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40d:Fire man
Fire men come out of the same places as imps, but they are a little bolder. Like them, they can go out past the lava vent, and breathe balls of fire that can kill, maim, and/or set targets or material on fire.
Fire Men are building destroyer 2's and so can deconstruct any door, hatch, statue, or similar furniture or building they come across. They will melt snow off trees, shrubs, and ground in the 8 squares around them.
They leave behind bars of ash when killed.
To stop fire men from attacking your dwarves, build a moat around the lava vent. If you can, fill it with water from a river or a brook. Designating the moat as a pond should also work.
After you have made a moat, the firemen should stop attacking directly, but they will still be able to breathe fireballs at your dwarves. You could also try building a wall to go with this moat.
Fire men can be captured in cage traps of any material, just like fire imps. Don't worry, they won't destroy your masterwork wood cages.
To stop them from attacking your smiths is a little harder.
- First create the path for the magma (tunnel, channel, walls or combination) but do not let it fill with magma yet.
- Then smooth and carve or construct fortifications in the stone as close to the entrance of the lava as you can (in the channel).
- (Fortifications of any material will withstand magma, wood is just as fine as steel.)
- (Note that the use of vertical bars of magma-safe material is not effective, as Fire Men are building destroyer 2's.)
- If you are channeling where the path might allow escape, you can add walls or floors (above) to box in any access that is before the fortifications/bars (this stops the firemen from climbing out before the bars and destroying them).
- Channel down to open the magma into the path, and then seal the top of that with a constructed floor.
Alternatively, if you want, you can leave the path unbarred, and only have one tile dug down for the magma below each of your workshops. That one tile must be under the non-accessible tile of the magma forge, smelter or glass furnace - see workshop diagrams for specific placement. Once in place, the workshop seals the path from the magma below.
Fighting them
Put short, don't, not unless absolutely necessary. They don't feel pain and thus cannot be stunned. They don't bleed or feel fatigue or other acute wound effects, so they can keep on fighting for a very long time after your military has crumbled. Also projectiles and weapons don't get stuck in them, so piercing weapons like spears are not nearly as effective as against creatures with internal organs. On top of this they like fighting, tend to be reckless, and their blows cause burn damage. Their only poor statistic is that their limbs sever when broken, which means that they are susceptible towards high-damage dealing weapons and being overwhelmed by sheer numbers.
Easiest way to kill them is from far away with crossbows, bows, ballistas and catapults. The only problem is that they can hurl fireballs back, so either you need experienced marksdwarves, with surprise and in mass, or siege-weapon crews, and still you can risk ending up having charred dwarves if you're not careful.
The other method is fighting them with traps. Submerging them in water is good way to start. Just dig out a drowning room, channel water behind floodgate or door, put a lever somewhere or pressure plate in the room, hook it to the thing blocking water and wait for them to step into their dooms. This of course needs a tunnel or something to lead fire men in, preferably outside of your fortress, but with an access (or sacrificial animal) to you fort, so that they want to come in.