Difficult Monster Adding (and other questions)

[Karmaaa]

Hi, I've recently got the game and have a couple of questions, one concerning the tactical, evil and munchkinly use of wandering monsters. A case similar to my question was already in the FAQ:

Q. What if the Gazebo appears as a Wandering Monster after the player already has a helper?
A. Okay, that's the exception. The helper has to back off and let the player whose turn it is fight the Gazebo, and the other monster(s), alone.

That would imply that the monster's "special abilities" or "wickednesses" still count as negative for the player. I assume that in the above situation, the player helping must withdraw and may get back any potions he had played.

But in some more exotic and less straight-forward (in my opinion) combinations, I'm not quite sure what would happen. It's not in rules or FAQ's that I looked in.


Question 1...

What if a player (player A) opens a door, and encounters the level 8 Ghoulfiends; "No items help against them - play with your character level only". Say this person is level 6, but has enough bonuses (items) for his effective level to be 18. He plays "baby" on the ghoulfiends, making them level 3 (he'd lose otherwise, 6 vs 8, now it's 6 vs 3). What would happen if some other player (player B) would now play a wandering monster; a level 10 net troll without special powers, to keep it 'simple'? You can probably see what the difficulty is. The monsters are now level 13 in total (3 + 10). The ghoulfiends card says: "fight with character level only". But the Net Troll is a normal monster. If you add their combat levels, player A could beat them with his items and level (18 vs 13). But if you consider BOTH monsters to apply for the "fight using level only", he'd lose (6 vs 13). What happens?

Logically, I'd go for the idea that ádding monsters makes a fight *more difficult*. But then again, this ís munchkin, and that idea is nowhere in the rules ofcourse.

If the 'what I think is logical' bit DOES apply, and he would lose, then I can think of an even trickier situation:


Same as above, but rather than tossing up a "simple" level 10 monster without special powers, he wanders a level 14 insurance salesman into the combat! Now this card reads: "Your Level does not count. Fight him only with your bonuses!"

Applying the same logic as I did before, this would make his fight more difficult, and he'd be facing a total of level 17 of monsters, fighting with 0 levels of his own. But alternatively, you could think "well, the one card says he can use his bonuses, and the other card says he fights with his level, sóóó he is effectively level 18 and he'd beat the both of them".

There's a contradiction in the cards, the one card says something and the other card says the complete opposite. What counts? One of the two cards, the most negative part, or what?


That whole combat-monsterthing was pretty much Question 1.


Question 2: if yóu draw Divine Intervention and yóu have a cleric class in your hand, can you play that and become a cleric simultaneously to enjoy the divine intervention just as it's happening?

Question 3: I read in the FAQ that items (wielded / carried) can ONLY be discarded in the following ways:

As part of a sale (but see above for the rule on a minimum for selling Items)
To power a special ability of a Class/Race or another card
To fulfill the requirements of Bad Stuff or a Curse!/Trap!
The Item is Big, you MUST get rid of it (because your hireling died or you are no longer a Dwarf) and there is no one who can take it

This would imply that you can indeed nót discard an item you carry or wield yourself. Say you are carrying or wielding a Big item (and that's as many as you can carry), would this mean that you cannót discard it to wield a different item that you got for example by a treasure? You could trade it of course, but friends might see through your vile wickedness and say NO! instead. In that case, could you still not discard it normally?

Question 4: Selling: say you can't discard it (the Big item from question 3, scene 24). You do have enough weapons to come up with 1000 gold, bút you're level 9. Can you still sell them to go up a level that doesn't count, i.e. you remain level 9 but now got rid of the item(s)? (you can't go up to level 10 through stuffselling, but you're not selling it for the level - you're selling it to get rid of the Big item.)
I ask this because if you cán "buy" a level, you can add a lot of useless cards to that just to get rid of them, without gaining a level. If you have a 600 gp sword and 400 gp boots, you can still add 900 gold worth of stuff just to get rid of it. Including that 0 gold worth Huge rock (which is Big) ofcourse.

Question 5: is the Very Impressive Title an Item? (it seems to be the only item-like card that doesn't quite seem to be an item.)

Question 6: whén can a cleric use his special ability of taking the top discard pile card rather than a face-up card? The cleric ability reads: "When it is time for you to draw a card face-up, you may instead take the top card from the appropriate discard pile. You must then discard one card from your hand.". So it only applies to cards drawn face-up. Which are those? Err, let me think. Looting the room and drawing treasures are both face down. Unless you got aid in combat, thén they are face up; but also doors. Doors are cards, and they're drawn face-up... Can you instead of opening a door, "open" the top door from the discard pile, discarding a card from your hand?



Furthermore I more or less disagree with this entry of the FAQ:

Q. King Tut and the Wight Brothers say "Characters of higher levels [than 3] lose 2 levels, even if they escape.." Does that mean you lose two levels even if you defeat those monsters?
A. No. But if you cannot defeat them, then you must try to run away, and you'll lose the 2 levels even if you do escape. If they catch you, of course, they reduce you to Level 1.

If this is how it works, then the text on the cards should be considered to be errata-oneous. Consider: the text clearly says "Characters of higher levels [than 3] lose 2 levels, even if they escape." It isn't in the bad stuff, so it should be considered a special ability.

If what you say here is correct ("if you cannot defeat them, then you must try to run away, and you'll lose the 2 levels even if you do escape. If they catch you, of course, they reduce you to Level 1."), then the use of the word even would imply that the bad stuff sums up to "lose 2 levels, and afterwards, you're reduced to level 1.", which is just plain silly. I like it, but it's still wrong. The only other remaining possibility besides succesfully running away and losing, is winning, and therefore just by looking at the word "even" you should be forced to conclude that you're going to lose 2 levels no matter that..

Nowhere on the card does it mention anything about it not counting if you win. And since you do gain 2 levels for defeating it, it's more or less, "killing it doesn't give level increase". With a lot of additional bummerness if you cán't defeat it.

I'd make an exception for magically getting rid of the monster, though, since that just discards the monster no matter what it is or does.


Yes, I am a nerd. It's a lot of fun :D