Tortle (starting race)

This page is a stub. Should you wish to do so, you can contribute by expanding this page.

The Tortle is a starting race that is introduced in EvilHack, and also appears in Hack'EM.

Tortles are a humanoid reptilian race that resemble an upright tortoise, complete with a large protective shell on their back.

Racial benefits and restrictions

Tortles start with a natural AC of 0 due to their shells, but are extremely limited in what kind of armor they can wear. They are restricted to hats, gloves and shields only; hats and gloves made of any kind of hard or rigid material interfere with their ability to retreat into their shell (the Mitre of Holiness for tortle priests is an exception to this rule). In Hack'EM tortles can wear mummy wrappings (since they can stay wrapped while in their shell), giving them one more valuable armor slot.

As a tortle 'grows up' and gains experience, their shells grow thicker and become better able to repel attacks, giving the tortle an extra point of AC every three levels - this caps off at 10 points total for experience level 30.

Tortles have a unique ability - they can hide inside their shell for up to 200 turns at a time, using the #monster command. While inside their shell, they are blind, cannot move or attack, and are unable to perform most other actions beyond passively regenerate hit points/power and praying. Hiding in their shell confers the following boons:

• They receive a massive 40-point boost to their AC and gain half physical damage.
• Sting and bite attacks from monsters that are large or smaller deal no damage,
• They are impervious to stinger attacks, and being grabbed and crushed.
• They can come out of their shell early if they so chose (same command used to enter), and will have to wait 300-400 turns before being able to hide in their shell again.

Attribute caps

Character Race	Strength	Dexterity	Constitution	Intelligence	Wisdom	Charisma
Tortle	19	10	18	18	20	14

Tortles are wise and quite stronger than most races, but move much slower and aren't quite so nimble.

Origin

Tortles are creatures that originate from Dungeons & Dragons, where they debut in the 1986 Creature Catalogue.