Animate Armour

Version 0.29: This article is up to date for the latest stable release of Dungeon Crawl Stone Soup.

Animate Armour
Level	4
School1	Earth
School2	Summoning
Source(s)	Book of Armaments Book of Iron
Casting noise	4
Spell noise	0
Power Cap	50

Call upon the spirit of your worn armour to fight alongside you. The spirit moves slowly, but draws strength from the inherent protection of your own armour. At higher power, the spirit becomes more durable.

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

Effect

Summons a maximum of one animated armour, with stats dependent on the Base AC of your body armour:

• HP: Base 40
• AC: 2 * AC
• Attack: Hits twice for AC + (AC * AC / 2) damage.
• Extremely slow movement speed.
• Infinite willpower
• Immunity to poison and negative energy
• Is mindless and flying.

Other means of increasing AC (whether from the armour's enchantment, mutations, or being a Gargoyle) do not affect the spirit's performance. The spirit does not inherit resistances from the base armour, such as the corrosion resistance of acid dragon scales.

Draconians, Felids, and Octopodes 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-spellcaster hybrids. Characters that appreciate an extra ally in melee benefit the most. Even when created using the heaviest armour, the summon is relatively frail and will not win too many battles alone. High-stat characters, such as Demigods, Ogres, and worshippers of Cheibriados, are the most likely to wear, and cast in, a suitable piece of armour.

The armour's strength scales heavily with its base 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.

History

• Prior to 0.29, animated armours did not fly.
• Animate Armour was added in 0.27.