=== Non-melee attacks and resistances ===

The player may at some time gain access to non-melee attacks, and many 
monsters also have them. Perhaps the most famous of this type of attack is 
dragon breath, but monsters may also cast spells at the player, and vice 
versa. This damage generally is not affected by armor class, and does not 
need a hit roll to hit the player or monster being aimed at.

Some attacks are purely magical: attack spells which blind, confuse, slow, 
scare or paralyze the target.  In some cases, a melee attack may also do 
this.  These attacks are resisted by monsters of higher level (native to 
deeper dungeon depths) and characters with a high saving throw - saving 
throws being dependent on class, level and wisdom. There are also available
resistances to fear, blindness and confusion, and the power of "free 
action" prevents magical paralysis and most slowing attacks (the player may 
still be paralyzed by being "knocked out" in melee or by a stunning attack,
but this is very rare.) It should also be noticed that unique monsters 
automatically pass their saving throws, and some monsters are naturally 
resistant to confusion, fear and sleep-monster attacks. Monster spells 
to "cause wounds" are included in this category, of attacks which do no 
damage if a saving throw is made, or full damage if it is failed.

Some melee attacks by monsters may drain a stat, as can some traps: this is 
prevented by having that stat sustained.

Some monsters may cast spells that teleport the player character. To these, 
there is no saving throw, except to those that would actually teleport him 
up or down one dungeon level. Having resistance to nexus will also prevent
being level-teleported, but not normal teleportation spell attacks. The 
player may teleport monsters in the same way, with a spell, wand or rod.

Other attacks are usually elemental-based, including the aforementioned
example of dragon breath. Many monsters can breathe various attacks or
cast bolt or ball spells, and the player may also have access to bolt and
ball spells (or breathe like a dragon, if he is wearing a dragon scale mail.
The player, and the monsters, may be resistant to these forms of attack: 
and resistance is handled in different ways for the player and the monster, 
and for different attack forms.

Bolt spells will hit the first monster (or the player) in the line of fire:
ball spells and breaths may centre on a target which may be hiding behind
other targets. Ball spells and breath weapons affect an area: other monsters
caught in the blast take reduced damage depending on how close to the 
centre of the blast they are. Bolt and ball spells depend on the level of 
the monster or player: breath weapons are proportional to a fraction of the 
monster's current hit points, with a maximum cap on the damage (which is 
higher for the most common of such attacks, owing to the fact that the 
resistances are also easier to find.)

In the case of fire, cold, lightning, acid and poison, if the monster has 
resistance to a player attack of this kind it will take almost no damage.
If the player has one or more permanent sources of resistance, he will take
1/3 of the damage he would normally take: if the player has a temporary
source of resistance (whether from potion, spell or artifact), this will 
also reduce the damage to 1/3 of its normal level, allowing the character
to take only 1/9 damage if he has both permanent and temporary resistance.
Having more than one source of permanent resistance confers no extra bonus,
and using more than one source of temporary resistance increases only the 
duration of the resistance: in both cases, either the resistance is present
or it is not. But one permanent resistance and one temporary resistance are
both effective simultaneously. 

The character may also gain immunity to fire, cold, lightning and acid if 
he is fortunate to find any of the two or three artifacts that provide 
these immunities: immunity means that no damage is taken, and the 
character's equipment is also totally protected. Immunities are EXTREMELY
rare, and nothing else can protect the player's equipment or inventory
from damage. So expect your armor to take damage from acid attacks even if 
you yourself are resistant - unless you are wearing armor which cannot be 
damaged by acid (which may not necessarily provide the resistance to the
player, in the case of armor and shields made out of high-quality materials),
and expect your staffs, scrolls, spellbooks and arrows to be damaged by fire, 
your potions by frost, your wands, rings and amulets in your inventory (but 
not worn or wielded rings or amulets) by lightning, and weapons and armor in 
the inventory may both be damaged or destroyed by acid and fire.

Another attack that the player will come into contact with all too often 
is the soul-chilling nature of the undead, which can drain the character's 
life experience. Some monsters have a life-draining melee attack, others may 
cast ball or bolt spells or, in extreme cases, breathe the very force of the 
netherworld (shortened by the game to "nether".) There are two powers which 
are of assistance in this case: that of "hold life" will prevent 90% of all
experience drains, and in the other 10% of cases, the amount of experience 
lost will be reduced by 90%. That of "resistance to nether forces" will 
provide resistance to nether bolts, balls and breaths, reducing the damage
and preventing any experience drains from these attacks, but has no effect 
on melee "hits to drain experience".  Monsters caught in the blast from a 
nether ball or breath will take damage proportional to distance from the 
centre of the attack, except for undead who are totally immune. The player 
may find wands or rods of Drain Life, which similarly are ineffective on 
those undead creatures which have no life to drain: however, the real 
player equivalent attack spell is the priest/paladin spell of "Orb of 
Draining", a ball spell which does damage to all monsters, double damage to 
evil monsters, and is resisted by none.

Other attack forms are rarer, but may include: disenchantment (both in melee
or by a monster breath), chaos (a monster breath only, which if unresisted 
will cause the player to hallucinate and be confused, and may drain life
experience), nexus (which may teleport the player to the monster, away from
the monster, up or down a level, or swap over two of the player's "internal" 
stats), confusion breath attack, light and darkness (which will blind a non-
resistant character), sound (which will stun a non-resistant character and 
may destroy his potions), crystal shards (which will cut a non-resistant 
character and may destroy his potions), inertia (which will slow a character
even if he has free action), gravity (which will blink a character, also 
stunning and slowing), force (which will stun the character), plasma (which 
will stun, and may destroy items which are vulnerable to either fire or 
lightning), time (which may drain experience regardless of hold life, or 
drain stats regardless of sustains), water bolts and balls (which may confuse 
and stun, and do considerable damage from high-level monsters), ice bolts 
(which may cut and stun, and damage potions), and mana bolts and balls (the 
latter usually known as Mana Storms.) Magic missiles are included in the 
"mana" category, whether cast by the monster or the player.

There are resistances available to chaos, disenchantment, confusion, nexus, 
sound, shards, light and darkness: all of these will reduce the damage and 
prevent side-effects other than physical damage. With these resistances, as 
with nether resistance, damage is a random fraction: for light and dark, it 
is between 4/7 and 4/12, for sound and confusion it is between 5/7 and 5/12,
and for chaos, disenchantment, nexus, shards and nether it is between 6/7 
and 6/12. 

It should be noted that not all of these are actually vital to completing 
the game: indeed, of the above list, only fire, cold, acid, lightning, poison 
and confusion resists are regarded as truly vital, with blindness, chaos and
nether the next most desirable. Some attack forms are not resistable, but 
thankfully these are rare: resist shards will prevent all other magical 
attacks which cut (namely ice bolts), and resist sound will prevent all 
magical stunning (force breath, water bolts and balls, ice bolts, gravity and
plasma), and confusion resistance will prevent confusion by a water bolt or 
ball, but there is no resistance to the physical damage caused by these
following attacks: inertia, force, gravity, plasma, time, ice, water, mana. 
There is no resistance to any of the side-effects of a time attack, or indeed 
to anything but the stunning effects of a gravity attack.


=== A note on speed ===

Monsters which do not move at normal speed generally move "slowly" (-10 to
speed), "fast" (+10), "very fast" (+20) or "incredibly fast" (+30). (It will 
surprise nobody that Morgoth is one of the few monsters in the last category.)
This is further adjusted by the fact that any given individual monster may 
have a random adjustment from (-2) to (+2) to its own speed.

Generally, (+10) is exactly double normal speed, and (-10) exactly half. 
(+20) is about three times normal speed, but after that there is less 
noticeable improvement as speed goes higher - for instance, (+30) is not
quite four times normal speed, and higher values than this are largely
irrelevant. The player may find items which can be worn or wielded that 
provide speed bonuses: these may include boots of speed, rings of speed
and a few very rare artifacts. Boots will provide a random 1d10 to speed: 
rings of speed may be bigger than that - generally the best that the player 
will get is two just over (+10), but individual rings of up to (+22) speed 
have been known (although the record cursed one is much higher, at (-56): 
only one unsuccessful roll away from being a (+56) ring...)

Separate from the question of permanent speed (as determined by the player's
speed items and the monster's natural speed) is that of temporary speed. The 
player may cast a spell of haste-self, or use a potion, staff or rod of speed
or use an artifact activation to speed him temporarily: or a monster may cast
a haste-self spell, or be affected by another monster "shrieking for help" 
or the player reading a scroll of aggravate monster. In all cases, (+10) 
speed is added temporarily to the affected monster or player. Using two or 
more sources of temporary speed is cumulative only in duration - one cannot
get from normal speed to (+20) using a potion and a spell of speed. Spells
of temporary slowing (including monsters breathing inertia or gravity) are 
handled the same way, with exactly (-10) being subtracted from the player
or monster's speed temporarily, for the duration of the spell or breath's 
effect.


