Draft:Enchanter

Omega 0.90.4

e Enchanter
Form	Ordinary creature
Attacks	1 physical attack, raw 0–4; 2 defenses
Special abilities	Nine spell choices; court variants
Base level	2
HP	20
Hit	5
Defense	10
Action interval	8 ticks; lower is faster
Kill experience	40, when death is in sight
Generation	Ordinary and special encounters
Carried items	No fixed item; 0–1 random possessions
Immunities	Cold
Remains	Dead enchanter; 50% on normal death
Remains use	Inedible; no alchemy
Traits Initially hostile Retreats while moving
Reference	minit.h in Omega 0.90.4, line 83

An enchanter is a hostile spellcaster that retreats while casting. Despite low HP and a weak melee attack, it can damage possessions, inflict disease and poison, and attack with several damage types.

Generation

Enchanters belong to ordinary random-monster pools. A dedicated population branch also selects them in the Archmage's Castle when its current difficulty is below five. Ordinary construction supplies no fixed item, but zero or one random possession.

They also occupy the fixed Circle and the Archmage's court. Court enchanters are initially peaceful; Circle membership normally makes those placed in the Circle peaceful. These occupants have a special group-retaliation ability: provoking one can make the whole level hostile and trigger a spell from each occupant with line of sight, after which affected court responders use ordinary spellcasting.

Spell repertoire

The ordinary level-2 enchanter has nine approximately equally likely choices in the shared spell repertoire, after your resistance check:

• A physical missile, self-recovery, slowing or disease.
• Lightning or cold, as a bolt or area attack depending on range and the caster's immunity.
• Removing an item's magic, weakening an item's blessing, or adding two poison counts.

Its recovery adds 0–3 HP and can exceed its original HP. Its repertoire does not yet include the stronger casters' sleep, fire-bolt, item-destruction or level-drain choices. Spellcasting requires hostility and line of sight; the general resistance check can prevent any of these choices, including recovery.

Combat and remains

The enchanter retreats during ordinary movement but can attack if adjacent. It makes one physical attack for a raw 0–4 damage and has two defensive actions. It is immune to cold, but not electricity, fire or sleep. It has no ordinary food or valuable-gift pacification response.

Normal death drops carried items and has a 50% chance of leaving a dead enchanter. Its corpse is inedible and has no alchemical transformation, despite its listed value.

Strategy

Avoid a drawn-out pursuit that gives the enchanter repeated opportunities to damage equipment or inflict status effects. Break line of sight, use applicable disabling effects, or finish its low-HP ordinary form promptly. Cold attacks are ineffective against it. Poison or elemental protection addresses only part of its repertoire; it does not protect an item from losing magic or becoming cursed.

A peaceful court enchanter is best left peaceful. Fighting it can initiate a coordinated response from much stronger occupants, so its individual 20 HP is not a measure of the risk of attacking the court.