous, and difficult fight if you choose to take on Tiamat. Given her extremely high HD (22), her breath weapons will do a lot of damage on top of the unique effects that each draconian breath weapon has (see Draconian page for details on each kind). Her unpredictable damage types make her dangerous at a distance unless you are omniresistant, but fighting in melee is not much better; she hits harder than any monster in the game save Antaeus and tends to carry a good weapon.

Anyone wishing to kill her will want to lure her away from her retinue (or vice versa), since this may contain draconian callers and zealots, either of which can be deadly in combination with Tiamat.

Melee with high AC and EV is doable, but you will want to buff yourself in as many ways as possible first: Haste, Might, and even some rarer buffs such as using a potion of agility and/or Phase Shift. Be prepared to run if things even start to go badly - remember how much damage she can do with her breath weapons.

Conjurers should have Deflect Missiles up and use their most powerful irresistible spells. Her cloak gives her occasional resistance to all elements, but not with such regularity that elemental casters are completely out of luck. Just keep an eye out for her current color to make sure you aren't wasting a turn and several MP. She only has moderate EV, so spells such as Lehudib's Crystal Spear or Iron Shot are effective, but her high health means that most casters will need some sort of channeling to last long enough to kill her.

Casters without powerful conjurations do still have options for killing Tiamat. As she is not a summoner and thus does not have Abjuration, one can overwhelm her with summons. One will want to use high-end summoning spells such as Summon Horrible Things, Haunt, or Summon Greater Demon in an open area to do this. Undead or lichform casters might consider tormenting her, if they have a means of doing so. Agony is also usable, but expect her to resist many times - be sure to be moving faster than her and have decent resistances. Hexes are not a good idea: Tiamat's MR is high enough that you can expect most spells to require several tries, and given her extremely high damage output, this can be deadly. Furthermore, her high HD makes her recover quickly from most hexes.

Finally, an easy and often deadly mistake to make is to simply not notice her until it's too late. Tiamat's habit of constantly changing colors means that she isn't a unique color, and thus does not visually stand out from the draconian band that invariably surrounds her. She's somewhat more recognizable when playing in Tiles Mode, but it's still an understandable mistake. One should always be vigilant in the Realm of Zot; Tiamat is one of many reasons for this.

Trivia

In Babylonian mythology, Tiamat is a goddess considered to be the monstrous embodiment of primordial chaos. Although there are no early precedents for it, some sources (including Dungeons & Dragons) identify her with images of a sea serpent or dragon.