Pandemonium lord

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pandemonium lord & Pandemonium lord.png
HP 103-250
HD 12-30
XP 5027
Speed 10-19
AC 5-24
EV 5-24
Will 26
Attack1 20-60 (hit: Randomly branded)
Attack2
Attack3
Attack4
Resistances rPois+, rRot, rTorm,
rN+, Random
Vulnerabilities Holy, Random
Habitat land
Intelligence High
Uses Open doors
Holiness Demonic
Size Large
Type pandemonium demon, pandemonium demon
Flags Fighter
Spellcaster
Speaks
Evil
Powerful demons inhabiting the endless halls of Pandemonium, each is different, with its own set of strengths and weaknesses.

Useful Info

Pandemonium lords are powerful semi-random demons that rule over Pandemonium, slaughtering any who invade their realm and chasing after you in the Dungeon once you've acquired the Orb of Zot. While they all have a few things in common (negative energy immunity, brutal spell lists, branded attacks), they are generally very unpredictable; Pan lords have randomly generated names and appearances, 12-30 HD, 103-250 HP, 10-19 speed, random resistances/immunities, random melee brands (including Distortion), and potentially nasty spell lists.

When found in Pandemonium, there is usually one Pan lord per floor. They may be wandering the floor or hiding in randomly placed vaults. Depending on which vault you find, there is either an 11.1% or 100% chance of there being a demonic rune inside (assuming you don't already have one). When found during your ascent with the Orb, Pan lords will spawn like normal enemies, making it entirely possible to run into two or more on a single floor.

Properties

Pan lords are semi-randomly generated, but their potential properties, while complex, can be enumerated:

Base properties

  • HP: 100 + 3d50 (103-250)
  • EV: 5-24
  • AC: 5-24
  • HD: 10 + 2d10 (12-30)
  • Speed: Depends on whether or not the demon is a caster:
    • Non-casters: 11 + 2d4 (13-19)
    • Casters: 33% chance of being speed 10, otherwise 8+2d5 (10-18)
  • Melee damage: One attack, with a maximum damage of 20 + 2d20 (22-60).
  • Melee brand: 33% chance for casters, 100% for non-casters, of a brand other than holy wrath or reaching.

Resistances and Intrinsics

  • Flight/Levitation: 1/3 chance of neither, otherwise 1/5 chance of levitation, 4/5 chance of flight
  • See Invisible: 9/10 chance of possessing this
  • Fire resistance: 2/3 chance of having 1d2 levels of fire resistance. If it has no levels of fire resistance, has a 1/10 chance of being vulnerable to fire.
  • Cold resistance: 2/3 chance of having 1d2 levels of cold resistance. Pan lords without cold resistance will always instead be vulnerable to cold.
  • Electricity resistance: 1/3 chance of having a single level of electricity resistance.
  • Always have the standard demonic resistances (poison, negative energy, torment).

Spellcasting

Pan lords have a 2/3 chance of being spellcasters. Those who are not gain some bonuses to melee and speed, as seen above. Pan lords that are spellcasters are given spells from the player ghost lists. This is a two-step process. The first part, which fills the Pan lord's spell slots with random spells from the player ghost lists, is as follows:

  • Slot 1: Pan lords receive a random spell from the Conjurations list.
  • Slot 2: Pan lords receive another random spell from the Conjurations list, possibly a duplicate of the first.
  • Slot 3: Pan lords have a 25% chance of receiving nothing in this slot. Otherwise, they get a random self-enchantment/summoning spell.
  • Slot 4: This slot has a 50% chance of being left empty initially, otherwise it is filled by a random spell from the hostile enchantments list. However, it will always be filled by the second part of the spell process.
  • Slot 5: This slot also has a 50% chance of being left empty initially, otherwise it is filled by the same list as Slot 4.
  • Slot 6: 25% chance of nothing, 25% chance of Blink, 50% chance of Teleport Self

A few replacements also happen:

  • Dig is always removed from Slot 4, for technical reasons
  • Agony is replaced by Torment
  • Conjure Ball Lightning and Ozocubu's Refrigeration are replaced by an empty slot.

The second part of the process may randomly replace some spells to make them more demonic. It iteratively tries to replace the spells with the spells given, in the order given. This makes spells later in the order more likely to appear:

Obviously, this produces widely varied spell lists. In theory, it could range from a demon possessing only Magic Dart and Corona to a monstrosity with Lehudib's Crystal Spear, Fire Storm, Haste, Torment, Torment (again, making it twice as likely to cast it), and Teleport Self.

Uniques

There are four unique, fixed Pan lords: Mnoleg, Lom Lobon, Cerebov, and Gloorx Vloq, respectively guarding the glowing, magical, fiery, and dark runes. Only Cerebov has loot. The game will alert you when you enter the realm of one of these lords; you can check the milestones to see which lord's realm you have entered. Be careful: if you leave the level before getting the rune (except through banishment), you will not be able to get the rune that game, and thus cannot do an all-rune ascension.

Tips & Tricks

  • Killing them quickly is entirely appropriate, especially when facing multiple lords at once. Since you have no idea what kind of spells they'll be casting, assume the worst. Haste, Might, and the most powerful Conjurations you know are entirely in order.
  • Maxed out fire and cold resistance help take some of the sting out of their storm spells, but not much. Torment resistance is also highly recommended, but you'll probably have that by this point. More unusually, be prepared to wipe out their packs of eye-type monsters as quickly as possible: getting paralyzed by giant eyeballs, having your MP reduced to 0 by eyes of draining, and being mutated by shining eyes is a miserable, and usually lethal, experience that you can't really defend against except through overwhelming offense.

History

Prior to 0.9, demonic runes would continue to spawn even if you already had one, allowing for truly ridiculous high scores.

In 0.14, Pan lords will have a chance at Quicksilver Bolt instead of IMB in their second slot, and will have a 1/25 chance of Orb of Electricity in their first slot. Also, the proportion of non-casters will be reduced from 1/3 to 1/4, and all Pan lords will be able to see invisible.

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