Channeling

Version 0.29: This article may not be up to date for the latest stable release of Crawl.

For spells like Searing Ray with an effect that requires several turns of focus, see Channeling spells.

Dramatically increases the user's regeneration of magical power for a duration that increases with Invocations skill.

Channeling is the act of passively restoring MP to a character, as opposed to (repeatedly) using a single-turn action like the Sublimation of Blood spell to restore MP. There are two types: Active Channeling (which require the use of an activated ability) and Passive Channeling (which comes from equipment and happens without the player's input).

Djinn do not use MP and cannot make use of any form of channeling.

Active Channeling

Channel Magic is an ability that allows worshipers of Sif Muna to restore MP much more quickly. Followers gain this ability at 1* piety.

Success rate: (60 + 4*Invocations)/100 + Piety/25
MP Recovered: 3-5 per turn for (4 + random2avg(2 * Invocations / 3)) turns, or roughly (4 + 2*Invocations/3) turns

Passive Channeling

Orbs of energy and the staff of Wucad Mu allow you to passively channel energy, refunding the MP costs of spells you cast. An orb counts as 2 sources, while the staff counts as 3.

When casting a spell while wielding a source of passive channeling, you have a Sources * Evocations / 108 chance to channel MP. The channeling may then backfire with a chance of 1 / (Evocations - MP cost). If you succeed, you get back all the MP used to cast the spell. If you backfire, MP will still be refunded, but you will be either confused for 1 + 1d4 turns or lose 1-5 intelligence(50/50).

History

• The ability to stack multiple sources of passive channeling was added in 0.28, along with the orb of energy. Success rate per source decreased, but all items count towards multiple sources.
• Prior to 0.27, the staff of Wucad Mu's success rate was Evocations / 81 (buffed to Evocations / 54), and backfiring did not refund MP.
• Prior to 0.26, you could actively channel magic by evoking a staff of energy; compared to other active channeling items, this provided fewer MP but could not backfire. The staff of Wucad Mu could also channel magic in this way.
• Prior to 0.25, a crystal ball of energy could be used as a high-risk way to restore MP, much like the staff of Wucad Mu.
• Prior to 0.24, Channel Magic was Sif Muna's *** ability.
• Prior to 0.19, Sif Muna instead granted Channel Energy, which was a repeatably usable ability, not a duration. With each use, it restored a small amount of MP (depending on Invocations skill) and cost hunger but no piety.