Ogre

Version 0.20: This article may not be up to date for the latest stable release of Crawl.

This page is about the player species. For the monster, see Ogre (monster).

Ogres are huge, chunky creatures who typically are strong rather than smart, and not nimble at all. Ogres mature almost as quickly as Humans. Their preferred methods of avoiding beatings are dodging and the use of shields. Many Ogres find it natural to wield some large and blunt weapon. (Countless lethal incidents have taught them to leave most edged weapons be.) While all sophisticated forms of missile combat are too awkward for them, they are good at throwing things, in particular boulders. Contrary to expectations, Ogres are not reduced to mindless brutes. They possess a raw talent for witchcraft, letting them pick up the basics of spellcasting at an amazing speed. However, the more arcane schools of magic are foreign to them and are only learned at poor rates.

Innate Abilities

• Tough Skin 1: Ogres have +1 AC.
• Ogres are large creatures. Unlike smaller species, they can use giant clubs and giant spiked clubs, but cannot wear any armour but robes, cloaks, hats, animal skins, troll hides, troll leather armours, dragon hide, or dragon armour. Bucklers are also too small for them, but they can wield shields and large shields more easily than normal.
• Ogres are large enough to attack at normal speed while standing in shallow water (though they still move slowly through it).

Ogres have a base Strength of 11, Intelligence of 9 and Dexterity of 4 (before Background modifiers) and normal base magic points.

Preferred Backgrounds

• Warriors: Hunter
• Zealots: Berserker
• Warrior-mages: Arcane Marksman
• Mages: Wizard, Fire Elementalist

Level Bonuses

• +1 strength every 3rd level.
• 30% more hit points than average.
• +4 magic resistance per level.

Starting Skills and Equipment

Ogres start with the skills and equipment listed for their background, with the following exceptions:

• Incompatible body armour is replaced with an animal skin or robe.
• Helmets are replaced with hats.
• Meat rations replace bread rations.
• Any Armour skill is replaced by Dodging.
• Ogre hunters are given a choice of large rocks instead of javelins.

Difficulty of Play

Ogres enjoy a number of advantages over other species, but have an equal amount of disadvantages. They have an immense amount of HP naturally and train Fighting faster than any other species, but their inability to wear most armour coupled with their large size leaves them with miserable AC and EV in the early game. On the plus side, their offenses become powerful once trained, with access to both giant spiked clubs and large rocks. They also make quite solid spellcasters, being fairly unique in that they are a large, +30% hit point race which is adept at learning magic. They learn all schools equally well, and with high spellcasting aptitude, can easily pick up many lower level spells, or train specific schools at only a very minor (-1) aptitude penalty.

Skill aptitudes

The higher the value, the better the aptitude.

Skill	Aptitude	Skill	Aptitude	Skill	Aptitude
Attack		Miscellaneous		Magic
Fighting	3	Armour	-2	Spellcasting	1
		Dodging	-1
Maces & Flails	-1	Shields	0	Conjurations	-1
Axes	0	Stealth	-2	Hexes	-1
Polearms	0			Summonings	-1
Staves	0	Invocations	1	Necromancy	-1
Unarmed Combat	-1	Evocations	-2	Translocations	-1
Throwing	0	Shapeshifting	-1	Alchemy	-1
				Fire Magic	-1
Short Blades	-1			Ice Magic	-1
Long Blades	-1			Air Magic	-1
Ranged Weapons	-3	Experience	0	Earth Magic	-1

Strategy

As of 0.20, Ogres have had their maces & flails aptitude lowered from +3 to -1, to encourage them to consider other weapon types rather than only giant clubs. While giant weaponry still has the highest base damage of all melee weapons, it will take more training to get them to a usable level of accuracy and attack delay. Consider other options such as polearms or unarmed - although it is likely that most ogres will still default to giant clubs.

Large rocks are likewise extremely deadly in the hands of a skilled Ogre, but will start out at 20 aut delay. It requires 26 skill to throw a large rock at min delay (7 auts), or 20 skill to throw one in one turn (10 auts). Their extremely high damage makes this very worthwhile, but keep an eye on how long the action will take when you are around dangerous enemies.

Ogres make excellent high durability casters - with only -1 in all spell schools and a strong spellcasting aptitude, they are now the best choice for a caster who wants to have very high health. The ability to mix brute strength with adequate spellcasting is what sets them apart from trolls, who are generally somewhat better at purely physical builds.

Strategy guides

• Serfuzz's Ogre Hunter guide
• Davion Fuxa's Ogre guide

History

• Prior to 0.20, ogres had +3 Maces & Flails aptitude, and were much worse with magic skills. In 0.20 they were reworked to make their weapon choice less of a "no-brainer" and allow easier access to magic skills.
• Prior to 0.16, ogres started with an extra bread ration. Also, ogre hunters and artificers began with a club instead of a short sword.
• Prior to 0.15, ogres had Saprovore 1 and Fast Metabolism.
• Prior to 0.13, ogre hunters and artificers began with a short sword instead of a club.