Paralyzed is a status condition in ADOM. It is the most dangerous status the PC may acquire, and often leads to death — especially if the player forgoes the necessary precautions out of complacency.
Effects on the PC
Edit
As the name suggests, paralyzed PCs are unable to move or take any action. Complete inability to perform any defensive measure (pray for help, switch tactics setting etc.) is practically the sole factor which makes paralysis the most dangerous condition for the PC. Normally, paralysis-inducing attacks against the PC have short duration, but if a monster can consistently hit through DV and PV, then the PC will never be able to recover, causing the player to helplessly list through the messages till the PC's hit points reach zero. Such situation is usually referred to as chain-paralysis death.
Note that all paralyzed PCs cannot use shields — all bonuses from shield skill are nullified (but not the shield DV itself).
As dooming greatly increased chance of armor penetration for monsters and negatively affects dice rolls for the PC, attempting to use melee attacks against even simple monsters like ghuls while doomed is easily a fatal mistake.
Note that aside from the aforementioned shield skill, paralysis doesn't have any direct effects on the PC's primary attributes, such as DV. Therefore, if the PC's defensive capabilities are sufficient, a single instance of paralysis induced by a successful attack will likely end before the next hit, allowing the player to take some action. Humorously, it was possible to continue performing such actions as reading a spellbook after being paralyzed in versions prior to 1.2.0[1].
Finally, paralysis can lead to a very specific instant death if the PC suffers a sickness fit. Supposedly a paralyzed PC cannot control his/her muscles to force vomit out and fatally chokes on it.
If the PC has intrinsic paralysis resistance (or is wearing an item granting this power), they are in fact completely immune to all sources of paralysis. Some players make a practice of wearing an amulet of free action for the majority of the game to guarantee the PC's survival in accidental encounters with mimics.
CausesEdit
- Monster attacks: Andor Drakon, all mimics, ghuls, all liches, casino guards and the big casino guard, brown worms, carrion crawlers, dark elven priestesses, living walls, gelatinous cubes, floating eyes, Dorn Beasts, greater fungoids, and solars.
- Monster defenses: Successfully hitting floating eyes, gelatinous cubes and stone oozes in melee will paralyze the PC. Merely attempting to attack a Dorn Beast in melee will induce paralysis if the PC can see the monster (thus, blinding the PC, making the beast invisible or using darkness is a viable strategy).
- Eating monsters: gelatinous cube and ghul corpses paralyze the PC.
Cures/Treatment/ResistanceEdit
There is no cure for paralysis except simply waiting for it to wear off. Unfortunately, that may be impossible (read about chain-paralysis death above).
Paralysis resistance may be gained from an amulet of free action, or from several artifacts. It may also be granted as an intrinsic by drinking from a pool, or by eating the corpse of a gelatinous cube (as of v1.2.0 [2]). The chance to gain it from gelatinous cube corpses is about 1 in 3, and is indicated by a longer duration of paralysis and the message: "Your limbs are tingling in a strange fashion despite being paralyzed...".
Attempts to paralyze the PC may fail even without having paralyzation resistance; the main factors involved are Willpower for monster attacks, Toughness for interaction with paralytic skin (or deflected rays of paralyzation), and PC's luck in both cases.
Effects on monstersEdit
The majority of monsters are not immune to paralysis, which has the same effect on them as on the PC. One way to paralyze an enemy is to use a wand of paralyzation. Alternatively and indirectly, the PC can order a companion with paralysis-inducing abilities to attack the target. This tactic is very effective for Necromancers who can raise ghuls starting from character level 6 and liches as soon as they reach level 50 — both these monsters can paralyze other monsters. High-level slaves raised from quickling king or quickling queen corpses are very effective possessing great speed and thus capable of multiple attacks per turn.
In v. 1.1.1 many bosses were vulnerable to paralysis, including Andor Drakon; however, he and others have since been granted increased resistances to disablers.
