Formicid

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Version 0.27: 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

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

Preferred Backgrounds

Level Bonuses

Starting Skills and Equipment

Formicids receive the skills and equipment listed for their background.

Difficulty of Play

SimpleIntermediateAdvanced

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. 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 would otherwise be easy to bail from. 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.

Tips and Tricks

  • While formicids can't blink normally, Passage of Golubria, Dithmenos' Shadow Step, and Lugonu's Bend Space ability cause space to bend, not you, and therefore still function as normal.
  • Take advantage of the resources formicids have at their disposal. Your innate digging ability allows you to create choke points or even kill holes, making it much safer to fight large bands of enemies. As it is fairly slow to use, you may want to create zig-zagging tunnels (to break line of sight) in advance, near areas where there are multiple enemies.
    • Once you've cleared Zot:5 and the orb chamber, there's virtually nothing to stop you from digging tunnels all the way up through the Dungeon to make the shortest route for the orb run. You can also choose to leave a few blind corner tunnels to give yourself a chance to rest or Passwall around any dangerous monsters that bar your way.
    • As usual, use abilities before you're at the brink of death. Assuming you aren't at the bottom floor of a branch, your Shaft ability is a guaranteed escape from any fight, but it takes a few turns to kick in, and it's much easier to survive on an unexplored, more dangerous floor when you're relatively unscathed. If the floor(s) below are cleared of danger, the shaft ability can provide a pain-free way to make multiple attempts at raiding a difficult area; eg, when entering a ghost vault.
  • Your antennae and high Stealth aptitude allow you to see dangerous opponents before engaging them, making it much easier for you to lure individuals away from a group or simply avoid fights entirely. Don't forget that simply walking away before an impossible fight begins is sometimes the best option you've got.
  • Spells that disable enemies (Slow, Petrify, Cause Fear, and other Hexes) are excellent for letting you just outrun enemies you can't handle. Gozag's abilities can disable enemies in the same way.
  • Don't overlook your Formicid's excellent Earth and Transmutation aptitudes: Passwall in combination with your innate digging ability is a panic button that only takes a few turns -- and it'll leave a wall between you and your enemies, too. Be sure to leave enough time for the spell to complete (two turns at minimum).
  • When pursued by an enemy you can't outrun or hex, luring it over a teleport trap or shaft is a great way to lose it if they're available. Be careful not to enter temporary teleport traps yourself -- you won't teleport, but you'll still destroy the trap.

History

  • In 0.28, digging through walls will happen at normal speed, but incur HP drain.
  • 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

Species
Simple Mountain DwarfMinotaurMerfolkGargoyleDraconianTrollDeep ElfArmataurGnoll
Intermediate HumanKoboldDemonspawnDjinniSprigganGhoulTenguOniBarachi
Advanced CoglinVine StalkerVampireDemigodFormicidNagaOctopodeFelidMummy