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[Zaffre]

I was bored today and decided to brainstorm some ideas for Dwarf Fortress, this is what I came up with.

Beholder


A floating, colossal eye. Six tendrils grow from its black central mass. Beware its (effect!)

Possible Effects:

• Beware its poisonous touch! (Has a chance to poison a dwarf on attack)
• Beware its maddening gaze! (May make a dwarf go berserk or insane depending on mental stability of said dwarf)
• Beware its frigid embrace! (May morph a dwarf into an ice tile on attack, low chance)
• Beware its burning tentacles! (May set a dwarf on fire on attack)
• Beware its alluring glare! (May put a dwarf to sleep)
• Beware its terrifying glare! (May temporarily paralyze a dwarf)
• Beware its tunneling claws! (Can dig out tiles, albeit slowly)
• Beware its heavy fists! (Can destroy buildings)

Megabeast:
No.

Traits:
The Beholder spawns rarely in evil biomes, and almost nowhere else. It is very rare to see this creature. It has a 50% chance of having an effect and a 50% chance of not. The skin is always black. It takes reduced damage from bludgeoning weapons and increased damage from slashing weapons. Possible eye colors are blue, brown, green, yellow, purple, red, orange, and turquoise.

The Beholder's tentacles can be cut off to damage it heavily. When killed, it can not be butchered.

The Beholder is represented by a B.

Hydra

A water-dwelling, reptilian beast. Six necks sprout from its body, each ending with a head.  Beware its poison breath!

Megabeast:
Yes.

Traits:
The Hydra spawns anywhere underwater. It is neutral aboveground but in water it will attack and continue to attack any living thing until it is dead. Each head periodically spews poison like a dragon, but with a shorter distance and it is poison instead of fire. Armor will protect a dwarf from poison unless the dwarf accidentally allows it to enter an orifice (ear, mouth, any open wounds, etc.) Scales can be colored any color.

It has six heads, and once one has been removed it will grow back in any timespan within a minute to an hour (real time). If all heads are severed and the body is butchered the creature will die. Not only does it breathe poison, it can also claw and bite. Takes extra damage from bludgeoning weapons, especially to the head(s), and takes normal damage from slashing weapons. In the water, this creature regenerates heads quicker, from thirty seconds to ten minutes (again, real time). When butchered, the creature will provide large amounts of meat. If a head is prepared it provides happiness to a dwarf eating it.

The Hydra is represented by a H.

Angel

A tall and fair (race) woman with a holy glow around her form. She wears flowing white robes and feathered wings sprout from her back.

Possible Races:

• Human
• Dwarf
• Elf

Megabeast:
No.

Traits:
Angels may spawn naturally in joyous wilds or sometimes anywhere else after clowns have been released from the circus. Angel will never spawn in evil biomes. They will attempt to protect your dwarves from harm but may also just ignore them, depending on race. If you are at war with their race they have a slight chance of doing minor harm to your dwarves (like making them unhappy or making them sleep longer) but will never physically harm them.

If there is a demon on the map, the angel will rush toward the demon and begin to exorcise it. During this time the demon cannot move or attack. Once the exorcism has been complete two things may occur. Both have a 50% chance of happening.

• The demon will be removed from the map and leave a pile of ash.
• The demon will counterattack and kill the angel, then continue its attack.

If you order your dwarves to attack the angel, it will force them back ten or so tiles and leave the map - but not before draining some of your booze reserves. It is represented by an A.

[10ebbor10]

First of all, these are already modable. (Mostly)
Second, the Hydra's already in the game.

Third, some of those mechanics you give don't make sense. You can't measure things in out of game time, since the game is not bound to that. It gives a seriously different intrepretation based on your framerate. Also, why would some of these effects happen (like why would a Hydra be weak to smashing weapons*). Also, what's the reasoning behind the beholders, is it part of some folklore I don't know. If it's something you made up yourself, it'd better be implemented as a mod.

*Or why would the angel be able to push back the dwarves and steal booze. ((Which is a bad gamemechanic btw. No player would do it more than once, so after that first time it's just wasted.))

In general, what you suggest seem to be all modable creatures which can be made based on an extension of the current syndrome/transformation mechanics, which I would hearthly approve.




Last: I hate the formatting.

[JanusTwoface]

More of the same of what 10ebbor10 said.

Also, consider that there was recently the 'sponsor an animal drive' adding 127 creatures to the game and people paid for those. I don't think Toady One will be doing much more in the near future.

Beholder:
- Considered "Product Identity" by Wizards of the Coast and as such is not released under its Open Game License. (d20 SRD via Wikipedia)
- Tunneling claws: No tunneling enemies yet exist, mostly due to AI challenges and difficulty (and does this fit with a Beholder anyways?)
- Heavy fists: ... what fists?
- Why can't you butcher it?

Hyrda:
- Already in the game (DF Wiki)
- Why would it take additional damage from bludeoning weapons?
- Why are they based on water? (Dwarves don't go into the water already)
- Why would they provide extra happiness based on eating the head?

Angel:
- Why just female?
- Why just humans, dwarves, and elves?
- Why can't the demon move or attack during an exorcism? (Heck, why are angels performing exorcisms in the first place?)
- Why in the world would an angel take your booze?
- Doesn't really fit with the pantheons in DF. Something more akin to a Champion or an Avatar of a god might make more sense, although in those cases their behavior will defend on the god's spheres of influence.

[10ebbor10]

Angel:
- Why just female?

Especially this. Angles are actually genderless/male.

[Zaffre]

You've made some good points; I was unaware of some of the flaws. I'll do my best to perfect them in the future. In the meantime, I recommend leaving this thread to die out.

[GreatWyrmGold]

Aren't beholders trademarked?

Aside from that, hydras exist and there was an extensive discussion on angels. The modern angel was mentioned briefly before we dove into the meat of things, from Abrahamic angels to djinni (sp?) to all sorts of stuff. Read up. A lot of it sounded like some of your suggestions.