Lee's Rapid Deconstruction

Version 0.30: This article may not be up to date for the latest stable release of Crawl.

Lee's Rapid Deconstruction
Level	5
School1	Earth
Source(s)	Book of the Earth Book of Iron
Casting noise	4
Spell noise	20
Power Cap	200
Range	LOS
Flags	Target

Fragments a wall or a suitably brittle visible monster into an explosion of deadly shrapnel. It can be used on monsters made of ice, bone, or any wall-like substance, as well as those turned to stone by petrification. Its damage is strongly reduced by armour. Targets made from rock, stone, ice or bone will cause a small explosion. Metal targets will cause a small but more damaging explosion, and targets made from crystal will cause a large and more damaging explosion. “Now the house was full of men and women; and all the lords of the Philistines were there; and there were upon the roof about three thousand men and women, that beheld while Samson made sport. And Samson called unto the LORD, and said, O Lord GOD, remember me, I pray thee, and strengthen me, I pray thee, only this once, O God, that I may be at once avenged of the Philistines for my two eyes. And Samson took hold of the two middle pillars upon which the house stood, and on which it was borne up, of the one with his right hand, and of the other with his left. And Samson said, Let me die with the Philistines. And he bowed himself with all his might; and the house fell upon the lords, and upon all the people that were therein. So the dead which he slew at his death were more than they which he slew in his life.” -KJV Bible, Judges 16:27-30.

Spell Details
Damage Formula	Nd(5+Power/5) (see damage formula)
Max Damage	4d45
Max Power	200
Range	LOS
Targeting	Smite
To-hit
Special	Explosion Triple AC damage reduction

Lee's Rapid Deconstruction (LRD) is a level 5 Earth Magic spell which causes walls and certain monsters to spew shrapnel, damaging nearby enemies and the target itself, if it is a monster. It has smite-targeting and can be used to attack enemies outside line of sight.

The Target

LRD can target virtually any solid wall within LOS, as well as doors, statues, and empty archways (such as those left behind by a closed portal). LRD cannot target objects behind transparent walls, nor can it target trees.

LRD can also target creatures, though only creatures made from hard or brittle substances are susceptible. These include:

• Monsters made of bone: generic skeletons, skeletal warriors, ancient champions, bone dragons, revenants, flying skulls, curse skulls, Murray (but not liches, ancient liches or dread liches)
• Monsters made of rock and stone: earth elementals, gargoyles, rockslimes, ushabtiu, Vv, most other statues
• Monsters made of ice: ice beasts, ice statues, simulacra, narguns, blocks of ice (but not ice devils or ice fiends)
• Monsters made of crystal: orange crystal statues, obsidian statues, crystal guardians, crystal echidnas, Roxanne
• Monsters made of metal: peacekeepers, war gargoyles, iron golems, iron elementals (but not iron imps, rust devils, or iron dragons)
• Miscellaneous hard monsters: toenail golems, saltlings
• Monsters or players that have been petrified or are currently petrifying
• Player gargoyles
• Players in Statue Form or Ice Form

Shrapnel

Assuming the target was a viable wall or dungeon feature, the spell then causes an explosion of shrapnel that strikes everything in range (including yourself and your allies!). The range of this explosion varies based on the target (see below). Viable monsters hit by LRD will create a similar burst of shrapnel with range and damage determined by the monster's material.

Damage Formula

Casting this spell on a dungeon feature (like a wall or a door), generates an explosion that inflicts Nd(5+Power/5) to any monster within the radius. The radius and the number of rolls (N) can be found in the table below.

If the target is a monster, it is directly damaged for Nd(5+Power/5). After this is done, the explosion is generated.

The damage done by the explosion is reduced by AC 3 times, but the damage done to a monster directly targeted by LRD ignores AC. If the target is made of ice (such as simulacra or ice beasts), the beam type of the explosion is changed from BEAM_FRAG to BEAM_ICE: this kind of explosion only suffers normal AC reduction, but the damage can be resisted with cold resistance.

Radius and Number of Dice

Target	Radius	N
Toenail golems	1	3
Iron golems, peacekeepers, and war gargoyles	1	4
Earth elementals, saltlings, ushabtiu, statues, and gargoyles	1	3
Orange crystal statues, obsidian statues, Roxanne, and crystal guardians	2	4
Petrifying or petrified monsters	1	3
Icy or skeletal monsters	1	3
Rock walls, stone walls, granite statues	1	3
Iron grates	1	4
Metal walls	1	4
Crystal walls	2	4
Doors, stone arches	1	3
Petrified or petrifying player, Statue Form, Ice Form	1	3
Gargoyle player	1	2

Strategy

LRD is similar to casting Sandblast, with perfect accuracy, better range, and a 3x3 explosion. It's excellent for wiping out packs of unarmoured or high-EV opponents, like kobold vaults or swarms of killer bees. Since the damage reduction from AC is applied 3 times, it is far less effective against high-AC enemies, like orc warriors.

Overall, it's a moderately viable attack spell throughout for most of the game. Against single targets or high AC targets, it's likely better to use Iron Shot, though that's a higher level spell.

Tips & Tricks

• You can use LRD to hit dangerous creatures behind their allies. Either target the walls beside your target, or target a monster that's vulnerable to LRD. For example, you can use a necromancer's skeletons against it.
• Because the shrapnel affects everything within range of the targeted object, you can cast LRD on a wall to blast anything lurking on the other side that you don't want in your LOS (e.g. oklob plants).
• While using LRD on a petrified enemy will ignore all their AC, the petrified status will reduce all damage by 50%. It's usually better to target a wall on an unpetrified enemy. But, if there are no walls nearby, then you can use Petrify to create an LRD target.
• A wand of acid can be used to lower enemy AC, greatly increasing the effectiveness of LRD.

Monster Version

The monster version is identical to the player version. While in the presence of monsters that can cast LRD, Transmuters should avoid entering Ice or Statue Form. Other characters should do everything possible to avoid being petrified. As Gargoyles are always vulnerable, they should do what they can to avoid these monsters entirely, or failing that, to kill them as quickly as possible.

The following enemies cast Lee's Rapid Deconstruction:

• e Deep elf elementalist (3d20 damage)
• T Deep troll earth mage (Nd18 damage)
• g Jorgrun (Nd22 damage)

History

• Prior to 0.28, LRD could not target indestructible walls.
• Prior to 0.22, LRD had the ability to destroy walls.
• Prior to 0.21, LRD would cause a larger, more damaging explosion when it destroyed a wall or monster. The chance for metal walls to break depended on spell power, and for crystal it was 50% instead of 33%.
• Prior to 0.14, this spell had a chance to instantly destroy skeletal monsters and statues.
• Prior to 0.10, LRD could be cast on an unnaturally hard rock wall to damage monsters on the other side. After 0.10, monsters will not be damaged if the wall is not capable of being shattered under any circumstances.