POWDER Gameplay

Overview

This page is to discuss frequent POWDER gameplay questions. Feel free to add new categories or improve the answers within categories. We might want to separate spoiler/non-spoiler issues at some point - for now assume everything to be possible spoiler.

Deities

God Points

What are those numbers that show up when you pray?

Feared Monsters

Specific monsters that cause the most grief and ideas about what to do about them.

Cockatrices

How do you avoid being turned into an object d'art?

-Kill it from range. For this, you will need either to be fast, or preferably, to be able to jump, so you can keep your distance, and either spells, wands or a stack of thrown weapons large enough to kill it.

-Amulet of Unchanging. This stops you from being petrified, but may be difficult to find.

-Polymorph. Polymorphing yourself should at least delay the effect, if not prevent it altogether. Polymorphing the cockatrice may, at least temporarily, turn it to something easier to deal with (or it may not - I don't recommend using this, expect as a last resort).

Green Dragons

How do you avoid a quick death by poison?

-Kill it from range. Green dragons are the only dragons without a breath weapon. See the entry on cockatrices.

-Poison resistance. Even with poison resistance, the dragon's poison will deal about 30 points of damage, but by itself, that is not enough to kill most characters.

-Spells. Cure poison will solve the problem, and Slow Poison can give you time so you can find a solution.

-Polymorph. If you polymorph yourself, you will not suffer from the poison in your new form, but will have to deal with it once you change back to your original form. Also consider polymorphing the green dragon if you're about to be poisoned, and have no way to deal with it.

Water Elementals

Sure, you've killed the water elemental. But you still can't breathe!