Draft:Pencil-necked geek

Omega 0.90.4

g Pencil-necked geek
Form	Ordinary creature
Attacks	1 attack: 0–4 physical before absorption; no defensive actions
Base level	1
HP	1
Hit	5
Defense	5
Action interval	8 ticks; lower is faster
Kill experience	1, when death is in sight
Generation	Random pools; first unregistered arena match
Carried items	None at ordinary generation
Immunities	None innate
Remains	Dead pencil-necked geek; 50% on normal death
Remains use	Little nourishment; no alchemy
Traits Initially hostile Retreats when moving, but attacks when adjacent
Reference	minit.h in Omega 0.90.4, line 43

A pencil-necked geek is a weak, retreating monster, displayed as a white g. It is the first opponent in a new character's unregistered Coliseum sequence. Its ordinary form has just one HP, but its arena form can survive substantially more damage.

Generation

Pencil-necked geeks belong to the ordinary random-monster pools, including those used by Rampart's hedge maze. An ordinary geek has no starting equipment or random treasure. The arena opponent instead receives a personal name and carries the disposable garage-door opener needed to open the arena's portcullises. Registering as a gladiator resets the next match to the goblin, skipping the geek and the other two opening opponents.

Form	HP	Hit / defense	Raw damage per attack
Ordinary	1	5 / 5	0–4
Arena	11	10 / 5	0–6

Both forms have one attack, level 1, a base action interval of eight ticks and a kill reward of one XP when death is in sight. The arena's money prize is separate from kill XP; see Coliseum prizes.

Behavior and remains

A geek attempts to move away when its movement is triggered. This does not make it peaceful: a hostile geek next to you can still attack. Its attack has no poison, spell or other special effect, and its tactical sequence has no defensive action. Talking provides only a dismissive response, and surrender is ignored.

The ordinary corpse has a 50% chance to appear on normal death. A named arena geek always leaves a corpse on normal death, in addition to dropping the opener. Eating either form's corpse supplies only a little nourishment: one point of food reserve, the amount consumed by a normal hourly hunger check, compared with six from hyena ribs. It has no alchemical transformation.

Strategy

The ordinary geek's one HP makes it easy to kill once an attack connects, but do not extend that assumption to the 11-HP arena opponent. A character who can withstand the ordinary form's single blow may still take several hits during a match. Armor reduces physical damage; a successful hit against a non-immune character still inflicts at least one HP.

Its retreating movement offers room to disengage in ordinary encounters, whereas pursuing it until adjacent allows it to fight. In the arena, retreating behavior does not replace the requirement to kill the opponent and collect the opener. With only one XP available from either form, the match's attraction is the cash prize, not rapid experience gain. Review the next opponent separately: the hornet has equally low HP but a much shorter action interval and two attacks.