Nightgaunt

Game Talk The Drawing Board
1

Should be a interesting enemy to bolster the lovecraftian roster.

“Nightgaunts have a vaguely human shape, but are thin, black, and faceless. Their skin is slick and rubbery. They sport a pair of inward-facing horns on their heads, and have clawed hands and a long barbed tail which is used to “tickle” their victims into submission. They can fly using a set of membranous wings. They make no sound.”

But yeah…comment. I was gonna script one in but I wouldnt guess the stats and Im unsure if you can put a “horns” and “tail” tag on.

DOUBLE EDIT: Fixed it. Its all good and working, try it out if you want c: Just add it to the monsters JSON, bring up the console in-game, 6 for wish monster and type "/nightgaunt

{ "type" : "MONSTER", "id" : "mon_nightgaunt", "name": "nightgaunt", "species":"NETHER", "symbol":"I", "color":"dkgray", "size":"LARGE", "material":"flesh", "diff":26, "aggression":12, "morale":30, "speed":100, "melee_skill":10, "melee_dice":3, "melee_dice_sides":6, "melee_cut":7, "dodge":7, "armor_bash":4, "armor_cut":2, "item_chance":0, "luminance":0, "hp":90, "special_freq":0, "death_function":"NORMAL", "special_attack":"NONE", "description":"Nightgaunts have a vaguely human shape, but are thin, black, and faceless. Their skin is slick and rubbery. It has wings it can fly with.", "flags":["HEARS", "SMELLS", "WARM", "BASHES", "GRABS", "GOODSMELLING", "HIT_AND_RUN", "GOODHEARING", "FLIES", "NO_BREATHE", "VIS50"], "anger_triggers":["STALK", "PLAYER_WEAK", "HURT", "PLAYER_CLOSE"] }

2

diff = difficulty rating. In Dynamic Spawn, this is also minimum number of hours after game-start before the critter can spawn. Presumably also applies to non-zed critters.

melee dice: you do melee damage. So do the critters. This is likely the number of dice (and then the sides) they roll. So 4d6 here.

Rest of it, I’ll leave to a critter-maker.

3 
Out of what crypt they crawl, I cannot tell,
But every night I see the rubbery things,
Black, horned, and slender, with membranous wings,
They come in legions on the north wind's swell
With obscene clutch that titillates and stings,
Snatching me off on monstrous voyagings
To grey worlds hidden deep in nightmare's well.

Over the jagged peaks of Thok they sweep,
Heedless of all the cries I try to make,
And down the nether pits to that foul lake
Where the puffed shoggoths splash in doubtful sleep.
But ho! If only they would make some sound,
Or wear a face where faces should be found!

I remember one of my favorite things about the way Nightgaunts are depicted is that they usually don’t kill or hurt you outright, they just ruin your armor and clothing with their ‘tickling tail’ grapple and lift you away to drop somewhere else unpleasant (from a considerable height if they are feeling nasty.) However, this would probably need proper Z levels unless a hacky ‘teleport randomly outside on the map’ was used.

However, since the current ‘Mi Go’ don’t seem to be precisely as described in Lovecraft some modification/naturalzation may be in order for Cataclysm ( that is, until the Mi Go start buzzily exhorting you to worship Shub Niggurath and Friends while coyly suggesting you slip into something more comfortable, like that brain jar it keeps hand handy for just such an occasion.)

Still, I do like the idea of an ‘alien’ opponent that just roams around freely and ‘plays’ in baffling, yet simplistic ways.

4

@Belteshazzar: I could add a hit and run and a low moral, and make them as quick as you (maybe a tad slower, like 105), so if you hit them theyd probably run off, also a stronger attack, chance to ruin your armor more. I dunno.