Medusa Enemy

In a game with materials for everything including your limbs, i think that not having a medusa enemy is wasted potential

How it would act
Pretty much like a floating eye (including the fighting in the darkness makes you inmune to sleep/stoning) so instead of sleeping you it would start changing the material of your limbs from legs to head into stone, it would be as tuff as a siren.

Oh my god does this work how did I not know

Exquisite suggestion Lord_404.


Indeed. I did not know this either!

There was a discussion in the ideas thread a while back about a cockatrice that would stone your limbs on attack.

The trick with a floating eye and darkness made dealing with them actually tolerable once I learned about it.

I knew about the floating eye trick but I have never been able to summon that memory when actually fighting one lol

The big problem with material changes is how difficult it is to fix them. It's a pretty permanent and awful attack. Maybe if the medusa/cockatrice were a "boss" and ideally restricted to a specific level. I wouldn't want them to show up randomly

is there a way to temporary blind oneself?

EDIT: Except cutting off the head/drinking some tasty acid

If there are no lights, the caves are pitch black. So just go into a hallway and stuff your light source into your chest

Yeah, it would be a cool boss.

Be cool if some limb material changes were not permanent, but wore off after some time.

That would also work. Actually that's a great idea.

Then we would need to add something to counter it it would be too powerful in lategame

I think things like medusa and canning are cool because they are staple content for RPG/Roguelike games, but I would hate to see their implementation become a nethack clone. It would be cool if we could come up with a cool twist on these so that their encounters in IVAN are different than they are in other games.

Weeell, there's a lot of different stone materials in IVAN right? Could do something with that. Or have the petrification affect everything in sight, so you could end up facing golem kobolds or something. I mean, I did find it hilarious that as a zombie you could change the material of your head, this might be a legitimate way of getting that more out there.

Medusa on the ivan universe should have long dark frog hair, instead of snakes

Long frogs?

Edit: Yay, I am a blink dog!

That would be pretty cool. I got my fair share of ideas myself but I doubt they would be any good (such as an optional underworld level that requires magic to get to). But for some reason, Medusa sounds like something that should've been in the game from the start. I'd love to see it in a new update!

Another thing that would be cool is to be able to use her head as a weapon capable of turning most enemies to stone. Though that would seem somewhat unfair unless we can have Medusa be somewhat overpowered to make it some kind of reward for taking her on in the first place.

IVAN take on a Medusa, you say? Hmm...

Apsara are Hindu cloud spirits. According to one legend a set of statues in a certain throne room somewhere are actually Apsaras who were cursed. What if there were Apsara in IVAN who would disguise themselves as statues until the PC was close? (This would require actual statues to be a thing that could be found occasionally...) On a similar, more European vein, there could be gargoyles with the same ability...

According to legend, the "Cap-Chat" was a cat who ate the children of the "cat fairy" and was turned to stone as a result. How about a Cap-Chat monster, who gradually turns your limbs to stone with claw attacks?

Or, we could keep the traditional medusa, except change the ability... What if there was a twisted, distant relative of the frogs - neither lawful nor chaotic, but simply evil... the Toadon? (Or some other play on Toad and Gorgon/medusa/etc.) They could have the power to transform your limbs and gear into different materials with a glance (simulated in the game similarly to a wand beam). I'm thinking it would transform you/your gear into softer materials. Specifically, I'm thinking mud. The transformations would be temporary, but duration would stack with subsequent attacks - and of course if your limb was severed, the transformation would be permanent (probably your arm just explodes in a shower of mud as soon as it's hit with much force). In order to not be too devastating, I think the attack should apply in stages as the duration extends - if the duration is almost over (i.e. short) your limb might not really be affected; if it's longer you might lose some strength/agility/HP; if it's really long your limb material actually changes until the duration becomes shorter.

I think the Medusa's gaze changes limb material is awesome. Chance for something terrible, chance for something awesome. Total crapshoot.

An enemy that can randomly destroy your character? Sound like IVAN. And if you get a good one, severe it and then put it back with an angel so it will permanently stay like that.

Maybe she could turn your pets hostile as one of her gaze effects.