Anguish

Version 0.30: This article may not be up to date for the latest stable release of Crawl.

Anguish
Level	4
School1	Hexes
School2	Necromancy
Source(s)	Book of Dreams Book of Hexes
Casting noise	4
Spell noise	0
Power Cap	200
Range	LOS
Hated By	Elyvilon The Shining One Zin
Flags	Wl check, Area

Afflicts nearby foes with supernatural anguish, causing all damage they deal to rebound on them for the duration of the effect. Strong-willed foes can resist the necromantic visions of pain and suffering, and mindless creatures are unaffected.

Anguish is a Level 4 Hexes/Necromancy spell. Enemies within line of sight check willpower, and enemies that do not resist are inflicted with the Anguish status. Affected enemies take HP damage equal to whatever their attacks deal, which cannot be resisted. This spell will never affect mindless monsters.

Tips & Tricks

• Anguished monsters don't have to hit you! They'll take damage, from, say, attacking your derived undead - while you remain safe and sound. Therefore, it works well with Necromancy allies, such as Death Channel. Enemies that strike allied spectral things will be killed by Anguish, turning into spectral things themselves and letting themselves be hit by more Anguished enemies, creating a snowball.
• Anguish is useful for fragile characters threatened by low HP, high ranged damage enemies such as orc priests, steam dragons or centaur warriors. Turning the very high damage output of these threats against themselves will swiftly take them down.
• Like many other Necromancy spells, the effectiveness of Anguish depends massively on which enemies it is used against. The legions of low-to-medium Willpower guards in the Vaults are extremely easy to hex, but the unthinking horrors of the Slime Pits won't be impressed.
• Scrolls of vulnerability, or the willpower-draining strikes of Haunt's phantasmal warriors pair well with this spell, allowing the hexing of notoriously lethal threats such as Mennas.

History

Anguish was added in 0.28.