Spectral thing
| A hideous glowing apparition.
"On the hungry craving wind |
Spectral things (spectres) are the disembodied spirits of slain creatures. As a type of derived undead, their stats are based on what the monster had in life.
Useful Info
Like zombies and skeletons, spectral things are weaker and stupider than what they were in life.
- HP: (HD)d4 + 4*HD
- AC: Original + 2
- EV: Original - 5
- Speed: Original
- Melee attacks: 80% of original
- Attack flavour: Draining.
- Special: Flight, see invisible, insubstantial, infinite willpower, regenerates normally, cannot traverse stairs
Spectral things are immune to poison, negative energy, torment, and resistant to cold damage. Like all undead, they are vulnerable to holy.
Spectral things can be created by Death Channel, or by monsters' Spectral Cloud spell. Nergalle is capable of summoning spectral orcs, who will often be armed with reaching-capable polearms. Spectres can also be found in a few vaults.
Strategy
The main appeal of spectres is that Death Channel does not consume a monster's body, so it works with any other undead-creating spell. You cannot combine Animate Dead with Simulacrum, but you can combine Death Channel with Animate Dead, or Death Channel and Simulacrum.
Spectres are not especially strong compared to zombies or simulacrum, but their draining can be useful. Also, see invisible and flight can occasionally help.
Identifying Spectral things
Though spectral things will have different stats depending on what they were made from, Crawl currently tends to lump them together, making identification somewhat difficult. In console mode, there are unique tiles for several categories of monster, but there are still possible variations within those categories. Press x and highlight the spectral thing in question to get a better idea of the monster you are dealing with.
Below are all the categories of spectral things in tiles mode:
Drakes
Fish
Frogs
Humanoids (small)
Humanoids (large)
Insects (winged)
Lizards
Quadrupeds (small)
Quadrupeds (large)
