Paralyse

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

Prevents a creature from taking any action for a short time.

Paralyse is a monster-only spell which attempts to induce paralysis for 2-5 turns, rendering you unable to act for the duration. Your SH is set to 0, and EV set to near 0. After being paralysed, the player gets a brief period of immunity to paralysis (1-3 turns).

Formicids are completely immune to paralysis. For other species, the spell be resisted by willpower. Like most Hexes, its spellpower is 4 * monster_HD. After applying a stepdown function, it is compared to your willpower. If your willpower is 100 points greater than a monster's spellpower, you are immune to that monster's paralyse; if they are equal, there is only a 50% chance of resisting it.

Note that the paralytic gaze of floating eyes does not work the same way as this spell; their gaze does not require line of fire and does not check willpower.

Monsters

The following enemies cast Paralyse:

• L Dread lich
• & Ereshkigal
• 5 Grinder
• O Ogre mage
• o Orc sorcerer
• @ Rupert
• H Sphinx
• V Vampire knight
• D Xtahua

The following enemies may be able to cast Paralyse, depending on their spell set:

• & Pandemonium lord (3.4% chance)

Players (and other monsters) can replicate the spell with a wand of paralysis. Your power (before stepdown) is 15 + 3.5 * Evocations.

History

• Prior to 0.29, paralysis lasted for 2-7 turns.
• Prior to their removal in 0.18, you could wear an amulet of stasis to block paralysis.
• Prior to 0.4, Paralyse was available to players as a level 4 Enchantments spell. It was removed in favor of Petrify.