Awaken Armour

Version 0.33: This article is up to date for the latest stable release of Dungeon Crawl Stone Soup.

Awaken Armour
Level	4
School1	Earth
School2	Forgecraft
Source(s)	Book of the Fortress Book of Iron
Casting noise	4
Spell noise	0
Power Cap	50

Draws upon the memory of your worn armour to manifest an echo of it that fights alongside you. This echo moves slowly, but the power of its blows increases dramatically with the weight of the armour used to form it. It possesses all the defensive properties of the armour itself. Spellpower increases its durability.

Awaken Armour is a level 4 Earth/Forgecraft spell which brings forth your armour's spirit into battle as an armour echo. The heavier your armour, the stronger it will be.

Useful Info

Constructs an echoed version of your body armour:

• HP: base 35
• HD: 15 + power/10
• AC: 2 * base AC + enchantment
• Attack: Hits twice for base AC + (base AC)^2 / 2 damage.
• Extremely slow movement speed (33%)
• Infinite willpower
• Immunity to poison and negative energy
• Is mindless and flying.
• Gains resistances dependent on the base type and artefact properties.

Other means of increasing AC not related to your body armour do not affect the spirit's stats.

There is a cap of 1 echoed armour; casting the spell again will cause the old construct to very quickly time out.

Draconians, Felids, Octopodes, and Poltergeists cannot use this spell, as they cannot wear body armour; neither can players in an armour-melding form, though swapping forms or taking off your armour will not dispel the summon.

Strategy

This spell is meant primarily for melee-caster hybrids, giving you an extra ally in melee. Even when created using the heaviest armour, the summon is slow and relatively frail - it will not win too many battles alone.

The armour's strength scales heavily with its AC; while a robe may hit twice for up to 4 damage, the relatively light fire dragon scales deals up to 40 damage per hit. A crystal plate armour can deal up to 112 damage twice - but the huge effort required to cast any spell in crystal plate could have been used on something more effective than creating a single slow ally. Meanwhile, quicksilver dragon scales synergize well: they have a high base AC, but very low encumbrance.

High-stat characters, such as Demigods, Oni, and worshippers of Cheibriados, are the most likely to wear, and cast spells in, a suitable piece of armour. It is particularly effective for Mountain Dwarves whose spellcasting penalty from heavy armour is dramatically reduced. However, many characters can afford to use this on a mid-weight armour, such as swamp or quicksilver dragon scales, effectively.

History

• Prior to 0.33, this spell was called Animate Armour, was level 4 Summoning/Earth, and would summon a +0 copy of your current armour's base type instead of copying the enchantment and artefact properties.
• Prior to 0.32, animated armours did not gain resists innate to their base type.
• Prior to 0.29, animated armours did not fly.
• Animate Armour was added in 0.27.