Lava Orc

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These strange humanoids are made of living stone, with a unique heat-based metabolism. Ordinarily slow and hardy, when anything puts some stress on them, they literally fire up, turning into fast-moving lava. Outwardly, their shape mostly resembles that of Orcs, thus the name. They are unique in their ability to swim in lava: even the Djinn, while immune to fire, can't swim through a treacle of molten rock. In order to be able to use regular equipment, Lava Orcs have invented special fire-proof backpacks; vulnerable items like scrolls or books are not accessible when their owner is too hot. Many things can fire up their metabolism: facing multiple and/or dangerous enemies, being badly hurt, suffering fire damage, berserking, and obviously being submerged in lava. As their heat grows, Lava Orcs gain normal speed, become more accustomed to fire, have their stony skin soften, gain extra power when casting fire magic, become vulnerable to cold, speed up even more, and finally cause fire damage to all creatures in their presence. Lava Orcs make good melee fighters, preferring axes. They're pretty bad spellcasters, except for transmutations, fire and earth magic.

Innate Abilities

• Conserve scrolls: The chance of losing your scrolls to fire attacks is reduced by 90%.
• Saprovore 1: Lava Orcs can tolerate rotten meat if they are hungry or worse.

The following innate abilities depend on their temperature:

• Between 1 and 4:
  • Fire resistance 1: One level of fire resistance.
  • Slow movement: +2 movement delay.
  • Stoneskin: AC bonus is 2+0.2×XL.

• Between 5 and 8:
  • Fire resistance 1: One level of fire resistance.
  • Stoneskin: AC bonus is 2+0.2×XL.

• Between 9 and 10:
  • Fire resistance 2: Two levels of fire resistance.
  • Lava boost: Fire and Earth spells are enhanced. Cold spells suffer a penalty.

• Between 11 and 12:
  • Fire resistance 3: Three levels of fire resistance.
  • Fire boost: Fire spells are enhanced. Cold spells suffer a penalty.
  • Cold vulnerability 1: One level of cold vulnerability.

• Between 13 and 14:
  • Fire resistance 3: Three levels of fire resistance.
  • Cold vulnerability 1: One level of cold vulnerability.
  • Fire boost: Fire spells are enhanced. Cold spells suffer a penalty.
  • Fast move: -2 movement delay.
  • Passive heat: Any adjacent monster that attacks you in melee will suffer 0 to 4 points of fire damage. Ignores AC and EV.

• 15 or more:
  • Fire resistance 3: Three levels of fire resistance.
  • Cold vulnerability 1: One level of cold vulnerability.
  • Fire boost: Fire spells are enhanced. Cold spells suffer a penalty.
  • Fast move: -2 movement delay.
  • Passive heat: Any adjacent monster that attacks you in melee will suffer 0 to 4 points of fire damage. Ignores AC and EV.
  • Heat aura: You are surrounded by a fiery aura that burns any creature, friendly or not (0-10 fire damage, time-scaled).
  • No scrolls: You can't read scrolls.

Preferred backgrounds

Lava Orcs are recommended for the following backgrounds:

• Warriors: Fighter, Gladiator, Monk
• Adventurers: Artificer
• Zealots: Berserker, Abyssal Knight, Death Knight, Healer
• Warrior-mages: Skald, Transmuter
• Mages: Necromancer, Fire Elementalist, Earth Elementalist

Lava Orcs can't worship Beogh.

Level bonuses

• Lava Orcs get a Strength increase every 5 levels starting at level 5.
• Lava Orcs have 10% more HP than average.
• Lava Orcs have average MP.
• Lava Orcs gain 3 magic resistance per level.

Starting skills and equipment

Lava Orcs receive the skills and equipment listed for their background, with these exceptions:

• Bread rations are replaced by meat rations.
• All weapons and armor are orcish quality, where such variants exist.

Skill aptitudes

The higher the value, the better the aptitude.

Skill	Aptitude	Skill	Aptitude	Skill	Aptitude
Attack		Miscellaneous		Magic
Fighting	2	Armour	1	Spellcasting	-3
Short Blades	0	Dodging	-2	Conjurations	0
Long Blades	1	Stealth	-1	Hexes	0
Axes	2	Stabbing	N/A	Charms	-1
Maces & Flails	1	Shields	1	Summonings	0
Polearms	1	Traps	0	Necromancy	0
Staves	-1			Translocations	-2
Unarmed Combat	1			Transmutation	3
		Fire Magic	2
Throwing	-1	Ice Magic	-4	Invocations	3
Slings	-2	Air Magic	-3	Evocations	1
Bows	-2	Earth Magic	1
Crossbows	-2	Poison Magic	-1	Experience	-1

History

Lava Orcs will be added in 0.13.