Water moccasin

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

For a list of all snakes, see list of snakes.

water moccasin S
HP	16-38
HD	5
XP	149
Speed	14 (swim: 60%)
AC	2
EV	15
Will	20
Attack1	10 (bite: poison: 10-20)
Resistances	rPois+, rDrown, rWater
Vulnerabilities	None
Habitat	Amphibious
Intelligence	Reptile
Uses	Uses nothing
Holiness	Natural
Size	Small
Type	snake, water moccasin
Flags	Cold-blooded

A largish venomous brown snake. It usually lives near water, and is an able swimmer. “The latter lived in the country, and before his house there was an oak, in which there was a lair of snakes. His servants killed the snakes, but Melampus gathered wood and burnt the reptiles, and reared the young ones. And when the young were full grown, they stood beside him at each of his shoulders as he slept, and they purged his ears with their tongues. He started up in a great fright, but understood the voices of the birds flying overhead, and from what he learned from them he foretold to men what should come to pass.” -Pseudo-Apollodorus , _Library and Epitome_, 1.9.11. circa 150 BC. trans. Sir James George Frazer, 1913. “A snake, with mottles rare, Surveyed my chamber floor, In feature as the worm before, But ringed with power.” -Emily Dickinson, “In Winter In My Room”. circa 1860.

Useful Info

Water moccasins are larger and stronger than the adders found early on, but are otherwise very similar. They move fast, inflict poison with their bites, and move quickly through water. They commonly appear in the Lair and the Snake Pits, and may appear in the middle-Dungeon.

Tips & Tricks

• Ideally, you should be equipped to survive poison by the time you encounter them, but fighting from a distance is still advised. They're fast enough to outrun a character with Swiftness, so stand your ground and soften them up as they rush in rather than prolonging the inevitable.

History

Prior to 0.6, water moccasins were called brown snakes.