Propose new species below in separate sections using the format of an existing proposed species. If the development team feels the background should be considered for inclusion, it should be moved from this page to its own page for further detailing.
by SomeFlowers
God choice is usually a fairly permanent option. This race has the opportunity to switch gods a bit more freely, but if they don't swap often enough, suffer divine wrath. This race might swap from Trog to Yredelemnul to Fedhas to Chei to TSO to Kiku all in one game. This race is for the players who want more randomness in Gods, with a little bit more predictability than Xom.
Cherubs are angelic beings loved by the gods for their striking beauty. Even Beogh has been known to have a sweet spot for them. However, being a magnet for divine attention has it's drawbacks as well…
-10% HP
average MP
9 str, 9 int, 9 dex
Human stat-gain
“Divine Attention” - innate faith ability, and every 15000 turns attracts the attention of a new god. (Similar to Beogh status granted by Orc Priests). When you have a new god's attention you can convert to them, maintaining 25% of current piety and suffering no other penalty. However, after 6000 turns of having a god's attention, the god gets jealous and causes divine wrath until you either convert (again, beogh-like coversion with orc priests), or wait until you get the attention of another god. (15k turns for basic timer - 6k to make new god wrathful = 9k turns until new god attention).
You are beloved by the gods! (See above)
Aptitudes
Fighting: +0 Armor: -1 Spellcasting: +1
Short Blades: -1 Dodging: -1 Conjurations: -1
Long Blades: -1 Stealth: +2 Hexes: -1
Axes: -1 Charms: +1
Maces & Flails: -1 Shields: +0 Summonings: -1
Polearms: -1 Necromancy: +1
Staves: -1 Translocations: -1
Unarmed: -1 Transmutation: -1
Fire Magic: -1
Throwing: +0 Ice Magic: -1 Invocations: +3
Slings: +0 Air Magic: -1 Evocations: +1
Bows: -1 Earth Magic: -1
Crossbows: -1 Poison Magic: -1 Experience: 110
Summary: Neqoxem is a Neqoxec meets Human (hence the 'em in the name). Their aptitudes mostly suck with a few exceptions. They can temporarily gain INT, HP and Nutrition from melee-killed enemies.
Neqoxem are a hybrid humanoid race resulting from an demonologist experiment feared for their evil cunning, loathsome appearance, and their gruesome ways to kill. They are generally genetically unable to breed further, due to an odd number of chromosomes disrupting meiosis. They possess tremendous magical power and their transmuting skills are beyond any other race and experienced Neqoxem can further mutate themselves at will. However if Neqoxem does not devour fresh brains for an extended period of time, Neqoxem's brains start to degenerate slowly. Due to their strange diet the Neqoxem have naturally adapted to be resistant to poison and rotting. However due their half-human genetics they are prone to torment and mutations.
Abilities and aptitudes
Str: 5 (6 is human norm) Int: Varies by diet, 1 being lowest after a long diet. Players start with 5 INT. Can get temporarily very high given player kills high-INT high-HD enemies in rapid succession. Dex: 8 (6 is human norm) AC: 4 EV: 9 (10 is human norm) MR: x4 multiplier (bit less than a Naga) Humanoid with restricted head and ring slots, rPois+, rRot. Vulnerable to holy damage and cannot worship holy gods, e.g. Demonic.
: Aptitudes are generally mediocre-to-bad, except for Unarmed, Spellcasting and Transmutations. Particularly bad at weapons and shields, due mutated appendages. No favoured weapon. Cannot wear helmets or armour other than robes and animal skins. Cannot wear rings but can wear amulets.
At level 15 gets “Mutate other” ability (1000 turns cooldown), which can be used against enemies as a smiting attack to anyone in LOS.
Neqoxem have a Drain Brain attack that is effectively an auto-triggered feature when attacking with melee and the enemy dies from the attack. This attack works as a normal melee attack so its dodgable, and only drains brains from creatures with brains.
Neqoxem are carnivores that gain a nutrition, health and intelligence bonus from eating brains. Their nutrition score is like with normal creatures.
The intelligence gained from said brain would be 0.25 times the HD of the creature, so if you kill an enemy with 4 HD you gain 1 INT. The duration of the said boost would depend on the HD of the creature. Larger creature, longer boost. Say you gain 10 turns of boost per every HD as a starter so from 4 HD enemy you'd have the INT for 40 turns.
A brain is defined by what it came from, its size, and its intelligence. Brains begin at a baseline of 1000 nutrition, the same as a chunk, and go down from there thanks to fractional multipliers such as small size, animal intelligence, etc. Naturally, there will be special cases such as giant orange brains and ettins. The more brain nutrition that a Neqoxem has in its head, the more its EV decreases due the enlarged head, but this would be fairly subtle as
Brains cannot be extracted from a corpse, so the Neqoxem has to hit with a successful melee attack to extract the brains of the living victim if it wants to gain the benefits.
by AceSV
I am a fan of Dwarves. I'm okay with the Tolkienian Mountain Dwarves being removed in favor of the mythical Dvergar, but Deep Dwarves are too gimmicky for me due to their inability to heal naturally. Furthermore, there are many races that make armor useless (Spriggans, Draconians, Ogres, Trolls, Magic users), but few that are particularly skilled with it, so I thought it would be fun to make a race that specifically specializes in armor. To further differentiate them from their former rivals, HO and Mi, Iron Dwarves are “average” with weapons and spells. I'm not sure if the following build would be balanced, but I tried to build around +4 Armor, +3 Shield while staying similar in total to DD, DE, HO and Mi.
Highlights: Super high Armor and Shield skill, High Invo/Evocations, Mediocre at best weapon and spell casting abilities, slow move speed, but poison resistance and sense surroundings.
Iron Dwarves are the descendants of Deep Dwarf adventurers and outcasts who left their deep homelands in search of freedom. They live closer to the surface than their ancestors, competing for land with goblins, kobolds, orcs and ogres. Unlike their plundering neighbors, Iron Dwarves prefer to dig in and defend, besiege and outlast their opponents. Iron Dwarves aren't quite as “civilized” as humans or elves, but not as bad as their neighbors either.
Explanations: Having once shared the Deep Dwarves' lack of healing, Iron Dwarves became obsessed with defense. Over many generations, damage resistance mutated into sickness and poison resistance. Constantly besieged by undead, Iron Dwarves grew to despise their ancestors' practice of Necromancy. Using whatever means they had to survive their exodus, Iron Dwarves surpassed their ancestors in spellcasting, but prefer befuddling their opponents to blasting them. Likewise, Iron Dwarves grew to rely heavily on religion and magic items.
Sense Surroundings 1 (like Deep Dwarves) Slow Moving (like Nagas) Poison Resistance 1 (maybe at a later level) - (Add Fast Metabolism or Slow Healing if unbalanced) Dwarven equipment bonus
Backgrounds that would usually start out with robes start with a dwarven leather armor instead. Backgrounds that would start with a Short Sword (like Hunter) start with a Hammer instead. All weapons and armor are of “dwarven” quality, when such variants exist.
Iron Dwarves gain a Strength or Intelligence (equal chance) increase every 4 levels starting at level 4. Iron Dwarves have 10% more HP than average. Iron Dwarves have average MP Iron Dwarves gain 4 magic resistance per level.
+2 Fighting -3 Short Blades 0 Long Blades 0 Axes 0 Maces & Flails -2 Polearms -1 Staves -1 Unarmed Combat
-1 Throwing 0 Slings -3 Bows 0 Crossbows
+4 Armor -3 Dodging -2 Stealth -3 Stabbing +3 Shields +1 Traps & Doors
+3 Invocations +3 Evocations (Decrease if unbalanced)
0(+2?) Spellcasting -2 Conjurations 0 Hexes 0 Charms -1 Summonings -3 Necromancy -1 Translocation 0 Transmutation
0 Fire Magic 0 Ice Magic 0 Air Magic 0 Earth Magic 0 Poison Magic
Exp 130
by AceSV
A Kitsune is a Japanese fox spirit creature known for cunning intelligence, the abilility to change shape (especially into attractive women), the ability to conjure flames or sometimes lightning, and to possess or charm people.
I felt that the Kitsune's transforming and charming could offer a unique style of play for DCSS. I like hybrid types too, so I tried to allow a mix of spells and fangs.
Fox Form - The Kitsune's true and default form. For game purposes, probably identical to a Felid.
Human Form - At level 3, the Kitsune can learn to transform into a human's shape, gaining the ability to fully manipulate items but losing fox form's natural weapons and other mutations. Armor, etc, that can be equipped in human form, but not in fox form melds to the player and returns when they assume human form again (like a merfolk's shoes).
(According to legend, kitsune cannot hide features like their ears and tail.) (For fun, a kitsune could revert to its fox form when surprised or under stress, for example on LOW HITPOINT WARNING, critical hits, when confused, forcibly teleported, etc.)
Charm - At level 6 Kitsune gain the Enslavement spell as an ability. Same MP cost, hunger, etc. Could split to Charm Animals in Fox Form, which would only work on animals like Jackals, Rats, Worms, etc, and Charm Humanoids in Human Form, which would work on Goblins, Ogres, Elves and so forth. A tip should appear if the player tries to use these abilities on the wrong target, such as “The -target monster- doesn't find your present form attractive…”
??? Possession ??? - According to legend, Kitsune can possess people (Kitsunetsuki). I don't know how plausible this would be from a programming perspective, so I will simply mention the possibility and move on.
Kyuubi Form - At level 9 (or higher) Kitsune learn to transform into the 9-tailed godlike Kyubi. In Kyubi form, Kitsune gain,
- Quickly regenerate HP (maybe) - Quickly regenerate MP - +3 boost to Str, Int, Dex - Speed 3 - Detect Monsters (like Antennae 3) - Increased AC & MR - Lighting fast metabolism (and possibly cannot eat if overpowered) - Cannot Pray or use religious abilities - Gain less EXP in this form - Like fox form, cannot manipulate or equip items, same sharp claws and fangs.
(A Kitsune that attains the rank of Kyubi is said to be akin to the gods, so given its massive boost to powers, it makes sense to restrict its religious abilities, like a DemiGod, in this form. Perhaps only Kitsune who are not religious to begin with can learn/use Kyubi form. )
??? Blood Drinking ??? - According to some stories I've heard, a Kitsune needs to drink blood like a Vampire rather than eat, in fox or human form. This is not a universal trait of Kitsune folklore, but might be fun to reuse blood drinking and the Potion of Blood for another race.
Since Kitsune cannot learn human form until level 3, they do not start with any equipment, but all start with Unarmed Combat and Spell Casting.
Bad Str Good Int Good Dex
(As Kitsune are foxes at heart, they find human weapons and armor confusing, even when in human form. )
+2 Fighting -1 Short Blades -2 Long Blades -2 Axes -2 Maces & Flails -2 Polearms -1 Staves +2 Unarmed Combat
-1 Throwing -3 Slings -3 Bows -3 Crossbows
-3 Armor +3 Dodging +3 Stealth +3 Stabbing -2 Shields -2 Traps & Doors
-1 Invocations -2 Evocations
+2 Spellcasting 0 Conjurations +2 Hexes +2 Charms -1 Summonings -2 Necromancy -1 Translocation 0 Transmutation
+3 Fire Magic 0 Ice Magic +2 Air Magic 0 Earth Magic -1 Poison Magic
HP -2 MP +2 Exp 140
2785272: involuntary (uncontrolled) shapechanging at first, from nymph form into tree form (the latter a bit like statue form). Later on controlled.
2565207 by tfon: “air elemental”.
2565477 by tfon: “fire elemental”.
— drpraetor 2010-02-23 05:16 :: As an alternative, I'm very fond of the Abysians from the dominions games. There's tremendous overlap in schtick (and we wouldn't have both), so:
In addition to the no-scrolls conduct, they'd be excellent armoured casters.
Comment by ahyangyi 2010-02-23 14:57: I like this one. (probably because there's a tremendous overlap with my Efreet below)
Some comparisons between my Efreet and Abysian:
The first two are just because Efreet and Abysians are different; The RoF thing is just worse than fire trail thing. But the other 3 may be worth considering.
Ahyangyi's efreet implementation available here: http://rapidshare.com/files/354705986/crawl-ref-93xx-edited-ahyangyi.rar.html
Ahyangyi is proposing to make a single entry for the scroll-limited race.
2565537 by tfon: “water elemental”.
1817776 by eronarn and greyknight: The basic idea is that of a species where the player undergoes metamorphosis. Some possible stages for metamorphosis:
Additional abilities to be possibly used: leap, fly. Abilities need not be ever increasing, could lose some upon changing stage (gaining new ones presumably).
The metamorphosis could be done in various ways: single turn or elaborate ritual; automatic or activated; choice of next stage or not (as the stages should fork). E.g.
Religion-less (a la DG), worshipping only the Hive. Piety from laying eggs (and destroying other insects?) and coming closer to the Hive. Uses of piety not worked out yet.
Just mentioning: magnopteran, formian castes, instar. See FR for more details.
— Psiweapon 2013-01-18 20:34 :I like this idea A LOT, so here is a CRAPLOAD of suggestions and some caveats:
Reasoned skill suggestions:
Suggestion for piety uses:
2784439: Change of shape, between normal form and wereform (fang. claw, faster, less stealth). Werefoo can possibly tame monsters of the same type (rats, jackals, wolves).
Triggering the transformation: Either by (randomised) turncount (this simulates phases); or by hunger (going below Foo satiation); or becoming enraged.
I'd like to see the werewolf race made playable as well. Some ideas I've brainstormed up: As far as aptitudes go, however, I'm thinking that making all weapon skills average but unarmed skill a bit slower to learn might be interesting, provided it's balanced by the innate unarmed attacks in wolf form being stronger by a significant amount (after all, can't wield weapons with paws). Hopefully, this leads to using normal weaponry when in human form, but switching to a more powerful bare-handed fighter when in wolf form, sort of like a flavorful version of the rage mutation (but discouraging players from just sticking to unarmed attacks full-time). It might also be interesting to allow players of the race to trigger the mutation through abilities, although they'd have limited (read: nearly impossible) success until they have a fair few levels under their belt (controlling lycanthropy is hard, and it would prevent them from having Trog powers from the word go). Armour can be average, but you lose gloves, boots, and helmets (probably body armour as well but I could see that staying) upon shifting, so they should probably have decent Dodging. With regards to magic, I think that they should have below-average aptitudes in that area, barring Transmutations and possibly Enchantment for obvious reasons. The rest of their skills that I cannot remember right now can be average.
The result is a species that has to be careful in situations to ensure that they don't lose their resistances from armour or their special weapons at the wrong time, but can also make use of shifting to take down tough physical foes if they've got good timing. Please offer feedback and suggestions! kalir
This one has been criticised for being over-specialised, i.e. completely enforcing a certain playing style.
1966082 by tiki: Undead species. Similar to ghoul in skills, but less fighting oriented, and even better at necromancy and ice magic. Carnivore (no rotting like ghouls). Poor stats; increases in stealth very fast, and gain a few powers as it levels:
Other features:
dpeg: Shadows are a monster, which is quite unrelated to the proposal. Also, I am not too fond of abilities gained upon levelling.
2842367 by banei. Modified by banei.
Starting stats: 8 str, 8 int, 15 dex
At each 2nd XP level: gains 1 point of str
At each 5th XP level: gains 1 point of dex
No choice of stat increase at each 3rd level
Wearable equipment: amulets, rings (wears them as earrings), cap or wizard hat, cloak
Attacks with one bite and two claws(+2) per round
Loses claw attacks if wielding something.
Unable to hold a shield
movement speed +1, increases to speed +2 at level 14 (adult)
Saprovore +1
Carnivore +2, increases to carnivore +3 at level 14 (adult)
1 AC from fur, additional 1 AC each 3 levels
Weak to fire (+1)
Sticky flame lasts twice as long if not wearing positively enchanted cloak.
Trouble reading books and scrolls (blurry eyes effect, but written as “difficult understanding of written language”)
Cursed status on items has no effect (can always remove the item)
Has a chance to stun for 1 turn when stabbing (modified by HD)
Active ability: Shadow Lunge
Each 6th level, the homocanis will learn a random spell from the following list: Tame beasts, stoneskin, slow, resist poison, repel missiles, flame tongue, freeze, insulation, detect traps, detect creatures, corona, confusing touch, cause fear, call canine familiar, blink, berserker's rage, abjuration
(Optional) Spells cast by the homocanis use twice the mana, cause twice the glow, and make no noise
(Optional) Refuses to serve evil gods
Strong skill aptitudes: fighting, unarmed combat, dodging, stealth, stabbing
Medium skill aptitudes: spellcasting, traps&doors, invocations, divinations
by bongobill
Here's a concept that plays with the ordinary hunger structure. A Devourer is a huge, disgusting glutton of a creature which exists to consume everything it can get its hands on. Mechanically, it should reward eating as much as possible, frequently as soon as possible.
It seems to me that a good way to accomplish this would be for a Devourer to gain experience solely through nutrition, so that eating rather than fighting is what increases level. (Naturally, this would require a very odd experience curve for Devourers, as the experience gain in the dungeon is balanced far differently from the food availability.) A Devourer would be unable to starve to death; rather, advanced stages of starvation cause degeneration of its stats, which can be restored by eating. Stat death, rather than death by starvation, is the fate of Devourers who don't keep moving.
An alternative interpretation would be to multiply the experience gained by some factor based (logarithmically) on the nutrition level, which would have some absurdly large cap that might, in fact, be impossible to reach. At anything less than satiated, you accumulate XP slower than a comparable character; above it, you accumulate it faster.
This species would increase in size as its level increases, gaining access to new weapon and armor types but possibly losing access to older ones. It would also be appropriate to give it a fairly powerful bite attack which also causes enemies killed with it to be eaten in the same movement. Balancing this against a poor racial aptitude for most or all weapons appears a natural choice. Very certainly it requires good deal of resistance, if not outright immunity, to food-borne harmful effects, very likely inherently gaining many of the bonuses of the Amulet of the Gourmand.
One could imagine further variations on the idea. Slow skill growth all around, but with the ability to consume an item to speed improvement in the associated skill. An exceptionally high vulnerability to poison. Metabolism-altering effects could have serious consequences. And, of course, the physiology of the Devourer is entirely up in the air, producing the possibility of filling any needed combination of skill aptitudes.
Replaces the superior stealth of the “shadow” proposal with limited sight range. Flavortext explains the place of shadows and phantoms in Crawl mythology.
Plays like the phantom monster: hard to hit, blinky, weak. Can track monsters from afar after devouring their shadows, partially compensating for the phantom's poor sight range.
Normal shadows are lingering reminders of things that are no more, used as fuel for the spells of necromancers and summoners but otherwise unheeded. However, when necromancers stir up these minor shadows with their dark arts, they create eddies and vortices that - once in a great while - manifest as phantoms, pitch-black beings harboring will, intellect, and intense disdain for the foolish mortals that stirred them.
Phantoms can shift like the shadows they are, translocating themselves instantly, and are nearly as imperceptible as shadows. In fact, since a phantom is a highly localized distortion of light and space, it cannot be perceived by beings at a great distance, and neither can it perceive them. As much as phantoms hate to admit it, their greatest strengths lie in the dark arts of summoning and necromancy that birthed them.
Aptitudes are pretty close to those of other undead.
— minced [6/02/10]
A race with magical chaos boiling in their veins, complicating combat and spellcasting in several ways.
The Fey are beings of raw, unfettered magic, so that their very lifeblood glows with chaotic essence and their brightly colored skin is cris-crossed with ever-shifting arcane sigils. Due to their metaphysical nature, Fey suffer no ill effect from the magical contamination that plagues all other spellcasters. Rather, they endure a greater curse: they can only cast spells with their own lifeblood, risking death if they abuse their cantrips. The Fey are often in more danger from themselves than from outsiders, for spilling a Fey's blood releases the chaos within.
Fey are like trolls: they have some abilities that are incredibly powerful, but must overcome several obstacles to survive long-term. Casting spells from lifeblood seems good at first, but a Fey with low HP has little in the way of escape mechanisms - plus, lack of channeling HURTS. Melee is downright dangerous in early game due to glow issues, subpar in late game due to low apts.
* I like the general idea (glow mechanics), but hate the flavor. This seems more suited to some type of ugly thing. — brendan 2010-06-23 16:09
I have only raw idea, without any background. Feel free to create any race around it
Race X can't learn spells form books at all, but it gets random spells with gaining levels. Probably spells should be slightly influenced by the skill level, so fire elementalists would get fire spells reliably but still can get Ice Form
Same as above + race can't read at all, books and scrolls are totally useless
they can learn spells normally, but random spells take valuable slots and can't be unlearned even with Sif Muna's help— strobgpoint 2010-08-09 18:00
You were created by a mad scientist bla bla bla I hate writing lore so I'll just get straight into it.
The player would basically be like a monster golem, great resistances and unliving, which means torment immunity, can't quaff potions or eat food. The resistances should come at certain level intervalls stacking up to maybe full resists at XL27. Perhaps starts of with rPois, rN+++. And gains a level of rC, rF, rElec, rAcid etc as it levels up. I'm also considering the player race to not being able to wear anything at all, no jewels no nothing. However would be cool if they had an innate base AC that gets higher with XL that works with the armour skill, so higher armour skill = higher AC for your character.
For the level intervalls where you gain resistances your golem will also be “renamed” and recoloured, from stone golem to metal golem, to crystal golem or so.
I've also got some ideas for making elemental skills have various effects on your golem, the highest of your elemental skills will cause affects like adding the element to your UC attacks and perhaps some other affect, like a high skill in air would give your character a constant flight status, and a lower level of air would enable you to evoke levitation. Also the higher the elemental skill the more added damage to your UC.
I was thinking that all elemental skills should have 2 different added effects one that requires a lower level of skill and that you can have all of if you have enough skill in each elemental tree. The 2nd skill requires a higher elemental skill and only your highest elemental skill will give you the effect (or the first to reach 27 if you got 2 or more skills on the same lvl). Now I haven't really worked out what they would be but here are some suggestions
Air: 1st skill = levitation, 2nd = flight. Fire: 1st = conserve scrolls, 2nd = fiery envelope (monsters standing next to you take some fire damage) Ice: 1st = ???, 2nd = Icy envelope Earth: 1st = minor AC bonus, 2nd = ???
Yet another idea going in the elemental fashion combined with draconians is that at level 7 or so you turn into a fire/air/earth/ice golem depending on what your highest elemental skill is or if you have no elemental skill it randomly picks one, depending on what you get your apts will change a little bit and the order of how you gain your resistances will change, (fire golem would get fire resistances earlier and cold resistances later on or maybe end up at rF+++ rC++ instead of both at +++).
Preliminary Apts: Air: -1, Armour: 0, Axes: -4, Bows: -4, Charms: -2, Conj: -2, Xbows: -4, Dodge: -3, Earth: -1, Evo: 2, Exp: 130, Fighting: 1, Fire: -1, Hexes: -3, Ice: -1, Inv: 0, Long: -4, Maces: -4, Nec: -3, Poison: -3, Polearms: -4, Shields: -4, Short: -4, Slings: -4, Splcast: -2, Stab: -3, Staves: -4, Stealth: -2, Summ: -3, Throw: -4, Tloc: -2, Tmut: -2, Traps: 2, Unarmed: 2
Since a golem is unliving it should perhaps not be allowed to worship any god? Tho the cylons were machines and they worshipped a god… :D
Anywho it's not alot right now and I know there's alot of features that could be added, I'm trying to think of ways of how the player could interact with dungeon walls in some ways, or perhaps only a golem with high enough earth magic could do something with it. Well to sum up, I need feedback and new ideas. Tho if the race is detested by devs please let me know aswell so I don't have to put “more” thought into it :)
— rkd 2011-06-11 17:46
I like the idea of a golem race, but I think that Curio's design is much more interesting and fleshed out than yours. — galehar 2011-06-11 23:20
I was browsing the SF patch tracker when I stumbled upon an old idea of mine.
The original proposal and implementation by Justin White was, “Adds a new race, notable for great close-combat ability, halved vision range, and a bad case of shoutitis. An attempt to help with the effort to further differentiate character races: the vision range change drastically changes how the player feels about ranged monsters (not as scary), exploration (much more food-consuming), and fast monsters (absolutely terrifying). … mutations grow in gradually so the player doesn't waltz through the early game so easily.”
I played a couple of Grues (in the original implementation), then brainstormed a bit and came up with the following spin-off version:
“I love the idea of playing as a Grue. However, the current implementation doesn't feel very Gruesome (I changed the adjective in my local copy :)) to me. Sorry!
The way I see it, Grues should be insanely good at Stabbing, or have you ever heard of a Grue victim that was able to fight back? In fact, both Stealth and Stabbing seem like a Grue's natural strengths. Unfortunately, the shout mutation goes completely counter to this idea, and IMHO doesn't even make a lot of sense. I'm also not a fan of the many physical mutations from the beginning (maybe cut the talons?), though I like that horns grow with the level. (Maybe that could be extended to fangs and/or claws as well.)
Btw, this is all brainstorming and not a finished concept, either.
In my opinion, Grues should be incapable of eating greenery, and they could even feed on stabbing victims alone (they'd have to have a slow metabolism for that, though). If you are killed by the ghost of a Grue, the death message could be “You have been eaten by the Grue” rather than the usual “You die…” :)
A Grue's fighting tactics are unfair and cowardly, and I'd love it if the player were naturally led to such a playing style. Other than having good aptitudes for Stealth and Stabbing, there could be a disadvantage to fighting foes aware of you, maybe in the form of a to-hit, to-dam or evasion penalty. Alternatively, Grues could be simply extremely fragile (sorta like slow, carnivorous and vision-impaired Spriggans). At the same time I'd really like shouting (which is usually a bad idea because of said disadvantages in combat) to be occasionally useful, maybe with a low-power fear effect.
Skillwise, Grues would be really good (as I already said) at Stealth and Stabbing, good in Unarmed Combat, above average in Fighting, Necromancy, Transmigrations, Translocations and Poison Magic, below average in Invocations, Spellcasting, Air Magic and Summoning, and bad in all forms of ranged combat (including Conjurations) as well as Dodging and Polearms.
I imagine them to be yet another small species, and I'd set the vision range to 5 rather than 4.” — jpeg 2011-09-03 10:59
Wow, I can't believe that saw the light of day again. I maintain that the original race as I implemented it was interesting but poorly named. I'd like to see a similar concept (vision reducing, shouty, strong) because it did play very well in practice. Perhaps change to Shadow, since that fits and the other major vision-reducer is associated with them? Vision range of 5 might be necessary but if square LOS is implemented then 4 is fine (right now being attacked by a snake from a diagonal is horrific, but from a side no problem). The reason for the good ranged and conjuration aptitudes in the original version was because they're hurt very badly by shortsightedness, so why not tempt the player to make an interesting tradeoff?
As for actual Grues… I definitely agree they would be an entertaining thing to have in the game. My own roguelike (in dev limbo, unfortunately) had them too: but it had light sources, so they worked very naturally. The basic concept of a Grue is something unbeatably deadly when you can't see it, that's so frail when you can see it that it might as well not exist (because it's hiding). The best analogue to light sources in Crawl is how many monsters can see you (in LOS and aware). So my idea would be that the Grue is slow, stealthy, durable, and horribly powerful in melee - when nothing can see it. When many things can see it, it becomes fast, less stealthy, extremely frail, and useless at combat. So you'd sneak up on a lone monster and try to rip it to shreds in one shot, then if it survived it'd wake up and see you, so you become much less powerful (perhaps still above human though, the disadvantage is quite big), then if it shouts and wakes up other monsters, you switch to cowering mode and have to run away until they lose interest or you can lure one from the pack. I don't think this version would need shouting or reduced LOS at all to work (though slightly reduced LOS would still be fun), it seems pretty solid by itself.
Come to think of it, you really don't need more than two sets of properties: the difference in abilities between “nobody can see you” and “one guy can see you” is equivalent to a large stabbing bonus.
So - one or less monsters see you: claws, fangs, possibly other aux attack mutations, huge stabbing bonus, covers ground slowly, carnivorous, and extra thick fur. Two or more monsters see you: covers ground quickly, “too timid to fight”, and none of the armor or attacks. Aptitudes exactly as you said. — squashmonster 2011-09-04 10:11
by The Mantis
loses health slowly - degen 1.
Attacks are vampiric according to this formula: (Player Level/3 * DAMAGE / Monster HD %).
deformed 3
unbreathing
AC and Stealth bonuses at level 10.
Can only get good mutations.
Resistances
rF+++ Acid damage applies stat degeneration. rCorr (immune)
Garaithi can only wear very heavy armour.
Aptitudes
| Fighting | Short Blades | Long Blades | Axes | Maces & Flails | Polearms |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 0 | -1 | -1 | -3 | -2 | +2 |
| Staves | Unarmed Combat | Throwing | Slings | Bows | Crossbows |
| 3! | -1 | -1 | +2 | -3 | -3 |
| Armour | Dodging | Stealth | Stabbing | Shields | |
| 5! | 0 | +1 | -4 | +2 | |
| Traps & Doors | Invocation | Evocation | Spellcasting | Conjurations | Enchantments |
| 3! | +1 | +2 | +2 | 4! | +1 |
| Summoning | Necromancy | Translocation | Transmutation | Fire Magic | Ice Magic |
| 0 | -4 | 4! | 4! | 4! | -2 |
| Air Magic | Earth Magic | Poison Magic | Hexes | Charms | Experience |
| +1 | -1 | -2 | +1 | 5! | 180 |
Feedback
What — mrmistermonkey 2011-07-17 21:13
by Saegor
treefolk (homme-arbre)
very slow move (1.6, slower than a naga)
vulnerability to fire (x..), maybe insulated or resistant to ice but great AC who increase with levels (+2 in the beginning / +4 after level 7 / +6 after level 14 / +8 after level 21) - cruddy EV - vegan/vegetarian (maybe no food clock ?) and mutation resistance greater-or-equal than halflings) 140 or 160 XP mod
+3 for unarmed, earth magic skills
+2 for invocation
+1 for stealth(?), throwing, transmut
0 for traps and doors and evocation
-1 for ice, air, summoning, spellcasting, fighting
-2 for necro, transloc, conjuration
-3 for fire
maybe some special power : regeneration in shallow water, invisibility when adjacent to a tree or so more…
Here's an interesting idea for food issues. The race cannot eat and has a normal (or possibly accelerated) food clock. To gain sustenance, they have an ability called “Root”. When used, they automatically remove boots (if they were allowed them) and attach themselves to the ground and absorb nutrition from the ground. In this state, they gain an AC bonus as their bark hardens, lose evasion and rapidly regain nutrition and maybe bonus hp regeneration. While rooted, they cannot move but can still fight, throw and cast spells. Rooting and unrooting takes time, say 5 or 10 rounds. This would make for an interesting tactical choice, picking good locations to root when hungry and it could be used both offensively and defensively. To prevent abuse, root would only fill them up to a limited nutrition cap. If they were forced to root fairly often, you could make them a bit faster (say the same speed as nagas), just so quite as slow to explore with. Translocating while rooted would cause massive root trauma and inflict a lot damage to them. — rosetintedglasses 2011-07-23 08:07
Siber's 2886123. Names that have been proposed:
Liaisons between members of the heavenly host and mortals are much rarer the trysts of demons or the dalliances of the gods, but they are not unknown. The children of these unions begin life as normal humans, but as they live their lives their inherited glory strives to make itself known.
Heavenborn (new names are fine if anyone has better ideas) begin the game nearly human, likely with aptitudes tweaked towards things that would please the good gods and away from things like necromancy. As they level, and perhaps when they do things that would please good gods, they build up Glory. Glory can be spent with racial abilities, and if allowed to build up too much, Bad Things happen. Or at least unpredictable things.
Spending Glory (Manifestation) is unpredictable in itself, but can be somewhat controlled. Essentially, you choose a category of effect, and something is randomly selected from that category based XL and current Glory level. Three categories currently come to mind.
Stockpiling Glory makes your abilities better, but to discourage stockpiling and make walking around with high glory interesting, there has to be some balancing factors. Some possibilities include:
and unusable. This may be too harsh, and makes Heavenborn casters rather disadvantaged.
manifestation costs and glory→glow conversion factors. Mutations from too much Glory may be weighted slightly less towards bad, which may make it less harsh but would still be an expenditure of resources when you probably don't need it, making hording unproductive.
Finally, Heavenborn can only worship good or neutral gods unless they in some way prove their corruptness by engaging in necromancy, poisoning, general unholy acts, or what-have-you. Doing so incurs partial wrath from all good gods.
An interesting note by an unknown player: Demonspawn are chaotic beings, so they have a chaotic form. Celestial powers should be fixed.
New species: corpse-stitcher. Alternate names: rotting hulk, abomination.
A corpse-stitcher is an undead, wiry monster of tendons and sinew that stitches itself a body from corpses. The greater the mass of stitched flesh, the larger it gets. At full health it's a large creature, at 3/4 health it's normal sized, at 2/3 health it's small, and at half or below it's spriggan-sized (ogre armour slots but can wear a shield in any form).
Healing/damage is special. A corpse-stitcher can only heal its true body naturally. To heal the stitched body it needs to stitch corpses (hp gained per MASS of corpse, with cap at ogre size). In essence, this means the larger form is shitty at avoiding damage and can't heal, but gets an HP boost for corpses that's better than a ghoul's.
It eats by killing things (including demons). Think Makhleb but for nutrition.
A possible ability would be to shed all stitched flesh to create an abomination. Since you're spending 1/2 your HP and therefore a ton of corpses to do so, and the abominations are really weak at low HP, I don't think it's overpowered. It might be an ability learned at level 7, meant for characters who prefer to stay at Spriggan size.
Aptitudes:
Resistances: rN+++, rTorment, rMut, rPois
Levelling: sub-ogre HP, sub-ogre STR bonus
Focus: it's a large race that gets undead resists, and the changing size makes for some interesting strategy. You can stay unstitched and be a spriggan, or become large and get a nice damage buffer. Spellcasting is meant to be somewhat difficult due to hunger.
dpeg: Using variable size is interesting but has to wait until we actually have a more consistent size system.
borsuk: This is like current problems with zombies and corpse related abiltiies (god sacrifice etc), only more serious and more game-breaking. If there's not enough corpses in Abyss, Zot, Hells, Tomb, Crypt, Slime Pits, Pandemonium to support corpse-reliant playstyles, what makes you think a race that requires corpses for basic functions could work?
Further information : Comment by eronarn in 2846554
If you want a MP = HP race, here's a much better plan for it:
Contrary to popular belief, not all liches are necromancers, or even spellcasters. Some are priests, while others are powerful warriors who have obtained an immortal form by storing their soul away somewhere others cannot reach it. All have had centuries of study to hone their skills, however.
A lich has both health and magic points. However, they're different from other races: they do NOT die at 0 HP, but instead at 0 MP. 0 HP simply represents the end of a lich's current physical form, and they can construct a new one with time and effort.
When a lich 'dies', it continues to exist as an invisible, intangible spirit — indeed, it is even less tied to the material world than a ghost and can walk through walls and enemies. It can also enter this form voluntarily, which causes its body to fall down as a corpse and begin rotting away. In both cases, their items likewise fall into a pile on the ground. While in spirit form a lich is immune to all physical attacks and most magical ones. It can't interact with items or cast most spells, but it can possess some types of opponents. Existing in this spirit form requires steady consumption of MP.
Even non-spellcaster liches must rely on MP for their sustaining essence. Like all other races, they can regain magical energy from the surrounding area, but this can't come close to supplying the concentrated energies their form of undeath requires - it will only bring them to a low baseline level. This is enough to sustain them, but not enough to let them 'thrive'. Their body will deteriorate rapidly unless they remain above this point.
Unfortunately, liches can't regain (or fortunately, lose) MP from most traditional sources. Their flesh can be reknit, but their spirits are hidden beyond the reach of the gods. Their draining touch will consume many magical items completely, granting MP in the process. Read scrolls are safe, since they're immediately used. Zapped wands may use up an extra charge. Wielded items will be drained rapidly, moreso when evoked, and will soon be destroyed. Read books are consumed, and the knowledge is stored in the mind of the lich instantly. Rings will be consumed.
Summary: Has a spirit form that it can enter willingly or at 0 HP. This offers new possibilities but drains MP. Natural MP regen can only bring them up to a baseline, which they must stay significantly above or face rotting. Have to spend MP at a ratio to heal, or they can make a new body from scratch for a set MP cost. Scrolls are OK, wands take a penalty, evokables are very difficult to use, no rings or potions.
This is far more workable than the OP - liches drinking potions, really? And why is Orc more filled with harnessable magical power than Hells, for a lich? But, even this may be too similar to mummies. The differentiation goal would be that A) mummies can scum indefinitely, liches cannot; B) liches have a spirit form C) mummies can use rings. I still think they would end up far better than mummies, even though significantly weaker than the lich in the OP.
In wiki format:
Proposer XuaXua from this Tavern thread.
CONCEPT: is a Meat Boy. A skinless person and every touch against him is painful.
Proposal emulates meat boy abilities:
Aptitudes are likely unbalanced. Likely need to increase experience penalty and penalize more aptitudes. More concerned with his abilities. Also no existing species one seems to have a mutation vulnerability.
Meat Boy is skinless, so anything touching him causes extra pain. Bows and Crossbows are penalized due to poor ability to manipulate. Aptitudes are likely unbalanced.
Experience 140
by spudwalt
Large, carnivorous creatures with thick, shaggy pelts, yetis hail from the frozen wastelands found in the farthest reaches of the world. While not quite as big or strong as an ogre, they are still imposing brutes capable of wielding the oversized weapons common to large monsters. While their white fur helps camouflage them in the snowfields where they live, it is rather less suitable for hiding in other environments such as a dim, rocky dungeon.
Yetis, while not the brightest of creatures, still have some potential for magic. Living among glaciers and vast snowfields has made them particularly good with Ice Magic, and they're not entirely horrible with Air Magic, Hexes, Charms, and Conjurations. Their voracious appetite allows them to keep themselves well-fed enough to use magic most of the time, though doing so requires a steady supply of fresh meat.
+30% HP
average MP
9 Str, 5 Int, 4 Dex
Gain 1 Str every 3 levels
Any body armor becomes animal skins, any rations are always meat, no other armor, etc.
Fur 3 (+3 AC, rC+, 60% acid reduction)
Carnivore 3
Saprovore 1
Fast metabolism 2
Large (no helmets/boots/body armor, apart from robes/skins/dragon armor)
Aptitudes
Fighting: +2 Armor: -2 Spellcasting: +0
Short Blades: -3 Dodging: -1 Conjurations: -2
Long Blades: -3 Stealth: -3 Hexes: -2
Axes: +1 Stabbing: +1 Charms: -2
Maces & Flails: +1 Shields: +0 Summonings: -3
Polearms: -1 Traps & Doors: -3 Necromancy: -3
Staves: -1 Translocations: -3
Unarmed: +0 Transmutation: -3
Fire Magic: -4
Throwing: +0 Ice Magic: +3 Invocations: +0
Slings: -3 Air Magic: -2 Evocations: -3
Bows: -3 Earth Magic: -3
Crossbows: -3 Poison Magic: -3 Experience: 130
I had thought about maybe calling this a Wendigo instead, but after looking up the mythology, I realised that they're really similar to Ghouls, so I scrapped that idea.
I noticed that one of the unused aptitude combinations was good Ice Magic and bad Stealth/Dodging. To me, that says “big thing what lives in snow”, which instantly translated into “Yeti”. I tried to differentiate Yetis from Ogres and Trolls as much as I could, but it's entirely possible that it's still too same-y to be viable. Admittedly, my rationale behind Yeti stats and aptitudes was basically “like Ogres except slightly worse at physical combat and slightly better at magic, especially Ice”.
If this does get turned into a race, you could easily introduce yeti monsters in places like Ice Caves. Heck, you could introduce those even without making yetis playable.
Proposal by Davion Fuxa from New Species - Werewolf - Focus on Keeping Felids.
The Werewolf or Lycanthrope, is a Man-Wolf Hybrid, brought on my the contraction of the Lycanthrophy curse. It is a Beast-like creature much in line with the thinking of the Felid Species in that it is equipment-less, relying on its natural talents to see itself through to the end of the day. My designed Werewolf was developed to run along the Felid as opposed to replacing them, and as such it was differentiated as much as possible from Felids and Other Species to do so.
How it differentiates itself from the other species comes from its inherent susceptibility to silver and resistance to Fire, Cold, Negative Energy, or Whatever else is added; a focus on catering it to being a fast moving species that prefers a more 'Hit & Commit' strategy as opposed to the 'Hit & Run' strategy of Felids, Centaurs, and Spriggans; and the ability for advanced item manipulation that Felids are incapabable of - though not to the point that they can wield weaponry.
It may also have special abilities as well that are unique to it:
Werewolves wander in a tormented filled rage that they are only too happy to unleash on anything that crosses their path. Afflicted with lycanthropy in one form or another, werewolves are cursed to exist in a twisted and deformed human-wolf form. Never to return to what they once were, never to escape what their transformation has turned them into. The change has caused them to lose some of the sentience found in their former self, but this loss is more then augmented by the animal qualities they have gained.
Strong and Dexterous, with sharp fangs and claws, and thick skin and fur; the werewolf is a crazed predator that slays anything and everything that crosses their path and devours the corpses of the fallen whole. For all the advantages found though in their bestial forms, it does interfere with their ability to properly grasp or hold weapons, and the shape of their paw like hands prevent them from putting on rings. Taking on canine eyes as well, their vision is somewhat blurred and makes it difficult for them to read texts of scrolls or books.
In addition to the qualities of both man and wolf, sinister forces of the lycanthropy curse bestow on werewolf an inherent ability to resist damage from spells, increase their speed, and give them some regeneration from injuries that may be inflicted on them. Of course the nature of the curse is chaotic and evil, rendering them vulnerable to the touch of silver and holy properties. In addition to this they are driven with a greater hunger then normal of what could be expected of a creature their size.
Werewolves prefer to be Fighters, Monks, Berserkers, Abyssal Knight, Death Knight, Enchanter, Conjurer, Fire Elementalist, Ice Elementalist, Air Elementalist
Due to their lycanthropy curse, werewolves are prohibited from becoming Priests or Healers. They are further prohibited from becoming Transmuters.
Werewolves receive the skills and equipment listed for their background, with these exceptions:
| Fighting | Armour | Spellcasting |
|---|---|---|
| +2 | N/A | -3 |
| Short Blades | Dodging | Conjurations |
| N/A | +3 | +2 |
| Long Blades | Stealth | Hexes |
| N/A | +2 | +1 |
| Axes | Stabbing | Charms |
| N/A | +2 | +1 |
| Maces & Flails | Shields | Summoning |
| N/A | -2 | -3 |
| Polearms | !Traps & Doors | Necromancy |
| N/A | -4! | -2 |
| Staves | Translocations | |
| N/A | -3 | |
| Unarmed Combat | Transmutations | |
| +4 | -4 | |
| Fire Magic | ||
| -1 | ||
| Throwing | Ice Magic | Invocations |
| -4 | 0 | 0 |
| Slings | Air Magic | Evocations |
| N/A | +1 | -4 |
| Bows | Earth Magic | |
| N/A | -2 | |
| Crossbows | Venom Magic | Experience |
| N/A | -4 | 110% |
!Traps & Doors for Trolls should be made a '-3' modifier, else Werewolves should have theirs bumped up to -5 to indicate that even the Trolls are better then them at finding Traps.
A lot of the things can be changed up, strengthen, weakened, or removed as needed to balance the Werewolf if needed. What is presented here is merely an idea to show how the Werewolf could be made in an attempt to make a new species that could run alongside the Felid rather then replace it; providing a beast-like species for those who want to play a beast-like species that isn't what the Felid current is.
Several minor things could be done to either improve or change the above design template, such as giving them Damage Shaving like what Deep Dwarves have, changing around the mutations listed above so that perhaps they have Claws 2 or Speed 2, or even Forms are strongly desired then perhaps dropping down to Mutation Resistance 2 and take off the Transmutation Spell Restrictions and up the Transmutation Spell School modifier.
I note that other changes can be made as well in the thread I started in Game Design Discussion, that the Werewolf could be more neutrally aligned to allow for worship of the Good Gods (including Zin) and that it could be allowed to wear Rings. I consider these to be major overhauls for the design above though so unless there is real resistance to another evil species or if all species must wear Rings for some reason, I would reserve decisions until the minor changes that can be done are exhausted.
To me it sounds too mundane. While okay from flavor point of view, I'm looking for an interesting race to play in a game. The race sounds more like a combination of existing aptitudes, resistances, and mutations. I would start by thinking how to make the race produce new and unique challenges. When I think “werewolf”, one of first things I think about is involuntary transformation. A transformation you can't control. This approach is still thematic, but in my opinion more unique. From time to time, werewolf player would transform into the other form. Human would be fairly ordinary buth with some odd quirks perhaps, while wolf form would be strong and fast but unable to use most items and operate devices, for instance would have to bash doors into splinters instead of opening them. To prevent from being as annoying as current Xom, transformation could have a random chance of triggering upon each kill. This is so it doesn't disturb you when “nothing” is happening. Overall, werewolf race would have unique abilities and powers, but the theme would be that (unlike for example vampire) you can't fully control them. Sometimes they're a boon, at other times you have to be prepared for both possibilities. — b0rsuk 2012-10-31 21:08
Proposal by TwilightPhoenix from An Alternative Werewolf Proposal.
First and foremost, if anything in this proposal makes you think “Hmmm, this sounds a lot like Felids…” well, then you'd be correct in that assertion. This proposal is made with the intent of a species with similar gimmicks to replace Felids (though existing along side them could be possible too), albeit with the removal of the more controversial mechanics such as extra lives. I did a little bit of research into werewolves to get an idea for abilities before putting this together, so it is more than a “Hey, I think this would be cool! Here's some really random aptitudes and mutations that kind of go together!”
…no, that's not directed at the other werewolf proposal, by the way, but rather more at a lot of the species proposals in general I've seen on the Tavern and dev wiki.
Second, while there's lots of ways to become a werewolf, such as being bitten, sleeping in the moonlight during the summer on a certain Friday, drinking rainwater out of a wolf's footprint, or whatnot in lore, I'm going to go with the option of it being a curse. Werewolves are descending into the dungeon in search for the Orb of Zot in hopes they can use it to break the curse. Using the curse avoids the complications of trying to come up with “spread the disease” gimmicks and the fact 99% of the stuff you meet ends up dead at your hands. Also, it's easy to say, from a flavor perspective, that the curse locks them into wereform, which neatly avoids complications arising from having two separate forms. Two forms sounds cool, but could lead either to balance issues and stepping on Vampires and Transmutation's toes (voluntary shifting) or frustrating gameplay (involuntary shifting).
First, werewolves are always in a quadruped form with similar restrictions as Felids (a lot of folklore says they look like large wolves sans tails).
They are a normal-sized species. (Again, larger than normal wolves)
Since they are not tiny, they can wield stuff and awkwardly bash or throw it (can enchant weapons for troves this way, which is the main reasoning behind this). If a dog can carry a baseball bat, surely a werewolf can carry a sword in its teeth. Also, with practice (aka raising Evo), they can even use wands. No weird gimmick with awkwardly evoking wands though, it'll just be reflected in their apts.
Additionally, it'd been suggested by comments in the Tavern topic that they still retain enough dexterity and intelligence, as well as their thumbs, to be able to stand on their hind legs long enough to grasp and zap a wand. But they can't stay on their hind legs indefinitely, which would make fighting with a sword or bow out of the question.
Have above average strength and dex (again, faster and stronger than humans), but average or below average intelligence (more for balance reasons than anything else). Note, not good strength (aka Ogres), good dex (aka Spriggan), or bad int (aka Ogre, again), just above/below average. For natural stat growth, either strength or dex gets raised. Int must be chosen by the player.
They can worship any god except Zin, who hates them because they are not in their natural form. They can worship other good gods, however. Why? The power of transforming into wild beasts is associated with not only witches, evil sorcerers, and those forming pacts with Satan, but also Christian saints, hence these Werewolves are not inherently good nor evil. Plus we already have four species barred from all the good gods as is and that's quite enough I believe.
(1)These would all grow as the player levels up, with the flavor of the curse taking more a hold of the werewolf. The Fur and Thick Skin mutations can be combined into a higher AC Fur mutation since Werewolfs would lack the EV bonuses Felids have.
(2)Can be worked into their unique Blood Frenzy mutation instead, so under normal circumstances they'd only be regular movement.
(3)Being locked into their form via curse, it could be argued they'd be harder to mutate. But this might be unbalanced/step on Halfling's toes.
(4)Sense Invis would simply show the “invisible guy here” marker at all times. You'd know someone is invisible and where, but not what they were and they'd still have an EV bonus against you.
(5)The Blood Frenzy mutation us a new one that sort of acts like a passive Berserk, albeit not nearly as powerful and with different trigger conditions. One thing I noticed when playing a Felid recently was that in melee, they splatter lots of blood and many fleeing foes leave trails of it. Werewolves are also typically described as pretty feral. So, rather than give them Berserkitis or lock them out of spells or some silly thing like that, they get this. When near lots of blood, likely generated from their own melee attacks (or Disintegration and Orb of Destruction), the smell drives them crazy. As long as they stay near blood, the Werewolf will have boosted attack speed, strength, and accuracy at the cost of having a little more trouble at using spells and abilities (not too significant, just enough that a player may choose to train their Spellcasting/schools, Evo, or Invo higher to negate it if they find it a concern). Once they leave the blood, they get the Exhausted status cannot frenzy again until its gone. This probably shouldn't stack with Berserk and maybe Haste or Finesse. The boost to combat abilities should be significant enough to notice, but not enough to match Berserk and Finesse.
Here's the aptitudes. For non-listed ones, those are N/A since they can't be used. I'm not great at coming up with aptitudes, so if I have them kind of weird or they're not particularly balanced, feel free to suggest better ones.
Here's some ideas I didn't exactly agree with that people in the Tavern mentioned. But they could still be good ideas.
-Some level of Regeneration mutation.
-An ability to Howl (attract monsters, can cause fear)
-Damage shaving
Proposal by: — Pedjt 2012-12-13 00:16
This race draws upon a number of mythical and fantasy figures to form a race with a strong connection to the earth and its minerals, mainly gold. It is influenced mainly by leprechauns, but also by Tolkien dwarves, as well as norse dwarves/dvergar, with some influence from the DnD race. They are stout, somewhat short figures with the appearance of a hobbled old man. They are quick-witted and frequently hostile in tone and demeanor. Their avarice is exceeded only by their greed. They are known for being tricksters and tinkerers, expert craftsmen. They are not very adept at magic, however, only particular kinds. The hills and holes are their home, finding place deep in the womb of the earth. Their lust for filthy lucre is unmatched and they will jealously guard their gold with their lives. Working name.
Starting abilities: Similar to human. Perhaps lean away from strength somewhat. See above (mut). Gained abilities: id/5 Hit Points: Probably in line with human Magic Points: Probably a bit less than human Magic Resistance: fairly high, perhaps 4 or 5 per level or something like that
Aptitudes are based on the sources listed in the intro and the presumption that they live in tight-knit underground communities hostile to outsiders.
No Greedy would ever share their gold, certainly not with some muck-about outsider. It is biologically impossible for them to do so. Vow of… poverty?! PFAHAHAhahah…
by Ramc
Or just Simulacri.
This race is a result of a necromancer's attempt to improve upon the fleeting life and service of a simuacra by creating a means for the creatures to sustain themselves beyond the duration of the spell's power. A clockwork heart is visible beneath the icy flesh of each of the Simulacri, the device allowing them to sustain their unnatural lives as long as its power is fed by flesh. After destroying their creator and stealing the knowledge to create more of their kind, the Simulacri set their eyes on the Orb of Zot and the fabulous power it promises.
Simulacri appear as humanoids made entirely of flowing ice with a clockwork device shifting and whirring within their breast.
Idea- An Ice-themed humanoid race to fill out a gap in races with elemental affinities. Ideally with a few neat gimmicks, but nothing so zany that it breaks the game or becomes a confusing hassle to play.
Form: Humanoid. Normal slots.
Size: Medium.
Movement: Normal, and normal movement over shallow and deep water. They float like ice beasts.
Food: Carnivore, Saprovore. They can only eat meat, as only flesh can fuel their magical existance (ie- Simulacrum). As a rule of thumb if you can't use it to make a simulacrum, they can't eat it.
Resistances: rC+++, rN+ and rF- and vuln to holy. They are made of ice, and necromantic in nature.
Necromantic- Their necromantic nature means they cannot worship a Good diety and take damage from/cannot use holy branded weaponry.
Meltwater- When injured by fire, a Simulacri is partially melted, creating puddles of shallow water and/or clouds of steam around them. The shallow water might give them a chance to escape or put them in a better tactical position. The clouds of steam might break LOS to prevent being two-shotted by a fire-breathing beast. The amount of water and clouds released may be related to damage dealt. The melt will not turn shallow water into deep water.
Freezing skin- Innate freeze brand on hand to hand strikes. Minor cold damage dealt to unarmed attackers when hitting them as well (slowing them if they are cold blooded?). The efficacy of these powers would likely scale with level, and possibly not kick in at all until a later xlvl.
Freezing brand- An ability gained probably in the early-mid game xlvl wise, where they can spend hp/food to affix the melee weapon in hand with a freezing brand. Likely should not work on weapons that are already branded. Maybe doing it to a flame weapon will temporarily cancel the flame brand, but it seems kind of fiddly and pointless unless it also does something jazzy like make LOS-breaking steam clouds.
Refrigeration- Because of their frigid nature, meat chunks on the person of one of the Simulacri decay at a slower rate.
Simulacrum- Because of their nature, the spell Simulacrum is single-school Necromancy to them (they already supply quite enough ice naturally)
Apts-
Air: -1, Armour: 2, Axes: -1, Bows: -1, Charms: -1, Conj: 0, Xbows: -1, Dodge: -2, Earth: 1, Evo: 2,
Exp: ??, Fighting: 1, Fire: -4, Hexes: 2, Ice: 3, Inv: -1, Long: -1, Maces: 2, Nec: 1, Poison: 0,
Polearms: -2, Shields: 1, Short: -1, Slings: 1, Splcast: -1, Stab: -1, Staves: 2, Stealth: -3, Summ: -1,
Throw: -2, Tloc: 0, Tmut: -4, Traps: 0, Unarmed: 2-3
The Simulacri are obviously good at Ice magic, also due to their golemlike nature and the way they were created they have a modest talent with necromancy, hexes and earth magic. When it comes to most other magic they are not so great. They are obviously bad with fire. Their construct-esque nature makes them poor transmuters as well.
They were made by man, not a god, and as a result are poor at calling upon divine favor. They're unnatural life is sustained by a magical device. As a result it is in their best interests to be handy with such items.
They favor crushing weapons and unarmed combat while being poor as a rule with slashing and piercing weaponry. Their heavy forms make them poor at dodging and sneaking, so they favor armor and shields.
by Daggtex
NAME “AUTOMATON” SUBJECT TO CHANGE (as is pretty much everything else)
They are the remnant gaurdians of a lost, ancient civilization. (not magically animated, rather gears and such)
These are traits which relate to the flavor of automatons and can be used to help balance besides simply refining skill numbers. Some of these traits should be added regardless to beef up Automaton's uniqueness.
if too weak:
if too strong:
for a rough idea, tentative numbers
| Fighting | Armour | Spellcasting |
|---|---|---|
| +0 | +2 | -2 |
| Short Blades | Dodging | Conjurations |
| +0 | -3 | -1 |
| Long Blades | Stealth | Hexes |
| +0 | -4 | -1 |
| Axes | Stabbing | Charms |
| +0 | -2 | -2 |
| Maces & Flails | Shields | Summoning |
| +0 | +2 | -1 |
| Polearms | Traps & Doors | Necromancy |
| +0 | +3 | -1 |
| Staves | Translocations | |
| +0 | -1 | |
| Unarmed Combat | Transmutations | |
| +0 | -2 | |
| Fire Magic | ||
| -1 | ||
| Throwing | Ice Magic | Invocations |
| +2 | -3 | -2 |
| Slings | Air Magic | Evocations |
| +1 | -1 | +2 |
| Bows | Earth Magic | |
| +1 | -1 | |
| Crossbows | Venom Magic | Experience |
| +1 | -3 | +0 |
a basic possibility of special circumstances for god acceptance/rejectance and why
those that accept:
those that deny:
special tossups:
How married are you to the name? Critical thinking and making hard choices is pretty central to Crawl's philosophy. “Automaton” implies an absolute mindlessness… Also, any thoughts on disabling the majority of the Transmutations school? I can't imagine any of the self-augmentation spells (except for maybe Blade Hands) applying here. — MoogleDan 2013-08-26 16:08I'm not really married to the name. I chose it mainly because I was reading a god's description (can't remember which, and that is bugging me) and I thought it said they valued killing automatons, being not part of the life cycle. So I thought automaton fit in well with the current mythology (although not really being present in the game), and I was also worried saying things like robot or mechanical man might seem too much sci-fi. But things like gear golem, rusting gaurdian, ancient construct etc. would be just as fine. And disabling transmutations fits in great, as I can't really see them transforming either. I'll edit it in. — Daggtex 2013-08-26
by choogler.
by Mosethyoth.
Basically an ogre but with two heads. Of whom you only control one and to be precise the right one.
The other head will accept orders dependent on your satiation level and HP (and perhaps satisfaction). His activities will be referenced like “Your left side equips a +0 large shield.” or “Your left side refuses to equip a +0 large shield.”.
The other head might decide to give orders, advice or requests to you if there are no enemies aware of your presence in line of sight.
Strength and dexterity are both subject of a whole body so the the Two-headed ogre will only have one of each. But each head possesses his own mind and therefore his own intelligence. Intelligence growth through basic means like the choice on every third level, a potion of brilliance or an equipment piece (besides amulets and headgears) will affect both heads, but alterations like status draining will only affect one of both at once.
Similarily status effects and mutations act differently depending on if they target the body or the head.
Breath, confusion, sleep and mesmerized will only affect one of the heads if you're not hit by the effect an additional time. Poison, sickness, paralyze and petrification will still hit you as a whole.
You can have only one scales, hands, feet, resistance, metabolism, digestion and regeneration mutation, but horns, antennae, fangs, beak, breathe flames, spit poison, clarity, acute vision and blurry vision can be acquired for both heads once.
Jiva will ignore a head that does not worship her effectively granting only mutations that target the whole body or the follower's head and only stat shuffling strength and dexterity unless both heads worship her.
The two-headed ogre is like two monsters in a single spot whose share their inventory, lower body and digestive system. While the right arm belongs to you, the second arm is controlled by the monster you share your body with. All items in your inventory can be accessed by both and things you drink and eat will affect the whole Two-headed ogre.
During your actions the second head can make an action as well.
He will refrain from these actions (beside evocations) if…
If your side is equipped with a shield or your second head enforces movement, you won't be able to attack, evoke items, cast spells, read scrolls or books, drink potions or eat food.
A Two-headed ogre can equip two headpieces and amulets. Therefore status effects and stats that are shared between the two will benefit from both. Others, like Int+2 will only be granted to the head that wears the headpiece or amulet.
Depending on your nutritional status (or perhaps satisfaction) your second head will be more or less often cooperate with you.
Nutritional Status | Engorged | Very Full | Full | Satiated | Hungry | Very Hungry | Nearly Starved Movement | Free | Free | Free | If Health > 50% retreat will be refused | Movement away from food or enemies that might drop digestable chunks will be refused | Movement away from food or enemies that might drop digestable chunks will be refused | If there are food items or enemies that might drop digestable chunks in line of sight, movement towards them will be enforced Attacks | Attacks enemies in range | Attacks enemies in range | Attacks enemies in range | Attacks enemies in range | Attacks enemies and neutral beings in range | Attacks everyone in range | Attacks everyone in range Equipment | Will equip what he is told to, will ask before he equips items | Will equip what he is told to, will ask before he equips items | Will equip what fits his skills, will ask before he equips items | Will equip what fits his skills, will ask before he equips items | Will equip what fits his skills, will not equip shields | Will equip weapons by highest damage value, will not listen to orders | Will equip weapons by highest damage value, will not listen to orders Movement speed | Fast | Normal | Normal | Normal | Normal | Slow 1 | Slow 2 Dexterity bonus | +1 | - | - | - | - | -1 | -2 Evasion bonus | +1 | - | - | - | - | -1 | -2
= (optional) Satisfaction =
If the species proves to be a valuable addition, satisfaction could be implemented for the secon head, which will be subject to various factors. Comparable to the piety system of Xom.
Besides Armour, Dodging and Stealth, each head of the ogre will possess his own Skill Levels and train them independently. The left head's skill training can't be set to manual and will depend on what he has been doing reduced.
Both heads will receive the full amount of experience for all your actions, even from drinking a potion of experience. The left head will always be in auto mode for training skills and experience invested into a shared skill will be suctracted from the experience he can invest in his other skills.
While both heads share their HP, nutrition level and background, both heads possess their own MP and piety. The second head can learn his own spells and worship a different diety than your head. Your head will not benefit or be impeded by skills the other head learns and vice versa. Both heads are though restricted from converting to a diety that is despiced by the diety the other head worships.
This species has similar innate abilities, level bonuses and skill aptitudes as an ogre with some minor differences.
Starting skills and equipment are also very similar to a two headed ogre
Two-headed ogres wand to stay satiated as much as possible. You don't want to be forced to slowly approach a dragon who roasts you in his breath because your second head doesn't realize it will kill you before you get your hands on its meat. It's also a good idea to always carry some chunks of meat so your second head will consume them as soon as you get hungry and doesn't touch your rations.
An unarmed two-headed ogre monk can be a great fighter if he manages to get the right mutations. Two claw attacks and two additional auxiliary attacks for horns and beak or fangs will dish out a great deal of damage.
For raw damage dealers two one handed weapons will be great for wrecking enemies. Although you will become a glass cannon since you can't wear a shield in such a setup and ogres are generally restricted from wearing heavy armor.
A two-headed ogre mage might be also a nice build since the two heads are capable to cast fire and ice spells in rapid succession.
Most preferable deities are Kikubaaqudgha so you can always get to meat chunks and survive a kill or Jiyva who will grant you satiation with her slimes and grants you mutations and stat shuffles.
Followers of evil gods will survive their first death, becoming a one-headed ogre and receive a flying skull (XL equal or higher than 7) or curse skull (XL equal or higher than 13) servant. Stats and skills will be those of the head you controlled and headgear and amulet worn by the other head will drop to the floor.
by YokkasoMB
Currently in crawl it is much harder for a player to learn how to use magic as a primary playstyle than for melee or ranged. The purpose of this species is to provide new players with a simple and somewhat more forgiving species to learn how to be a caster than is currently available.
Yokkaso are primarily casters with decent aptitudes in magic, and can sometimes have their spell costs refunded on high health (66% chance to refund spell cost at full health scaling linearly to 0% chance to refund spell cost at 50% health). They are also durable as they start with positive fighting and armour aptitudes, 1 rank of Sturdy Frame and get a second rank at level 8. These advantages are offset by having dismal aptitudes in almost all weapons and with both evocations and invocations.
Yokkaso are a species of tree spirits who live on the trunks of trees. Their close ties with nature give them a natural affinity for most spells. Their long and secluded lives have led to an innate understanding of themselves and their own place in the world, but little capacity for using tools or calling upon gods. A Yokkaso's body is suffused with ambient magic drawn in from it's surroundings and when healthy has a chance to use this ambient magic in spellcasting. Because Yokkaso are tree spirits, their bodies are surprisingly capable of wearing heavier armour without interfering with their spells. They loathe bladed weapons of every kind, however they are somewhat adept with staves.
Yokkaso can wear heavier armor and sometimes cast spells for free when healthy.
Normal HP
average MP
10 str, 7 int, 5 dex
STR/INT every 4 levels 50/50 chance
You cast some spells for free while relatively healthy, increasing proportionally with your health. (Linearly scaling from 66% chance at 100% health, down to 0% chance at 505 health)
Sturdy Frame 1 - improves a rank at XL8 for Sturdy Frame 2
Innate magic
Aptitudes
Fighting: +1 Armor: +1 Spellcasting: +1
Short Blades: -3 Dodging: -2 Conjurations: +2
Long Blades: -3 Stealth: -2 Hexes: -1
Axes: -4 Charms: +1
Maces & Flails: -1 Shields: 0 Summonings: -1
Polearms: -3 Necromancy: +1
Staves: 0 Translocations: 0
Unarmed: -2 Transmutation: -1
Fire Magic: -1
Throwing: -2 Ice Magic: +1 Invocations: -3
Slings: -3 Air Magic: +1 Evocations: -3
Bows: -3 Earth Magic: +1
Crossbows: -3 Poison Magic: 0 Experience: below average
This is the biggest characteristic of Yokkaso that will impact a players choices, and yes it is strong. (Too strong? Can be changed to refund half mana per spell, or only 1 mana per spell, or to happen less often.)
The aim of this ability is to encourage good play and good practices from players new to magic. To get the benefit of this players are more likely to invest more heavily in health and defences. This is because to get the most benefit players will need (a) higher HP so incoming hits have less impact on the “free spells”, and (b) more defences than they would otherwise get on what they may perceive to be a glass cannon character.
There is also the hope that they will be more inclined to proactively mitigate how much damage they can take by considering their position relative to their enemies, to allow them access to the “free spells” for longer.
I don't want this to encourage bad play, so I don't think it should be active proportional to their health all the way down to 1%. In a situation like that you will likely have players on 2% health casting an emergency spell hoping for a tiny chance for it to not cost anything.
I think allowing it to happen less frequently down to 50% does two things (1) teaches players that when they reach certain health breakpoints they need to change their thinking about the situation they are in and maybe re-evaluate what is going on, and (2) encourages them to stay on higher current health percentages as often as possible even if they don't think they might die in the next turn or two.
An example of what I want this species to be able to do with this ability is for a new player to enter combat, throw out a few spells, get into trouble and reach 50% health and say to themselves “Okay I now have X amount of mana left to deal with the situation that's killing me, can I do it without dying or do I have to retreat and/or change what I'm doing?”
Note that this is NOT infinite mana, even at 100% health the character can and does run out of mana, and it does not bypass spell hunger, (and given their low int, spell hunger will be a thing for a while for their newest spells) so players will also learn that they should use the appropriate spells against popcorn vs dangerous enemies to save food. I anticipate the rate of free casts, or amount of mana returned will need to be fine tuned.
Most casters typically wear the heaviest armour they can find that will still allow them to cast their spells at an acceptable level. For most casters this means they end the game in Fire or Ice Dragon Armour. Giving Yokkaso the mutation Sturdy Frame level 2 (reached at XL8) effectively allows Yokkaso spellcasters to reach a tier higher in end game armour, see below. Their +1 aptitude and having one rank from the start of the game makes players much more likely to start wearing real armour earlier, and to train the Armour skill earlier and for longer to make good use of this capacity the race has. This will help new players realise that a caster is not meant to forgo any kind of defences and that they can and should invest in keeping their character protected from physical damage beyond “kill it before it reaches me”. Allowing a new player on a Yokkaso to survive in melee for than a few turns gives them an opportunity to learn what to do (and what not to do) when enemies do reach them as a caster.
Non-Yokkaso: 7 Encumbrance - 7AC - Swamp Dragon Scales, 11 Encumbrance - 8/9AC - Fire/Ice Dragon Scales, 15 Encumbrance - 10AC - Storm/Shadow Dragon Scales Yokkaso: 7 Encumbrance - 8/9AC - Fire/Ice Dragon Scales, 11 Encumbrance - 10AC - Storm/Shadow Dragon Scales, 14 Encumbrance - 10AC - Plate Armour
I certainly hope not! Given how powerful the spell ability is for casters, I wanted to ensure this class does not become the species of choice for doing anything hybrid. I also do not want this species to become the “strongeset” spell caster. That should remain with the Deep Elf. To help differentiate the Yokkaso from the Deep Elf I made the Yokkaso have some negative aptitudes in magic (ones that I believe are hard to use correctly for newbies like transmutations and hexes) and gave them distinctly average intelligence and no bonus MP per level. As a result they have much higher food costs than their Deep Elf counterparts, and while they might have a functionally similar “mana pool” at full health from range, as soon as any damage is taken their mana pool becomes a much more limited resource than a Deel Elf's.
I want Yokkaso to level a bit slowly to help keep them balanced for their area, but gave them 5 MR per level to try and normalise their MR, as newbies are a bit less likely to value MR appropriately and I don't want the species to have an unusually low amount of MR to overcome. This is just to keep them from being unusually vulnerable to MR check disables and not to make them able to ignore getting MR+.
I toyed with the idea of completely prohibiting the species from using many weapon types at all. I would consider this a valid option if the class becomes too strong of a hybrid in extended play.
Currently in DCSS the learning curve for becoming a pure caster is very steep, this is a shame because magic is incredibly well done in Crawl, and adds a LOT to the game. Many playstyles benefit in some way from having a few low level spells (apportation, portal projectile, passage of golubria etc) and players can and do pick up how to use spells effectively from using these sporadically. However in the transition to being a character that primarily blasts their enemies with spells, there is a lot more to consider than keeping buffs up and training the 2 schools required to get it castable, and the skills a person learns from melee combat are of limited usefulness.
Disadvantages of using spells ⦁ Very finite resource in magic points, especially early on. ⦁ Effectively prohibits wearing armor with any significant armor value for a large portion of the game. ⦁ Training spells requires a much larger (or at least, a more active) investment than melee (multiple schools to get different spells active, still need fighting and defences too) ⦁ In the midgame missing high cost spells required to kill enemies can mean having to retreat and regen mana to full and try again. ⦁ Spell use mechanically is more complex than melee or ranged Advantages of using spells ⦁ Higher damage from range than otherwise possible ⦁ Area damage on many spells ⦁ Utility and control not available to melee and ranged ⦁ Spells are fun ⦁ Greatly adds to replayability and customisation potential