Abyss Ambulator
Posts: 1244
Joined: Thursday, 10th March 2011, 19:45
Species Proposal - Giant Orange Brain
Equipment:
As they have no normal body parts, they would use equipment differently than other species. Giant orange brains have an innate psychic force field that allows them to levitate themselves and move around (permanent flying) and also allows them to pick up and interact with equipment.
Items in inventory would work just like a normal species, however while they cannot directly wear or wield weapons, armour etc, they can focus on particular items, putting them in equipment slots similarly to other species.
As they gain in experience, their control of their innate force field increases, increasing the number of items they can equip at one time. I would suggest starting with 1 equipment slot at XL1, then gaining an additional 1 every 5 levels, resulting in a maximum of 6 at Xl26 - this is fewer than a normal species, but they would have greater flexibility on what type of equipment to use.
There are no restrictions on the types of equipment they could use. For example if they have 5 equipment slots, they could equip 3 shields and 2 pairs of boots, or 2 amulets, a weapon and two body armours.
Since they don't actually wear the equipment, they don't gain the base AC or GDR from any equipped armour. However, equipping armour does give them AC equal to the enchantment value of the armour - so equipping a +10 plate would give 10 AC. They also don't suffer any encumbrance penalties from equipped armour.
They are unable to train the Armour skill since they can't physically wear the armour.
They can swap any piece of equipment with any other piece of equipment in the same time as a normal species can swap jewelry.
They are unaffected by curses as they don't actually physically touch the equipment. (Alternatively, they could be affected normally by curses as the effects are psychological and not just physical.)
They can equip more than one weapon at a time. This does not allow them to "dual wield" - only the first weapon equipped in the primary weapon slot can be used for attacks, any other equipped weapons would just give effects like resistances etc. Similarly, only the first shield could be used for blocking.
Nutrition:
Since they don't have a mouth or a digestive system, they do not eat food. Instead they gain nutrition by feeding on the intelligence of defeated enemies. Whenever they kill an intelligent monster, they gain some nutrition, with more intelligent enemies giving greater value.
They can still use potions by absorbing the magical energy of the potion directly into themselves.
Restrictions:
They cannot use transmutations that affect body parts they do not have, eg Stoneskin or Blade Hands. They can use transmutations that affect the entire body, eg Spider Form.
Similarly they are immune to many physical mutations that would affect non-existent body parts.
Due to their innately weird and mutated nature, they are vulnerable to silver.
Religion:
If they are immune to the effects of cursed equipment, they would be unable to worship Ashenzari. Maybe Zin would also dislike them because they are weird and mutated.
Stats and aptitudes:
I haven't thought of the exact aptitudes for everything, but since they are GIANT BRAINS, they should be more adept with mental (magical) skills than physical ones and get better Int than the other stats. (Their str and dex represent the power and finesse of their force field since they don't have muscles etc.)
They cannot train armour as they can't wear it. However, they can still train unarmed combat, as their force field allows them to telekinetically "punch" adjacent enemies.