Dragon-coil talisman

Version 0.33: This article is up to date for the latest stable release of Dungeon Crawl Stone Soup.

For the spell present in 0.30, see Dragon Form (spell).

An intricate carving, inlaid with dragon tooth and scale. Transforms the user into a mighty golden dragon. The user becomes resistant to fire, cold and poison, and gains a powerful breath attack that inflicts all three types of damage at once, but only recharges as you gain XP. For Draconians: Transforms the user into a mighty dragon. The user retains their innate colour, becomes resistant to poison, and their breath weapon's power and recharge rate is greatly increased.

A dragon-coil talisman is a talisman that changes you into Dragon Form.

Useful Info

When eVoked, a dragon-coil talisman turns you into Dragon Form, which lasts until you end the form. Entering or exiting a form takes 5 turns.

Dragon Form has the following effects:

Combat Bonuses

• HP Bonus: +50% HP
• Bonus AC: Linearly scales from the following points, rounding down:
  • Below minimum: 0 AC (0 skill) - +12 AC (16 skill)
  • Above minimum: +12 AC (17 skill) - +18 AC (25 skill)
• Unarmed Combat base damage: Linearly scales from the following points:
  • Below minimum: 9 damage (0 skill) - 17 damage (17 skill)
  • Above minimum: 17 damage (17 skill) - 27 damage (25 skill)
  • Note: Damage including the Claws 3 mutation, which is not displayed in the in-game inventory description.
• Fangs 5 (11 damage bite auxiliary attack)
• The off-hand punch is improved by Claws.
• Golden Breath: Active ability. Launch a piercing, range-5 bolt of fire and cold, leaving clouds of poison gas in its trajectory. No cost, but has a cooldown and charges need to be regained through experience gain.
  • Damage: Linearly scales from the following points:
  • Below minimum: 2 x 3d2 damage (0 skill) - 2 x 3d18 damage (17 skill)
  • Above minimum: 2 x 3d18 damage (17 skill) - 2 x 3d28 damage (25 skill)
• Stat Bonus: +10 strength.

Resistances

• rF+
• rC+
• rPois
• Innate flight.

Restrictions

• Melded Gear: All armour, weapon and shield. (Can only wear jewellery)
• You cannot throw items.

Other

• Dragon Form is Giant-sized. This gives a penalty to EV, but you are resistant to trampling, constriction, and nets.
• Suppresses anatomy mutations. Species movement speed set to 10.

Dragon Form has a minimum Shapeshifting skill of 17, below which you get an HP penalty, and the AC / Unarmed bonuses scale down alongside . It has a maximum skill of 25, where skill has no further impact.

Bai Suzhen may carry a dragon-coil talisman.

Draconians

If you are a Draconian, Dragon Form has the following modifiers:

• You retain your natural scale colours and Armoured Tail slap.
• The AC bonus from your scales is retained, but with a -6 AC penalty.
• Your breath weapon is retained instead of having Golden Breath
• Instead of gaining rF+ and rC+, you retain your natural elemental resistances, or lack thereof.
  • You still get rPois, no matter your colour.
• Damage dealt by your breath weapon receives bonus damage that linearly scales with your Shapeshifting skill from the following points, rounded down:
  • Below minimum: 0% (0 skill) - +40% (17 skill)
  • Above minimum: +40% (17 skill) - +~67% (25 skill)

Strategy

Despite the +50% HP, Dragon Form is quite frail, due to the lack of AC/SH and reduction to EV. Still, the Unarmed Combat boost is quite strong; considering the decent base damage boost, an auxiliary attack, and +10 strength, not a lot of Unarmed Combat skill is required to melee well. Golden Breath is a strong crowd-control option, especially against enemies who are not resistant to poison. The resistances are also OK.

Storm Form deals more Unarmed damage and similar average durability, but requires more skill. Statue Form is more durable and does not meld as many armour slots, but is slow and deals less Unarmed damage/turn.

Although Dragon Form melds staves and int-raising gear, you can use magic however you please. Since you won't have armour or shield encumbrance, it might even be easier for you to cast spells than in your natural form.

Tips & Tricks

• Support magic, like Ozocubu's Armour or Vhi's Electric Charge, can be very useful to have. Since you're using Unarmed Combat, Manifold Assault only hits 1/2 targets, but it can still be worth using.
• Don't forget about the golden breath, a free, moderately powerful ranged attack that creates a cloud of poison gas through its path.
• If you can manage to get Dragon Form by the Lair rune branches, the ability to fly and poison resistance are helpful there. Just watch out for silver javelins in Shoals.
• Dragon Form's claws are big enough to remove hydra heads. Use magic/wands/your breath, or consider using a different form in areas like the Swamp.

Dragon Form / Golden	Black	Green	Grey	Pale	Purple	Red	White	Yellow	Felid	Gargoyle	Octopode

History

• Prior to 0.33, this talisman was named the dragon-blood talisman. It transformed non-draconians into fire dragons instead of golden dragons, granting rF++ / rC- instead of rF+ / rC+. The breath was Fire Breath, scaled with XL rather than skill, and recharged over time instead of XP. Draconians did not recharge their breath faster while in Dragon Form. It also granted more UC base damage and an auxiliary tail slap.
• Dragon-blood talismans were introduced in 0.31, along with talismans themselves. This form was previously implemented as a level 7 Transmutations spell, Dragon Form. Previously, Dragon Form had 38 base damage and a flat 16 AC.