Ignite Poison

Version 0.31: This article may not be up to date for the latest stable release of Crawl.

Ignite Poison
Level	4
School1	Alchemy
School2	Fire
Source(s)	Everburning Encyclopedia Trismegistus Codex
Casting noise	4
Spell noise	0
Power Cap	100
Flags	Area

Converts all nearby poison into liquid flame, burning poisoned creatures from within. It also turns clouds of poison and mephitic gases into flame. The caster is not affected directly.

Ignite Poison is a level 4 Fire/Alchemy spell which causes all nearby poisoned creatures and poisonous clouds to burst into flames.

Useful Info

All poisoned monsters in line of sight take fire damage and lose their poisoned status. All poisonous clouds and noxious fumes (i.e. mephitic clouds) in the caster's line of sight are replaced with flame clouds. Tiles affected by Eringya's Noxious Bog have a chance to create short-lived flame clouds.

Higher spell power increases the duration of the flame clouds and the damage taken by poisoned creatures.

• Poisoned creatures take direct damage according to how many poison stacks they have, dealing approximately 200%-300% of the potential poison damage immediately, depending on spell power.
• Duration of the flame clouds from poison and noxious clouds is 3 + (1d(20 + <power>) - 1) / 10 turns—that is, from 3-5 turns to 3-15 turns.
  • Duration of the flame clouds from Noxious Bog is instead 1 + 1d(1 + <power>/30) turns (2-5 turns).

Note that the spell can't affect monsters with fire immunity, e.g., lava snakes or salamanders. Casting the spell won't damage them, and they will retain their poison. It will still affect clouds under these monsters, however.

Strategy

Ignite Poison deals heavy, unavoidable fire damage to every poisoned creature in sight.

• With Mercury Vapours, it becomes a strong, reliable, and reasonably MP efficient way to kill lone monsters. While it deals less damage/turn than something like Iron Shot, Ignite Poison never misses, ignores AC, and saves MP.
• With Olgreb's Toxic Radiance, it's strong against whole groups. It's Mercury Vapours, but applied to everything on screen.
• With Mephitic Cloud, it will create flame clouds. While not as impressive as the above effects, it can deal decent damage after you've confused an enemy.
• Particularly great with Eringya's Noxious Bog, which inflicts high amounts of poison, even against those with poison resistance.

The biggest downside is that Ignite Poison relies on poison, making it worse against enemies with poison resistance. It is also somewhat poor with turn economy. Otherwise, Ignite Poison is a very strong spell, usable even in the late game.

Tips & Tricks

• It doesn't matter where the poison clouds come from, they'll be turned into fire. You can turn a swamp drake's or swamp dragon's breath against it. You can ignite clouds from a scroll of poison - just make sure you have no immediate plans to move anywhere. Can also convert clouds from a low-power condenser vane.
• Ignite Poison doesn't count as a fiery beam; it doesn't create steam clouds on water, and it won't get rid of freezing vapours.
• Vehumet considers this spell destructive; Alchemists looking for this spell should consider worshipping this god.

History

• Prior to 0.31, Ignite Poison was a level 3 Fire / Poison / Transmutation spell.
• Venom Mages started with this spell in 0.25 and 0.26.
• Prior to 0.18, Salamander mystics had Localized Ignite Poison in their spellset.
• Prior to 0.17, Ignite Poison was a level 5 Fire / Transmutation spell, but it also affected monsters with venom-branded attacks, poisonous flesh, and potions of poison.
• Prior to 0.8, Ignite Poison used to be an amazingly painful way to eliminate poison from one's own system.