Formicid

Version 0.25: 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 Formicid (monster).

The Formicids are a species of humanoid ants. Just like their tiny insect ancestors, the Formicids are well adept at earth work, both on the physical and magical sides. Their abilities have been used to tunnel immense underground communities and structures, many of which are tens of thousands of years old. Perhaps unfortunately, their strong ties to earth have left them completely impervious to being teleported or hasted; Formicids are tied to the earth with a complete sense of stasis. While this is a seemingly bad property for a dungeon adventurer, stasis has the beneficial effect of preventing many types of nasty hexes and maledictions. With the ability to lift ten times their own weight, the Formicids have strength rivaling that of ogres. This, along with the fact that they have four arms, allows Formicid warriors to equip both a shield and a two-handed weapon at the same time. Formicids make good earth and venom mages, but are quite capable at both melee and ranged combat too. They are naturally bad at air magic and conjurations.

Innate Abilities

• Antennae 3: Formicids can sense monsters within 7 tiles (even through walls) and can also see invisible.
  • Formicids cannot wear any form of headgear.
• Formicids have four arms, and can treat most melee and ranged weapons as one-handed. Giant clubs, giant spiked clubs, and large rocks are still too large for them to use, however. Their multiple limbs also allow them to use shields with the same reduced penalties as large races.
• Formicids can dig through walls as an innate ability. First, they have to extend their mandibles, and then move into a rock wall or iron grate to start making the tunnel. Digging takes 2+movement delay auts per square, makes some noise, and has a hefty food cost.
• Formicids can create a shaft under themselves as an innate ability, allowing them to escape downwards. Unlike digging, this ability is silent. Note that you cannot use it on the last level of a branch, nor in the Abyss, Hell, Pandemonium, or Ziggurats.
• Formicids have permanent stasis, rendering them unable to take advantage of translocative effects, Haste, and berserk, but also granting immunity to paralysis and slowing (but not petrification). Finesse as well as Lugonu's Bend Space ability and the Passage of Golubria spell work as normal, however.

Formicids have a base Strength of 12, Intelligence of 7 and Dexterity of 6 (before Background modifiers).

Preferred Backgrounds

• Warriors: Fighter, Hunter
• Zealots: Abyssal Knight
• Warrior-mages: Arcane Marksman
• Mages: Earth Elementalist, Venom Mage

Level Bonuses

• +1 strength or intelligence every 4th level.
• Average HP.
• 10% more MP than average, before stepdowns.
• +4 magic resistance per level.

Starting Skills and Equipment

Formicids receive the skills and equipment listed for their background.

Skill aptitudes

The higher the value, the better the aptitude.

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

Strategy

Formicids are blessed and cursed with some of the most dramatic species mutations in Crawl, resulting in a very unique play experience. Their ability to wield 2-handed weapons and shields simultaneously, coupled with their high Armour skill aptitude and access to almost all armour, allows them to deal stupendous amounts of damage without sacrificing anything from their defenses. Although they still can't wield giant clubs, wielding any 2-handed weapon in one hand is still a massive advantage, making a formicid with end-game quality equipment far deadlier than most.

Unfortunately, they also come with one of the heaviest handicaps of any species, making it difficult to survive dangerous encounters that others can simply bail on. While permanent stasis does protect you from slow and paralysis effects, it also disables a wide variety of incredibly useful panic buttons; teleports and blinks are the most obvious, but all sources of haste and berserking are also rendered useless. Where some characters can simply buff up and plow their way through dangerous foes or crowds of attackers before disappearing if a fight starts looking unwinnable, a formicid must play more cautiously.

Take advantage of the resources formicids have at their disposal. Your innate digging ability allows you to create choke points, making it much safer to fight large bands of enemies. As it is fairly slow to use, you may want to create tunnels in advance, near areas where there are multiple enemies. Assuming you aren't at the bottom floor of a branch, your Shaft ability is a guaranteed escape from any fight, but consider using it before you're at the brink of death; it takes a few turns to kick in, and it's much easier to survive on an unexplored, dangerous floor when you're relatively unscathed.

While formicids can't blink normally, Dithmenos' Shadow Step provides an effect similar to Controlled Blink. Likewise, Passage of Golubria and Lugonu's Bend Space ability cause space to bend, not you, and thus still function as normal for you. Spells that disable enemies (Slow, Petrify, Cause Fear, and other Hexes) are excellent for letting you just outrun enemies you can't handle.

Your antennae and high Stealth aptitude allow you to see large bands and dangerous opponents before engaging them, making it much easier for you to lure individuals away from a group or simply avoid the fight entirely. When pursued by an enemy you can't outrun or hex, luring it over a teleport trap is a great way to lose it, so keep an eye out for those. Be careful not to enter the trap yourself, as it will still vanish in spite of your stasis. Most importantly, don't forget that simply walking away before an impossible fight begins is sometimes the best option you've got. This makes boots of running particularly desirable; it is one of the only methods a formicid has of outrunning opponents.

When it comes to god selection for a more melee-oriented fomicid character, Trog may seem like a poor choice due to formicids' stasis but isn't entirely out of the question. While Trog's berserk ability will not function, both of its later, more powerful invocations will still function normally.

Another god you might consider is Lugonu, whose Bend Space ability will allow you to blink despite your stasis. Later, you'll get the ability to banish dangerous foes to the Abyss or retreat there yourself in an emergency -- while the Abyss isn't exactly safe, it can still be safer than, say, staring down multiple orbs of fire. Alternatively, use a weapon of distortion to force your foes to blink away and create some distance (or just banish them); distortion even works on monsters that are immune to being banished normally!

History

• Prior to 0.25, formicids could cast Swiftness.
• Prior to 0.18, formicids were able to dig even when transformed, had -2 Throwing aptitude, and could not use Okawaru's Finesse.
• Prior to 0.15, formicids could throw large rocks.
• Formicids were added in 0.14.
• During much of their development, formicids were known as "dwants" (or dwarf-ants). They also had less HP but leveled even faster than humans. In addition, they were particularly vulnerable to poison.

References

Tavern discussion