Walking earthen tome

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

walking tome ;
HP	66-133
HD	27
XP	1748
Speed	10
AC	20
EV	5
Will	Immune
Attack1	50 (hit: plain)
Resistances	rPois+++ rDrown rMiasma rN+++ rTorm
Vulnerabilities	None
Habitat	Land
Intelligence	Brainless
Uses	Uses nothing
Holiness	Non-living
Size	Small
Type	walking tome, earthen tome
Flags

A spellbook that has gone too long without being read. It overflows with magic, forming thick armour from its binding, legs from its pages, and periodically erupting in flurries of free-floating, self-casting spells. It is coated with impossibly ancient dust.

Useful Info

Walking earthen tomes conjure living Petrify spells. Walking tomes are most often seen in the Depths.

Spells

Spell set I
Slot1	Conjure Living Spells	Wizard flag

Tips & Tricks

• Walking earthen tomes are arguably the least threatening of the walking tomes, since Petrify can be resisted by willpower, and you can always use a potion of cancellation to get rid of it. Still, having to use a potion of cancellation - or risk instant death - shouldn't be taken lightly.

For reference, earthen tomes cast Petrify at the same strength as an ancient lich. That's a 14% success rate at the lower bound of Will+++, and a 1% success rate at the lower bound of Will++++. At least 167 willpower is required to reach a 0% success rate.

• Living spells work similarly to the player Foxfire spell. It creates a living spell entity, which must have a direct path to a hostile target. If you are in melee range with a tome in a corridor, most of the living spells will be unable to hit you. But unlike the foxfire spell, living spells can spawn behind the player (radius-2 of the walking tome), so a corridor is not foolproof.
  • If needed, you can attack a living spell, which will destroy it before it gets the chance to cast itself.
• Silence works on walking tomes, preventing them from casting at all.

History

Walking tomes were added in 0.28.