New species Ocean Mystic

[Sandman25]

DD thread made me think how we can have no resting species who does not feel unwinnable when it is weak...
1) No resting -> you will never need to press 5.
2) Still you need to heal somehow -> Before every action you are fully healed to 100% if there are no monsters in LoS.
3) In order to not be unkillable you need some HP penalty -> -50% HP sounds good
4) You still can take too much damage in a turn -> DD damage shaving.
5) But you don't want to hide behind a corner, shoot a missile and retreat -> Movement takes 16 auts.
6) Yet Swamp and Shoals can kill you while autoexploring -> Movement takes 10 auts in shallow water and 8 auts in deep water.
7) Infinite teleporting can be too good -> You can't evoke ring of teleportation unless it is cursed.
8) Teleporting is still too powerful -> You cannot read any scrolls with monsters in LoS (based on byrel's idea).
9) But you still should have a way to ID potions -> Potions are automatically ID-ed when you pick them up.
10) Still too easy to die (no blinking/fear/fog/recharging), especially late game -> You have an ability to spend 1 permanent max MP to completely restore HP.

[tasonir]

Overly complex; 10 rules is a lot and you're still missing some edge cases - this race can't read remove curse scrolls!

Full healing the turn there's nothing in LOS seems too strong. Scrolls of fog are now revivification without losing any max hp? -50% hp in an attempt to balance this is just going to make playing the race painful and you'll likely never be completely safe against being one shot by LCS.

Slow movement to prevent the full heal that goes away in water would probably break fedhas, depending on how much water you can set up (I haven't used rain, dunno).

I don't see why teleport would be all that super powerful on this race - sure it's easier than running away at 16 auts, but you're landing a -50% hp next to monsters, which is generally suicide. I suppose you at least have damage shaving.

[Sandman25]

Which scrolls of fog?
True, I forgot about remove curse

[Arrhythmia]

2) Still you need to heal somehow -> Before every action you are fully healed to 100% if there are no monsters in LoS.

Where's the rule that keeps this from being an information leak about invisible monsters?

[duvessa]

2) Still you need to heal somehow -> Before every action you are fully healed to 100% if there are no monsters in LoS.

Where's the rule that keeps this from being an information leak about invisible monsters?

Give them see invisible, done.

[Berder]

-50% HP (less than a felid) and 16 aut movement (slower than a naga) and no scrolls is a recipe for instant death in the pre-lair dungeon.

I think instant healing when no monsters are in LOS is not actually that strong. It's usually not that different from 5-ing and doesn't require such awful racial maluses.

[tasonir]

Which scrolls of fog?
True, I forgot about remove curse

Fair enough, but there's still dith and the cloak of the thief, so I'm claiming that it's possible to have fog effects!

[Sandman25]

-50% HP (less than a felid) and 16 aut movement (slower than a naga) and no scrolls is a recipe for instant death in the pre-lair dungeon.

I think instant healing when no monsters are in LOS is not actually that strong. It's usually not that different from 5-ing and doesn't require such awful racial maluses.

Don't forget about instant healing for 1 max MP and damage shaving. You can close a door, hide around corner, blink, retreat after casting Conjure Flame or summoning an ally etc. Yes, it is not DD so it's possible to die before Lair. I bet the species won't be easy late game so I guess all those who ask "let's make characters get back to XL 1 after entering a new branch" might enjoy the challenge

[Sandman25]

Which scrolls of fog?
True, I forgot about remove curse

Fair enough, but there's still dith and the cloak of the thief, so I'm claiming that it's possible to have fog effects!

Yes, these effects would be good. You can treat Dith as new Makhleb who encourages ranged attacks. Fog does not help vs adjacent monsters of course so there are still easy ways to die IMHO.

[Zwobot]

Sounds really complicated :/

Part of that seems to result from the instant healing. Why not a gradually increasing Regen effect when no monsters are in sight. It would take ~4 turns to turn on completely, scale with HP/MP and degrade twice as fast with a monster in sight.

In any case 3) and 4) sound painful. Damage shaving is amazing, but spike damage will always be a concern - and at -50% HP you're playing a slow Felid most of the time? Ugh.

Then there's the way this species does step on several toes species wise. VS are basically already this without the 'instant' heal and the fiddly mechanics, plus added antimagic bite. Fo has stasis - which equates to no ?/=Teleport early on until other options come available. Not to mention Fo are basically Killhole: The Game for a long stretch - now OM's would be Corner Sniping: The Game.

[Sandman25]

Just to clarify, it is supposed to be a hard species (probably the hardest one) where players solve all problems by tactics. All you need to do is to get to a tile where you are not seen by any monsters.

[byrel]

There are several problems with the 'no scrolls conduct' (remove curse, enchant/brand foo, amnesia, recharging). But I think all the scrolls that you really want him to be able to cast are strategic scrolls. Why not borrow the Ru 'Words' sacrifice "Any time you are severely injured or suffer a significantly strong attack, you lose the ability to read scrolls" except with the trigger being monster in sight?

It would amp the value of getting out of sight, as then you COULD read tele or blink. I don't think this is a bad thing.

Overall I like it. Very flavourful, sounds challenging.

[Sandman25]

Why not borrow the Ru 'Words' sacrifice "Any time you are severely injured or suffer a significantly strong attack, you lose the ability to read scrolls" except with the trigger being monster in sight?

Thank you, I edited OP. The species cannot read scrolls with monsters in LoS (yes, I want it to be harder than Sacrifice Words)