Race: Magma Wyrm

[bcadren]

Second attempt at what I laid out in Molten Gargoyle with some tweaking. Some unique perks; some Dr, some Gr, some Na. Name is unimportant; could instead be salamander, or back to molten gargoyle, etc.

Magma Wyrms [MW] are serpentine creatures physically made of a mix of molten rock and living tissue. They are extremely fire affine; but also very vulnerable to cold. Their partially liquid bodies make them very adaptable.

Stats: 7 STR; 7 INT; 7 DEX. Gain: Choose/1.

Aptitudes:

  Code:

MW: Fighting: 1, Short: -1, Long: -1, Axes: -1, Maces: -1, Polearms: -1, Staves: -1, Slings: 0, Bows: 1, Xbows: 1, Throw: 0, Armour: N/A, Dodge: 2, Stealth: -1, Shields: -1, UC: 0, Splcast: 2, Conj: 1, Hexes: -1, Charms: -1, Summ: -1, Nec: -2, Tloc: -3, Tmut: 3, Fire: 3!, Ice: -3*, Air: -2, Earth: 1, Poison: -2, Inv: 1, Evo: 0, Exp: -1, HP: -2, MP: 1

Weirdness/Mutations:

• Adaptability - You choose a stat on every level up; instead of every third (including 1 extra point to start).
• Armour Moulding - Your molten body fits perfectly into any armour. (Armour Base AC x2; ER doesn't impede dodging or spellcasting; You cannot train armour).
• Armour Weighting - Wearing heavier armour slows your move speed. (Exact numbers will need tweaking; for now let's say: Move speed += (ER - STR/2)).
• Cold-Blooded - Freezing attacks slow you. [Negated if/when you achieve rC+].
• Fast II - Your base movement speed is 0.8 (instead of 1.0).
• Flaming Body - You exude heat. [You may not use Ozo's Armour, Ice Form or Cond Shield.] Enemies that hit you in melee have a chance of being burned by your skin. (XL/30 chance of d9 damage that checks rF, but not AC).
• Fire Affinity - You're very attuned to fire and heat and adept at fire magic. rF(Immune); Fire Enhancer.
• Lava Walking - You can walk on Lava.
• Partially Stone - Part of you is non-living. rTorm rPois.
• Severe Cold vulnerability - rC--
• Tail - You have an auxiliary tail slap [and chance at getting the stinger mutation].

[le_nerd]

So this race now dies to first wand of frost/orc wizard/frost beast? I think rC-- is unworkable as starting disadvantage.

[milski]

Rc-- is mechanically identical to rc- besides needing more resistance to negate it, so I don't think the downside is that unworkable.

I'm not sure why the race needs high stat growths, though.

[savageorange]

[*]Flaming Body - You exude heat. [You may not use Ozo's Armour, Ice Form or Cond Shield.]

Would it be spoily to suggest that instead of being forbidden, Ozo's would produce clouds of steam (instead of providing defense)? This has a vaguely Nethackish feel, but it seems pretty basic logic to me -- flames+ice = steam.

Regardless of whether the above gets up, partial rSteam would also make sense IMO (you could go for steam immunity -- not like it will make that much difference in general play -- , but I was thinking getting hit for a certain amount of HP damage when you cast Ozo's would make sense)

[WingedEspeon]

I think that get 22 Str and use IDA will be the strat with these guys. Imo this should be better than molten gargoyle. I do think that -2 HP is a bit much with rC-- and Exp -1. The stat gain is also amazing.

[Sharkman1231]

Aren't Dg THE statgain race? Dg have 28 base stats and 18 more from levels (46). These wyrms would have 47 total stat points. Just thought I'd mention it.

[tasonir]

I agree the statgain seems a bit too much, and steps on DG's toes. This race has a lot going on for it already, giving them a more normal stat gain will let you focus on the armor choices/resistance problems.

Base AC x2 is more or less like starting with ~22 armor skill, and no encumbrance at all is even stronger. Slowing your movement if you have low strength offsets this, but I think it's more likely that people will just wear the heaviest armor they can without movement speed penalty, and thus get all of the benefits without the downside. I'm not sure it'd be worth turning them into nagas just to wear a CPA. As much as I love CPA-level AC, this race wouldn't actually get more armor than another race with high armor skill, and if another race took armor skill all the way to 27, they'd get more. Magma Wyrms just save the experience needed to train armor skill. I'm wondering if letting them have normal encumbrance, base 10 movement speed, and no slowdown from heavy armor wouldn't be better? People would wear more heavy armor and thus benefit from the free armor skill, but would still have the spell/ev limitations.

If you want to keep the slow down for heavy armor, I think giving them base 10 speed would make more sense. People aren't going to want to give up being faster than most things, so a light/medium armor caster is ideal. If they're already normal speed, getting a little bit slower isn't quite as bad. If you wanted to really encourage people to slow down, then you'd want to give them slow movement 1 already, so that running away from 10 speed monsters is already restricted. Then adding another 2-3 auts wouldn't change much. Basically if your movement speed is <11 auts, each aut matters a lot, but if it's >= 11, it matters less.

I'm also not quite sure fire immunity is ever going to be fair, rF++ should be enough? A lot of monsters in crawl, especially the iconic orb of fire, subscribe to this philosophy:

"Of course you should fight fire with fire. You should fight everything with fire."
—Jaya Ballard, task mage