New monster: Oni

[Grudge]

An oni is a demonic monster, which has demonic holiness without being tiered, similar to an efreet or a rakshasa.

I have completely coded this monster.

Oni description
A large, horned creature. It is similar to an ogre in size and shape, and is often thought to be some strange type of ogre, but it is not actually related. It is skilled in necromancy.

Oni tile

oni.png (1.61 KiB) Viewed 5096 times

Oni tile with club

oni_with_club.png (1.55 KiB) Viewed 5096 times

Current stats
About 150-250 HP
17 HD
Three attacks, one pain branded hit for 30, one gore for 15, and one bite for 15
Cast Miasma Breath, Bolt of Draining, and Invisibility
100 MR
4 AC, 10 EV
Large size
Demonic holiness and resistances(RPois, RN+++, RTorment, RRot, Vulnerability to holy damage)
Sinv
No corpse
Speed 10
Always come with a GSC, and an animal skin.
Oni appear in D(OOD), Vaults, Depths, Crypt, Abyss, Pan, Hell, and Tartarus.


These stats are only a rough outline, and I think that they could, and probably will, change before I put out a patch for this monster.

Any suggestions are welcome, and I will update this post with any suggestions which I think are good.

[Siegurt]

Oni are demonic monsters, which can be summed up by saying, "buffed demonic ogres which cast necromancy".

I have coded this monster except for the tile. I did not add tile code, because I am no good at making tiles, so I decided to let it be a ? for now instead of using a placeholder tile.


Current stats
About 150-250 HP
17 HD
Two attacks, one hit for 40 and one gore for 15
Cast Miasma Breath, Bolt of Draining, and Invisibility
100 MR
4 AC, 10 EV
Large size
Demonic holiness and resistances(RPois, RN+++, RTorment, RRot, Vulnerability to holy damage)
Sinv
No corpse
Speed 10
Always come with a GSC(50% chance to be pain branded), and an animal skin.
Oni appear in D(OOD), Vaults, Depths, Crypt, Abyss, Pan, Hell, and Tartarus.


These stats are only a rough outline, and I think that they could, and probably will, change before I put out a patch for this monster.

Any suggestions are welcome, and I will update this post with any suggestions which I think are good.

Where do you envision this Monster appearing?
Also if it is remotely common, a near guaranteed branded gsc sounds over powered (Even if it is a brand as finicky as pain, there aren't any naturally occurring branded gsc in the dungeon)

[njvack]

Where do you envision this Monster appearing?

Oni appear in D(OOD), Vaults, Depths, Crypt, Abyss, Pan, Hell, and Tartarus.

I don't think a branded GSC in the mid-late game is too bad, you're very likely to have found a brand scroll by then. Getting a pain branded GSC is also not hard if that's what you want from the game.

However, the monster could have a pain-branded attack and that would get around branding the club.

[kuniqs]

Would be not bad to have an Oni instead of an ogre pack sometimes

[Grudge]

However, the monster could have a pain-branded attack and that would get around branding the club.

That is a good idea. I have updated the OP with it.

[Grudge]

kunquis, while this might not have immediately apparent, while oni are similar to ogres, they are not actually of the same type(the OP did not have the oni description when you said what you did, which probably made it even less apparent).

Still, I appreciate the suggestion.

[Lasty]

What do you see as being the selling point of oni?

In my opinion, a new monster should encourage players to play differently from other existing monsters, or should bring an existing sort of play into a new area of the game. It's not clear to me that this monster would feel significantly differently from ogre magi, titans, dragons, or tengu reavers.

[amaril]

Miasma can be pretty crippling. I can imagine having to avoid/escape from this monster, especially if it showed up in D with other monsters nearby. Even in Vaults/Depths this could be a beating without rN.

[Grudge]

This monster largely serves to add more variety to the existing group of melee monster which cast spells. I think that fighting an oni would be different from fighting a tengu reaver because it would be important to have rN, as it would reduce the damage considerably. Also, death drakes and Gloorx Vloq are the only other existing monsters which create clouds of miasma. I think that the miasma would substantially different from most existing monsters. Also, if these were to be semi-common, they would make curing potions a considerably more valuable resource in the mid to late game.

[Sar]

Curse toes trail miasma trails, also I think some new monsters shoot something similar to miasma. Also death drakes are really common in Zot due to being summoned by drac callers. There's enough of miasma in Crawl as far as I am concerned.

[tasonir]

I'm with Sar on this one - I'm not really looking forward to more miasma sources, especially if they're in multiple branches. Although curing can heal more than one point these days, I'd still want to avoid putting too much pressure on characters to use curing/HW out of combat to restore their max health.

[Grudge]

Sar, I believe that the new monsters you are thinking of make clouds of negative energy, which, while not being pleasant, are not actually very close to miasma.

[TeshiAlair]

Here's a thought: What if instead of a standard Ogre Mage leading the ogre packs, you have an oni instead which plays into the mythos somewhat. The Oni hangs back, resurrecting the ogres and summoning spectral ones, and then charges you when they are all dead. It would also differentiate ogre packs from other pack monsters

[Grudge]

While oni have stats reminiscent of ogres, I personally do not think that they should be encountered with ogres, as they are not actually a type of ogre.

[TeshiAlair]

Why will that ever matter? Plus don't oni traditionally enslave ogres? I know that is a thing in Dominions 4

[Grudge]

I think that it would be strange for a monster with the description, "A large, horned creature. It is similar to an ogre in size and shape, and is often thought to be some strange type of ogre, but it is not actually related," to be encountered in a band of ogres.

[njvack]

Well, yeah, but it could also be an ogre in Crawl. If it looks like an ogre and GSCs like an ogre, maybe it could be an ogre.

[Lasty]

By the time packs w/ ogres appear, the non-magi ogres are only dangerous when you're paralyzed, if then. Resurrecting them would be a huge waste of time for a monster that can do something harmful instead.

[Grudge]

I don't think that this monster should come with ogre packs because it could not use its miasma without hitting its minions. This would either mean that the melee ogres would die in an even shorter than normal period of time, or the oni would not be able to use one of its major powers.

[duvessa]

Monsters are almost always less dangerous in packs, that is normal in crawl.

[Sar]

Are those bunny ears? That's pretty kawaii.

[Grudge]

They are intended to be horns.

[njvack]

If Oni traditionally enslaved ogres (and traveled with ogre packs) it could inner flame its buddies. Not that Inner Flame is super dangerous in Depths, but it's more dangerous than a standalone ogre.