Other fantasy races I'd like to see in DCSS

[IronJelly]

Ent: these giant sentient trees suffer from permanent petrification, and vulnerability to fire, but make up for it with the ability to contrict any enemy that sits in the same place for 1000 or more turns.

Ball Lightning: Immune to almost everything, but only has one attack, which is a kamikaze.

Lawn Gnome: Thrown into the dungeon by an angry gardener, comes with an instant-kill stab using the pointy hat. Sigmund is always generated neutral for this race.

Fairy: smaller than spriggans, but equally fast, able to fly from the beginning, great magic aptitudes, and vulnerable to swatting.

Donkey: bigger than felids, but slower, and without claws. One in a hundred chance of having the voice of Eddy Murphy.

Rat King: Basically a smaller Kobold, these sentient bipedal rats are nonetheless capable of learning to use a staff and taming turtles.

Mountain of a Dwarf: A very fat species of dwarf, which has 100% physical damage shaving, as solid attacks get absorbed into the layers of fat. Can't wear armour, but gets a damage bonus vs creatures who can make fun of him.

Fire-Warrior: This is a humanoid who has hands that are permanently on fire. Can shoot fireballs at any time for no cost but hunger, but is a challenge to win the game with before they starve to death, as they can not pick up any items, including food. or weapons.

Free Zombie: Somehow, you have broken from your master's control. Now you seek the orb. Zombie players can't worship the good gods, and are vulnerable to any enemy that could conceivably enslave undead. They move slowly, and can eat the brains of any intelligent enemy, but animals and "unintelligent" enemies are not food. Zombies are vulnerable to shotguns, and action-movie heroes, but they get a damage bonus for clawing through doors.

How soon can these be implemented?

[Grimm]

I believe they're already in trunk.

[IronJelly]

Sweet! I just won with a FyBr, now to see how well DkAr, and a FWIE. (Fairy Berserker, Donkey Artificer, and FireWarrior Ice Elementalist).

[Grimm]

BLHe is a trending build on CDO.

[defen]

Addendum: Donkeys rapidly lose all their gold when worshiping Nemelex.

[TwilightPhoenix]

The Italian Plumber Species

While the Italian Plumber has rather mediocre apts, with an exception for Maces and Flails, Unarmed, Fire Magic, and Ice Magic, they do have a large number of quirks to make their dungeon crawling experience different and unique. These include, but may not be limited to...

-Extra lives! Italian Plumbers get an extra life for every 100 gold they collect. This gold will then instantly vanish.

-Jumping. Italian Plumbers are adept jumpers and can leap high and far enough to cross small gaps of deep water or lava. They can also use this to jump on top of enemies, inflicting damage. If they manage to bounce off of multiple enemies, more and more points will be added to their score and the eighth bounce and beyond will grant extra lives. Note however, they must take care not to jump on certain enemies, such as Spiny Frogs and Orbs of Fire, as those will cause damage instead!

-Shell kicking. By jumping on turtles and snails, it will force them to withdraw into their shell. When withdrawn, the Plumber can kick the shell across the level, damaging everyone, the plumber included, who gets caught in the way! The shell will not come to a stop unless jumped on. If two shells collide, the force of the impact will kill both shells instantly.

-Mushroom eating. By eating toadstools, the Italian Plumber can restore lost HP.

-Limited flight. When wearing a cloak, the Italian Plumber can fly for short distances!

-Frog skinning. When killing a frog, they have a chance to drop a hide for the Italian Plumber. If enchanted, these become Frog Armor which, when worn, allows the Italian Plumber to swiftly swim through shallow and deep water. However, movement on land becomes a bit clumsy as they hop around.

-Hammer power! Italian Plumbers have a natural affinity for hammers and get bonuses to damage and accuracy when using them.

-Fire power! Fireball is a level 4 pure Fire spell for the Italian Plumber and also has boosted power. However, these Fireballs bounce and thus will fall into water, lava, and shafts. Enemies killed by Fireball will drop one gold.

-Extra runes. Before they can enter Zot, the Italian Plumber must collect seven runes of Zot instead of three, all of which will be guarded by a fire-breathing Draconian. Once the Draconian is slain or dropped in lava, a friendly mushroom man will appear and give the player the rune, telling them "Thank you <player name>, but the Orb of Zot is in another branch!" Said Orb will likewise be guarded by a fire-breathing Draconian who can also throw volleys of hammers.

-Drake taming. The Italian Plumber, when jumping on a Drake, will instead start to ride it rather than damage it. The drake will gain the ability to eat enemies, throw eggs, grab and spit turtle and snail shells, and can also use its breath attack. It will take all damage for the plumber before he does. Should the Plumber fall into deep water, lava, or a shaft, he'll be given the option of jumping off to save himself, though his Drake will die.

-Hedgehog rivalry. All hedgehogs will appear blue and gain fast movement 3 and permanent Haste when in a game as an Italian Plumber. On sight, both the player and the hedgehog have a chance of simultaneously going berserk and a chance of competing in an olympic sport.

-When picking up a Morningstar or Eveningstar, the item will be destroyed. However, the Italian Plumber will briefly become invincible and automatically kill any enemy he moves into.

[Grimm]

Jumping could be a cool ability for a real race.

[Confidence Interval]

Jumping could be a cool ability for a real race.

Given the pseudo-3d-but-actually-2d-for-many-purposes representation of the dungeon, in what ways would jumping differ from blinking?

[Grimm]

It would be of very limited range, say two or three squares. It would be unaffected by -TELE. It would be on a breath-style timeout.

[Confidence Interval]

New race proposal: Giant Flea.

You jump next to the ogre.
You bury into the ogre's matted hair.
You bite the ogre!
The ogre starts to itch. The ogre scratches itself.
You do not kill the ogre but it is very irritated.(x30)

[Grimm]

[Confidence Interval]

Doesn't look very hairy. Few places for a regular flea to hide, never mind a giant one. They'd better have good EV.

[Grimm]

No that's the look of the Flea race. It's Blake's Ghost of a Flea.

The Flea should also have the ability to infect monsters with Lyme disease. I know that's ticks but still.

[Confidence Interval]

You must excuse my ignorance of gothic art. On

On the fleas-carrying-Lyme-disease I have to draw the line - let's not confuse our species here. Fleas can transmit plague, typhus, intestinal worms, etc., so they don't need anything else.

[Grimm]

That's right, you're a HuHe IRL. The design of the Flea race is in your hands. Apart from jumping of course.

[Confidence Interval]

Wasn't there a previous thread on which was proposed an intestinal tapeworm species, spread faecally? I can't be bothered searching for it.

I used to play Angband, long ago, and seem to remember there was a Giant Flea monster in it: you had to kill it very quickly or it replicated and filled the whole level. Their spread was fast, much faster than Crawl's spore/ballistomycete set-up: if you didn't kill them within a few turns there would be more than you could deal with and the best you could do was hope to close doors and contain them.

I'm not sure how this could be captured in a player character, though.

[Grimm]

I remember that thread, from back in the heady, mixed-up days of October 2011.

Maybe the notion could be something like playing a family of creatures. It would be something like Orc Jesus now, but with spawning.

[Confidence Interval]

Your parasitic hivemind infests the Ogre.
The ogre struggles to resist!(x3)
The ogre is overwhelmed!
You subsume the ogre!
Your collective body grows larger by an Ogre-sized amount.

[Grimm]

You'd win not by killing all the monsters but by BECOMING them.

[Confidence Interval]

You'd win not by killing all the monsters but by BECOMING them.

Or making them into part of you, more to the point.

But what would happen if, once large, you were attacked in the middle and split into two? Could the two (or more) bits exist separately? Or would there be a central "brain" to which there had to be a physical attachment? Does the new being have a central processing function or is it a distributed system?

[Grimm]

I think both options would be worth exploring. I can see a parasitic bodysnatcher type of centralized alien intelligence that could survive disembodied, a viruslike spawning being that would split into multiple creatures, perhaps even warring against itself, and a mass mind that grows or diminishes as a single unit, with "cut off" sections simply dispersing and eventually returning to normal monster status.

[nicolae]

But what would happen if, once large, you were attacked in the middle and split into two? Could the two (or more) bits exist separately? Or would there be a central "brain" to which there had to be a physical attachment? Does the new being have a central processing function or is it a distributed system?

Planarian species. Damage that makes you go "Ouch! That really hurt!" will split off another planarian as an ally.

[Grimm]

I sense there is a good idea in here somewhere.

Here's an old boardgame based on the "giant amoeba" concept: http://boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/2195/globbo

[nicolae]

On the fleas-carrying-Lyme-disease I have to draw the line - let's not confuse our species here. Fleas can transmit plague, typhus, intestinal worms, etc., so they don't need anything else.

Well, a little species confusion is nothing, Crawl has kingdom confusion. Fungi aren't plants, Fedhas!

Also: Playable mimic species.

[Grimm]

hyperreal mimics

or did we already do that

[nicolae]

hyperreal mimics

or did we already do that

I... maybe... it's all just one big blur... dwarves and mimics and gods and runes, all bundled together into one single sensory experience... am I even real?

[Confidence Interval]

... am I even real?

No.

[Jabberwocky]

am I even real?

I think you might be morphing into a sentient waffle. So you're not exactly real. Let me explain. I think we can all agree that waffles are real, however I think we can all agree that sentient waffles aren't real. You're in a bit of a odd state right now.

[Grimm]

You're in a bit of a odd state right now.

Of how many of us can this rightly be said. I'd like to know.

[Confidence Interval]

I think we can all agree that waffles are real

There is no such thing as waffles. They're a story told by parents to scare their children.

[Grimm]

They're something the Belgians made up to confuse people.

[Confidence Interval]

Is is true that they appear in the latest version of trunk?

[Jabberwocky]

I think we can all agree that waffles are real

There is no such thing as waffles. They're a story told by parents to scare their children.

I think you will find there is indeed such a thing as waffles. They aren't even very scary. See here.http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Waffle

[Grimm]

Do Belgians appear in trunk? No but they appear in Miss Marple:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_en6PzpEwQQ

[Jabberwocky]

That's quite a wonderful mummy stalker of ashenzari on the Poirot's face.

[Confidence Interval]

New uniques proposal: Poirot and Miss Marple. (To replace Down and Duvessa.)

[Grimm]

They'd track the player through the dungeon, studying the trail of corpses and other evidence, in an attempt to bring him (or her) to justice.

[Jabberwocky]

A wandering mushroom detective. Lovely.

[Confidence Interval]

A wandering mushroom detective. Lovely.

Two of them, in fact: one in a frock, the other in pinstripes.

[TehDruid]

Nascar driver - A fun addition to the game that adds a puzzle twist to it, members of the race lack auto-explore and must turn left (relative to their current position) whenever they meet a suitable junction or keep going straight in every other case. When you begin your game a d4 is rolled to determine your starting direction, if not applicable it's rerolled till it works fine. Whenever you translocate, you retain your "facing". If you reach a dead end, you crash (and burn, aka die). This makes semi- and un- controlled translocations a huge gambit. Winning (and streaking, haha) this race can only be attempted by elliptic.

Actually, with quite a few modifications this would make a chuckle worthy mini-game. The basic idea is; You're on a vehicle that moves automatically in a specific way every turn after you perform your action. You can either change your vehicle's direction or perform an action once a turn. If you crash on a wall, the game is over. The vehicle can trample opponents that are right in front of it every time it moves. Small sized enemies (rats for example) are killed instantly when trampled (ran over).

And, we'll call it; Zot Drive-By!

[Confidence Interval]

I'm not sure that "nascar driver" qualifies as a fantasy race.

Just sayin.

[Jabberwocky]

What's not fantastic about NASCAR? It's kind of like horse-racing but more so.

[Grimm]

He means like, have you ever seen one in real life. No.

[Confidence Interval]

So does it exist or does it not? I'm confused now.

I know there are some things I have never seen in real life but I still believe they exist. Like mountain dwarves.

[Grimm]

DON'T MENTION THE DWARVES

[Confidence Interval]

Why not? They started it!

[Jabberwocky]

Because the POWERS THAT BE! don't like mentioning dwarfs. I think they must be trying to stifle rebellion.

[Grimm]

you mean an uprising

geddit

[tasonir]

not to derail the wonderful mentioning of the race that shall not be mentioned, but I do like the idea of jumping...wasn't there a nethack class that did that? I think it was knights, who moved like the knight in chess: 2 tiles in one direction and 1 tile perpendicular....you know what I mean if you've ever played chess. That kind of a move, on a breath timer, possible to use under Ctele, and going over water/lava but not through walls, would be pretty useful

I want to find a manual of jumping, have to study it until the normal manual self-destruct timer, and then gain the ability permanently! *drool* Or stick it on a gimmick race, but that's so much less fun

[Jabberwocky]

Yes NetHack knights could jump like a knight chessman. But since NetHack has jumping, it probably means that crawl will never get jumping.