The Tavern

Inspired by another game that I play(ed) (shout out to Escape from Underdark): the goblin bomber. Found in Orc, Upon noticing the player, it inner flames itself, runs at you, and explodes when next to you. Could be interesting in tandem with orc priests.

Yes, giant spores were removed, but maybe they could be fixed?

Should probably be faster than the player to be effective and not simply annoying.

Why would a goblin do that?

Now a unique with goblin slaves, which the enslaving unique inner flamed, then detonated somehow when they were close, that might make some sense. Or, I suppose, someone could just give robin inner flame, but that seems a bit mean.

[aside] Do you ever wonder if you're a random encounter in someone else's adventure? [/aside]

Goblin sappers, tasked with the most dangerous job of handling explosives to blast new mine shafts for their orc priest overlords repurpose their explosives to try to stop the interloper from taking their gold. Their devotion has convinced them that Beogh will reincarnate them as orcs in the afterlife.

The problem with that is that inner flame is *so* out of whack with the damage a goblin does, any character, even the toughest sort, that is even remotely challenged by any number of goblins would die instantly to an inner flame explosion.

Goblins are like level a level 1-2 enemy, inner flame is like a level 10 offensive ability on a monster.

A unique (fast) self-inner-flaming critter that's actually moderately challenging for a level 7-10 XL player would probably be interesting (given the right depth of spawning), although calling it a goblin might mislead people into thinking it was something it wasn't, although a clear enough description might do the trick. It could also just as easily be a non-goblin.

The idea of using goblins is they can be killed in 1 or 2 shots by the time you encounter them in orc. They are meant to be fast, and when you encounter them with the priests you have two threats: a normal speed one that can smite you from long range, and a fast one that is trying to catch you.

You can resist the fireball with rF, try to hex them (slow, confuse, even leda's), try to escape with blink/tele/speed, or use another spell (force lance, gell's) to use them against your enemies.

But how will I tab it?

Brothers in arms?

With a bow.

I like this idea. I don't think it needs to be fast, because if it forces you to abandon your position on the stairs in the orcish mines, that's bad enough.

fiery shrike

Give one to robin.

Robin's like, what, a D2 unique? If she had an inner flame to throw at you, she'd probably one shot a large number of characters at that point, like Ijyb with a wand of fireball.

not really related, but fun fact: enemies can't actually use wands of fireball

add amberite. If you kill it, paralysis/summon hell sentinels/random miscast effects/other unpleasant effects occurs.

Amber and bandages are both means of preservation.

(I liked Zangband, btw)

Sounds okay as a monster for orc, but I'm skeptical of things that appear with packs then kill other monsters in the pack with some side effect. I think an AI tweak to keep other monsters from getting rekt by it would be needed.

Sounds fun!

Exploding fiend

Instead of inner flame, why not give this suicidal monster a monster only spell that is timed (with some sort of clear visual cue like a color change). This way you can tab them down or soften them up at range and kill them in melee if you have the damage, while also having the option of running away at the last moment with a blink, haste and/or a well timed teleport.

This seems a lot like the suicidal grunts in halo. An explosion does a fuckton of damage and Orc already has a ton of mooks. Having them speed up would make this absolute hell.

Orc is by far the easiest multi-level dungeon branch (intentional or not), and I don't think that messing with that is a good idea.

There must be better ways than slow giant spores to improve the orc mines.

Orc needs to get rid of staircases and only have hatches. Without stairdancing and retreating, the orc mines would be more entertaining. It might be a pain to get level generation to work, though. Disconnected bubbles and one hatch endpoint for all hatches don't really mix.