Oklob Reform

[phobetor]

While the recent change from permanent to temporary corrosion was overall great, there is one thing I feel it ruined. That is the Oklob plant. I find that now I can fight the plant over a long period of time, taking pot shots at it from the edge of its LOS, and running when it hits me. I can repeat this processes over and over until the RNG falls in my favor and the plant dies. The only in game limiter on this is hunger and ammo which generally don't stop me if I really want/need the oklob dead. When gear was corroded permanently this strategy was foolish as at least some of your gear could be damaged or you'd have to fight naked which had its own dangers. This method of fighting is tedious and uninteresting and because of that Oklobs need to be changed.

Possible changes I can see are

1. Remove Oklobs as enemies. I would be sad to see them go but if they are uninteresting and tedious they have no place in crawl.

2. Return permanent corrosion to them. I think permanent corrosion has no place in crawl, but this is an option.

3. Give their attack a chance to mutate or rot you. These add a lasting effect similar to permanent corrosion.

4. Add a new ability or effect to them to prevent this strategy.
Possible effects I could think of were;

A. Some form of summon. Other immobile enemies call friends to chase you down which prevents this style of fighting. Adding this to oklobs would be effective, but diminish their uniqueness.

B.Make their attack slow or stop movement occasionally. Orange statues and Roxanne use forced blinks to keep you close. This would be somewhat similar to that.

C. Give their attack a sticky flame like effect. It would deal damage/prevent healing and corrode you over a period of time. Resting this effect off would give the plant ample time to heal making the hit and run strategy ineffective.

[njvack]

I'm not sure I agree with there being a new problem now that corrosion is temporary, but if so, another solution would be to give oklobs fast regen, especially when out of LOS.

[crate]

I personally think all stationary monsters (water monsters are basically included here, since they function a lot like stationary monsters) are bad but I don't think oklobs are any worse than the rest.

[duvessa]

While the recent change from permanent to temporary corrosion was overall great, there is one thing I feel it ruined. That is the Oklob plant. I find that now I can fight the plant over a long period of time, taking pot shots at it from the edge of its LOS, and running when it hits me. I can repeat this processes over and over until the RNG falls in my favor and the plant dies. The only in game limiter on this is hunger and ammo which generally don't stop me if I really want/need the oklob dead. When gear was corroded permanently this strategy was foolish as at least some of your gear could be damaged or you'd have to fight naked which had its own dangers. This method of fighting is tedious and uninteresting and because of that Oklobs need to be changed.

But fighting naked didn't have its own dangers, because you could fight the plant over a long period of time, taking pot shots at it from the edge of its LOS, and running when it hit you. And repeat that process over and over until the RNG fell in your favor and the plant died. The only in game limiter on that was hunger and ammo which generally didn't stop you if you really wanted/needed the oklob dead.
(it was also easy to just attack the oklob from a place where it doesn't have line of fire)

[phobetor]

...

You run the risk of having a new enemy show up and catch you with your pants down. More frail characters can potentially be killed with one hit, or at least it seemed that way I never actually tried it. Regardless of whether the change to corrosion made the situation worse or not doesn't really matter. Oklobs could still use a change or should be removed. Most other immobile enemies can chase you with summons or hold you in place with blink making hit and run tactics less effective.