#2712 Plant / Nature character ideas & One new area idea
THIS DOCUMENT CONTAINS IDEAS FOR:
18 New Plant / Nature related enemies
1 New area
1 New race (although this is not so related to plants)
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Hey!
I'm Jvainio, a crawl player. I've played this game since the first available version. I've always liked the game in a love / hate kind of way, which I do believe is the way most people experience crawl.
However never did I thought I would have anything important to input for the developers. I thought that my ideas wouldn't be good enough, and that they wouldn't be implemented or even considered. But then came the day someone said the magic words - Plant God.
See, I'm a professional gardener who invests A LOT of his time and money to all kinds of gardening stuff. It's just a great hobby and the best thing to work with - plants don't complain, don't ask questions, etc, I really love it!
This document took me about 3 hours to write, so please take at least 3 minutes to read it - and then comment or suggest something!
I wish my ideas for the plant god (posted earlier) will be noted, but here is some more "plant related" stuff;
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New Enemies/Characters
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Gardener - A human, wielding a worn scythe. He reminds you of someone else.
--This fairly weak character would be armed with a to-hit-enchanted (+3 at max, because he has worked with this tool for a LONG time, he knows how to use it accurately) to-dam-dechanted (-3 at max, because of the work he has done has dulled the blade a bit) scythe, equipped with leather armour, gloves, boots and a water bottle (+ maybe a porridge bottle for lunch?). Hostile by default, but would be indifferent towards Plant Gods followers. Basically almost like a non-casting Sigmund. Could be spawned with a band of plant-type monsters, maybe.
Tentacle plant - A plant with three huge tentacles with a good reach.
--A stationary character, this plant would whip their enemies with their tentacles which would act as an heavily enchanted whip of reaching. Basic speed 16. Vulnerable to fire and ice. If in a position adjactent to a water square, +1 range, to a maximum of +3 when the character could touch 3 water squares - could then whip to a distance of 4 squares away. An unique with a speed/electrocution-brand whip could be something like "Tentacle King". Also, these could be found maybe in hells as a "demonic tentacle plant" version, and it would have a demon whip/draining-attack?
Carnivorous plant - A plant with an large clam-like acidic mouth, which it uses to slowly turn its enemies into nutrition.
--A almost-stationary character, this plant would have an acidic attack. Basic speed 4. Vulnerable to fire and ice.
Stinging plant - A plant with poisonous, prickly bark. It seems to be very slow.
--An almost-stationary character, this plant would have a slowing + poison attack with its spiky fibrous poison bark. If every armour slot isn't covered, slow would hit x2 or last 2 times longer. Basic speed 4. Vulnerable to fire and ice. Idea came from the australian "Stinging tree" - google it if you like. Hurts like hell, once the poison starts to damage your cells.
Ironbark plant - A tree with a thick, very hard knobbly bark. It seems to be resistant to almost everything.
--An almost-stationary character, this tree would have immunity to everything but physical damage and fire, on top of Rmsl. Basic speed 6. Would hit pretty hard, given it's hard bark. This would be like a little brother of Wood Golem in terms of threat and damage.
Crystal flower - A flowering plant made out of transparent crystalline substance, and capable of shedding small pieces of itself against enemies, which seem to grow back almost instantly.
--A stationary character, capable of shooting stone arrows every two turns, and in melee has confusing touch. Basic speed 8. Vulnerable to blunt weapons, fire and wands of disintergration.
Trapdoor tentacle - Like a tentacle plant crossed with a trapdoor spider.
Wait-a-sec plant - A slow but dangerous enemy with a fearsome longrange attack.
--A stationary character, this one takes it's model from the australian "Wait-a-While". Would have a piercing attack with a short paralyze - this would have a very long range, say 6-9 squares, but the plant would be slow, lets say speed 2 or 3. As all plants, vulnerable to fire and ice.
Gardeners Nightmare - A plant from the deep dungeons, it seems to emit a eerie green glow. A cloud of poison gas surrounds it.
--A stationary character, I got the inspiration for this one from a plant in Thailand, cannot remember it's name right now, but this plant is ULTRA PAINFUL to touch (its known that people have cut off their own hands after hitting this in the jungle, as the INTENSE PAIN is said to last for 20 years!) and when you're near it you will notice, as the chemical which causes the pain is evaporated thru natural leaf breathing - you'll have hard time breathing. Could have a mephitic cloud / toxic radiance type of ability, along with sting and maybe a unique of this kind could even have a bolt of poison! To not make this a super gamekiller, should be fairly slow (maybe speed 2-6), otherwise would kill lowlevel characters like no tomorrow. Vulnerable to fire and ice.
Brilliant flower - There's something special about this flower. You cannot figure out what it is, but it sure looks good!
--A stationary character without any damaging attack, this one would only confuse the player occasionally - or any enemy that comes in the LOS of this beautiful flower. Basically like a basic plant with an occasional confusion ability. Vulnerable to fire and ice.
Cutter plant - A plant with very nasty looking long, serrated leaves.
--A relatively fast for it's kind, lets say speed 8, this one would be a low-HP enemy with multiple weak attacks per round, which would count as hitting with a very dam-dechanted dagger three times per round. Vulnerable to fire and ice.
Brown chimpanzee - An ordinary chimpanzee, ready to kill for a banana.
--Fairly weak character about the same threat as a big kobold. Runs away easily. Resistant to ice but vulnerable to fire because of the fur coat.
Black chimpanzee - A black chimpanzee with strong jaws and big teeth.
--A minor threat, this one would hit MUCH harder than the brown ones, maybe something like giant lizards. Resistant to ice but vulnerable to fire because of the fur coat.
Grey chimpanzee - An old, mistreated chimpanzee with dull grey fur. The look in its eyes is hopeless, and it smells like a can of rotten tuna.
--A very, very weak character which would have an attack with great chance of rotting the player. Unlike most chimps, these are vulnerable to both ice and fire because of their health.
Orange chimpanzee - An weirdly coloured chimpanzee, there seems to be something wrong with the way it moves around. It's coughing awfully lot.
--A weak character, players would be first terrified that this one would cause draining, but instead it would just disease players. Unlike most chimps, these are vulnerable to both ice and fire because of their health.
Warrior chimpanzee - This chimpanzee is on a crusade against humans, and is wielding a club made out of a tree branch and wearing an animal skin.
--A high-HP character with low damage (dechanted club, maybe -2 to -3) and bad armour (enchanted animal skin, maybe +2 to +3). Curare-tipped needles + a blowgun could be included to uniques of this kind, but not for the regular. Resistant to ice but vulnerable to fire because of the fur coat.
Rainforest/brown gorillas - A brown coloured strong gorilla with a nasty look in it's eyes. It is peering into the undergrowth.
--A high HP, high Str, high AC character with lots of unarmed skill but no dodging/low EV. Would be able to berserk itself. Resistant to ice but vulnerable to fire because of the fur coat.
Mountain/black gorillas - A black, huge muscular gorilla covered in scars, this one has apparently taken on numerous battles and will not hesitate to kill anyone breaching its territory.
--A very high HP, extremely strong character with a huge AC (very low EV) that can deal enormous unarmed damage in close combat. Can berserk and battlecry chimpanzees (that boosts their speed and damage). As they have originally descended to the dungeon from mountains, they are immune to ice but vulnerable to fire.
All of the chimps and monkeys would throw stones with deadly accuracy.
Other thoughts: Maybe these at least some of the characters, especially plants should have earth-magic resistance, as they are "bound to the earth"?
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New Dungeon Area: The Deep Jungle // The Dark Rainforest
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A general outline of the place: 7 levels, not for lowlevel chars, more biased to be an endgame thing, very hard for some mages but not easy for tanks either, GOOD loot and rune on last level but EXTREMELY _heavily_ guarded. Lots of net traps, and a few curare traps (that's where curare comes from, from the jungle, you know). Only food found in this place would be fruits (lots of bananas!) -- You would not need much resistances, but good AC / ability to blink or tele are things to have. No shops, no bazaars. Maybe there could be a good amount of shafts - as it's so overgrown, you cannot really see where you're stepping into...
This place would have a green/brown color scheme. Plants and some animals (monkeys, gorillas, chimpanzees anyone?) would inhabit this place, and there'd be a fair bit of moisture (lots of shallow water and LOTS of steam all around all the time, the steam would initally be a tactical element). 7 Levels deep, there'd be a "Lost Ancient Temple" on the last level, with lots of plant-type enemies (overgrown place, because it's OLD), plant uniques banded with those, and a band of gorillas / monkeys with a gorilla/monkey boss character would guard the "green/plant/nature rune", and there would be a fair amount of very good loot in the temple. If you do not warm up for the rune idea, at least make it a goodloot-place.
The first few levels, 1-3 would be a bit harder than Lair's 5-7. Then levels from 4-6 would be a bit harder than Snake Pits 3-4. The final level would be very, very hard (think Vaults 7), and would have a predefined vault (the temple itself)- not random generated. Would need approx LVL15-20 character to clear this one, and even then it should require some effort and thinking. This final level would be filled with hardhitting gorillas which would move with packs of chimps, just insane amounts of these, and as they would close in on the player, stinging plants would slow them, Wait-a-Sec plants paralyzing at the same time while the Tentacle plants would then whip the immobilized player to death if the gorillas wouldn't bash their brains out first. But also lots of same enemies found in The Lair, but with a bias on the chimps / gorillas and plant-types. Size of temple would be about 3-4 times the size of what Nagas have, I'm talking a huge all-out warzone here.
These monkey enemies could be tiered e.g. different colours, brown chimps would be the big kobold equvalient of this kind, black chimps something between giant frogs/giant lizards, grey chimps very weak but rot-causing, orange chimps also weak, but disease-bearing and warrior chimps with a leather armour and a club, rainforest (brown) gorillas between an ogre and a gnoll, while mountain (black) gorillas would be more like death yak meets iron troll, with a high unarmed skill and lots of HP - especially the mountain/black gorillas would have enourmous amounts of STR and HP, and the chimps could have lots of dodging while gorillas would have almost none. Gorillas could berserk while chimps could not, but maybe the gorilla could have a "battlecry" like the orcs, to boost chimps' speed or damage? No mages for either kind, but on the final level there could be one unique gorilla mage ("Konga"), maybe specialized in Earth magic? Because of their fur, all of these chimps and gorillas would be susceptible against fire and resistant to ice.
The rune would be guarded by large, numerous packs of all of those + plant type enemies, plus one unique gorilla/chimp mage and a one unique, REALLY REALLY BEEFY "Kang the Gorilla King" with huge horde of regular gorillas and chimps. There also could be a SMALL secret stash room with VERY good loot, which would be behind the final loot "altar", and could be accessed with a wand of disintegration/digging. This could have a unique grey gorilla (who has been locked in for a looooooooong time, partially turning it to undead) with a rotting attack like grey chimps, but this one would be "The Final Boss"/"Ancient Undead Gorilla" of this dungeon branch, and while not beefy as the "Kang the Gorilla King" guarding the main loot, this one would have huge amounts of EV and it'd be fast in it's attacks (but slow movement speed), lets say 4 times a round (as it is old and has mastered its fighting skills), and it could "be in touch with the powers of death" - it'd be counted as undead for game purposes and it'd have a raise dead ability.
Only thing that could be bad for the balance of this to work is the Tame Beasts, but I am sure this could be balanced.
(and of course, there's some things I have not accounted here, there's a lot of factors affecting game balance)
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New Race Idea
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As there are elves with lots of subraces, and humans only have Demigod and Demonspawn as a "subrace", this is my entry for a human subrace.
The Finns // Arctic Human
-- Like humans in most respects, these guys would be in touch with the powers of ice and would be resistant to it, developed during the thoushands of years they have lived in the hostile arctic environment. Also they have become resistant to diseases (like kobolds, they would recuperate fast from illnesses) from living in the north - and because of that they would be vulnerable to heat/fire. As the finns have made everything from wood since longtime, they are good in handling axes and small blades, but bad in other weapon skills except bows and throwing which they use when hunting for prey. Due the spiritual exposure they have had, they're good in divinations.
Apitudes like human, but Ice Magic 75-80, Divinations 85-90, Axes 70-80, Small Blades 70-80, Bows 80-90, Throwing 75-85. Rf- Rc+, fast illness recovery.
.... Any input is welcome!
A gardener branch would indeed work well with the plant god Feawn. Last I checked I don't think there's a thematic place for Feawn's altar - someone please correct me if I'm wrong! The gardeners would probably be priests of Feawn in that case.
The different chimpanzees are kind of "meh" except for level flavor, but the crazy plant ideas all interest me. Wait-a-sec plants are essentially a stronger giant eyeball, making them the nastiest enemy by far. You can at least wait for a giant eyeball to round a corner, but a paralyzing PLANT? That's murder, I like it a lot, but make sure they don't make the level impossible for players. Fog would be of huge tactical importance here, as well as level layout.
As is, the paralyzers have the potential to make the level impossible for non-elementalists and easy for fire/ice elementalists. Why? Paralyzers are killers in large open areas; any character that could kill them on sight (conjurers) would have an enormous advantage. If there were stationary turret plants nearby, anything that *couldn't* kill them on sight or block LOS (which is currently very difficult) would be toast. b/c the bolts of fire/cold can hit several foes (and therefore go through clumps of plants!), fire/cold wands/spells are almost mandatory. Lightning would also be really useful.
Furthermore, the slime pits already have essentially the same thing: a nasty ranged attacker (acid blob) and a paralyzer (giant eye).
I'd say that if you include chimps, you should make the chimps the fast enemies and keep the plants slow/stationery.
The ironbark tree is essentially a treant; I believe treants will be implemented and they would be thematic for this level.
The gardener's nightmare is a swamp drake. Keep in mind that it's going to be a non-issue for late-game players with poison resistance.
The tentacle plant is superficially similar to the kraken that keeps single-handedly delaying shoals. I'd pass on that one in the first iteration simply b/c its implementation would probably delay this branch too.
All in all, you need to think about how to arrange enemies so that neither fighters nor conjurers find the level impossible. Because so many plants have ranged attacks, the layout of this level makes a huge difference. If there's a lot of fog, the ranged
The Finns race has aptitudes very similar to current merfolk except for good axe aptitude rather than good polearm aptitude, so as-is it's a nonstarter. I'd say designing races is very, very hard. A new race would need to open up a new play style or game mechanic: for instance, deep dwarves are a non-healing race that can recharge wands, giving deep dwarf artificer an interesting (if masochistic!) playstyle.
Interesting suggestions. Keep it up - I know quite well that balancing additions to Crawl is very difficult!
-poop
with all of the monkey species ideas, i thought you would introduce a chimp as a player class.
Actually, that would be interesting in itself.
Anyways, my feedback:
chimps and gorillas are an interesting idea, and I like that you introduced them as a group, rather than a unique and one type of enemy. The branch idea though, I'm not sold on. An underground jungle-type thing doesn't feel right. Then again, neither do the Shoals, so that probably isn't a limiting factor. The combination of moneys and plants though, that sounds good.
IIRC, there is going to be a major plant rework soon. These ideas might be good.
One way to balance this level away from elementalists would be to add some creatures or plants which are resistant to fire or ice, with all of those plants that are vulnerable to such. Or to mix up the resistances a bit more. Ice beasts come to mind. The crystal flowers also might not need to be fire vulnerable. In nature, some plants are actually very highly fire resistant, built to withstand regular forest fires, due to their bark. Long-leaf pines are like this. Your ironbark plant could be like this as well.
It may be a good idea to limit the ranged attack of the ranged attacking plants to not be full LOS (like the powerful player-conjurations are now) so that there's more of a chance for players to spot problem areas and not get into irrecovable trouble.
Some quick comments (more to follow later, this *is* long :)
I like most plant ideas (apart from the trapdoor tentacle and the flowers). I don't really like the apes -- they would only fit in a new branch and that's very far apart (and I am not convinced that such a branch would work well in Crawl). The Gardener is a fun mock of Sigmund but I don't think that it should be a new monster type. Why not simply a new unique? And new item types just for this purpose are out of the question.
Ok, there is full-fledged branch design -- some comments: 7 levels is too long (but that is a minor concern). I like parts of what I've read (curare, nets, bananas, steam, shallow water, plants) but again I am not fond of ape hierarchies as monsters. We have decided to add new branches as portal vaults first. So what about a portal vault (i.e. only one level) of this? You'd lose the shafts but everything else could be there... By the way, I had this idea of a portal vault where the water level slowly rises. Maybe these two could be combined.
I don't really like the new species (they're only defined by rather minor aptitude deviations, and by the resistances), sorry. But I like Finns :)
More plant ideas from jvainio (FR#2834716 - putting these to the same place to, well, keep it all in the same place)
Pollen plant - This male plant has hundreds of huge swollen pollen sacs
hanging from its stem, mature and ready to blow. The sacs seem to pulsate
slightly.
-- An stationary character, this plant would attack from afar by throwing
some of the pollen sacs at the player. The sacs would explode and do normal
damage AND have a very small chance (1-5%?) of covering some of the players
food in spores. However, the damage would be much less than the Giant
Spore's damage (maybe 2d8, 3d3, 2d4 or something?) and the area covered
only 3x3. In close combat the plant would hit the player with a puny
damage, say 1d6. Base speed 16. Vulnerable to fire, ice AND air (because of
the sacs nature to explode/carried away by windy conditions).
Strangler Root - The ground is completely covered in small roots which are
completely covered in thorns. They wriggle around constantly.
-- A stationary character, this plant would have a very powerful melee
attack but nothing else special. The thorned roots would be basically
morningstars with a huge enchantment to damage. To make the plant actually
"strangle" ... It would unbalance this severely, if given
paralyze/slow/asphyxiation abilities, but maybe a similar ability to
mermaids song, couldn't move any further away after hit.. Base speed 12,
vulnerable to fire, ice and earth.
Rotting Flower - The huge mound of this massive dark red flower smells like
a dozen rotting corpses and is teeming with small fly larvae.
--A stationary character, this low-HP flower would be basically a fly
generator which also would have clouds of rotting vapour partially
surrounding it in nearby squares, but not too much..
Juicy Flower - This beautiful flower is oozing with honey and it sure is
yummy looking!
-- A stationary character with no attack whatsoever, it would give one
honeycomb as loot. The trick on this one; It would be ALWAYS spawned with a
random amount of killer bees and butterflies surrounding it in the adjacent
squares. There could be more than 1 in a group, lets say groups of 1-3, and
whenever 3 would be generated one brown bear would be ALWAYS included to
the accompany list - because bears REALLY like honey.
Armageddon Flower - This ugly, mutated plant has scars all over it. It
seems to have undergone some kind of a evil transformation, as its leaves
are covered in fiery looking deep green sludge.
--An almost-stationary character with a nasty fire+acid+strong poison
attack. Base speed 6, and would be considered demonic for game purposes,
and be very vulnerable to ice, but immune to fire - acid resistant, of
course. Would be only found in the lower dungeon levels (under dlvl 20).
Doom Treant - An enormous disfigured tree with a pitch black bark. It glows
with an intense mutagenic glow. You're a bit anxious to get near it because
even looking at it makes you feel distrupted.
--An almost-stationary character with a not-so-damaging attack (maybe 2d5),
the catch with this enemy is the mutagenic glow. Would color 4x4 area with
it's glow which would easily cause mutations. Base speed 3, so you can take
it down with ranged attacks easily. Vulnerable to fire and physical damage,
but maybe could have a Stoneskin spell and some MP to harden its bark a
lil?
Silver/Pale/Wizard Treant - These treants left the forests to pursuit
powerful magical skills rumoured to found deep in the dungeon and slowly
their bark grew lighter in colour than normal treants. The silvery bark is
feathery and fragile looking It has a freezing, hopeless look in its eyes.
-- A weak treant with some some spells, I suggest Demonic Horde and Summon
Butterflies and Vampiric Draining, plus an "freezing gaze" ability on
sighting that would have a chance of freezing the player if not cold
resistant.
...
All of these could be maybe found from the Ancient Temple branch idea I
posted on the other day.
Tell me what you think! :-)
-J
I like the tentacle plant, as well as the stationary plants with glow/toxic radiance effects. Out of the chimps, I like the idea of a fast but weak rotting monster. Otherwise they seemed pretty much like other monsters in game, apart from flavour. I do like the final jungle level flavour-wise, with the undead gorilla and all. Going the portal vault way sounds good.
--Eino
More ideas from this morning...
Wollemi Pine - This dinosaur-era plant which is almost extinct on the surface has been well preserved in this deep dungeon, flourishing well in the moist conditions, but you can see from the lanky growth that it would like some more light. The branches seem to regenerate instantly if cut.
--A stationary plant with no attack, just to give in some flavour for the ordinary plants. See, this plant was only discovered in the real world in 1994 (from Australia) and it has an unique way of survival - if the main growth tip is somehow destroyed, there are hundreds and hundreds of new growth tips waiting to emerge to replace the dead one. Think hydra meets plant, attack removed. Maybe even so undestructable that one could only kill it with fire. I think adding this could be a "green thing" - spreading awareness of this endangered species.. And personally I do think it's a prime example of how little do we know of this world (and esp. Australia) when an entirely new species is discovered in '94!
Cassowary - This large bird is almost extinct in the surface, and has three strong knife-like nails on both of its feet and a horn-like thing on it's head. It is very territorial. It makes a weird deep thumping sound when it feels threatened. It is fast.
--A fast enemy with huge EV, fast stabbing attacks (maybe 3 per round, two leg hits one horn?), this one is also an endangered species found in Australia.
Snow Leopard - This large cat seems out of place in this dungeon, and seems to avoid attention. The highly valuable, stunningly beautiful fur coat of it is the main reason these very large kittens are endangered in the surface. It is very fast.
--An fast'n'heavy-hitting, fast-moving, high HP & EV, cold immune character, this one wouldn't fight if it wouldn't have to - in nature these animals are loners who stay away from everything but their prey, so would ALWAYS run away from the player, but if cornered, would attack - and it should be a hard-to-survive type of situation for many! The catch with this thing is the skin it leaves behind which would be VERY, _very_ valuable. (could also work as animal skin with cold resistance, but with a huge gold value)
Pitcher Plant - A huge plant growing from the ceiling with pitcher-like things hanging from it. The pitchers seem to be filled with some kind of a slippery corroding ooze, and you can actually see some figures struggling in the pitchers, trying to get out of the acidic hell.
--A stationary character, this one would be slow to attack, but with an ENORMOUS corroding acid hit - pitchers would 'tip over and spill acid on the player' (but player hitting it wouldn't necessarily get hit by acid, as the acid is only found in the pitchers inside), you don't want to go near. Should be very vulnerable to blade weapons (because player could cut off the pitchers real easy) Would be spawned with a few insect/bug type enemies surrounding it, because the ooze these have smell good to them - I'm now talking mainly flying insects like flies, blowflies, bees, wasps etc.. Wouldn't have a lot of HP or anything else for that matter. This could be placed in Slime Pits on top of Lair and dungeon, too..
Magic Wandering Mushroom - A mushroom, wandering aimlessly in the dungeon. This one has a rainbow coloured shine to it's cap.
--I bet this has been submitted before but here I go; Wandering Mushroom with one ability on top of confusing attack - an disco/acidrobin attack!!! First "poisoning" from would just put on discomode, but if the player would get hit with it again during the discomode, one would get acidmode! And if one would start tripping, it would last 5-20 turns before returning to normal.. Also, when acid and confused, I think there should be a chance on every turn for the player to SEVERELY damage himself, say hit a critical hit with his own weapon to himself or something, but disco+conf combo would only yield normal damage hits, not criticals.. Theres endless possibilities to this, one could get damaged in various ways when acid+conf, "You tried to eat your <players weapon> and got severe cuts (if bladed, spiked etc) inside your mouth!" or if next to a wall; "You tried to jump to another dimension through what you thought was a window! It was a rock wall! OUCH!" or water "You thought you climbed thru a gate to heaven - but it was just a pond of deep water! You drown, tripping happily!" or if an enemy fights the player; "You felt a loving warmth and embraced it! You find yourself hugging a <enemy name> and it hits you very bad because you're not in a state to defend yourself!" or my favourite one.... "You feel very paranoid, and as you blink your eyes, you find yourself from a bad trip! <player would be departed to Abyss/Pan for a brief moment, say 20 turns>"
.... Comments, everything is appreciated!
-J
Reducing priority since this is in the brainstorming phase.
I think that additional plants could make interesting monsters but we should think more globally about the role of plants in the game: in my opinion, they should be stationary (moving plants feel odd and for this weirdness we already possess the wandering mushroom). On the other hand, they should be different from other stationary monsters (statues and curse skulls). In my opinion, the oklob plant is an excellent monster!
What about plants being stationary but spreading on a level by pollineation (ie. anywhere on the level) or sprouts (ie. within the vicinity of a given plant)? Need to take care of xp scumming in this case.
Hello!
It's jvainio the plant nut with his plant ideas once again!
dpeg gave me a good heads up yesterday, saying that I should focus on plant special/specific abilities more...
So then I was thinking this on the evening, and came up with one idea:
FERNS!
Why ferns? Because they could grow in a dungeon - ok, maybe in just near the entrance, but seriously, crawl has been far from reality last time I checked - and because they are a versatile plant type that could be used to design various types of enemies.
Unlike majority of plants, ferns do not utilize pollination or any flowers to spread. Instead, most ferns have evolved more like mushrooms, actually using spores to multiply. The spores are ALWAYS stored on the underside of the leaf, in small dot size groups. When a strong wind blows, these spores fly to the air, and land, get some moisture, germinate and grow. Note the moisture part; Maybe when there would be water nearby, given X amount of turns, the fern would multiply (2-5x). Note #2; There are millions and millions of spores in one plant, and they are theoreticly capable of multiplying with huge speed because of this - but of course, there are still many species that grow very slowly despite the potential for huge expansion. Most are still fast, though.
I think all ferns should have low HP, but VERY, VERY FAST regeneration rate (which would be further boosted by fire).
Of course, being fragile, low AC but these naturally easily bendable plants would have extremely high EV.. Should be of high speed too, IMO.
The easiest fern enemy would be a plant with an spore attack that would have a chance of contaminating food and confusing the player. Kind of like a magic mushroom but with a ranged attack.
You could easily make different tiers of that one - lets say one is more dark green colour, and it would shoot actual clouds (3x3) of spores.
Or a version which would have poison added to its cloud/attack properties..
Or a deeper dungeon levels version with a rotting or stat drain attack..
Or just beef it up for deeper levels with "Iron/Platinum/Quicksilver/Titanium", say "Platinum Fern" would have enormous HP, and it's spore attack would cause damage (say; "The plant some spores at you!" - "You feel aphyxiated as you breathe the spores in!")..
Or a MOTHER FERN from the ANCIENT DINOSAUR AGE - High HP, fern spawn ability, acidic/strong poison attack (kind of like oklob meets fern nightmare, I know)..
All ferns die VERY easily in the cold. They should be, in my opinion, at least Rc--, if not Rc---.
They can take heat a bit better coming from hot climates (although there are fern species that grow in cold conditions it is not usual, but maybe there could be cold-resistant ferns too!), and therefore Rf+ ..
After a fire, ferns EXPLODE in growth because all the yummy nutrients created, so I think if one would use fire to fight ferns, the ferns would regenerate fast!
Also, there are fern species which can suffer up to 97% water loss and still regenerate in minutes (!!!) if given water. That is a feat that no other plant possesses in the wild. Maybe there could be "withered ferns" around the dungeon, and Feawn players could resurrect them using rain?
Maybe water could also "promote ferns" when given enough time, say Weak Fern grows to a Medium Fern in 500 turns, Medium fern to Strong Fern in 750 turns, Strong fern to Platinum Fern in 1000 turns..
A Sample Description:
Silver fern - A medium-sized light green fern which has clusters of brownish spores on the underside of its leaves. It seems to be in tune with nature and can sense invisible. It regenerates extremely quickly. It is very fast.
-Jvainio