Unique: Novice Nate

[Klown]

Early game unique variety is a bit low. Once mid-game hits, there's a far larger pool of uniques that can be waiting around each corner.

Novice Nate: A low skill young man who wishes to be a knight. Can be found in D2-D4 scumming for experience. Once he notices the player, he flees and begins exploring the level to search & destroy monsters to gain the experience before you do. The player has 20 turns to kill him, or he disappears and respawns on later levels, stronger thanks to his scumming. He is known for bringing lots of food with him for his level scumming. When killed, he will drop 2x pieces of random fruit. 4x when killed in Veteran form, and 6x when killed in Master form. If he ate meat, maybe the protein would make him strong like a knight, but alas Nate is a vegetarian. One day he'll be a true knight, even if he has to wait around to kill two million rats to do so.


Novice Nate: Appears on D2-D4, wielding a spear and leather armour.

  Code:

HP: 30
HD: 3
XP: 100
Speed: 14
AC: 4
EV: 12
MR: 12


Veteran Nate: Appears on D5-D7 if Novice Nate was seen earlier in the game. He wields a halberd and wears Scale Mail.

  Code:

HP: 40
HD: 5
XP: 200
Speed: 12
AC: 7
EV: 10
MR: 24


Master Nate: Appears guarding the entrance to The Lair, if you saw Veteran Nate earlier. He wields a Bardiche and Plate Armour. Once he gains sight of you, he says "The monsters beyond this point are too tough for me, but I do know one I can kill to gain lots of experience on such low levels. You." He then attacks you as any normal unique would.

  Code:

HP: 50
HD: 7
XP: 300
Speed: 10
AC: 11
EV: 7
MR: 36


[arterial]

That sounds really cool. The flavour is fun. Its nice to have more neutral / friendly monsters around. Possible permanent ally? A Unique that just joins you? Yes, please. The closest thing for your average character is the efreet, and it usually get killed off pre-lair anyway. How about a unique grey ooze? XD

[njvack]

By un-targetable do you mean it's impossible to damage him by any means? Could you shoot through him, or just unload your wand of foo into the back of his head?

[Klown]

By un-targetable do you mean it's impossible to damage him by any means? Could you shoot through him, or just unload your wand of foo into the back of his head?

un-harmable & shoot through him; until he gets his 3 slain monsters or the level is cleared.

[pubby]

A speed of 5 is really strange. What's wrong with a speed of 10?

Also, 10 AC is a HUGE number, even more so when you add in the platemail's AC. It would be impossible to kill this guy.

Anyway, I don't think the AI thing is worthwhile. It's a really minor effect that only makes the game more annoying. Also, it's really wonky and nonsensical to have an ally that you're incapable of harming.

[MoogleDan]

I've got to agree with pubby on this; giving him speed 5 will turn him into the unique that you handle by grabbing the first glaive, bardiche, or even Sigmund's scythe you come across and kiting him for a few dozen turns in exchange for the solid XP. As much as I like the idea of seeing a scythe get a little love, a unique's gotta be more dangerous than a goliath beetle zombie. If you make him slower than average, he's gotta have SOME kind of ranged threat.

[Klown]

Changed speed to 10.

@pubby: AC/EV I gave includes the plate armour. I basically took a human fighter, changed his scale for plate, and looked at the stats.

[and into]

I like the idea of uniques who do things *like this* a lot, Klown, but I'm not sure Novice Nate presents much of a threat as it stands. What do you think about a slightly different take on the same theme, inspired by your proposal:

Novice Nate is an early game unique, stats somewhere around what you posted, but slightly FASTER than average (like adder-speed or so). When you first encounter him, he basically says something along the lines of "I see some competition has arrived!" and runs off to "clear" that level of dungeon; if you don't kill him in X number of turns, he respawns at a higher level as "Master Nate" ("I've grown stronger since last we met!") and has better stats as well as a pretty high chance of having better weapons (from "getting the loot from that floor of the dungeon") and/or respawning with a wand to use against you. (Note that he doesn't ACTUALLY destroy or take weapons from the dungeon floor.)

Basically a Unique who starts at poorly equipped Ijyb threat level, but if he eludes you long enough, disappears and after X turns respawns on same floor as a Grinder-level (or thereabouts) threat. Spawns on D2 to D8.

If you see this unique, you then either have to kill him fast, or else, after he leaves, you have the following basic options: 1.) just dive to next level; 2.) explore a bit first, then dive, hoping to see more of level before running into him again; 3.) face off against a significantly more dangerous version of the unique (not crazy powerful, just actually threatening in a way "Novice Nate" is not).

We can keep the "scummy player" theme by giving him quotes to that effect as you fight, and also can have him drop a good deal of food if you kill him, a few rations, a few honeycombs, and a high quantity of fruit (as doing this gives a nice little early game incentive to go Fedhas), plus maybe a CHANCE to drop a single royal jelly.

What do you think? I don't want to hijack your proposal, the sort of thing I'm proposing could easily be incorporated into a different unique. If you stick with the original though I think fruit drop should be the focus of the food "reward" for killing him, as fruit is useful for pretty much all characters for quick nutrition AND might alleviate some fear of going for Fedhas. (Kind of like those Fedhas altar vaults that spawn with fruit, or the Ash vault that spawned animate skeleton and a non-edged weapon back when that mattered.)

[MoogleDan]

Better yet and more realistically, he reappears with the fear status effect fleeing from something offscreen, which turns out to be a slightly OoD (maybe +4 or 5 floors) monster he generated by dicking around too long on the floor (Okay, it's not really a good idea, but it'd be a cute and charming way to get slaughtered). Heck, you could make it a coin flip to see how well his scumming pays off

[and into]

Better yet and more realistically, he reappears with the fear status effect fleeing from something offscreen, which turns out to be a slightly OoD (maybe +4 or 5 floors) monster he generated by dicking around too long on the floor (Okay, it's not really a good idea, but it'd be a cute and charming way to get slaughtered)

Not bad! If there were certain limits on what type of OoD could spawn, that could be a pretty good (and amusing) unique, and much more elegant and in keeping with original proposal than the convoluted suggestion I'd made. Novice Nate isn't the threat... It is what the poor guy inadvertently set in motion. He played too many other roguelikes first and thought the same strategy would apply... In this case I think he'd spawn neutral, as he'd be running away from the OoD beast...

[Amnesiac]

Appearance of a hero running away from an OoD monster is a very cool idea. You could save him or kill him for loot.

[and into]

Novice Nate
Species: Power-gamer
Quotes:
"Got enough food here to last me a while, better train up."
"Have you seen the Amulet of Yendor?"
"Am I in the right dungeon...?"
"Oh my god, a soldier ant!!! Oh, wait, it's just a worker ant..."

[Klown]

I like the idea of uniques who do things *like this* a lot, Klown, but I'm not sure Novice Nate presents much of a threat as it stands. What do you think about a slightly different take on the same theme, inspired by your proposal:

Novice Nate is an early game unique, stats somewhere around what you posted, but slightly FASTER than average (like adder-speed or so). When you first encounter him, he basically says something along the lines of "I see some competition has arrived!" and runs off to "clear" that level of dungeon; if you don't kill him in X number of turns, he respawns at a higher level as "Master Nate" ("I've grown stronger since last we met!") and has better stats as well as a pretty high chance of having better weapons (from "getting the loot from that floor of the dungeon") and/or respawning with a wand to use against you. (Note that he doesn't ACTUALLY destroy or take weapons from the dungeon floor.)

Basically a Unique who starts at poorly equipped Ijyb threat level, but if he eludes you long enough, disappears and after X turns respawns on same floor as a Grinder-level (or thereabouts) threat. Spawns on D2 to D8.

If you see this unique, you then either have to kill him fast, or else, after he leaves, you have the following basic options: 1.) just dive to next level; 2.) explore a bit first, then dive, hoping to see more of level before running into him again; 3.) face off against a significantly more dangerous version of the unique (not crazy powerful, just actually threatening in a way "Novice Nate" is not).

We can keep the "scummy player" theme by giving him quotes to that effect as you fight, and also can have him drop a good deal of food if you kill him, a few rations, a few honeycombs, and a high quantity of fruit (as doing this gives a nice little early game incentive to go Fedhas), plus maybe a CHANCE to drop a single royal jelly.

What do you think? I don't want to hijack your proposal, the sort of thing I'm proposing could easily be incorporated into a different unique. If you stick with the original though I think fruit drop should be the focus of the food "reward" for killing him, as fruit is useful for pretty much all characters for quick nutrition AND might alleviate some fear of going for Fedhas. (Kind of like those Fedhas altar vaults that spawn with fruit, or the Ash vault that spawned animate skeleton and a non-edged weapon back when that mattered.)

Thanks for the input.
I personally think everything in your post makes Novice Nate far better than the original post.
First post updated!

[MoogleDan]

One day he'll be a true knight, even if he has to wait around to kill two million rats to do so.

HAH! Love it!

[and into]

I like where you took this. Having three stages, and the final one guarding Lair in particular, is a *really* nice touch. He stays in the early game, firmly.... But if you don't deal with him now, you will have to later. The vegetarianism is a nice touch! He really does have to carry a lot of food with him, he refuses to eat any of those two million rats he killed! I really hope a dev takes as much of a liking to this as I have.

[rebthor]

Bardiche is probably too strong. I know that if I was planning a polearm character and saw him early, I'd definitely let him level up to his final form just for a guaranteed bardiche by lair. Many games won't even have a bardiche, so a guaranteed one by lair is OP. A glaive would be a better choice or maybe even just a branded halberd.

[BlackSheep]

There could be percentage chances for different types of equipment at different levels.

[joelsdaman1]

So in his third stage...
He would be...
Masternate?

[spudwalt]

Bardiche is probably too strong. I know that if I was planning a polearm character and saw him early, I'd definitely let him level up to his final form just for a guaranteed bardiche by lair. Many games won't even have a bardiche, so a guaranteed one by lair is OP. A glaive would be a better choice or maybe even just a branded halberd.

He could have a chance of having a bardiche. Sorta like how Rupert always has a big heavy weapon, but it's only sometimes an executioner's axe or triple sword.