Strongholds are one of the coolest overworld structures, but it feels like a poor lead-up to the End and the dragon boss fight when you have to confront a bunch of pesky little silverfish. The whole structure and portal needs a mob that is daunting enough to fit the role as an obstacle or guard to the player's objective along with the silverfish.
• The Sentry: a humanoid, player-sized, statue/golem mob with skin that resembles stone brick. Wields an iron sword and a gray shield, and has no facial features except for one eye of ender in its head.
- Behavior: when not attacking the player, sentries will spawn standing still in the corners and walls of the stronghold like statues, never wandering. When the player has hit one sentry, sentries in other rooms within a radius will move out of their motionless positions and advance on the player. Unlike zombies and other common monsters, sentries are able to switch between attacking and blocking with their swords and shields. Weakness: the mob's hitbox would actually be located on its head, where the eye of ender is.
- Drops: when killed a sentry can potentially drop its eye and sometimes its sword and/or shield. The supply of eyes of ender this mob provides could help for players who may make the mistake of not having enough eyes ready to activate the portal before entry to the stronghold.
I have mixed reactions to this idea.
First of all, I completely agree that the Strongholds could use a more powerful and thematically relevant mob. So I'm very glad you've brought this up for discussion.
My main concern is the motionless-until-provoked behavior, simply because players could find all the sentries, leaving them alone at first; then, once they have all been found, the player could just wall them all off and fight them one by one. Piece of cake.
The hitbox idea is neat. The sword/shield dual abilities is fantastic and a great way to further integrate the shields into the game. Love it.
The eye of ender drop is an interesting idea and I can definitely see why you chose it, because it is very relevant to the whole point of the structure. However, it would also mean that the End would no longer be gated behind the Nether. You may recall that the Eye of Ender trades for clerics were switched to Ender Pearl trades precisely for this reason. Sadly, I think you will have to look for another interesting drop. I'll let you know if an idea comes to me.
Overall: your idea could use some adjustments, but I'm glad you posted it.
@MacchuPicchu96 yeah I actually neglected the Eye of Ender crafting for a moment, and I totally agree. Though, in most cases, players would have to craft an Eye of Ender or two anyways to find the stronghold. Hmm...
Hmmm indeed :D
Like I said, it's the behavior that's most concerning here. I suppose an occasional Eye of Ender drop wouldn't be too overpowered given your point.
I also thought the mob could drop something that connects to another idea I posted involving simple stone mob statues. The item could be a "stone heart" which, when combined with some stone blocks and a certain mob head, will craft a type of mob statue for the player. This mob is already kind of a "statuish" mob. But since it would make more sense that one could craft a statue out of regular stone and a mob head for specification...
I think that this is a truly great idea because strongholds aren't easy to get to and the mobs found there are so basic ''besides the silverfish'' so Sentries would be a great addition to minecrafts strongholds.
Plus I also think that there should be an End variant of this mob except its made of endstone bricks and it guards the obsidian pillars during the boss fight. Same weapons same drops but you'd have to deal with these guys before you blow up those end crystals.
@WalnutTooth5237 glad you like the idea, but I don't know about an End variant...those Enderman are numerous and scary enough on that island.
I died several times trying to get to the portal. The stronghold is hard enough.
I think that this mob would also be cool in the End except it guards the obsidian pillars and its texture is made like the endstone bricks instead of stone bricks
This mob is like a trial for the player skills before getting to The End. Nice!
Cool idea. I'd like to see a new golem mob guarding the Strongholds. Even like a new hostile Iron Golem variant would be really cool.
This idea is amazing. And since you are having trouble figuring out what their behavior should be, here is my take. Perhaps instead of only attacking once you attack it, it will spawn facing one direction and looking that way. They will attack you if you walk into their line of sight. You will not know where their line of sight is unless you make a new type of helmet crafted somehow with a netherstar. This helmet will highlight the sentries and their sight in green. This will make it so that those who take the time to go to the nether will have a better chance at making it through. Although I say that once you make it into the antechamber of the portal they will all hunt you down, or if you break or place too many blocks. This will make it so that you must twist your way throught the maze.
To be honest, the silverfish scare the living daylights outta me. But on the other hand, having something unique to the stronghold would make it much more satisfying when you finally find the portal.
maybe it would have a special sword that is a bit better than diamond, but is a really rare drop, (maybe just a bit less rare then a wither skeleton skull) this sword would be 7.5 damage or like 8 or 9 damage, which would make the battle a bit easier by a small amount. i also like the idea of the end variant of these guys, because while people state that enderman are pretty tough, they really aren't as long as you don't look them in the eye, and maybe these guys could be another thing guarding the end cites, or maybe a phantom could guard the end cites, but then again the skulkers can be pretty hard, but at the same time skulkers can be not so hard so idk about that idea i had.
I like aniv2345's idea and also Walnut tooth's. Them spawning on the pillars would be much more fun. I like the fun Ai avoidance aniv suggests because they would need to be avoided strategically and I can imagine two types of entrances to the end, a dangerous brawl or a sneaky break in. Both seeming extremely exciting.