Irradiate

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

Irradiate
Level	5
School1	Alchemy
School2	Conjuration
Source(s)	Book of Spontaneous Combustion Book of Transmutation
Casting noise	4
Spell noise	0
Power Cap	200
Range	1
Flags	Area, Chaotic

Transmutes an ultra-thin layer of the caster's skin (or equivalent) directly into pure magical energy, blasting adjacent creatures. It heavily deforms its targets, weakening them and reducing their armour. The caster is not left entirely unaffected; some of the magic lingers, enough to leave them dangerously contaminated after a few castings. “Reflex in the sky warn you you're gonna die Storm coming, you'd better hide from the atomic tide Flashes in the sky turns houses into sties Turns people into clay, radiation minds decay” -Black Sabbath, “Electric Funeral”. 1970.

Irradiate is a level 5 Conjurations/Transmutations spell that essentially blasts all tiles adjacent to you with pure magical energy, dealing 3d(11 + power/6) damage and malmutating them. Multiple applications of this effect stack, but are a little risky to cast - each casting of Irradiate afflicts the caster with 1.25 - 2 points of magical contamination.

Strategy

Irradiate is irresistible, never misses, deals high damage, and inflicts a strong debuff on enemies. For casters who can afford the awkward spell schooling, this is a good spell to have for any 1-range fights you might have to take.

Tips & Tricks

• Irradiate can always be cast 2-3 times in a row safely, assuming you don't miscast and have no contamination to begin with. Having a light grey Contam means that the next successful cast could bring you to a dangerous level of glow.
  • If you accidentally cast Irradiate one time too many, quaffing a potion of cancellation should drop you back into the safe zone. Whether it's worth using up the potion to do so, however, is questionable.

History

• Prior to 0.29, the spell dealt 3d(13 + power/6) damage, and caused 1 - 1.5 points of contamination.
• Prior to 0.26, the spell ignored AC and dealt slightly less damage, 6d(5 + power/12). Also, it had an explosion noise.
• Prior to 0.19, the contamination caused was significantly higher (1.5 to 3 points).
• Irradiate was added in 0.16.