Ghoul (starting race)
Ghouls are a starting race in SlashTHEM, and also appear as a defunct starting race in SpliceHack.
SpliceHack
In SpliceHack, player ghouls had a chance of paralyzing monsters that they attacked when unarmed, but were only able to consume corpses that are rotting. As undead, ghouls were affected by turn undead. All zombies and ghouls were generated peaceful to them.
Abilities
| Str | Dex | Con | Int | Wis | Cha |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 16 | 16 | 18 | 20 | 18 | 20 |
Hunger
Ghouls became more powerful as they get hungrier. These effects were cumulative.
| Hunger | Abilities |
|---|---|
| Satiated | As normal |
| Hungry | +4 strength, +4 dexterity |
| Weak | Melee attacks deal double damage. |
| Fainting | +2 strength, +2 dexterity, +2 wisdom, +2 intelligence. |
Just like Convicts, ghouls could last twice as long while hungry. Additionally, ghouls did not suffer abuse penalties to their abilities due to hunger.
Intrinsics
- Level 1: drain resistance
- Level 1: poison resistance
Techniques
- Level 10: Revivification
SlashTHEM
The ghoul is a sub-species of zombie. They are always chaotic and can be Barbarians, Convicts, Ice Mages, Necromancers or Wizards; they start with intrinsic cold resistance, sleep resistance, poison resistance, sickness resistance and unbreathing. Being undead and mindless, they are also resistant to death rays, drain life and having their brain eaten. They can only eat old corpses (no fruits, rations or other types of food). In unarmed melee combat, they have a chance of paralyzing an enemy. Their limits in the bare hands and attack spells skills are boosted to at least Skilled and Basic, respectively.
| Str | Dex | Con | Int | Wis | Cha |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 19 | 15 | 18 | 17 | 17 | 15 |
Strategy
Despite their load of starting intrinsics and special melee attacks, ghouls are hard to play. They start with fresh corpses in place of their role's starting food rations, sometimes boosting starting strength or constitution to allow the player to carry all of them without being burdened; the player must wait for them to go bad in order to consume them, and must continually rely on rotting corpses for sustenance. One way to prevent nutrition problems is to pray if weak or fainting.
Certain pets may consume fresh corpses as well before they have a chance to rot, often requiring them to be picked up; it may be possible to distract them with filling corpses like those of centaurs and dragons, though you may also want to use other less-filling corpses as the distraction instead if you are trying to eat a larger corpse yourself.
