Draft:Goblin King

Omega 0.90.4

K Goblin King
Form	Unique cave ruler
Attacks	2 attacks, 2 defensive actions 0–31 ordinary melee, before absorption
Special abilities	Missile attack
Base level	3
HP	32
Hit	18
Defense	10
Action interval	5 ticks; lower is faster
Kill experience	500, when death is in sight
Carried items	Goblins' Hewer and 0–2 random items
Immunities	None innate
Remains	Head of the Goblin King; guaranteed on normal death
Remains use	Duke's Commoner quest; no alchemy
Traits Hostile, greedy; can open doors
Reference	minit.h in Omega 0.90.4, line 107; lev.c in Omega 0.90.4, lines 373–394; mon.c in Omega 0.90.4, lines 134–203; mmelee.c in Omega 0.90.4, lines 8–20; guild1.c in Omega 0.90.4, lines 203–236

The Goblin King is the unique ruler encountered on level ten of the Goblin Caves. His death advances the Oracle's quest sequence; his head and axe have separate uses.

Encounter

The king starts hostile and greedy, follows intelligently, uses normal melee and a missile attack, and has no innate immunity. His ordinary tactical sequence contains two attacks and two defensive actions. The information card's experience is the death award when the player has line of sight, not the Duke's separate reward.

He occupies a generated position in the final cavern, not a fixed local coordinate. The ordinary final-level generator stops placing him after cave completion. His fixed possession is Goblins' Hewer; ordinary additional treasure is selected separately.

Death and quests

Normal death drops his possessions and creates the Head of the Goblin King. Because he is a unique creature, this head is not subject to the ordinary common-monster one-half corpse chance. Cave completion is recorded at death; an unoffended Oracle calls the player back.

Take the head to the Duke while at Commoner rank in his quest line. It is consumed for promotion to Esquire and 100 experience, after which the Duke requests a Holy Defender. The axe is not consumed by that head delivery.

Strategy

If he survives below eight HP and next executes his normal movement routine, he drops his possessions and begins fleeing, reducing his action interval from five ticks to two. This can leave the axe available before his death, but neither the head nor cave completion is granted by making him flee. Remaining adjacent does not guarantee he will take that movement action.

His low HP invites a decisive attack, but each landed melee blow rolls 0–31 before ordinary absorption, making prolonged unprotected melee a poor bargain. His lack of innate physical immunity means ordinary successful weapon damage can work. Use the dungeon's available terrain and a suitable ranged option when trading close attacks is too costly, while allowing for his own missile response. Unlike a spectre, he can strike at a distance when his target is in range and visible.

As a greedy creature he can be pacified by a sufficiently valuable gift under the ordinary gift rules, but pacification does not record his death or produce his head. It can help an escape; it does not finish either quest.

References

See also: Monster overview and Shooting and throwing.