Oni

Version 0.31: This article is up to date for the latest stable release of Dungeon Crawl Stone Soup.

Oni are large, rowdy creatures who love a good fight. They are exceptionally strong and robust, and their fondness for drink allows them to heal twice as much from healing potions and even perform free melee swings around themselves while they chug them. They are proficient with most melee weapons and forms of magic, but lack the dexterity or inclination to use ranged weapons or magical devices well. They are, however, good at throwing things, in particular large rocks. Their large size prevents them from wearing most forms of armour, and are poor at dodging, relying on their enormous bulk to survive battles instead.

Innate Abilities

• Oni are large species:
  • Like all large creatures, they receive an EV and Dodging 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.
• Horns 1: Oni can make an auxiliary headbutt attack in melee.
• Tough Skin 1: Oni have +1 AC.
• Double Potion Healing: Oni restore twice as much health and magic when drinking potions. Potions of mutation are also slightly improved.
• Drunken Brawling: When drinking a potion that restores HP or MP, Oni make a free melee attack against all adjacent enemies. This includes potions of curing, heal wounds, magic, and ambrosia. Unlike cleaving, there is no damage penalty. Note that Gozag's Potion Petition doesn't give a free attack.

Oni have a base Strength of 11, Intelligence of 9, and Dexterity of 4 (before Background modifiers) and normal base magic points.

Preferred Backgrounds

• Warriors: Gladiator
• Zealots: Berserker, Cinder Acolyte
• Mages: Hedge Wizard, Fire Elementalist, Air Elementalist

Level Bonuses

• +1 strength every 3rd level.
• 30% more hit points than average.
• +4 willpower per level.

Starting Skills and Equipment

Oni 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

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

Oni 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	-1	Spellcasting	1
		Dodging	-1
Maces & Flails	0	Shields	-1	Conjurations	-1
Axes	0	Stealth	-2	Hexes	-1
Polearms	0			Summonings	-1
Staves	0	Invocations	2	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

Oni 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 even at 0 skill, they can be used to kill melee enemies (just mind the delay). A highly skilled user will throw large rocks quickly, which can be devastating. As a side benefit, large rocks are more common and less likely to mulch than javelins and boomerangs, combined.
• Giant clubs and giant spiked clubs are the strongest melee weapons, but they aren't without drawbacks. Giant clubs are two-handed, which means no shield. This can be an issue, especially as Oni are often stuck with low AC and low EV. They also take considerable skill training to use effectively.
• Oni 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, Oni generally like shields, as their high strength helps deal with the encumbrance.

History

• In 0.31, Oni were added, replacing Ogres.