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[SixOfSpades]

Suggestion: Give gabbro men the ability to slowly "swim" through walls & floors of natural unmined gabbro, thereby allowing the potential for mineral-based creatures to literally walk right out of the walls into the heart of your fortress. This would:
a) make gabbro men a highly unique (and therefore interesting) enemy,
b) make fortress defense more dynamic, as simply walling in would no longer be such an easy & viable strategy, and
c) teach players what the phrase "living rock" actually means.

The idea that the gabbro men could be stopped (or at least discouraged) by smoothing--and especially engraving--the walls/floors makes sense, as this makes the walls less natural, and gabbro men can only travel through unaltered gabbro. But then again, I also like the idea of gabbro men stepping through an engraving, and having the engraving transfer to the gabbro man, so he's "wearing" it like a decoration. (This does not destroy the masterpiece artwork, so the engraver would only be mad about the loss if the ☼«gabbro man»☼ is then killed.) This could theoretically open the way to a peace treaty between the dwarves & gabbro men, in which the dwarves allow the gabbro men to freely visit and get decorated.

Other types of mineral men could be added, too, one for each major layer stone, with each type able to traverse its own native mineral.

[Adrian]

Following that logic, creatures made from liquid should be able to phase through fortifications and grating

[hops]

Following that logic, creatures made from liquid should be able to phase through fortifications and grating

Liquid forgotten beasts phasing through my ice walls would be a terrifying sight to behold.

[SixOfSpades]

That's good. If you're made out of a material that can't take any real damage, then being able to take advantage of that material's fluidity seems a very fair tradeoff. That would make a lot more sense than trans-mineral gabbro men, that's for sure.

[Shazbot]

Or perhaps spirits of the rock slowly wander the stone layers as bodyless phantasms, like a ghost through air, until they exit the stone layer, pulling with them a body from the stone they emerged from? And can only emerge from unsmoothed stone?

[Solarius Scorch]

Or perhaps spirits of the rock slowly wander the stone layers as bodyless phantasms, like a ghost through air, until they exit the stone layer, pulling with them a body from the stone they emerged from? And can only emerge from unsmoothed stone?

Just out of curiosity, would this destroy a tile of stone?

[Dirst]

It ought to reduce the amount of rock in that tile a bit, but probably safe to ignore.

The digging invaders mod gives solid rock a pathing cost of 1000, so the groundwork already exists to mod in these creatures via DFHackery.

Haven't had as much time as I'd like to dedicate to modding lately, otherwise I'd like to see if I could get this to work.

[Calidovi]

This will just be for natural tiles and constructions, right? Iron men won't phase into my minecarts, right?

[SixOfSpades]

I'd prefer to avoid these creatures actually causing unmined rock tiles to disappear. Quite apart from potentially causing gaps in walls through which other enemies could enter, there's also the risk of a gabbro man stepping out of a gabbro pillar, thus causing the gabbro pillar to vanish, thus causing whatever was on top of the pillar to fall, crushing and killing the gabbro man. That's why I envisioned inter-mineral travel as a gabbro man stepping into a gabbro cliff (which remains virtually unchanged by the process, btw, just as diving into a pool doesn't raise the water level much), and then traveling as a slow-moving "pressure wave" of super-saturated gabbro, until it emerges from another gabbro cliff somewhere else.

I'm undecided about whether smoothed/engraved tiles should slow or even stop this process. On one hand, these literally elemental creatures should shun the artificial. On the other hand, ☼«gabbro men»☼. But I do feel that both constructions, and statues/other furniture, should be off-limits to this kind of pathing, because they've been physically separated from the bedrock and are thus no longer living rock.

[Bulwarken]

Following that logic, creatures made from liquid should be able to phase through fortifications and grating

Yes please

[SixOfSpades]

I should mention that gabbro men walking through engravings is far from the only way in which they could be decorated. I could easily picture gabbro men waiting in line for service at a Mason's or Craftsdwarf's Shop, turning it into the geologic equivalent of a tattoo parlor.

[Calidovi]

I should mention that gabbro men walking through engravings is far from the only way in which they could be decorated. I could easily picture gabbro men waiting in line for service at a Mason's or Craftsdwarf's Shop, turning it into the geologic equivalent of a tattoo parlor.

Tameable gabbro soldiers sound amazing.

[The Big D]

I should mention that gabbro men walking through engravings is far from the only way in which they could be decorated. I could easily picture gabbro men waiting in line for service at a Mason's or Craftsdwarf's Shop, turning it into the geologic equivalent of a tattoo parlor.

Tameable gabbro soldiers sound amazing.

Off to the raws! Hi Ho Big D, AWAYYYYY!

[A_Goat]

+1

Following that logic, creatures made from liquid should be able to phase through fortifications and grating

Why not?
It sounds like a lot of Fun.