Dungeon Crawl: Mummy Strengths

I used to be fairly interested in Dungeon Crawl: Stone Soup. It lost me at some point, but I wrote most of this back when I still cared. Maybe someone else will appreciate it. There are things to enjoy about the game.

As I did write this a while back, it includes references to no-longer relevant mechanics, items, etc. It's somewhat unfortunate most of these are "things that used to mean Mummy's had something over other species." Honestly, the devteam seems to have a virulent hatred of Mummies, but not enough to actually cut them from the game. No idea why. They were always my favorite species to play.

This involves some spoilers. If you're the kind of person that prefers to play a Roguelike without spoilers, go play the game and then read this later.




Let's start with:

Weight

Unfortunately, "weightless" was implemented at some point -rather than weight being tuned into a mechanic that didn't unduly burden the game while still adding depth- so this is no longer relevant, but for those who consider playing older versions...

A Mummy has effectively a hugely increased ability to cart around items in terms of both space and weight because they carry neither perma-food nor potions, as well as myriad more specific items they don't have any need for that other species would consider keeping on hand. As such a Mummy is much less burdened by the weight mechanics than other species with similar Strength or even greater Strength, and also has more inventory slots free. One consequence is that Mummies are less dependent on making (and visiting) a stash early on, and are less likely to unexpectedly stumble upon a situation where they wish an item in the stash was on hand, such as a Wand, because they are more likely to just have it on hand because they have the capacity.

Further, a Mummy can on average wear heavier equipment at less of a burden, including equipping heavier armor as a spellcaster than other species. This is particularly exaggerated by their unusually high starting Strength, but even when compared against species with better Strength scores (eg Trolls) a Mummy may be less burdened by its gear in practice. A secondary note is that the only special equipment limitation on Mummies is an inability to wield Holy Wrath weapons. The only other species with unusually high Strength who don't have special equipment limitations are Hill Orcs, Ghouls (Excepting Holy Wrath weaponry again), Deep Dwarves, Demigods, and Gargoyles, all of whom will be carrying more stuff than Mummies. (Potions, permafood, and also items like Amulet of the Gourmand that a Mummy has no use for and will ignore)

Gear Slots

Mummies have three tiers of Negative Energy Resistance, one tier of Cold Resistance, innate Poison Resistance (more precisely they're fully immune), have no need for items like the Amulet of the Gourmand, and the only equipment-related counterbalancing point is that they have an innate weakness to Fire. (Contrast with eg Draconians, who have innate AC that grows as they level, reducing their dependence on armor, but who cannot equip body armor or headgear at all. Guaranteed Damage Reduction means this is actually a pretty poor trade, as it's based entirely on armor worn, and so Draconian's AC-based protection is actually a lot less reliable than another species with the same total AC that's actually wearing armor) That's 5 slots of gear they don't need to cover at all vs one "extra" they do need to cover -and it's worth noting that unlike multiple-tiered resistance types, Negative Energy is forbidden from an item ever providing more than one step of it. (That is, an Artifact can provide +2 to Fire Resistance, but only +1 to Negative Energy Resistance)

In practice this means Mummies have a notable advantage in optimizing their gear, equivalent to having four "extra" gear slots if we ignore the complicating factor of Artifacts. Other species generally only have one or two traits that negate the need for a given piece of gear, if they have any at all. Ghouls do better -no Fire vulnerability- and Vampires deep into their hunger state are even better -also no Fire vulnerability, and two steps of Cold Resistance- but outside of their fellow undead, Mummies don't really have much competition here. A Gargoyle's combination of 1 Negative Energy Resistance, Lightning Resistance, and Poison immunity is the next-best stable competition, with Demonspawn so random I'm ignoring them for the purpose of this discussion.

This means Mummies can achieve an overall greater level of resistance than a Human, Hill Orc, or other relatively 'normal' species, because their innate resistances are innate and therefore they don't need to concern themselves with covering those resistances with equipment. Or they can reach the same level of resistance and add on non-resistant boosts, eg stat boosts from Artifacts. It's nice stuff.

Potions

Mummies can't drink potions.

Now, this is obviously a disadvantage, but bar one rage-inducing point, it actually isn't so bad.

Let's go over the individual potions.

They need Wands of Healing to supplant Healing Potions. (Both for emergency battle healing and for curing Mutation-induced Rot) This is relatively minor, and only a big deal to the extent that Healing Potions are much more likely to show up early on than Wands of Healing, which is where both items are at their most life-savingly useful. Once you're past the early game, battle-healing with a Healing Potion tends to be impractical/suicidally stupid anyway. Since the early game is where you won't have these identified without some luck, most Mummy runs won't actually notice much of a difference compared to most non-Mummy runs.

Potions of Curing is a major loss in one key (rage-inducing) respect: Mummies have no way to cure Confusion. Until a Mummy has a Clarity item Confusion is a nightmarish threat that can easily end runs for no deeper reason than RNG-screw. Orange Crystal Statues, in particular, were not originally designed with Mummies in mind, with a Mummy wandering into their view essentially down to the whims of the RNG for whether they lived or died if they had no Clarity gear. Updates have since made this particular situation less abominable, but Confusion remains a dire problem for Mummies, far more so than their weakness to Fire.

The normal primary uses of Potions of Curing are supplanted by Mummy's having innate Poison Immunity and (Back when Sickness was still a part of the game) Sickness Immunity. Missing out on Curing Potions is also a minor loss in terms of Rot damage. Other species with one Rotted hit point might ignore it and incidentally cure it with a Potion of Curing when they're Confused or Poisoned or whatever, that kind of thing.

Potions of Agility, Brilliance, Berserk Rage, Might, Resistance, and Haste are temporary boosters to your ability to handle combat. (Mummy's can't Berserk anyway, so the inability to drink for Berserk is not actually a real loss) They are relevant losses, but ultimately they aren't important losses. Berserk Rage and Haste can be useful for escaping a fight instead, which is a bit more notable of a loss, particularly given that Mummies don't have an innate escape tool, but overall these are relatively tolerable.

Potions of Beneficial Mutation are permanent boosters, and the lack of access exaggerates how poor Mummy stats are (They can't get +Strength, +Agility, or +Intelligence mutations like other species) and in general reduces their long-term potential. This is a pretty sizable loss, and Mummies not only don't have a replacement, they don't even have an alternative: Polymorph Wands induce Mutation, but Mummies convert all Mutation effects into Rot effects anyway.

This gets particularly painful when you consider how it compounds other problems: other species might find they no longer need an Amulet of Clarity by virtue of acquiring innate Clarity from a mutation. No such possibility exists for Mummies, even though they're the species that most desperately would like innate Clarity.

This has become less egregious as positive mutations have been toned down -once upon a time you could mutate positive speed, which was insanely good- but it remains a notable flaw with Mummies.

Potions of Mutation can basically be summarized as a desperate man's Beneficial Mutation or Cure Mutation.

Potions of Lignification are half-loss half-not. On the one hand Lignification has some uses comparable to Potions of Berserk Rage and so on, on the other hand it can also get you killed like a Potion of Paralysis or similar, if use-IDed in a combat situation. Worth commentary is that one of the more significant benefits of Tree Form -complete immunity to Negative Energy and Torment- is an innate advantage of being a Mummy.

Blood, Coagulated Blood (Back when this was relevant), and Porridge (Also since removed) are no loss at all because Mummies ignore hunger anyway.

Cure Mutation is sort of odd. Mummies can't get mutated per se, but they convert all mutation threats to rot threats. So the stated use of the potions is of no use to them, but the principle of counteracting certain kinds of threats going missing actually hurts: if Mummies could drink Potions of Cure Mutation to clear rot as an equivalent to clearing mutations, they absolutely would do so when encountering enemies that attempt to mutate the player.

Experience is a notable loss and exaggerates the degree to which Mummies both level slowly and raise skills slowly. The latter is particularly frustrating, as while it's not tremendously unusual for a character to reach level 27 without finding a Potion of Experience, it's not remotely realistic to cap out even all the skills you most care about for ages and ages. It's actually pretty strange to me that Mummies have uniformly poor skill growths.

Potions of Flight are kind of a joke. Mummies may find themselves missing out on early vaults or escape opportunities for a time, but so would any character who didn't find any such potions early, and any character who finds a Ring of Flight or similar essentially stops caring about Potions of Flight. I've had a number of characters find a Ring of Flight well before they found/identified a Potion of Flight. I'm actually surprised Potions of Flight haven't been removed from the game.

Invisibility is a notable loss, being an excellent panic potion. (Turn invisible, escape while still invisible) Since Mummies are in general lacking panic buttons/escape tools, being denied otherwise universally accessible panic buttons sucks.

Magic is similar, but less notable. Mummies that really care about mana-on-demand can always learn Sublimation of Blood (Well, they used to, back when Sublimation of Blood could be used on meat chunks) and/or worship Sif Muna (Less so nowadays, as Channel Energy was overhauled) to generate mana on demand, or luck out and find an item with Channeling, and in fact Mummies are by far the best species in the game at abusing Channeling.

Of course nowadays this is a more notable loss, since the best tools Mummy's had for restoring mana have been weakened or made unavailable to them. Still not a huge deal, though, just an extension of their lack of panic buttons.

Restore Abilities is not so much a terrible loss as a fun-destroying loss. Mummies can always just hide in the Ecumenical temple and wait out any particularly bad stat loss, so long as they don't end up waiting out the end of the universe, without any need to use Self-Restoration, and this is strictly more optimal than using Self-Restoration. But doing so is boring and obnoxious, and several enemies (Orange Crystal Statues chief among them) are not designed under the idea of a no-potions species: Orange Crystal Statues in particular consistently spawn with a Potion of Restore Abilities, tempering how obnoxious/threatening their stat drain is for other species, but which Mummies cannot use.

Of course this has become irrelevant with Potions of Restore Abilities removed from the game. On the flipside, stat losses regenerate based on experience gain nowadays, so Mummies can't go hide in the Ecumenical Temple to wait them out.

The negative potions (Degeneration, Confusion, Poison, Slowing, Decay, Paralysis, and Strong Poison) are no loss at all obviously, and arguably the fact that Mummies skip the whole Potions guessing game is actually a minor advantage. In the long-term though, a given character will drink any given such potion exactly one time and simply ignore all the rest, and the risk is only relevant for the potential to do something like drink a Potion of Paralysis in the middle of a desperate fight and thus doom yourself. Put another way, the Mummy, when placed in that same situation, lacks the potential to accidentally screw themselves over with Potions, but also lacks the potential to save themselves with Potions, so overall it's more disadvantage than advantage their inability to drink Potions.

At this point only Degeneration actually remains in the game, so negative potions are no longer a pseudo-sort-of-advantage for Mummies anyway.

Ambrosia is a newer Potion, and is a bit odd. It's not a great Potion for using in the middle of combat, since it inflicts Confusion and its positives only apply so long as you remain Confused, and using it out of combat is basically a way to reduce your rest times. Mummies don't really care about spending more time resting, though, so... it's basically just whatever in-combat use it has they miss out on.

It's worth noting that Mummies not drinking Potions dramatically reduce their demands on inventory space, freeing up room for re-usable Evocables, weapon-switches, and other useful items that most characters struggle to find space for because they need to carry along various critical Potions like Curing.

Overall, the losses Mummies have from no Potions are...

1: Reduced access to panic buttons.

2: Reduced long-term potential.

3: Decelerated growth.

4: Inability to cure Confusion.

Of these 2 and 3 mostly exaggerate existing Mummy trends (They have the worst stat gain in the game, and grow in experience slower than normal and gain skill slowest of any species in overall terms), while 1 is a problem because Mummies have no alternatives (where Formicids have innate Stasis but can Shaft themselves for a quick escape that cannot be blocked, or some species have increased movement speed overall, Mummies have... nothing, and furthermore are denied some of the Necromancy-derived panic buttons, even though Necromancy is the only thing they are good at!), while 4 is situational and ultimately dealt with by wielding Clarity equipment.

Put another way, 2 and 3 are only potentially an issue because the basic pattern already holds true of Mummies, while 1 is a really big deal because they don't cover it at all and it can easily end runs to lack panic buttons that are just assumed to be available to everyone.

Egos

Because of their innate characteristics, there are a large number of egos and so on that are useless to a Mummy and therefore will be replaced by different, useful items wherever possible. A Mummy has no need for an Amulet of the Gourmand, a Ring of Sustenance, Ring of Poison Resistance, or Ring of Positive Energy, and they are less concerned with the utility of an Amulet of Conservation since Scrolls are the only item they use it protects. (Note: Item destruction was removed from the game, rendering this semi-advantage irrelevant)

By the same token any Artifact that provides any of these effects, or provides Rot Resistance, immunity to asphyxiation, or Torment Resistance can always be replaced by an Artifact of worth with different effects without concern.

Of course there are effects that Mummies would like to benefit from but can't, like Berserk, but these are significantly outnumbered by the effects that they render unnecessary with their innate benefits.

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