Ogre

Version 0.30: 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). For a list of all monstrous ogres, see List of ogres.

Ogres are huge, chunky creatures who are very strong and robust, but are not nimble at all. They possess a raw talent for magic, but are poor at making use of magical devices. Ogres mature almost as quickly as Humans. Their preferred methods of avoiding beatings are dodging and the use of shields, but they can also use armours made from magical hides, since these accommodate their large frames. Ogres are proficient at using all types of melee weapons, yet all sophisticated forms of missile combat are too awkward for them. They are, however, good at throwing things, in particular boulders.

Innate Abilities

• Ogres are large species:
  • Like all large creatures, they receive an EV penalty.
  • Unlike regular sized species, they can use giant clubs, giant spiked clubs, and large rocks.
  • Their bodies do not fit into boots, gloves, helmets, or most body armour (they can only wear robes, animal skins, troll leather armour, and dragon scales). In addition, bucklers are too small for them to use.
  • They can attack and move normally in shallow water.
• Tough Skin 1: Ogres have +1 AC.

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: Hedge Wizard, Fire Elementalist

Level Bonuses

• +1 strength every 3rd level.
• 30% more hit points than average.
• +4 willpower 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.
• Bucklers are replaced with kite shields.
• Any Armour skill is replaced by Dodging.
• Javelins are replaced with large rocks.

Difficulty of Play

Ogres have a number of advantages, offset by a similar amount of disadvantages. They have immense HP, and train Fighting faster than any other species. But for a good chunk of the game, Ogres have miserable AC and EV, because they can't wear most armour and have large size, respectively. On the flip side, they are one of the few species that can wield giant clubs and throw large rocks.

Ogres make for good spellcasters, being a large, +30% HP race which is adept at learning magic. They learn all schools equally well, with good Spellcasting skill, and a very minor (-1) aptitude penalty to the other magic schools.

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

Ogres have many different options for skill training:

• Large rocks are deadly. An unskilled user takes 20 aut to throw one - that's 2 full turns. But, regardless of skill, large rocks can be good to throw against melee enemies. Just mind the delay. Having high Throwing skill will make them even better at killing. As a side benefit, large rocks are more common than javelins and boomerangs, combined.

• Giant clubs and giant spiked clubs are the strongest melee weapons, but not without their drawbacks. They are two-handed, which means no shield. They also take considerable skill training to use effectively.

• Ogres are one of the best choices for a high-durability caster. They have +30% HP, but limited body armour, as well as decent magical aptitudes. They work well as both "pure" casters and hybrids.

Other than that, ogres generally like shields, as their high strength helps deal with the encumbrance.

History

• Prior to 0.30, large species (including ogres) could wield shields more easily, received slightly less SH from kite shields, and moved slowly in shallow water.
• Prior to 0.29, ogres had a -2 Shields aptitude (buffed to compensate for a shield nerf in 0.28).
• 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.