User:Red kangaroo/YANIs/Monsters

Several ideas I had, regarding both new monsters and some improvements to monsters and monster classes.

Class symbols

Monster classes in NetHack have three issues I particularly don't like:

• overcrowding, as seen especially in the @ class;
• unintereting single monster classes, where the letter could be used for far more interesting purposes (l, Q and z); and
• hard to read symbols for certain classes (:, ; and ', not counting ghosts, as they are this way by design).

There are definitely ways to improve the monster distribution in classes with this in mind. I'd suggest the following:

• All elves are moved from the @ class to the Q class, plus Q class renamed to Quendi. This will make short work of the huge @ class.
  • Quantum mechanics do not justify their existence as a single monster class in my eyes and they can easily be moved into the h class, as they are clearly (weird) humanoids.
• Leprechauns should be moved to the n class. They already are very similar to the nymphs' thieving gimmick, so it makes sense to include them in a single class instead of separating them for no reason.
  • Lizards (: class) should be l class. This has the benefit of not leaving an empty monster class and giving lizards an appropriate letter, rather than a strange punctuation. Some players will be surprised by the change, but that cannot be helped in a game this old.
• Gremlins are another monster that would be easy to incorporate into the n class. They are special and unique, but for reasons unknown share their monster class with gargoyles. As an aggravating tricksters, they seem to fit into n class quite well.
  • As I implied above, ' class also bugs me for being nigh unintelligible. With the moving of gremlins into the n class, gargoyles and golems could be combined under the g class, as both are statue-like enemies (gargoyles are mostly portrayed either as animated statues, or living beings that use statue form as a disguise, which seems to be NetHack's case, as they leave corpses).
• Zruty can be removed for all I care. I actually really like the change SLASH'EM made to the z class with the addition of zouthern animals. That way no more one monster classes remain.

Last change is something I don't thing is necessary, but would supplement the changes above. Firstly, NetHack seems to try and fill all letters with various monsters (see z and Q), yet the I class (capital "i") remains empty. While it serves as an unseen monster symbol, it would be nice to have an actual monster for this letter. Secondly, mind flayers are very distinct monsters and yet they share a monster class with completely unrelated dwarves and hobbits. Therefore:

• Illithid class would be very nice, with unique monsters under their own letter.

New Monsters

Nymphs

Nymphs are completely interchangeable as of now. Not cool, especially as they have a potential to be very different from each other.

dryad

• formerly wood nymph
• can walk through trees
• killing her leaves behind a tree (and the player's items beneath it)

naiad

• formerly water nymph
• can swim and has a passive rust attack
• can be generated with a scroll of flood and will use is as a defensive item

oread

• formerly mountain nymph
• can phase through rock
• can be generated with a boulder, so be careful about killing her over a pit
• has base 0 AC, but only speed 10

rusalka

• cursed spirit of a suicide, based on Slavic folklore
• can swim
• claw steal item, claw drown, passive illness

nymph

• new "plain" nymph
• disguises self as a different monster
  • more like a mimic rather than a shapeshifter, so they have a different looks but same abilities
• can be generated with a cursed ring of hunger, ring of sustain ability, ring of aggravate monster, ring of polymorph, negatively charged rings, amulet of change, amulet of restful sleep, amulet of strangulation or cheap plastic imitation of the Amulet of Yendor, but will not wear them
• has special steal jewelry attack
  • this selects random jewelry slot of the player; if a jewelry piece is equipped here, the nymph steals it, but if not, the nymph will equip its (cursed and bad) ring or amulet here, as incubi do with rings of adornment

Trolls

Everyone loves nigh-immortal reviving trolls that are a pain to get rid of, right?

• petrifying a cave troll changes it into a rock troll, vice versa with Stone to Flesh
  • no more rubber chicken instakills against trolls
• throwing a cave troll corpse into a body of water makes it revive as a water troll, throwing it into lava creates a lava troll
• water trolls taking cold damage may change into ice trolls, ice trols can melt back through fire damage and water trolls can be further fire-blasted into mist trolls
• rock trolls taking fire damage can become lava trolls, lava trolls being frozen or falling into water will become rock trolls
• eating any troll corpse has a low chance to spawn a shadow troll
• eating any troll corpse may grant temporary instrinsic regeneration

deep troll

• weapon 3d8, claw 3d8, bite 2d8 drain life
• drain resistant, may grant it intrisically
• often appears in groups

lava troll

• as water trolls, but fire-based attacks

mist troll

• weapon 2d8, claw 2d8, engulf 2d6 digest
• has base -5 AC and is flier

shadow troll

• touch 1d6 paralyse, touch 1d6 drain life
• invisible

I also rather like wood trolls. :)