Orcs with hand grenades?

[Rehevkor]

I was playing my level 7 monk White Lotus tonight, chopping hickory north of Hlint. The orcs there have a CR of "Effortless" to me and have never given me any trouble. I was confident that, given their CR, I could handle them when they respawned. I had several times before, after all.

While I was chopping away, they respawned nearby. Before I even had a chance to break off my attacks on the tree, a fireball shot out of their midst and killed me instantly. After respawning I checked the combat log and found that one of the orcs had thrown a grenade-like weapon.

Is this normal, or did the orc spawn with that item by mistake? If it is normal, isn't it a bit unbalanced that a supposedly effortless enemy can kill a level 7 in one shot, with no chance of defense or escape?

And before someone suggests it, i'm not trying to say I should be immortal or something. I was recently killed by an assassin vine, but I was actually able to fight back for most of the battle. It finally entangled me and killed me. This death doesn't frustrate me because it was a fair fight and even provides a little story for my character to tell. There is nothing fair or interesting about being blown up by a single low-level orc.

[D Blaze]

Enemies sometimes spawn with weapons, not just gold and helms and little bits of nothing. The AI is smart enough to know they have the weapon and will use it whole-heartedly at first opportunity.
You likely got charred by a firebomb of something along those lines.
You should see the fun side of this when you catch the occasional undead using potion of wound curing, thus killing themselves right off the bat.

As for being unable to defend yourself, you were busy beating on a tree, so technically, they had the jump on you, and acted quickly to get rid of a threat.
As for being fair. Would you not whip a bomb at an enemy if you had the means to get rid of them in such a way, or at least use one to soften up a really tough opponent and charge in and finish them quick.

This isn't the first time a character had died in this fashion, and I doubt it will be the last.

Now you are a member of a very large group that has all died at one time or another to a lesser being all because they had the luck to be carrying an item to turn the tide in their favor.

Welcome to the family  *gives a quick hug and pat on the back*

One of my characters got dazed at around that level by some thrown item and I was consequently mobbed and hacked to bits by all the little friends of the thrower, they must have been so proud of him......or it...kinda hard to remember what did it.

[Rehevkor]

I suppose you're right. I'm hoping the fun will outweigh the frustration at some point. So far I've been having a great many problems playing in Layonara. Is it because I'm a monk, or is it always a pain at lower levels? Am I doing something wrong?

Normally I try to hook up with a group, but I haven't seen many people near my level on today, in spite of the server hovering around the 40 player mark. Is there some place people at my level congregate other then Hlint?

[Dalbarhedi]

I actually do have a problem with it, but not because of how it happened. Vorkresh has had this happen before too, but he was lucky and wasnt in the blast radius. He then killed the skeleton that had thrown the bomb, and found ANOTHER firebomb on him.

Firebombs have a required level of 9. So WHY can a skeleton use one, and not a 5th level character? Or a 7th level wizard, for that matter?

I think theres something vastly unfair about enemies not having to follow level restrictions.

Ive also seen skeletons use scrolls of Endurance and other scrolls as well . . . its one thing for it to spawn with weapons anyone could use, but class-restricted and level restricted items really ought to still impose limitations on the creeps.


Edit: Not that I mind seeing enemies use items. I kind of like it, because it can spice things up. Its just annoying when a creep uses an item thats wildly inapropriate (like a skeleton with a heal potion or a scroll). But, if even a lowly orc or skeleton can use an item, everone else should be able to, unless its also some sort of racial item for the orc, etc.

Also, yes, there were 3 quests scheduled for today, so there are a ton of people on, and most arent in Hlint.

[Zog-Varnoka]

Well, playing a monk can be tricky at the lower levels. Especially if you got creative when making it initially. Stick with it though and it gets alot better. My current one is only level 2, but I have had quite a few others on various servers previously and always found you had to be careful picking your fights as we do not have the armor that other classes get to help us out. In a couple more levels though things really even out and once near epics we start to pull away from them somewhat. Atleast that has been my experience. As for your fire bombing, I have to agree with the previous comments. It was just bad luck. *shrugs* Happens to all of us. Good luck to ya. Take care.

[kyle9]

Hey Rehevkor, it gets better. I was where you were yesterday. I tried to craft didn't roll over a 3 in 12 chances. Everyone I tried to talk to was busy. I was spending more on healing then i was making. I was ready to leave.  But what a difference a day makes. Firstly I got in a good group. Remember that any lvl can travel together here and not kill the xps. So you can be in groups with people of higher oor lower lvl. From this group I met their friends. So now I have more people that I feel more comfortable with. Second, I started to complete quests and get a lvl. And ya know what it feels good to lvl here. It is an accomplishment unlike other servers where people get to lvl 20 in 3 or 4 days. And ya start to get a piece of gear here and piece there and now you're not gettin stomped quite as bad. And for the record monks are the toughest class at low lvls. They start getting good at about lvl 10-12 and by lvl 20 are badass. Just keep at it, it does get better.

K

[FlameStrike]

Don't take your levels too seriously and enjoy the moment, take your time to RP around, get to know more people. I am nearly sure that when you reach higher levels, you'll wish you were a lower level.

 Crafting is good to fight off boredom despite the low rolls you might have, but hey, we were all unlucky at some point... if i were to describe how unlucky i was with CNR, heh i'd have to spend a whole day recalling...

 Now, about skeletons using scrolls and fire bombs... it's the Bioware AI working, they are meant to act that way, and even thought it might seem unfair, wait until you fight enemy mages that use AoE at will, and even cast those spells into the same area as their allies... nope, not a scratch from that Fireball. The bright side one this, is that the enemies aren't that smart in certain occasions, but i won't mention any, and i'll leave that for you to find out.

[Variable]

At least you didn't get a Death Token from it, I remember i got my first DT, at level 9, from a kobald with a firebomb. *sighs wistfully*

Enjoy all your levels