Draft:Manticore

Omega 0.90.4

M Manticore
Form	Ordinary creature
Attacks	2 physical attacks, raw 0–24 each; no defense
Special abilities	Physical missiles; stronger arena form
Base level	4
HP	100
Hit	15
Defense	12
Action interval	6 ticks; lower is faster
Kill experience	150, when death is in sight
Generation	Ordinary and special encounters
Carried items	No fixed item; 0–1 random possessions
Immunities	None innate
Remains	Manticore spikes; 50% on normal death
Remains use	Inedible; staff-of-missiles alchemy
Traits Hostile and hungry Flies
Reference	minit.h in Omega 0.90.4, line 127

A manticore is a flying, hungry predator that attacks twice in melee and fires physical missiles. Its spikes can become a staff of missiles.

Generation

Manticores belong to ordinary random-monster pools. Ordinary construction supplies no fixed item and zero or one random possession. A stronger manticore appears in the fixed Coliseum sequence after the giant soldier ant; that form does not receive ordinary random possessions.

Form	HP	Hit	Raw damage ceiling per melee attack or missile
Ordinary	100	15	24
Fixed arena opponent	140	30	36

Attacks and feeding

It makes two physical attacks and has no defensive action or innate immunity. Missiles use the same damage parameter as melee, need no ammunition, and are not poisonous. Ordinary ranged opportunities are at distances three through five; the arena's increased awareness extends that range.

Safe food pacifies a hungry manticore. Giving poisonous food instead harms it with poison damage, leaves it hostile and uses up the feeding response. Flying allows it to cross water, so a pool is not a reliable barrier.

Spikes

Normal death drops its possessions and has a 50% chance of leaving manticore spikes; the named arena form guarantees the remains on normal death. The spikes are inedible. Ambrosias buys them for 6 Au or charges 40 Au to convert the selected stack into one blessed +4 staff of missiles with 20 charges. The staff's missile has a raw 0–19 damage roll; +4 does not increase that roll.

Strategy

Feeding offers a way to avoid an ordinary encounter. When fighting, physical protection helps against both attacks and missiles; deflection addresses the bolt-like missiles. Closing the distance trades ranged shots for two melee attacks, so it is not automatically safer.

The spikes offer a low-cost source of repeated ranged attacks, but the resulting staff is weaker per shot than the manticore's own ordinary missile. The arena specimen's greater HP and damage must be budgeted separately from the card's ordinary values.