Guile

Version 0.34: This article is up to date for the latest stable release of Dungeon Crawl Stone Soup.

It weakens the willpower of the wielder and anyone they hex, the latter of which is increased by Evocations skill.

The Guile ego, exclusive to orbs, gives you -80 willpower (Will--). In exchange, monsters you target with Hexes or other willpower checks have their effective willpower reduced by:

• 20 + 7*Evocations/2 until 15.5 Evocations (-75 will).
• 75 * log2[1 + (20 + 7*Evocations/2)/75] thereafter (max. -100 will)

Strategy

Losing willpower is incredibly risky. Paralysis, Petrify, and Vex can instantly kill you if you're unlucky. Other hexes - such as sleep, banishment, and confusion - range from annoying to directly lethal. Also, as an orb, it prevents you from wearing a shield.

At the same time, subtracting willpower is an incredibly strong effect, due to how the willpower formula works. If you had 8 Evocations (a reasonable investment), you'd reduce enemy willpower by 48, resulting in the following success changes:

Monster	Base Will	(Will - 48)	Success change of 50% power Ensorcelled Hibernation	Success change of 50% power Confusing Touch
Hydra	60	12	23% -> 68%	36% -> 80%
Torpor snail	80	32	11% -> 50%	21% -> 66%
Death yak	100	52	4% -> 33%	10% -> 49%

The success rate boost is significant. For reference, most non-unique enemies before Zot have less than 100 will, so the boost at 8 Evocations remains impactful for a long time. With more Evocations investment, the boost becomes even higher. Hexes specialists clearly have the most to gain, but status wands, scrolls of fear, and certain other spells like Petrify also benefit.

Overall, guile offers a great power boost for Hexes-reliant characters. If the character relies on willpower spells and is "below the curve" (insufficiently strong to handle standard encounters), guile is worth using. However, if the character is "above the curve", it should be avoided even if relying on Hexes.

Mitigating Will penalty

The risk of Will-- can be mitigated in a few ways:

• Using guile in places with few or no willpower threats.
  • The early Dungeon, the Lair, and some of its branches (Spider, Snake, arguably Shoals) don't have many willpower checks; you aren't expected to have good will yet. However, there are still some dangers. Spells like Petrify (basilisks), Mesmerise (merfolk sirens), and Dimension Anchor (nagaraja) can still harm you. Also, uniques like Rupert and Louise can appear around these areas, armed with deadly hexes. And if the wand of paralysis spawns in your game, any humanoid monster has the potential to paralyse you.
  • In places with no hexes, such as in a portal level with no will threats, using guile is safe. Using it on a mostly cleared level, e.g., if you cleared an entire level except for an unique, can also be relatively safe; standing on the stairs can make it safer if a will enemy does show up.
• Using hexes/statuses of your own. Your own paralysis, confusion, etc. will prevent monsters from using their Paralyse, for instance. Cause Fear is brutally effective with guile, giving you a renewable supply of fear scrolls at >50% success. (This isn't 100% guaranteed; not only does it have a chance to fail, but a monster can paralyse you the turn you step into its LOS.)

Tips & Tricks

• Note that monsters won't go below 0 willpower, so guile's effect is most pronounced on enemies with intermediate will (Will++ to Will+++)
• Sadly, it does not affect hexes from your allies (such as Hepliaklqana's ancestor or Sphinx Sisters).

History

• Prior to 0.34, the enemy willpower reduction was -80 and did not depend on Evocations.
• The guile ego was introduced, along with orbs, in 0.28.