Sky beast

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

sky beast Y
HP	18-37
HD	5
XP	130
Speed	10
AC	3
EV	13
Will	20
Attack1	5 (hit: electricity)
Resistances	rElec+++
Vulnerabilities	None
Habitat	Land
Intelligence	Animal
Uses	Uses nothing
Holiness	Natural
Size	Large
Type	sky beast, sky beast
Flags	Flying No skeleton

A strange aerial creature formed of clouds and tortured flesh that sparkles with electricity and, every so often, slips entirely from view. “Her own mother lived the latter years of her life in the horrible suspicion that electricity was dripping invisibly all over the house.” -James Thurber, _My Life and Hard Times_. 1934.

Useful Info

Sky beasts are unusual flying creatures that appear in the Dungeon, usually around D:6. They deal additional electric damage in melee, and occasionally turn invisible.

Sky beasts have an innate ability that allows them to turn invisible, taking no time in the process. Every turn, it has a 1/8 chance to switch between being invisible and visible. When becoming visible, rain clouds are created around it. Rain clouds, in turn, create short-lived puddles of water.

Tips & Tricks

• Try not to fight a sky beast when it is invisible (unless you have see invisible). An enemy you can't see is much harder to hit. If a sky beast turns invisible and isn't adjacent to you, consider retreating - it'll flicker back into view eventually. You do not want to retreat when it is in melee range due to attacks of opportunity, though.
• Poison can be an effective option. Poisonous Vapours never misses, so it's strong regardless of visibility. Just about any character can throw poisoned darts at a visible sky beast, then walk away once it turns invisible.
• It's easy to guess an invisible sky beast's location. As melee enemies, sky beasts will move directly towards you and attack.
  • Clouds can reveal invisible creatures (though won't make them easier to hit). If you lost track of a sky beast, a scroll of fog or Mephitic Cloud is likely to reveal its location.

History

• In 0.33, sky beasts will get a new attack flavour, AF_AIRSTRIKE, which deals extra damage that scales with the empty tiles around the target. Also, they'll no longer be able to go invisible.
• Prior to 0.21, sky beasts had mutagenic meat.
• Prior to 0.12, sky beasts would flee once heavily injured. Coupled with their tendency to turn invisible, this made finishing them off very annoying.