Poltergeist

Trunk-only: This article pertains to a feature of Crawl which is being tested. It will likely change before the next release, and may even be removed entirely.

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Poltergeists are undead spirits who delight in causing trouble for the living. Completely incorporeal, they interact with the physical world by possessing small objects and making them fly through the air. They can use this to fight with weapons as well as the living do, as well as gain the protective benefits of many different hats, boots, gloves, and cloaks at once, though body armour is too large for them to manipulate in this fashion. At higher levels of experience, they can even control these possessed objects at a distance from time to time, harassing their foes with a barrage of unruly armour. Their superlative aptitude for both stealth and hexes make them powerful enchanters, and they are adequate at most other forms of magic, though they struggle with conjurations. They are adept with short blades, if a little below average with heavier weapons, and their lack of a physical body makes them terrible at unarmed combat. The same power they used to possess objects makes them natural experts at throwing. Finally, their nature as spirits of bad luck also grants them temporary AC whenever they inflict maladies upon their enemies.

Poltergeists are an insubstantial undead species with interchangeable auxiliary armour.

Innate Abilities

• Poltergeists are undead creatures, and have the following innate traits:
  • Cold Resistance 1: Poltergeists are resistant to cold.
  • Life Protection 3: Poltergeists are resistant to negative energy.
  • Poison Immunity: Poltergeists are immune to poison.
  • Torment Immunity: Poltergeists cannot be tormented.
  • Poltergeists cannot gain mutations, use talismans, or be polymorphed. When mutated, they receive stat penalties instead.
  • Poltergeists are unbreathing, cannot be put to sleep, cannot go berserk, and do not have blood.
  • Poltergeists are vulnerable to Dispel Undead, holy damage, and holy wrath-branded weapons. They may not worship the good gods (The Shining One, Zin, or Elyvilon). The holy wrath brand will not function on weapons they wield.
  • Poltergeists cannot use the spells Borgnjor's Revivification, Death's Door, or Sublimation of Blood.
• Poltergeists are insubstantial, granting immunity to throwing nets, webs, constriction, petrification, and sticky flame.
• Floating: Poltergeists' insubstantial bodies float through the air, flying permanently.
• Formless: Poltergeists may equip any combination of six items of auxiliary armour (hats, helmets, gloves, boots, cloaks, and scarves). They cannot wear body armour, and cannot train the Armour skill.
• Trickster: Poltergeists gain 1 AC for every nearby monster with a debuff (not including poison).

Poltergeists have a base Strength of 4, Intelligence of 10 and Dexterity of 9 (before Background modifiers) and have normal base magic points.

Preferred Backgrounds

• Warriors: Gladiator, Brigand
• Warrior-mages: Enchanter
• Mages: Necromancer, Ice Elementalist. Earth Elementalist, Alchemist

Level Bonuses

• +1 dexterity or intelligence every 5th level.
• 10% less hit points than average.
• +4 willpower per level.
• At XL 13, they gain the second rank of the Formless mutation, which grants them the Cacophony ability to animate their equipped auxiliary armour into haunted armour allies (one for each piece of auxiliary armour). These allies will not stray more than 2 tiles from the player, and their attacks may daze, drain or confuse their targets. The ability has an experience-based cooldown.

Starting Skills and Equipment

Poltergeists start with all the skills and equipment listed for their background, with the following exception:

• Body armour is replaced with a cloak.

Skill aptitudes

The higher the value, the better the aptitude.

Skill	Aptitude	Skill	Aptitude	Skill	Aptitude
Attack		Miscellaneous		Magic
Fighting	-1	Armour	N/A	Spellcasting	-1
		Dodging	1
Maces & Flails	-2	Shields	-1	Conjurations	-3
Axes	-1	Stealth	5	Hexes	4
Polearms	-1			Summonings	0
Staves	-2	Invocations	-1	Necromancy	1
Unarmed Combat	-3	Evocations	-1	Forgecraft	-1
Throwing	2	Shapeshifting	N/A	Translocations	0
				Alchemy	1
Short Blades	1			Fire Magic	-1
Long Blades	0			Ice Magic	1
Ranged Weapons	-2			Air Magic	1
		Experience	0	Earth Magic	-1

History

• In 0.33, Poltergeists will be added as a replacement for Vampires.