Dazzling Spray

Version 0.13: This article may not be up to date for the latest stable release of Crawl.

Dazzling Spray
Level	3
School1	Conjuration
School2	Hexes
Source(s)	Book of Conjurations
Casting noise	3
Spell noise	3

This spell fires a spread of scintillating energy bolts from the caster's fingertips which can dazzle the vision of any living creature they strike, leaving them stumbling about blindly.

Spell Details
Damage Formula	2d(4+Power/8)
Max Damage	2d(10.25) ~ 11.25
Max Power	50
Range	6
Targeting	Beam
To-hit
Special	Hits up to 3 targets, may temporarily blind them.

Dazzling Spray is a level 3 Conjurations/Hexes spell that fires up to three beams of energy at targets in the same general direction. If there are less than three legal targets within the same roughly 90° arc, then fewer beams will be fired. Along with dealing light physical damage which rises with spell power, this spell can also blind natural, demonic, and holy monsters. The success rate of the blinding effect is based on the monster's hit dice, ignoring both magic resistance and your spell power, making it useful even in the late game.

Chance of Blindness: If (85 - 3 × HD) > 1d100

Strategy

The exact impact of blindness varies from creature to creature. Ranged attackers of all sorts are made significantly less effective when blind, and anything of animal intelligence or lower will be much less capable of attacking you in melee. Intelligent melee opponents will be able to find you easily enough, but they'll still suffer accuracy penalties as though you were invisible.

One of the best aspects of Dazzling Spray, however, is how easily it sets enemies up for stabbing opportunities. Even if you haven't trained Stealth at all, a character with significant training in their weapon skill will be able to do significantly more damage when stabbing, especially if wielding a short blade or long blade. Also, it's much easier to cast the level 3 spell Dazzling Spray than to cast the level 6 spell Invisibility, and it provides similar benefits, even against enemies with see invisible. Remember, however, that it has no chance of blinding plants, the undead, or anything non-living.

Once it hits decent spellpower, its damage output makes it decent for softening up approaching foes or clearing cannon fodder out of a band of enemies. Its unusual shape makes it great for hitting multiple scattered targets that a Bolt spell or Fireball would have difficulty with. Just make sure to adjust the spell's aim before firing; the game doesn't always auto-target the maximum number of enemies.

History

In 0.14 players can leave ghosts that are able to cast dazzling spray. The monster version of the spell will have a chance to confuse the player based on the same formula used for applying monster blindness, but using the player's experience level.

Dazzling Spray was added in 0.12.