History YMMV / DungeonCrawl

* GameBreaker: The Storm spells, especially [[PlayingWithFire Fire Storm]]. Both spells deal damage comparable with [[AwesomeButImpractical Crystal Spear]] to ''multiple enemies'', both are partially irresistible, and both leave damaging clouds behind. Fire Storm [[UpToEleven takes it further]] by having Smite-targeting (if you can see something, you can hit it, regardless of what's in the way) and summons fire vortices to distract survivors. If you worship Vehumet and wield a staff of energy/cast Necromutation, then you can cast it ''for free''.

** Grinder is another early game ThatOneBoss. He's a shadow imp who can paralyze the player and cast a nasty pain attack. Grinder typically appears just a bit later than Sigmund, and a popular joke among fans is that the two have a rivalry going on to see who can claim the lives of more newbies. Grinder is especially nasty to a new player who thinks using a Wand of Polymorph on him is a good idea. Assuming it can even bypass his magic resistance, he can only become another demon, often either a PercentDamageAttack spamming Tormentor, or a {{Hellfire}} throwing Hellion.

** Grinder is another early game ThatOneBoss. He's a shadow imp who can paralyze the player and cast a nasty pain attack. Grinder typically appears just a bit later than Sigmund, and a popular joke among fans is that the two have a rivalry going on to see who can claim the lives of more newbies.

** Coming after Grinder is Gastronok, a giant slug mage. Unlike most mage characters, Gastronok is surprisingly tough, and has an extremely nasty ''unavoidable'' magic attack, as well as the ability to summon swarms of rats. He can also Slow you and Haste himself.

** Mennas the ReligiousBruiser is a late-game ThatOneBoss, particularly against spellcasters. The worst part about him is his ability to silence his surroundings, making spellcasting impossible and preventing the most common means of teleporting away. He's also [[LightningBruiser very fast and very strong in melee]].

** Orc priests. They can smite even the toughest early-level adventurer to death in only a couple hits, as soon as they see him, no matter who or what is in between - and they usually come with simple orc meat shields that you must hack through before getting to them, all the while they are smiting at you.

** Spiny frogs are the bane of many casters, particularly because of their poison resistance that makes them immune to the confusion spell "mephitic cloud." Running faster than you doesn't hurt their case.

* ScrappyWeapon: Scythes. Despite being the SignatureWeapon of [[ThatOneBoss Sigmund]], they have dreadful damage for a two-handed weapon, terribly slow attack speed that requires a vast investment into Polearms to use effectively, and are terribly rare to boot, decreasing the likelihood of finding one with a desirable brand.

** The Ecumenical Temple, an early area which contains nothing but a bunch of altars, so your character can choose a god. No enemies will ever spawn here (though some enemies can follow you in) which is why many players use the temple for resting and for keeping their stash. (Similarly some players keep a stash in the lair, since none of the creatures that spawn there can use items.)

** TrueNeutral: Okawaru, god of battle. He doesn't care what you do so long as you continue to battle monsters in his name, but he frowns on killing allied creatures, even accidentally. Also Trog, god of slaughter. So long as you regularly kill stuff and don't use spells, he doesn't give a damn what you do.
** ChaoticNeutral: Xom, who doesn't give a damn about you other than as a source of entertainment. Jivya, as well, who just wants to devour everything, but appreciates your contribution to that goal. These two gods are explicitly tagged as chaotic in the game. Zin hates them, but they don't seem to care much about him.

** The Lair, depending on your build. While it contains some powerful threats of its own, a character that hasn't been too fond of DungeonBypass typically has no problem clearing the branch as soon as they find it. The Lair's sub-brances are far from being easy, though.

** Worst of all was The Hive, a BreatherLevel deemed so bad that it was removed entirely from later versions of the game. It consisted entirely of killer bees and killer bee larvae, which are deadly early in the game but can be dealt with trivially if you put it off for later, and contained an unbalancingly-high quantity of not just free permafood that all characters could eat but also the best food item in the game (which doubles as a potion of restore abilities).

** Crimson Imps (or just "Imps" in earlier versions) have three really nasty abilities: high evasion which makes them difficult to hit, the tendency to blink (short range teleport) a lot, and ''lightning-fast regeneration''. Add to that they resist damage just like other demons while appearing at a point in the game before the player is likely to have strong enough weapons to overcome said resistance. Fortunately they deal very little damage, meaning they're generally a minor annoyance to distract you from more dangerous enemies. Unfortunately, they can pick up and use weapons on the ground just like you can. If they pick up something dangerous enough (like a good enchanted sword or a wand) they can become DemonicSpiders with ease.

** Mennas the ReligiousBruiser is a late-game ThatOneBoss, particularly against spellcasters. The worst part about him is his ability to silence his surroundings, making spellcasting impossible. He's also [[LightningBruiser very fast and very strong in melee]].

** The Lair. While it contains some powerful threats of its own, a character that hasn't been too fond of DungeonBypass typically has no problem clearing the branch as soon as they find it. The Lair's sub-brances are far from being easy, though.

** ChaoticEvil: Makhleb, the only designated chaotic and evil god in the game, Makhleb revels in indiscriminate destruction, accepting all kills, be they evil or good monsters. He will grant you destructive powers if you further his goal. Lugonu is this as well, being the god of the chaotic Abyss, tagged as evil in-game, and granting powers dedicated to corrupting the order of the dungeon.

** Unseen horrors. They're fast enough to move in, hit you, and back away all in a single turn, and when they hit they can hit hard. Oh yeah, ''and they're invisible''. Their invisibility is particularly nasty for lightly armored characters who tend to focus on evasion, as the evasion stat is ignored by invisible foes.
** Spiny frogs are the bane of many casters, particularly because of their poison resistance that makes them immune to the confusion spell "mephitic cloud."

** Ugly things and slime creatures later on in the Dungeon. They always appear in packs, are faster than most [=PCs=], and absorb a good chunk of damage before dying or splitting. Plus, they love to run away when damaged. Slime creatures have an incredibly annoying habit of fleeing and coming back within seconds, having completely regenerated in the process.

** ChaoticNeutral: Xom, who doesn't give a damn about you other than as a source of entertainment. Jivya, as well, who just wants to devour everything, but appreciates your contribution to that goal. These two gods are explicitly tagged as chaotic in the game. Zin hates them, but they don't seem to care.

** NeutralEvil: Beogh, the racist god of the orcs, tagged as an Evil god in-game. Kikubaaqudgha, the demon-god of Necromancy, is also tagged as Evil.
** ChaoticEvil: Makhleb. The only designated chaotic and evil god in the game, Makhleb revels in indiscriminate destruction, accepting all kills, be they evil or good monsters. He will grant you destructive powers if you further his goal. Lugonu is this as well, being the god of the chaotic Abyss, tagged as "Evil" in-game, and granting powers dedicated to corrupting the order of the dungeon.

** Orc priests. They can smite even the toughest early-level adventurer in only a couple hits, as soon as they see him, no matter who or what is in between - and they usually come with simple orc meat shields that you must hack through before getting to them, all the while they are smiting at you.

* CharacterAlignment: Many gods the player can choose to worship follow a strict alignment, which dictates how the player pleases (or displeases) them.
** LawfulGood: Zin, the god of law, who abhors evil and chaos. Mutations and other chaotic acts displease him. The Shining One, as well, who wants followers to fight honorably, i.e. not using poison or sneak attacks. Both gods detest the use of evil artifacts such as demon weapons, and evil magic such as Necromancy.

** ChaoticNeutral: Xom, who doesn't give a damn about you other than as a source of entertainment. Jivya, as well, who just wants to devour everything, but appreciates your contribution to that goal.

** ChaoticEvil: Makhleb. The only designated chaotic and evil god in the game, Makhleb revels in indiscriminate destruction, accepting all kills, be they evil or good monsters. He will grant you destructive powers if you further his goal.
* DemonicSpiders: Many, but mostly situational.

** TrueNeutral: Okawaru, god of battle. He doesn't care what you do so long as you continue to battle monsters in his name, but he frowns on killing allied creatures, even accidentally.

** The Ecumenical Temple, an early area which contains nothing but a bunch of altars, so your character can choose a god. No enemies will ever spawn here (though some enemies can follow you in) which is why many players use the temple for resting and for keeping their stash. (Similarly some players keep a stash in the lair, since none of the creatures that spawn there can use items.)'

*** Followers of the god of order, Zin, will be granted (not infallible) protection against Hell's mystical force which makes them among the most suited to taking on this level, but even they have to be very careful of the demons and other monsters here.

* GameBreaker: The Storm spells, especially [[PlayingWithFire Fire Storm]]. Both spells deal damage comparable with [[AwesomeButImpractical Crystal Spear]] to ''multiple enemies'', both are partially irresistible, and both leave damaging clouds behind. Fire Storm [[UpToEleven takes it further]] by having Smite-targeting (if you can see something, you can hit it, regardless of what's in the way) and summons fire vortices to distract survivors. If you worship Vehumet and wield a staff of energy/cast Necromutation, then you can basically cast it ''for free''.
** Nemelex Xobeh also qualifies if you know what you are doing. The legendary versions of his decks, along with high piety, a decent evocation skill, and liberal use of his gifted abilities essentially turn any PC (even purely melee focused characters) into an epic level mage. Capable of summoning literally dozens of creatures, in combat, with a zero chance of being hostile for a paltry 2 mana or blasting several of the strongest spells in the game better than an equal level wizard could. Not to mention powers possessed no where else in the game, such as the ability to create food out of nothing. On top of all this old Nemelex has a grand total of one real rule (using combat oriented cards when there's no one hostile around), meaning the only real way to get excommunicated is to stand around for tens of thousands of turns with out sacrificing anything to him or using cards in combat. Something a player is never going to do.

** Totally true of Crawl's bats. They barely even hurt you, but can hit multiple times in a turn, and have so much evasion they're hard to kill. Most annoying is that they're so fast they can move toward you, hit you, and move out of reach in one turn, meaning that you can't melee them unless you make some odd moves. Potentially deadly in the early game if you're unlucky, mildly irritating afterwards.

* CompleteMonster: Some people believe that [[VillainProtagonist the player character]] is this, due to the [[OmnicidalManiac amount of slaughter]] a game of Crawl involves. Sure, all the inhabitants of the orcish mines are [[EverythingTryingToKillYou trying to kill you]], but no one ''told you'' to burst into their home and start swinging your sword every which way, now did they? And what about [[ShootTheDog all those dogs you killed]] for the experience? And all for what? So you can get your hands on an ArtifactOfDoom that you know nothing about? YouMonster!
%% !!!NOTE!!! Just a friendly reminder. It's YMMV. You don't need to justify, explain, defend, downplay, or emphasize the fact that it's a Your Mileage May Vary thing. We all know that it's YMMV, purely by its presence on the YMMV page. For reference, though, I don't even agree with the statement in Complete Monster, but it's an argument I've heard plenty of fans of the game make, so it gets put up here. Thank you for not nattering.

* CompleteMonster: Some people believe that [[VillainProtagonist the player character]] is this, due to the [[OmnicidalManiac amount of slaughter]] a game of Crawl involves. Sure, all the inhabitants of the orcish mines are [[EverythingTryingToKillYou trying to kill you]], but no one ''told you'' to burst into their home and start swinging your sword every which way, now did they? And what about [[ShootTheDog all those dogs you killed]] for the experience? And all for what? So you can get your hands on an ArtifactOfDoom that you know nothing about? YouMonster! ...In your defense, however, AlwaysChaoticEvil is a thing and the orcs are {{Absolute Xenophobe}}s. Again, YMMV.

* CompleteMonster: Some people believe that [[VillainProtagonist the player character]] is this, due to the [[OmnicidalManiac amount of slaughter]] a game of Crawl involves. Sure, all the inhabitants of the orcish mines are [[EverythingTryingToKillYou trying to kill you]], but no one ''told you'' to burst into their home and start swinging your sword every which way, now did they? And what about [[ShootTheDog all those dogs you killed]] for the experience? And all for what? So you can get your hands on an ArtifactOfDoom that you know nothing about? YouMonster! ...On the other hand, AlwaysChaoticEvil and the orcs are {{Absolute Xenophobe}}s. Again, YMMV.