Borgnjor's Vile Clutch

Version 0.32: This article is up to date for the latest stable release of Dungeon Crawl Stone Soup.

Borgnjor's Vile Clutch
Level	5
School1	Earth
School2	Necromancy
Source(s)	Great Wizards, Vol. II Book of Unlife
Casting noise	5
Spell noise	4
Power Cap	200
Range	6
Hated By	Elyvilon The Shining One Zin
Flags	Dir or target, Needs tracer

Calls forth hands from corpses interred beneath the dungeon floor long ago. Enemies caught in the area will be held in place and constricted until they break free.

Spell Details
Damage Formula	2d(4 + power/20) per turn
Max Damage	2d(14) per turn
Max Power	200
Range	6
Targeting	Beam
To-hit	Infinite
Special	Constrict

Borgnjor's Vile Clutch, also known as BVC and zombie hands, is a level 5 Necromancy/Earth spell that affects all enemies in a beam-targeted line with the constriction status (displayed as "constricted by zombie hands").

Constriction deals damage over time until the affected monster(s) die, escape constriction (which they must waste turns to do), or the effect runs out. In most cases, the monster will die or escape before the status runs out. If you leave line of sight of any affected enemies, they are immediately released.

Resistant Enemies

Only a small number of monsters are not affected by BVC, all of which are also immune to regular types of constriction. They include:

• All slimes and jellies.
• Insubstantial enemies, including wraith-type undead, many monsters in the Abyss, and orbs of fire.
• Spiny enemies

Enemies over deep water or lava are unaffected.

Strategy

BVC is a very versatile spell: You basically now have access to an unlimited number of throwing nets that cannot only pin but even kill a large number of enemies in a few casts. It has the following benefits:

• BVC itself cannot be dodged, and few enemies are immune to it.
• It greatly lowers EV, increasing the accuracy of both you and your allies. This combos well with other Earth Magic spells, like Bombard or Lehudib's Crystal Spear, which both suffer somewhat from low accuracy.
• It pins the target in place, allowing the player to move away from enemies (even fast ones) without attacks of opportunity.
• It makes the target waste turns trying to escape, similar to nets. Enemies that can reach you will still attack you in melee, but this means BVC's effect will last longer since they're no longer trying to escape. Monsters can still use their spells/abilities, but at their usual rate (constrict won't make them cast more often).
• It is especially effective in corridors since it affects the whole beam path. Other piercing attacks, like javelins, work well in conjunction.

Note that unlike actual throwing nets, BVC doesn't provide an opportunity for stabbing attacks.

History

• Prior to 0.32, constriction as a whole worked differently:
  • BVC's base damage was 2d(2 + pow/25) per turn, but damage increased over time.
  • The EV penalty depended on monster size, also it divided EV and not subtracted. This meant BVC was more effective against high EV non-tiny foes.
  • Escape chance for monsters did not care about HD.
• Prior to 0.31, BVC's base damage was 2d(3.5 + pow/20) per turn. Also, you couldn't constrict invisible enemies if you didn't have see invisible.
• Prior to 0.26, a few more monsters were spiny - porcupines, torturous demonspawn, and hell sentinels - and thus immune to constriction.
• Prior to 0.25, BVC affected a smite-targeted 3x3 area instead of a beam path.
• Prior to 0.22, Necromancers started with BVC, and it did 33% more damage.
• The spell was added in 0.21.