Sky beast

Version 0.14: This article may not be up to date for the latest stable release of Crawl.

sky beast I
HP	16-38
HD	5
XP	130
Speed	10
AC	3
EV	13
Will	20
Attack1	5 (hit: electricity: 5-6)
Resistances	rElec+++, rDrown, rWater, Asphyx
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 Information

Sky beasts are unusual flying creatures that can be a dangerous nuisance when first encountered (usually D:5 or so, though they can appear out-of-depth). Their melee attacks deal an additional 5-6 electricity damage per hit to those without resistance, and they tend to turn invisible during combat or when fleeing. They also occasionally create tiles of shallow water (or turn shallow water into deep water) when turning invisible.

Tips & Tricks

• Their tendency to turn invisible may make combat with them an aggravating guessing game. Fortunately, they rarely ever do anything more exotic than approach you and start attacking, so it's easy to guess where one will be when you engage it in melee. Alternatively, reading a scroll of fog or hitting it with Corona will make it much easier to spot. Also, keep in mind that they are generally only briefly and intermittently invisible. Often a short retreat will get them to become visible again. This will work multiple times.
• These are likely the first monsters you'll encounter with mutagenic chunks. If you feel like gambling with mutations, here's an early opportunity.
• They cannot be raised as zombies or skeletons. Don't bother trying.

History

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.