New Naga Unique - Stheno

[LoopyLeo]

So I was sitting on the toilet, when I got to thinking about Crawl. I then came up with an idea for a new Unique, based off of Medusa - I know she wasn't actually a Naga, so don't hate

Name: Stheno

Description: Sister of the fabled femme fatal Medusa, Stheno comes from the surface in search of vengeance against her sister's killer- and anyone else that dares to stand in her way.
She is a deadly shot with a bow - but that should be the least of your worries, she also possesses the drop dead, turn to stone, looks of her late sister.
...

Stheno would be surrounded by a visible aura, which upon being entered by the player, will petrify them.
Stheno will then scurry away, peppering the miserable PC to death with poisoned arrows.

She would be pretty dangerous, especially for melee dudes without MR, but being a Naga, walking away shouldn't be too hard.

Edit: Heavily cleaned up post, as I did it all on mobile originally. Named her Stheno, gave her poisoned arrows and removed some suggestions.

[dynast]

I love it when a gdd post starts with "I was sitting on the toilet".

I like the petrifying aura idea, im all up for things that mess up melee characters.

[Rast]

Name: Medusa
Instead of petrifying aura, give her the petrify spell and blink

[Haelyn]

I like the petrifying aura idea, im all up for things that mess up melee characters.

Nuts to you, I'm almost always a gargoyle fighter X3.

That said, BEING a gargoyle, I wouldn't care about being stoned.

Either way, I like the sound of this unique. I'd love if there was more aura-type usage in the game and a unique is a great way to kick it off. There also isn't a unique I can bring to mind that is based around petrify.

I'm guessing she'd be a snake pits unique, maybe lair? In lair she'd be contending with basilisks and catoblepases so preferably pits.

I do suggest you poison the arrows. Or maybe give them some other effect that would combine well with the petrify aura. Not sure if blink is necessary; it might be more annoying than anything really. Nessos has Blink but I think that's mainly because he's not coded to stay away and pepper with arrows. Not sure why either; orb spiders do it. And it makes me hate them.

[Laraso]

Name: Medusa
Instead of petrifying aura, give her the petrify spell and blink

Wouldn't that basically just make her a basilisk that knows blink

[dowan]

This unique seems pretty close to Lamia. I guess she's named after a different greek monster, but still. There's already a naga unique who peppers you with arrows and blinks away.

Also a ranged enemy with petrify seems kind of mean. I don't know how you're supposed to walk away when you're slow from petrifying.

[dynast]

Liches have petrify and nobody gives a damn. Also Lamia was a mesmerizing nuker.

[Haelyn]

This unique seems pretty close to Lamia. I guess she's named after a different greek monster, but still. There's already a naga unique who peppers you with arrows and blinks away.

Also a ranged enemy with petrify seems kind of mean. I don't know how you're supposed to walk away when you're slow from petrifying.

Perhaps it'd be better to focus on the idea of a petrify aura here. That's what I really like about the unique so far.

[Shtopit]

Medusa had wings, and snakes as hair. Poison? Multiple attacks? Flight? In general, her portraits were used to cause fear in the enemies. Add a fear effect, so that you can't get closer and axe her while she's petrifying you? Make the aura disappear when she's blind or cannot see the player or is herself invisible? Give her invisibility, to be used as an escape option, instead of an aggressive spell like Sigmund's?

[LoopyLeo]

Thanks for all the positive comments

She wouldn't really need blink if she was coded to run away, I forgot about Orb Spiders, and that such a conduct was already in the game
I think it could be pretty cool if blinding her turned off her aura as well.
If you wanted to give her wings as well, if only to keep up flavor, I'm sure that'd be fine too.
I hadn't really thought about branded attacks, but poison could be quite thematic as well, so why not?

As for her location, I'm not really too fussed, but I'm sure snake pit would be fine- or even earlier if you feel like being evil

[yesno]

crawl already has uniques directly named for or representing mythological figures (asterion, arachne, mara, ereshkigal, tiamat, ... ) so if you like the idea just make an actual medusa unique instead why not

[Laraso]

Medusa had wings, and snakes as hair. Poison? Multiple attacks? Flight? In general, her portraits were used to cause fear in the enemies. Add a fear effect, so that you can't get closer and axe her while she's petrifying you? Make the aura disappear when she's blind or cannot see the player or is herself invisible? Give her invisibility, to be used as an escape option, instead of an aggressive spell like Sigmund's?

A flying invisible hydra with poison melee that causes fear if you get too close and petrifies you if you try to run away sounds like an autoexplore death-trap on wheels, and even more of a mess than Bai Suzhen

[Shtopit]

Medusa had wings, and snakes as hair. Poison? Multiple attacks? Flight? In general, her portraits were used to cause fear in the enemies. Add a fear effect, so that you can't get closer and axe her while she's petrifying you? Make the aura disappear when she's blind or cannot see the player or is herself invisible? Give her invisibility, to be used as an escape option, instead of an aggressive spell like Sigmund's?

A flying invisible hydra with poison melee that causes fear if you get too close and petrifies you if you try to run away sounds like an autoexplore death-trap on wheels, and even more of a mess than Bai Suzhen

My idea was that she should be coded to only use invisibility to try and run away, a bit like Prince Something with teleport, and that her auras (fear and petrify) are deactivated when she's not visible to the player or cannot see the player. So it's just a flying hydra with poison melee that causes fear and petrifies you if you are in LOS. Still easier than Mara, IMHO.

[Haelyn]

A flying invisible hydra with poison melee that causes fear if you get too close and petrifies you if you try to run away sounds like an autoexplore death-trap on wheels, and even more of a mess than Bai Suzhen

I don't think he was suggesting ALL of those.

Also I really liked fighting Bai Suzhen? it was a really unique unique, actually. Lovely~

[Rast]

Name: Medusa
Instead of petrifying aura, give her the petrify spell and blink

Wouldn't that basically just make her a basilisk that knows blink

Fine, she doesn't need blink.

[Arrhythmia]

A good name would be either of Medusa's sisters: Euryale and Stheno. I like Stheno, as it sounds particularly snake-ish!

[yesno]

A good name would be either of Medusa's sisters: Euryale and Stheno. I like Stheno, as it sounds particularly snake-ish!

medusa's sisters arent nagas! theyre gorgons! like medusa!