Death's Door

Version 0.28: This article may not be up to date for the latest stable release of Crawl.

Death's Door
Level	9
School1	Necromancy
Source(s)	Necronomicon
Casting noise	6
Spell noise	0
Power Cap	200
Hated By	Elyvilon The Shining One Zin
Flags	No ghost, Utility

Renders the caster nigh invulnerable to harm for a brief period, but brings them dangerously close to death in the process. So close, in fact, that the body believes itself to be dead — healing effects will do nothing. The caster will receive one warning shortly before the spell expires. After expiry, the spell cannot immediately be recast, but with high power the caster will be left further from death when the effect ends. It has no effect on those who are already undead.

Death's Door is a level 9 Necromancy spell which protects the caster from almost all harm for a while, at the cost of being left with very little HP.

Effect

When Death's Door is cast, the caster's health is immediately reduced to power/10 HP (up to 20), but the caster is rendered immune to all damage for a duration of around 16-27 turns. The duration depends on spell power and is randomized.

While active, Death's Door also prevents all forms of healing except for Borgnjor's Revivification; casting that will affect you as normal, but will also paralyze and confuse you (though stasis and clarity can prevent those side effects, respectively).

Casting Death's Door gives you the -DDoor for the duration of the invulnerability plus 1-3 turns, preventing you from casting the spell again immediately after it wears off.

Naturally undead characters and those under Necromutation are unable to use Death's Door. Conversely, you are unable to use Necromutation, Sublimation of Blood, go berserk, or spend HP (such as for Makhleb's abilities) as long as the invulnerability lasts.

Strategy

This spell makes you invincible, but you should be very careful when it ends, since it cannot be re-cast immediately. In particular, one should be careful if there are smiters around, since your HP will be low enough for them to finish you off in one shot. Sources of damnation are even worse. Characters fighting multiple tormenting monsters may prefer Necromutation instead, since that at least allows some healing and leaves you at full health afterwards.

Should you choose to memorize both Necromutation and Death’s Door, using “End Transformation” from the ability menu will allow lichform casters to enter Death’s Door after one potentially dangerous extra turn of untransforming.

The cooldown for this spell is fairly short at 1d3 turns. While you should never rely on being able to recast it quickly, if you find yourself still alive but in a dangerous situation when the cooldown expires, simply casting it again can often be a good option.

Furthermore, since being under the effect of Death's Door prevents a character from using Sublimation of Blood, make sure that Death's Door's 9 MP cost will leave you with sufficient magical reserves to finish the job or that you have some other way of regaining MP. Otherwise, Death's Door may simply be delaying the inevitable.

History

• Prior to 0.26, Death's Door was a level 8 Charms/Necromancy spell.
• Prior to 0.19, Kikubaaqudgha worshippers were left with piety/15 extra HP and some monsters were able to cast it.
• Prior to 0.7, being healed in any way while using Death's Door caused confusion.