Insectoid (Race)

## Insectoids

An insectoid as its signature class, the Hunter

## Traits:

- Require Energy (EN) to survive and cast spells

- Energy is regained through eating and consuming sweet liquids

- Immune to poison

- Immune to sickness when eating spoiled food

- Starts with Flutter, Dash and Spray Acid spells learnt

*Not to be confused with Insectoids, the enemy type.*

**Insectoids** are a monster race option in *Barony*, introduced in the Legends and Pariahs DLC alongside three other monster races. It enables the player to use an alternative form of mana in Energy, allowing them to use a widened variety of food options to fuel their spells, or to just keep a more detailed eye on their hunger.

## Description

Insectoids are characterized by their alternative to mana, that being Energy (EN), which is tied directly to the player’s current level of Hunger. When the player feeds, their hunger becomes placated and any missing Energy is restored. To compliment this system, Insectoids can also dine on any edible food item, regardless if it is cursed or has a poor quality associated with it.

Unlike mana and other alternatives such as the Automaton’s Heat system, Energy naturally drains over time alongside hunger. This, alongside the limited cap of 50 points of Energy for any insectoid, makes large-scale spellcasting virtually impossible without a disproportionate amount of food management to replenish their Energy. On top of not gaining any beneficial increase to mana regeneration as casting skill increases, this makes any caster classes such as Wizard a very daunting challenge for Insectoid players.

To somewhat compensate for a natural aversion to magic spells, Insecoids begin their games with three innate spells. Flutter enables Insectoids to fly over gaps, Dash thrusts the player in the direction they are moving and Spray Acid to round out the spell set. These spells enable Insectoids to have short-span Levitation, making it the second race to be able to do so, next to Vampires. Thus, poor level layouts that would otherwise restrict the player from entering the Gnomish Mines are circumvented, as well as other difficult areas to traverse such as the Underworld or the Mystic Library are far more accessible.

Given the interactions between certain items and mana restoration, the Insectoid has some interesting behavior when consuming “sweet liquids",which includes potions such as Bottles of Booze, Bottles of Fruit Juice, and Potions of Mana Restoration. Consuming any of these will result in an extra portion of Energy being restored.

Insectoids are also immune to poison, which means being struck with hunting arrows from Arrow Traps or enemies, drinking cursed potions of healing, or battling it out with Spiders are all much less punishing to the player. It effectively equips a passive amulet of poison resistance, opening up that slot for other more powerful amulets.

## Energy And Hunger

**Insectoids** have their Hunger and Mana values conjoined in the form of Energy (EN). Mana potions restore both hunger and Energy. When an insectoid casts a spell or loses mana for some other reason, their food level is also reduced. Insectoids have different thresholds for their various hunger levels as described below.

Alternate food level values for Insectoid Characters

To somewhat compensate for the lowered food ceiling, insectoids enjoy an innate 0.67x multiplier to the rate at which their energy and food level declines. This multiplier stacks with other effects that slow hunger.

Insectoids consume the same sources of food that other normal races consume. This comes with the added bonus of ignoring food qualities all together, as well as gaining bonuses from consuming “sweet liquids”, including Fruit Juice, Restore Magic Potions and Booze.

 Booze
 Restore Magic
Invisibility + Speed

Overeating or Drinking too much booze will cause the Insectoid to vomit, resulting in a "projectile acid". Projectile acid equates to casting Spray Acid, except it does not consume any Energy.

Various EN values for different food sources are listed below:

### Energy with Disabled Hunger

When hunger is disabled, insectoids experience stat debuffs related to their mana level instead of their hunger level, and the penalties are more severe than normal. At 2/5 of their maximum mana, their dexterity and perception are reduced by one and then by an additional 25% of the remaining value. At the 1/5 of maximum mana, their dexterity and perception are reduced by two and then by an additional 50% of the remaining value.

### Notes

* If the player somehow manages to get their food and mana levels out of sync behind the scenes (by restoring energy while enabling / disabling hunger in a game), the character can end up starving when their mana is above zero, or even full. To fix this, the character must find a way to restore their food level to full, regardless of what their mana level is.

## Social Standings

Compared to other races, Insectoids have a very odd curve to how many allies they can accrue through the dungeon, being able to ally with other Insectoids, Scorpions and Scarabs. This means traveling through the Sand Labyrinth is far less of a hassle in the normal levels, but also punishes players who do not enable friendly fire by excluding them from so much experience.

The large variety of affiliate characters also allows for several areas of the dungeon to provide some potential party members for the player, notably in the Sand Labyrinth as well as the Caves and potentially the Citadel with Scarabs and Greater Insectoids wandering the latter two locations.

Since Insectoids are a monster race, they are targeted by both Humans and Shopkeepers, requiring a fight or a quick escape if they see the player.

## Gallery

The male (left) and female (right) appearances for the Insectoid.