Coglin

Version 0.32: This article is up to date for the latest stable release of Dungeon Crawl Stone Soup.

This page is a stub. You could probably expand this page should you wish to do so.

Unlike most of their goblin kin, Coglins augment their tiny frames with charm-wrought steel. Their exoskeletons, capable of wielding weapons independently in each arm, are begun with hand-me-downs from their sprawling families. By the time they come of age, they are inseparable from their creations, and experienced individuals often further customize themselves with uniquely powerful additions. Haphazard and jerry-rigged, Coglin exoskeletons lack the flexibility of natural bodies. Though their arms can fly in a whir of destruction, it takes quite a bit of swinging to rev them up to that speed. Further, with their bodies swallowed in the controls of their machine, they cannot wear jewelry - the interference of multiple magical fields would be catastrophic! Even so, a true Coglin would never criticize their creation. They believe that spirits of steel and sandalwood come to rest within every thing that draws blood, slowly and carefully re-attuning their exoskeletons to those spirits whenever they wield or remove weapons. Never scorn the spirits!

Innate Abilities

• Off-hand Wielding: Coglins can wield a second one-handed weapon instead of a shield or orb. For more details, see below.
• Slow Wielding: Wielding or unwielding a weapon takes 5 decaAut instead of 0.5.
• Warmup Strikes: Weapon damage is reduced by 33%, but this penalty is reduced when making attacks. The penalty can be eliminated by attacking for about 4 decaAut worth of time, at which point the player is considered fully revved. When not attacking, the penalty will be gradually restored, taking about 12 decaAut to go from 0% to 33%.
• No Jewelry: Coglins cannot wear rings or amulets.

Coglins have a base Strength of 8, Intelligence of 7, and Dexterity of 9 (before background modifiers).

Dual wielding

Coglins can wield two one-handed melee or ranged weapons and attack with both at the same time. Melee and ranged weapons cannot be mixed. The attack delay is the average of the two weapon delays (e.g. with Long Blades at 14 skill, a demon blade and a double sword would attack at a (0.6+0.8)/2 delay, or 0.7). When attacking with two weapons, the order of attacks is random. Only 1 set of auxiliary attacks will trigger when attacking with two weapons.

Preferred Backgrounds

• Warriors: Gladiator, Hunter
• Zealots: Berserker
• Adventurers: Artificer
• Warrior-mages: Warper
• Mages: Alchemist

Level Bonuses

• +1 to a random stat every 4th level.
• Average HP and MP.
• +3 willpower per level.
• At XL 14, Coglins can invent a gizmo. See below for more details.

Invent Gizmo

At XL 14, Coglins will gain the Invent Gizmo ability, which will generate 3 gizmos and allow the player to install one of them. Each gizmo is generated with 1 rare and 2 common properties.

• There are 6 common properties, each of which will be randomly assigned to a gizmo. They are:
  • rF+
  • rC+
  • rPois+rCorr
  • rElec
  • Will+
  • Slay+3
• There are 7 rare properties. Each gizmo will roll one of them, so not all of them will generate in a game. They are:
  • Regen + RegenMP: Increase HP regeneration by 0.8/turn and MP regeneration by 0.4/turn.
  • Repel Missiles + Clarity: Gain Repel Missiles and clarity.
  • Rampage + Acrobat: Gain rampage and acrobat.
  • Gadgeteer: XP evocables recharge 30% faster, and wands have a 30% chance to not consume a charge when used.
  • ManaRev: Increase MP regeneration based on rev (0.8/turn at full rev).
  • ParryRev: Gain AC based on rev (+5 at full rev). When fully revved, also gain a small chance to disarm enemies on striking.
  • AutoDazzle: Gain a small chance to fire a beam of blinding light at any enemy that misses you. This beam does no damage.

Starting Skills and Equipment

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

• Backgrounds that start with a one-handed melee weapon also start with a +0 dagger.
• Hexslingers also start with a -2 sling.
• Hunters start with a +2 sling and a +0 sling instead of a shortbow.

Difficulty of Play

Coglins are somewhat difficult to play. While dual wielding is very strong, it is mitigated by rev and a lack of jewelry. The rev makes Coglins weak at conventional combat, while not having access to jewelry make it harder to gain resistances and stats. This makes Coglins glass cannons in melee, as they can deal more damage than a two-handed weapon user at the cost of being more vulnerable to elemental attacks. Ranged Coglins can take advantage of dual-wielding as well, but their damage will be less impressive unless they get lucky and find hand cannons. Casters can dual-wield magical staves to increase their spellpower, but they'll have trouble casting higher level spells due to their mediocre aptitudes.

XL 14 represents a major power spike for Coglins, as gizmos are essentially equivalent to a full set of non-artefact jewelry. In general, a gizmo will cover some resistances and provide an interesting property, preparing the Coglin for the S-branches (Snake, Spider, Swamp, and Shoals) and beyond, where resistances become more important.

Skill aptitudes

The higher the value, the better the aptitude.

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

History

• In 0.32, Coglins will be added to the game.