Custom Monster Design

[beowuuf]

CSBwin could do this easily with the death/attack filter and some DSA magic. DSB too with lua.

for RTC you can filter attacks through wall_action, and create new object perhaps with the attacks (a monster that won't drop a stronger monster on 'death') though that would mean creating clones of torches, furies, and other fire weapons

Edit: Double-posted with Ameena, and I think she just suggested the idea I was coming back to say. But yeah, if the original monster just gets weaker, but drops heads, and those heads are on an expiry timer to create new two-heads monsters - it would be like the one head cut becomes two thing.

It would also work better with the DM mechanics, because obviously a single creature - no matter how powerful - is still relatively easy to manoeuver around using tricks, whereas an ever increasing group of monsters (even if some are weaker) is much worse.

[Ameena]

Wow, you're suggesting that a dropped head spawns a whole new hydra? Youch, that'd be bloody nasty, lol. I was meaning that you chop a head off the hydra and it falls to the floor, one dead head, but then a new one can regrow from the stump of the one you chopped off (on the original creature) so the hydra goes back to having thee heads again. So you could end up with rather a lot of heads lying on the floor, but there'd still only be one body walking around.

[beowuuf]

Oh, would it?

*removes the hydra monster from the D&D game*
*adds it as a dragon instead*

Yeah, but then that's just a cheap way to get heads to sell in the lucrative Trolin hydra head market! As I said, unless you boost them, a single monster is a relatively easy proposition. Quick regeneration would be cool, but multiple opponents might be another way to go.

[Jan]

Perhaps a multiple-head hydra should be able to face more directions at one time (like a screamer). I mean, when I would be a hydra with three heads (or a three-headed monkey ), I would try to move my outer heads to the sides so that... oh, never mind.

Anyway, back to your question: yes, in this instance, a stump would be a very good idea. Although, as BW pointed out, I don't know what the flipping would do with it, and what are all the technical challenges.

[Ameena]

Ooh yes, multiple attack directions, that's a good idea - you could have it able to inflict damage from the sides as well, then, d you'd need to get behind it in order to not get hit...though you could give it some kind of tail-lash attack as well, and if it spits fire or acid or something from its mouths...ooh, ouch...

[Trego]

I like all those ideas:

regenerating heads
generating multiple weaker monsters from severed heads
attach option from side on

so I need to make a smaller severed head, a few stumpy hydra images and some side on attack images...may take some time, but doable.

[Trego]

All done apart from the stumpy images, just waiting for the wiki to allow uploads again.