Scroll of fog

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

Type	Scroll
Name	Scroll of fog
Icon

This scroll surrounds the reader with a dense cloud of fog.

Reading a scroll of fog creates several clouds of harmless, opaque smoke. These are centered around the player and last for several turns. Fog clouds can spread to other adjacent tiles.

Opaque clouds, including from fog, can block line of sight. If 2 or more opaque clouds are in the way, then you will be unable to see further in that direction.

Strategy

At first, this scroll appears to have little use, but it can be very helpful in certain situations:

• Fog can be used to block line of sight. If you can't see enemies because of the fog, enemies can't see you. This prevents dangerous ranged attackers, smiters, and tormenters from attacking for a few turns. This can be enough time to flee, to reposition, or to get a monster in melee range.
  • Enemies are totally unable to attack tiles blocked by fog. But certain player spells, like Fireball and Fulminant Prism, can attack past it.
  • Note that a scroll of fog may not block the desired tiles immediately. If LOS isn't blocked right away, try moving backwards, which will block sight in the forward direction.
  • Blocking your LOS can be useful when combined with certain LOS-dependent abilities like Blink. For example, by using fog, stepping back 1-2 tiles, and then casting Blink, it's more likely for you to be teleported towards the direction you retreated in. Non-targeting spells like Plasma Beam, Permafrost Eruption, and tin of tremorstones can occasionally be manipulated in a similar way.
• Clouds cannot replace other clouds. Placing a fog cloud will prevent other, more dangerous clouds like miasma from occupying your tile.
• The locations of invisible monsters standing in clouds are more likely to be revealed by the disturbances they create.

History

• Prior to 0.22, not all fog types from scrolls of fog would spread.