The Megadungeon: A D&D Gauntlet

[Mr. Bambu]

I did this some time ago, so let's revisit the concept. In brief, this thread provides a large gauntlet of D&D characters. Your job is to submit a character that can successfully overcome this gauntlet per the rules of the thread. Victory is determined based on overcoming the gauntlet (I'll try to give as many evaluations regarding this as possible).

Some Rules

• Characters are limited to 9-B at the start of the gauntlet and may "level up" to reach new tiers- every 20 kills they increase their own level by one tier. They are aware that they can level up by doing this, but are not aware of any other D&D-verse mechanics. Killing creatures of a lower-tier than themselves gives them nothing.
• Teams of characters are acceptable if they are presented as a team in their own canon- so, just for an example off of the top of my head, Brock, Misty, and Ash (plus their respective pokemon) would be a theoretically acceptable team.
• Smurfs remain unwelcome. For the most part, I will only be including those D&D characters relegated to the realms of 3-D hax, I expect the same from you.
• They keep all equipment they would normally possess, assuming that equipment also follows the rules of the thread. The equipment is similarly AP equalized.
• For certain characters that possess the protection of, say, a god, that protection is neutered (Steve from Minecraft loses his Type 9, coz it's stupid). No help from those that exist outside of this gauntlet's space.
• For characters of higher tiers, assume chip damage rules are in place- so a 9-B can harm a 9-A, just in very small increments. Chip damage doesn't work for a two-tier gap.
• Characters possess all of their own knowledge and must act totally in-character. If you aren't providing your take on how they do, please provide a short synopsis on how they'd act, in your opinion, in response to waking in a rank cell in a vast dungeon.

The Floors

1. Floor I: This floor is a rank prison-like compound. Within are held numerous fouler creatures, deemed to weak to rule the upper floors. The majority of the denizens are over a hundred Kuo-Toa (1st key) organized into loose cult groups (6-18 individuals). A single Kuo-Toa Monitor leads these individuals, who is always accompanied by 10-20 Kuo-Toa at any given time. Other horrors populating this floor include a Gibbering Mouther that can be found eating an unfortunate Kuo-Toa, an Intellect Devourer separated from its master and desperately searching for a host to take control of, and a pod of Rust Monster young (10 in total) that remain docile until provoked, or in the presence of a large amount of metal (such as weapons, armor, or exposed trinkets). To ascend to the next floor, an individual must simply find the stairs on the other side of the floor from their starting area- however, if the individual kills the Monitor, they will receive a magic weapon (+1, any shape most fitting of them) that will allow them to affect intangible, incorporeal, nonexistent, conceptual, and purely abstract creatures.
2. Floor II: This floor seems to be a standard stronghold layout, with most rooms appearing as barracks, storage vaults, dining chambers, and training halls. The primary threat of this floor is regular patrols of 4-6 Trolls, each led by a single Medusa who keeps her petrification powers under control until attacked. There are any number of these patrols wandering the floor and will continue searching for the character until they are defeated. Four Mind Flayers skulk through the floor as well, actively looking for food in the form of fresh brains. Finally, a coven of a Green Hag, Annis Hag, and Night Hag watch over everything on the floor, and are served by superstitious Gnolls- three dozen of them, spread evenly across the first three keys, all led by a Sorcerer. The only way up is guarded by the Hags, however it is not locked and can be gotten into without killing them.
3. Floor III: This floor is largely a terrarium of sorts- large pens meant for the containment of creatures line the long halls, with few chambers dedicated to viewing. Teleportation circles exist in four chambers here that may be used to be transported to one another with intelligent use (Genius or above). The geography of this floor constantly moves and thus it will take quite some time or a particular level of wit to escape this foor. The primary threats of this floor are the numerous Bone Devil overseers patrol the floor constantly, accompanied by a troupe of 9-A Bearded Devils, each typically containing 5-10 of the soldiers. Within the containers are any number of foul creatures, including (list incoming) Delvers, Behirs, Bulettes, Abyssal Basilisks, Pack Lord Displacer Beasts, A single Frost Worm, numerous Gricks, and Gorgons. All these beasts are lightly contained but can escape containment easily if provoked. In certain areas where light is suppressed, numeous undead exist- namely Blasphemes all serving under a Devourer that controls the devils populating the floor. The Devourer possesses a treasure- Winged Boots- that grant the user limited flight.
4. Floor IV: As you reach the top, you reach a strange floor built to mock a grim ziggurat. Holy iconography is carved into the walls but tainted with blasphemous imagery. Above all else, carvings of eyes dot every surface. This floor is pitch black, and light is muffled in its use. Approximately 20 Vitreous Drinkers wander through the floor, generally in groups of 4, and each group is accompanied by a single Eidolon that serves the group. Pairs of Battle Horrors also wander through the halls, occasionally stopping and standing motionless until they detect a threat. An Atropal (Low 7-B) guards the exit to the floor, and is served by five Barbed Devils. The exit will only open if the Atropal is slain. If the character didn't gain a magical weapon earlier, they will find one here immediately upon entering the floor.
5. Floor V: The final floor. A single, mile-long dark hallway in which sound is impossibly muffled. Low 7-B Maruts constantly spring out at the character, approximately one every 250 feet. Each Marut has a 50% chance of being accompanied by a Ember Guard. At the end of the hallway is a chamber that is a miniature tower in of itself- and on floating platforms stationary in the air sit the five bosses of this gauntlet. They are fought in any order:
   1. A Solar named Zakariah is assisted by four Trumpet Archons. Sound is not dampened on this platform and indeed a constant sound of music plays- after five minutes of being on this platform, the character will succumb to the allure of the music and be trapped here, immediately losing. The music stops if the Solar is slain.
   2. Zuggtmoy (6-C key) is surrounded by a squadron of Low 7-B Verdant Princes, each covered in fungi.
   3. A Sirrush (one-headed) is worshipped here by a group of five Angels of Decay as well as two Death Knights. It is impossible to breathe on this platform.
   4. A 6-C Red Dragon is lovingly adored here by a horde of Kobolds, over 100 ranging of any key (they cannot even do chip damage). The dragon prefers using incapacitation over outright murder and will act accordingly.
   5. Rary the Traitor has summoned forth a Balor and Pit Fiend, and forced both to serve him even if they despise each other. He is aware of the character in advance and will move to make the most optimal moves against them. He is also aware of their tier when they enter his platform.
   6. Finally, on one randomly determined platform there is a Thorciasid clinging to the bottom of it, which will intervene just before the boss is defeated. The creature is interested in the demise of the boss, but ultimately wishes for the character to die as well and will focus on them if the boss is already weakened.

Tiers and Levels
The following is the tier progression for leveling up.

9-B -> 9-A -> 8-C -> High 8-C -> 8-B -> 8-A -> Low 7-B -> 6-C

Each takes the same amount of kills to achieve.

Entered Characters/Results
Let's see 'em boys.

• Travis Touchdown: There is a not-insignificant chance that Travis perishes at approximately the third floor, should he make it that far anyways. Even though he is uniquely acclimated to the concept of grinding, which means tier-wise and gear-wise he should be more advanced than typical by each of the floors. However, his personality is also one such that certain creatures will **** him over- the Intellect Devourer is likely to telefrag his brain, and the hags are likely to hax him into the dirt if he drops his guard for but a moment. After level 3 his odds of survival drop down to below 50% and thus is considered dead.
• Moonstone: Psychology skills allows her to potentially social influence her way through floor 1, though even this is not a guaranteed victor. Intangibility allows her to ignore a good majority of early encounters as creatures such as the Kuo-Toa aren't able to affect such things. This cheese ability falls off in use somewhat later since enemies can now affect her. It is unlikely she clears Floor 2 and is considered dead.
• Shinobu Oshino and Koyomi Araragi: Shinobu immediately starts off as the powerhouse of the duo, using darkness-based powers to cleave through the floor's denizens. Thanks to range it is unlikely they even need to engage anybody on the floor at all. They can neg some of the trolls' regen by eating them, though this obviously becomes impractical eventually. The medusas probably take out numerous clones but with their clone-spamming strat it is somewhat reasonable to assume the originals make it through. I don't know if the witch's AE was taken into account for the latter bit so suffice to say it isn't totally likely that she survives the floor, even with her clones and range. They fall victim to the countless devils of Floor 3 and go insane, rotting within the Terrarium, and are considered dead.
• Super Monkey: Most of their keys perish on Floor 1 due to the haxy individuals (such as the Intellect Devourers or Gibbering Mouthers). The stronger, more spam-heavy individuals manage to clear Floor 1 thanks to that alone but ultimately perish on Floor 2 due to stronger presence of hax- the monkeys are considered dead.
• Ashen One: Given a bonfire, Ashen One likely cannot be simply killed. By right of his existence as an ashen one, he is rendered relatively immune (or, at least, immune from actual threat) from a good portion of the dungeon. He has no soul, his mind is dead, and his body is as valuable to him as any suit of armor- it can be remade, simply all the way at the beginning. So now it is more of an issue of discovering where it might become impossible for the Ashen One to continue, assuming that each time they die they are totally reset. With this in mind, I believe the Ashen One perishes at the very end of Floor 4, since the Atropal is the only enemy in the dungeon that can offer a true, genuine death to the man. Atropals can propagate the Death Curse, which prevents regen, resurrection, etc. Ashen One probably doesn't succeed in getting past it, and is considered dead.
• Huitzil: Has a fairly easy time clearing the kuo-toa with a simple shredding storm of bullets. Thanks to significant range advantage, rust monsters likely do not get close and thus the greatest threat to a robot on Floor 1 is eliminated. The worst outcome here is that a Gibbering Mouther destabilizes him somewhat but that's a major "what if" scenario, given the robot is capable of scanning everybody on the dungeon and allowing the Mouther to come that close would be a major lapse in judgment.

 

[Armorchompy]

Hopefully I'm not misunderstanding...

Alright so I will very unpredictably suggest Travis Touchdown to start with, final key but IRL version, if I'm understanding correctly. Understanding he can level up, I believe he'll try to optimize it as much as he can, "grinding" on every floor until the rewards start to dwindle, both because he likes killing and because he's probably familiar with the concept of grinding in videogames. He is also very familiar with RPGs as a whole so I do believe he might be able to gather knowledge faster than the average.

He can easily chew through the first sector's Kuo Toa groups, of course, and considering he's fought 100 people at once in the first game, he probably takes out the Monitor too. Between the AP advantage he'll have through grinding and the fact that he does have a canon method of keeping his emotions in check, I do believe he might take out the Intellect Devourer more often than not. As for the Rust Monsters, he doesn't carry much metal, only one sword's worth + his belt and shades. Even then, though, they don't seem too dangerous. The Gibbering Mouther is a threat, however, depending on how long his Madness Manipulation lasts. Travis might get Madness Manip Resistance in the future (in the hundreds of thousands too) but that's a very big "might" so let's ignore that.

I'm gonna stop for not to make sure I haven't gotten anything wrong.

 

[Mr. Bambu]

Hopefully I'm not misunderstanding...

Alright so I will very unpredictably suggest Travis Touchdown to start with, final key but IRL version, if I'm understanding correctly. Understanding he can level up, I believe he'll try to optimize it as much as he can, "grinding" on every floor until the rewards start to dwindle, both because he likes killing and because he's probably familiar with the concept of grinding in videogames. He is also very familiar with RPGs as a whole so I do believe he might be able to gather knowledge faster than the average.

He can easily chew through the first sector's Kuo Toa groups, of course, and considering he's fought 100 people at once in the first game, he probably takes out the Monitor too. Between the AP advantage he'll have through grinding and the fact that he does have a canon method of keeping his emotions in check, I do believe he might take out the Intellect Devourer more often than not. As for the Rust Monsters, he doesn't carry much metal, only one sword's worth + his belt and shades. Even then, though, they don't seem too dangerous. The Gibbering Mouther is a threat, however, depending on how long his Madness Manipulation lasts. Travis might get Madness Manip Resistance in the future (in the hundreds of thousands too) but that's a very big "might" so let's ignore that.

I'm gonna stop for not to make sure I haven't gotten anything wrong.

I agree he seems uniquely equipped to understand the situation he's in which gives him a fairly insane edge in terms of taking the opportunity to grind a bit. I also agree the Kuo-Toa likely are not much of a threat to him with this knowledge in mind, since swarms of enemies are nothing new to him. Rust monsters become a problem if they get close, since even hitting them with the weapon can cause it to deteriorate. Intellect Devourer's main shtick is telefragging the brain, if he has something for that then that'd be good, since if he does take the time to grind he will almost certainly encounter it.

 

[Armorchompy]

Gotta love it when a thread goes meta with the very first post

His weapon won't deteriorate cause the blade's made of energy, unless they degrade that too, but even then if he notices that he can switch to ranged combat using his Death Glove. As for the Devourer, as incredibly specific as it is, yes he indeed does, he has played more of the Death Drive than anyone else ever has, and the Death Drive is said to damage your brain- for reference, nobody else ever beat two games on it, Travis beat 7.5 games.

Anyway I think it's safe to say we can move onto floor 2. Trolls are no issue at all, but Medusa can be a run ender here. Is the petrification instant and permanent? Also, can it by any chance be blocked by his shades? Otherwise his only hope is recognizing what one does, which he totally would but it's probably a claim I shouldn't make since it takes his meta knowledge too far. That said we do know Final Fantasy is a thing in his universe, so maybe he'd be familiar with D&D monsters? Idk, you be the judge of that. Either way he does have a very quick and overwhelming fighting style and a few great ranged tricks such as a lightning bolt or a telekinetic blast. Mindflayers are an issue too, but if they also start by attacking through that brain damage thing he has a chance. As for the hags, only troublesome one I see is the Night Hag though all have potentially dangerous hax. Normal Gnolls are no issue and the Sorcerer looks beatable as well. Correct me if I'm wrong in any of this ofc.

 

[Mr. Bambu]

Ah, I misunderstood then. No, they don't deteriorate energy, I thought you were saying the casing for the weapon was metal. Er... I'm not sure that's the same as the Intellect Devourer. By telefrag, I mean it literally teleports into your skull and replaces your brain, thus taking control of your body.

Can he bypass their regen? And yes, it is. If his shades can totally blind him then sure. He can be aware of generally what a medusa is (they are existent in pop culture, after all), but he might not recognize that this is supposed to be one until it's too late. Hags are indeed an issue, most of all the Night Hag since their main shtick is dimensional travel to stalk their enemies, only becoming vulnerable when they return to the Prime Material- the strat for them is that they wait for a creature to go to sleep and start sucking their dreams out of them until they perish. It's a slow process, of course. Gnolls likely aren't an issue as they mainly provide the obstacle of numbers, something Travis is particularly equipped to deal with. The sorcerer has high AP but ultimately relies mainly on said AP rather than hax, and there's a very good chance Travis will have equal AP by the time of reaching the Sorcerer, if not greater.

 

[Armorchompy]

Ah, I misunderstood then. No, they don't deteriorate energy, I thought you were saying the casing for the weapon was metal. Er... I'm not sure that's the same as the Intellect Devourer. By telefrag, I mean it literally teleports into your skull and replaces your brain, thus taking control of your body.

Welp, I tried. Nope, he doesn't resist that, how do you usually deal with them in D&D? I'm not familiar.

Can he bypass their regen?

Hadn't noticed that. He does canonically start cutting people to bits when they regen from his attacks, and in this key he does have one or two AOE explosives or giant overhead laser blasts.

And yes, it is. If his shades can totally blind him then sure. He can be aware of generally what a medusa is (they are existent in pop culture, after all), but he might not recognize that this is supposed to be one until it's too late.

Only real way he can beat them is attacking them with ranged attacks then, which to be fair he can do in this key, in fatc if their groups start together he might lead with some AOE attack. Also, I just remembered, when someone has very high killing intent or experience with killing, he can kind of read their personality. It's very very vague but if he's lucky it might tell him to dispatch them ASAP.

Hags are indeed an issue, most of all the Night Hag since their main shtick is dimensional travel to stalk their enemies, only becoming vulnerable when they return to the Prime Material- the strat for them is that they wait for a creature to go to sleep and start sucking their dreams out of them until they perish. It's a slow process, of course. Gnolls likely aren't an issue as they mainly provide the obstacle of numbers, something Travis is particularly equipped to deal with. The sorcerer has high AP but ultimately relies mainly on said AP rather than hax, and there's a very good chance Travis will have equal AP by the time of reaching the Sorcerer, if not greater.

You said he doesn't have to kill them so it's fine, he won't drop his guard but he's fairly impatient so I think he'll just leave- with the kinda stamina he's got I doubt he'll decide to take a nap.

EDIT: Actually, he's kind of a moron. He might drop his guard.

 

[Tllmbrg]

Okay I'll throw in Moonstone
So first floor, I assume she'll notice that she's way weaker then usual and use her intangibility to hide and observe the behaviour of creatures for a while
She'd likely be mostly fine fighting wise due to her range edge over most of them, plus she's intangible so I doubt teleporting into her brain is a viable Strat for the intellect devour
Main threat is the Mouther but she could prob stay far away enough from it, plus I doubt she'd approach it in character, she might try manipulating the Tao to help since she's a skilled psychologist and has been known to use her talking prowess to make people do what she want.
Now her results are somewhat mixed but she is skilled enough to make patients commit suicide, make Graviton **** of for a while and has made him spare her for a while etc etc so she might get herself a small army
After she's done in Floor One she'll likely just fly and use her intangibility to sneak around the next floors so it's a question of how much she gets spotted

 

[SamanPatou]

How deadly and in-character are all those haxes, even in the first floor? Because I feel like any character you pick must have resistance to at least 4-5 types of mind and soul hax, and possibly a handful of others.

Also, are absorption abilities allowed to get stronger, enhance level ups or something?

 

[deonment]

how do we treat summons, is it that they 1, also get equalized and 2 let the summoner level up as well

 

[ThisThingisReallyBroken]

Shinobu Oshino (Strongest Key) + Kokomo Araragi (Vampire key used) since they are canonically a duo.

1st Floor: Shadow manip and her duplication will absolutely be of use here. She is comparable to Deathtopia in terms of mindjax resistance and can withstand country level mind hax. Many of their tricks won’t work on that regard. Koyomi is more vulnerable shinobu can deal with the stuff before he gets vegetized with TK crush on sight.

2nd Floor: Shinobu and possibly Koyomi neg up to Mid-High regeneration by eating their victims. Duplication will definitely balance the tables against the trolls for Shinobu (especially after Agnaa makes that CRT uwu, it would be infinite) and Koyomi works as back up sniping them with better range. Using whatever he has available to fight them back. Medusa might screw them over, but it’s likely there will be too many clones to deal with for her to actually see shinobu or Koyomi. She likely gets overwhelmed and Kokowatari would just 1 shot her. Mindflayers are fodderized due to Shinobu’s resistances but Koyomi will have to stay back as to not be affected. Considering she make make limitless copies of Kokowatari, she can one shot the witches + hyenas before they can really do anything of significance. Especially with her clone army.

Floor 3: If the clones are positioned in front of shinobu, she’ll likely notice them all going mad and attempt to hide in the shadows and will do everything to avoid troupe. If this fails it’s likely both her and Koyomi’s journey ends here due to madness hax.

 

[Overlord775]

Would the Ashen One have access to bonefires if i submitted it for this challenge ?

 

[SamanPatou]

Another question, how does speed work? It gets downgraded too?

 

[Armorchompy]

I could actually have at least Badman and possibly Shinobu and Bad Girl join Travis but eh, I feel it's more fitting for him to lone wolf it.

 

[Lou_change]

Super Monkey will go over all Keys.

Base: anything with hax kills him dies floor one.

Avatar of the Vengeful Monkey: same as before but now spams enough projectiles to get around that gets to floor 2 and dies because floor two has things pull out hax fast enough however I don't know if it would go to floor 2 at all.

The Anti Bloons: same as base.

The Legend of the Night: I think they have the forethought and maybe one of the 5 hax dnd doesn't resist to get the opportunity to die floor three but more likely dies floor 2.

 

[Mr. Bambu]

Another question, how does speed work? It gets downgraded too?

Aye, should've recalled this, yes, speed equalized.

 

[Armorchompy]

Can slower characters blitz via amps or is it the same as the normal rules? Not that it matters to Travis in particular, he's faster than everyone here I think

 

[Overlord775]

Would the Ashen One have access to bonefires if i submitted it for this challenge ?

<.<

 

[Armorchompy]

In keeping with the spirit of dark souls there only is one at the beginning and all enemies respawn when he dies

 

[Mr. Bambu]

Alright, now that I have a few moments more to talk about this:

"How deadly and in-character are all those haxes, even in the first floor? Because I feel like any character you pick must have resistance to at least 4-5 types of mind and soul hax, and possibly a handful of others.

Also, are absorption abilities allowed to get stronger, enhance level ups or something?"

Which haxes in particular? The Mouther absolutely always leads with Madness Manip but the others after that all are about equal chance of use, for example. If Absorption makes them stronger normally, I would allow that, yes.

"how do we treat summons, is it that they 1, also get equalized and 2 let the summoner level up as well"

I would say the summoner gets their levels, and uh... yes, for the purpose of this I'll say summons get equalized as well, to fit into the spirit of the dungeon.

"I don't know any 9-B characters so are we allowed to lower characters stats to dnd stats?"

Yeh.

"Would the Ashen One have access to bonefires if i submitted it for this challenge?"

Yes, I think that makes sense for them. Only one, though. On the first floor. At the beginning. The loss of their souls in this instance also lowers them back down to base level. Effectively they can retry, but they have to fully restart.

"Can slower characters blitz via amps or is it the same as the normal rules? Not that it matters to Travis in particular, he's faster than everyone here I think"

Eh. I'll stick with normal rules and say lower speed characters can't blitz. I really should go back and get the D&D Relativistic calcs done.

 

[Mr. Bambu]

Welp, I tried. Nope, he doesn't resist that, how do you usually deal with them in D&D? I'm not familiar.

Hadn't noticed that. He does canonically start cutting people to bits when they regen from his attacks, and in this key he does have one or two AOE explosives or giant overhead laser blasts.

Only real way he can beat them is attacking them with ranged attacks then, which to be fair he can do in this key, in fatc if their groups start together he might lead with some AOE attack. Also, I just remembered, when someone has very high killing intent or experience with killing, he can kind of read their personality. It's very very vague but if he's lucky it might tell him to dispatch them ASAP.

You said he doesn't have to kill them so it's fine, he won't drop his guard but he's fairly impatient so I think he'll just leave- with the kinda stamina he's got I doubt he'll decide to take a nap.

EDIT: Actually, he's kind of a moron. He might drop his guard.

Honestly, at lower levels people infamously don't deal with them. They are notoriously good at party wiping since nobody can just resist their brain being telefragged (it's an Intelligence save, a popular dump stat).

I suppose he might do well enough to cut them to bits and move on before they can regen, but he wouldn't get the "kill" for it in this instance.

So we're gambling on Travis nuking Medusa before she can Petrify gg him then? Fair. After the first Medusa I think he can figure out the trick, so that's like... a 50/50 chance of him getting past the average troll patrol.

Combining the latter two things, so... are we saying this is the floor where Travis' odds of survival dip below 50%, then?

 

[Mr. Bambu]

Okay I'll throw in Moonstone
So first floor, I assume she'll notice that she's way weaker then usual and use her intangibility to hide and observe the behaviour of creatures for a while
She'd likely be mostly fine fighting wise due to her range edge over most of them, plus she's intangible so I doubt teleporting into her brain is a viable Strat for the intellect devour
Main threat is the Mouther but she could prob stay far away enough from it, plus I doubt she'd approach it in character, she might try manipulating the Tao to help since she's a skilled psychologist and has been known to use her talking prowess to make people do what she want.
Now her results are somewhat mixed but she is skilled enough to make patients commit suicide, make Graviton **** of for a while and has made him spare her for a while etc etc so she might get herself a small army
After she's done in Floor One she'll likely just fly and use her intangibility to sneak around the next floors so it's a question of how much she gets spotted

Ehhh I don't think she's got experience with the particular madness of the Kuo-Toa, outside of that, relatively fair assessments for the first floor. The Devourer does have other abilities, mind you, namely to the order of mind manipulation.

Her page doesn't list stealth mastery so really you're describing a particularly smart Invisible Stalker here, which some creatures in the dungeon can be reasonably assumed to recognize (hags, especially). I don't see it as likely she'll manage to intangibility + invisibility around everybody.

 

[Armorchompy]

I'd say it's fair enough- he'll definitely know to prioritize the Medusas over the Trolls through his bloodlust sensor, but it's unfair for me to say he'd always lead with a ranged attack. By itself I think it's a 70% chance just because of how Travis Strikes Again's gameplay works, but when you factor Big Gibby, the Intellect Devourers and the witches I do think his chances by now are in the low 40%/high 30% range, and I'm biased as hell too

 

[Overlord775]

"Would the Ashen One have access to bonefires if i submitted it for this challenge?"

Yes, I think that makes sense for them. Only one, though. On the first floor. At the beginning. The loss of their souls in this instance also lowers them back down to base level. Effectively they can retry, but they have to fully restart.

Alright, then i suggest it for the Megadungeon run

I am sure you know about the character since you know a lot about Dark Souls, so i don't think i need to explain what it does.

 

[Armorchompy]

Btw if Travis did make it past floor 2 he'd probably get stomped by the madness manip in the third floor anyway, his go-to is cutting people up so it's inevitable he'll watch them regenerate

 

[Tllmbrg]

Ehhh I don't think she's got experience with the particular madness of the Kuo-Toa, outside of that, relatively fair assessments for the first floor. The Devourer does have other abilities, mind you, namely to the order of mind manipulation.

Her page doesn't list stealth mastery so really you're describing a particularly smart Invisible Stalker here, which some creatures in the dungeon can be reasonably assumed to recognize (hags, especially). I don't see it as likely she'll manage to intangibility + invisibility around everybody.

Tbf she does somewhat resist mind manipulation when intangible, but fair enough

Also Hags are honestly the most worrying thing here imo since they'd likely be able to hunt her down the most effectively (Mind Flayers are also dangerous but I think she could maybe with range utilisation maybe handle them), biggest threat would be a Night Hag since she can just phase through her attacks which she doesn't have a real counter against besides if we use second key which then she maybe nulls or opens a dimensional door to the Ethereal Realm but not sure how viable that'd be
I honestly think her better bet it is to skip to the Devil floor and try causing insights there since the Hags would likely be harder to manipulate since they're less power hungry in the greedy sense (Sure they want power, but like it ain't the main driving factor y'know)

 

[Zaratthustra]

Qin Mu - The first key - is currently 9-A but will be 9-B.

Floor I

First Kuo-Toa have a difference in Ap of 10.5 times bigger than that of Qin Mu making by the wiki standard a one-shot if hit, let's see how he goes around that. Note that the only thing he has above them is the lifting strength which would help if he grapples with them but not likely.

* An important thing is that they don't have abilities beyond the basic ones which helps since he has a variety of them.

His danger sense, extrasensory perception, and echolocation should help him fast enough where he needs to go to leave the floor but then comes the question of how does he reach it through the dungeon and so I will explain.

The Way

First he will have to kill a Kuo-Toa. He can easily do this with his Devil Techniques, Sunshine Refining Yang Soul In The Sky, and the Buddhist Techniques which attacks directly the soul.

• The devil technique is the Devil Freedom Mudra which once intoned will make the soul of the target leave the body and arrive in the hand of the user where he can simple clench his hand to destroy it killing the target.
• Sunshine Refining Yang Soul In The Sky will create a sun in the sky from his own energy that will release its brilliant rays that will the souls and spirits making a very good move vs multiple targets.
• Thousand-Armed Buddha is a fist technique which with each strike will attack the soul, it needs multiple hits to happen but it will do its job.

With his analytical prediction and his computation ability and if needed the Nine Heavens Eye Awakening Skill to increase it further (analytical prediction) which will help him recognize (see) if an enemy is stronger and locate its weaknesses making hard if not impossible for just the Kuo-Tao to hit him. He can also increase his speed with the Heaven Pilfering Devil Legs to help not be hit (thus one-shot) by them. His other elemental powers (air, water, fire, and lightning) should help in him destroying a group.

Now, he will have multiple ways to complete it:

1st Path: He can take the skin of a Kuo-Toa and use the Heavenly Devil Nature Technique to make a "clothe" out of him which lets him put on and basically become one of them which should help him to leave safely the first floor. This is the simplest way, with the most safety but also the one with the least benefits. Since he knows that he will get some power up from killing from 2 to 4 groups of Kuo-Toa to complete the 20 mark. Knowing him he won't take the easiest part but the hardest he can and if he fails then it means he didn't work enough. So, let's go to the next path.

2nd Path: He will likely use the Great Corpse Control Skill to control those killed by him. This plus the previous Heavenly Devil Nature Technique would work really well for a stealth attack on mass on the Kuo-Toa Monitor and its group. His Secrets of Moving the Rain can help with creating a mist to make the fight harder for his enemies but this will likely fail thanks to their sensing but this only if he is within their range which he has above them bare the Monitor which will be the hardest to kill thanks to the AP difference but with a vastly large number if he will go for collecting en mass will help. He can also copy any skill the other party will do so it will increase his versatility. If really needed he can start to draw for all kinds of effects since his paintings can create things to affect reality but this is limited is temporary and will take time so this needs some preparation or for him to have a window within the fight to be able to happen. This plus his other skills should help to make a medium hard-fought battle so he will get the weapon which normally would be hundreds of flying sword (as it was found that the weapon he is most compatible are them - a strange weapon style) but since it's the first key and not the incoming third key (not yet on wiki) it will be a sword. Another neat this is that he can heal his allies with Green Dragon Vital Qi which helps in the fight.

If he were to meet a Gibbering Mouther depending if he meets it before he fights with the first group of Kuo-Toa then it will be harder to kill it and the most annoying thing will be the Madness Inducement as the fear will likely be resisted from him overcoming the Phantoms of the God, Devil, and Buddha but his versatility should do the job plus the big brain of his. If it's after he starts to amass the mini army then it will be easier.

Rust Monster wouldn't be a problem but the Intellect Devourer will be. Depending on how fast the brain-eating goes he can have a few ways:

1st - if it's before the army thing plus the shapeshifting cloth thing it will be the hardest if he meets it first. He will only likely use the Heavenly Devil Nature Technique to seal his spirit/body making kinda impossible for the Devourer to escape as he uses his soul/spirit attacks to destroy it. Another way I can't think.

2nd - If it's after the mass thing from above then he will defeat it easy since I don't think the Intellect Devourer will telefrag straight for him.

3rd - If it's after the Monitor fight then the weapon should help to resolve it even faster.

More or less the above.

I have a few questions for you now as I'm curious how it will work from here - when I will answer for the Second Floor (later).

1. Does he retains the skills he copies?

2. Does he retain the monster's skill when going to the next Floor?

 

[Nicetoderp]

Some question. If a character can transform into a stronger form would that bumping up their AP would that allow them to goes above 9-B or just merely stronger than baseline?

 

[SamanPatou]

Ok then, after thinking about it and reading some replies, I choose Huitzil. I'm going to cover the first floor for now, then we'll see.

Huitzil has a computer-like "mind", and from its quotes we get that it is rather analytical and cautious. It will immediately understand that it needs to level up to achieve its objective (get out of there, I guess) and will act accordingly, possibly killing the necessary amount of monsters to reach the maximul level it can time by time.

It also has a fair amount of experience in exterminating things, as the Hutzils were used to wipe out the dinosaurs and this one in particular has fought against an unknown but presumably high number of Darkstalkers (assorted monsters with special powers) in the first game, where most of the monsters of the world were going frenzy or trvaleing the planet looking for Pyron (the boss) and fighting each other.

It being a robot also helps it against mind and soul haxes, given that it doesn't have them, and has a resistance to corruption and madness if some of these monsters are able to affect machines.
Its healing and self-repair abilities are also useful in case it gets damage between battles, allowing it to restore itself before entering another fight.
Its ability to analyze and integrate the data of the opponent's fighting style is also useful when it comes to repeteadly fight some enemies, as it would already know what they do and how they behave.

I think the first thing Huitzil would do is using it scanner (which has planetary range) to get an idea of the number and position of the life forms on the floor and head towards them, I'm not sure though if it would go first for single individuals or groups of enemies.

If it encounters a patrol of Kuo-Toa, I guess it can make short work of them with bullets and other projectiles from distance, or slaughter them with the many blades at its disposal. I don't know how the monitor's abilities work, particularly reality warping, so I will not cover it for now, but Huitzil can possibly kill it too and get a magical weapon.

Rust Monsters would get upset seeing Huitzil, as its made of metal, but they are outranged and Huitzil doesn't need to tounch them, they are no problem.

The Intellect Devourer shouldn't be able to affect Huitzil, and I don't know if it can teleport inside of its head too, given that it's not an actual skull and it's likely full of metal, wires or something. Huitzil might be able to kill it first, fire and electricity are resisted, but it still has bullet and freezing beams to use from distance, which could also bypass its regen with enough attacks or ultimately turn it into paste.
If it teleports inside Huitzil, then I don't know what happens, it can't get control of it but I don't know if Huitzil can remove it, self-decapitation is likely beyond its healing abilities but at the same time the Devourer may be harmless, I don't know.
Huitzil may just try to avoid it, once it senses it is a lone creature different from others and likely powerful, as it can also sense energy levels.

The Gibbering Mouther may be somewhat a problem due to its physiology. Madness stuff is resisted, or maybe directly uneffective due to Huitzil being a robot and not having normal senses. Huitzil would understand that a physical approach and bullets aren't useful against a blob-like thing once it scans its physiology, so bombs and ice rays may come in handy.


Overall, I think Huitzil has good chances to pass this floor without many problems, while also getting a magical weapon and enough experience to level up.

I'll leave the final judgement to Bambuu.

 

[Armorchompy]

I was thinking some robot would do well, yeah.

Anyway, since Travis' noble and heroic quest of mass murder was ended prematurely I'll submit characters from my strongest verse, Hylics

Wayne, Somsnosa, Dedusmuln and Pongorma

When they die they appear in a place called the Afterlife, which they can use to warp back to various places, but only if a certain crystal is there. I assume it's fine to put one there? They're probably going to choose to die sometimes just to be able to use their verse's level up mechanic which has them grind the flesh of their enemies into meatballs to get higher max hp, and because a bath there gives them temporary status effect resistance. It's a weird game.

That brings me to my second question, how far away would one layer of Status Effect Negation take them? I know D&D is really ******' weird with its status effects. Also, they have a way to inflict the same status effect they're fearing upon an opponent, would that work on the majority of enemies?

 

[Armorchompy]

Also, I'm a fool, Travis does resist Madness Manipulation, so I think he's got a great chance to beat Gibby and to pass floor 3 if he does pass floor 2

 

[Mr. Bambu]

Some question. If a character can transform into a stronger form would that bumping up their AP would that allow them to goes above 9-B or just merely stronger than baseline?

I would say it is equalized and generally "higher", yeah.

 

[Nicetoderp]

I would say it is equalized and generally "higher", yeah.

What about transformation with strict multiplier? Would that generally shifted to “just stronger” as well?

 

[Mr. Bambu]

What about transformation with strict multiplier? Would that generally shifted to “just stronger” as well?

I'll put it like this. If the transformations would make them a higher tier normally, for the purposes of this gauntlet it would boost them by one "level". Only one, though.

 

[Stillwinston]

Okay I'll give this a go, let's break out Wolf (Sekiro). I'll assume he has all his tools and the Mortal Blade for this. Also based off the rules above I'll assume his resurrection is denied as it comes from an outside source.

Floor 1: Honestly this isn't really anything new to Wolf, the guy would go through this and stealthily take out people as he usually does. He'll have to be careful not to get overwhelmed but Gachinn's sugars and firecrackers/feathers should allow Wolf to disengage and hide. Intellect Devourer will be a pain but Wolf can likely yeet it with Mortal Blade Deathblows. Rust Monsters will likely target Wolf as he's got two swords on him and the metal from his tools, but I don't see him having much issues there.

Floor 2: Again a stronghold is something Wolf can easily infiltrate no issue, Troll regen might be an issue but Wolf has fire on his side. Mortal Blade might just say no to it anyway. The Medusa is an issue as Wolf can't really come back from being petrified iirc, so he might stop here. Though again one deathblow is all he'll need. Mind Flayers will be a huge issue, but Wolf can take them out at least. He'll probably avoid killing the hags and likely just try to sneak past I think.

Gtg but that's my thoughts so far lol

 

[Mr. Bambu]

Alright, I updated the OP a smidge. In my opinion Ashen One thus far fares the best but ultimately falls short at the end of Floor 4.

@SamanPatou I agree with your evaluation of Floor 1, continue if ye like or I may evaluate it as far as I am able to tell.

@Zaratthustra I think your methods of killing the Kuo-Toa are a bit counter-intuitive honestly, given these seem to be single-target things; I think you have good odds of killing them, but ultimately horde-tactics are key for their sheer numbers. Analytical prediction likely counter balances this somewhat for now, at least until we come across the smarter individuals. In any case, I think your army of necromantic clones plan works well enough and allows him to at least totally clear the first floor (though I'm not sure he's getting the "kill" for those slain by his minions, in this instance). I agree the Devourer is unlikely to be a major threat since in most outcomes it will approach after he gets at least a few minions- maybe a 10%ish chance of death, imo. To answer your questions, I will say sure, if that's how it works in-verse, though there is a difference between skills and innate capabilities or powers.

 

[Overlord775]

@Mr._Bambu

The Death Curse can affect the undead ? because the Ashen One is kinda one

 

[Armorchompy]

Also, I'm a fool, Travis does resist Madness Manipulation, so I think he's got a great chance to beat Gibby and to pass floor 3 if he does pass floor 2

Unless the demons' regen madness is more than his mostly baseline resistance can handle, I'd like to retract my statement about Travis being sure to die in floor 3.

 

[Mr. Bambu]

@Mr._Bambu

The Death Curse can affect the undead ? because the Ashen One is kinda one

As far as I'm aware it affects everybody, yes. It ensured that when you died, you stayed dead.

 

[Mr. Bambu]

Unless the demons' regen madness is more than his mostly baseline resistance can handle, I'd like to retract my statement about Travis being sure to die in floor 3.

It is above baseline, yes.

 

[Stillwinston]

Idk but now I imagine a mod for Sekiro where Wolf sneaks into a DnD monster fortress now lol