A question about the mantraps?

[Robalex]

I know it sounds silly but do the mantraps respawn or are there a fixed number of them? The reason I ask is that I have 3 barbarians (one a former warlock with all spells & all spell realms -- yeh I beefed him up with several role changes with Rumphy -- ) who have either 100 percent immunity to poison or 85 + in the case of the former Warlock with the necklace that I gave to Kierelle ? & rebought.
If they don't respawn then I could take these three on a hunt with their blessed weapons & armour (& if necessary spells) & wipe them out. At this point most of my team members have around 150 hp & can do damage of 30-40 points with their weapons (Katanas +6 2ndary daggers or swords of about Hit +5 Damage +5 & Witch stick + 5) & I think maybe they could go face to face with them if they were limited in number. I have at this point only got through about half of Sturugeon Castle but want to clear the way to the Stout Mines so I can deliver the invitations. I also don't know weather or not my would-be Ninja's opening the castle gate would be a good idea since at this point my team have not encountered any mantraps (We ran like bats from N'ha ha to the castle I'm afraid to say). 2nd ? is this: Would opening the gate give the mantraps the opportunity to ener the castle grounds if they are not as yet around the castel? Thx 4 any help in advance.

[Radek]

1. There are 4 "fixed" Mantraps in Ishad N'Ha area.
2. The Mantraps can be spawned in Ishad N'Ha area as a random encounter sometimes but it's not an everyday event. They are spawned rarely.
3. Kill the Mantraps first. Then open the gate. I don't know whether the Mantraps can enter the Castle or whether they can attack through the opened gate.

[Bungleau]

I tried once to get a mantrap to go under the gate so I could close the drawbridge on it and bludgeon it to death. I was unsuccessful...

Unless I can take them out, I run away and fight them from the toops of the Shurugeon Castle walls. I may be a coward, but I'm a LIVE coward [img]smile.gif[/img]

[Wyvern]

I played one game wherein I think I encountered 12 Salads all told but I do think that is rare. They can respawn but not very often. I must have just been lucky! lol!!!

[Dang]

My second time through I decided that the problem was not the mantraps, it was those pesky Ratlings distracting me while the mantraps snuck up on me. After getting bashed by the surprise attack a couple times I decided just not to worry about the Ratlings. They don't do that much damage anyway. Whenever a mantrap got near one of my Wizards cast burning haze and a bunch of flamestrikes and then we ran away before the mt could get in spewing range. Sometimes you can get flanked by another mt but you can always run into, or through, the Ratlings. If I ran out of "fire" power, I hid back along the moat until I recharged, then came back to finish off the remaining mantraps. As a bonus, most of the Ratlings get hit by the burning haze too. Using this method, I killed two mantraps before sighting the walls of Shurugeon, and the other two after taking a break in the moat & Samurai graveyard. It was a lot more fun than running and sniping from the castle walls or leaving the wimpy characters behind while the fighters went mt hunting. But I may have a salad chip on my shoulder. Just the sound of my guys going "uh! arg! mm! Ah!" as they take multiple hits from mantrap breath gets my blood pressure up!

I sometimes get a pair of randomly spawned salads either near the foot of the spire or farther west, near that graveyard; I've never had them spawn anywhere else (or in anything other than a pair).

In any case, I'd recommend keeping Merlin's Shield (Lvl 5 Stone) cast on everyone; it all but nullifies their breath, along w/almost all other magic (i.e. fire spewing dragon). With Merlin cast you can just bludgeon the greens to death if they pop up.

[Radek]

Right. For some unknown reason, resistance to poison alone does not suffice. Even with 100% resistance to poison, the salads will hit with their poisonous gas again and again. But with high resistance to poison (it even need not be 100%) and Merlin's Shield, the salads are completely helpless as far as their magic is considered.

[Robalex]

Thx to all. I did in the salads with Firestorm in the daytime. It is much easier to get them quick if you can see them. I tried at night & I had a heck of a job distinguishing them from the trees. Heck wood burns if you can see them burn them.

[Bungleau]

When I'm running around at night and expecting to find salads, I always make the cursor rove around, waiting for it to suddenly turn into red crosshairs. Then I blast away... if I can blast, that is [img]smile.gif[/img]

Glad you got through the salads. They are a lot easier in the daytime, for sure. And I don't know about you, but every so often, in one of my dreams, there's this great big green bulbous head that comes around the corner...