[MoM] Add two psionic amalgamations

[Standing-Storm]

Summary

Mods "[MoM] Add two psionic amalgamations"

Purpose of change

I've long had a stance that zombies should not use psionics--the blank line aren't really anti-psi zombies so much as they are anti-Nether ones (which is why they can just banish Nether creatures with a glance). But inspired by #79612, I realized that amalgamations are the perfect design space for creatures made by the Enemy that are designed around using psionics, so here's a start.

Describe the solution

Add two new amalgamations:

• Whispering Amalgamation: A little ball with legs that apparently has no sensory organs or means of attack, the whispering amalgamation uses telepathy to disrupt the target's thought processes. A constant stream of alien whispers, things that seem like words but can't be understood, are projected into target minds to disorient them and make them easy prey for other amalgamations. Mechanically this lowers your perception, reduces your Metaphysics skill (ameliorated by the concentration proficiencies), reduces your concentration threshold, and reduces your Reaction limb score. Whispering amalgamations perceive through mindsight, so using Telepathic Shield will prevent you from being attacked unless you're very close to it. If you're traveling over a meatlab it will absolutely sense you and start whispering to you, to watch out.

• Guardian Amalgamation: A crab-looking spiky amalgamation that has some combat prowess but which mostly assists the zombie horde by putting telekinetic Inertial Barriers around other targets. It can only affect a small number of targets at once (done with a stacking effect on itself that decays in intensity, allowing it to re-Inertial Barrier again), but hopefully it doesn't Inertial Barrier any nearby brutish amalgamation, or, ח״ו, hulks! It'll also shove you away if you get close, though only if it's not currently maintaining any Inertial Barriers.

Both of these amalgamations play keep-away--their purpose is not front-line combat.

Describe alternatives you've considered

Testing

Whispering Amalgamation and Guardian Amalgamation both work.

The route I had to take to get the Guardian Amalgamation to work is extremely circuitous to get around the fact that monsters simply will not use spells on other monsters (only on hostile targets), with the result that it checks monsters near a hostile target to buff and it can sometimes buff itself. But at least it works. Hopefully eventually those can be fixed.

Additional context

[ashGlaw]

You're evil. I approve 😈

[github-actions]

Spell checker encountered unrecognized words in the in-game text added in this pull request. See below for details.

Click to expand

• Add the effect to give the whispering_amalgamation mindsight.

This alert is automatically generated. You can simply disregard if this is inaccurate, or (optionally) you can also add the new words to tools/spell_checker/dictionary.txt so they will not trigger an alert next time.

Hints for adding a new word to the dictionary

• If the word is normally in all lowercase, such as the noun word or the verb does, add it in its lower-case form; if the word is a proper noun, such as the surname George, add it in its initial-caps form; if the word is an acronym or has special letter case, such as the acronym CDDA or the unit mW, add it by preserving the case of all the letters. A word in the dictionary will also match its initial-caps form (if the word is in all lowercase) and all-uppercase form, so a word should be added to the dictionary in its normal letter case even if used in a different letter case in a sentence.
• For a word to be added to the dictionary, it should either be a real, properly-spelled modern American English word, a foreign loan word (including romanized foreign names), or a foreign or made-up word that is used consistently and commonly enough in the game. Intentional misspelling (including eye dialect) of a word should not be added unless it has become a common terminology in the game, because while someone may have a legitimate use for it, another person may spell it that way accidentally.