Summon Horrible Things

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

Summon Horrible Things
Level	8
School1	Summoning
Source(s)	Grand Grimoire
Casting noise	8
Spell noise	0
Power Cap	200
Flags	Chaotic, Mons abjure, Unholy

Opens a gate to the Abyss and calls through two or more hideous abominations from that dreadful place. The opening of the gate may temporarily mutate the caster, reducing their willpower.

Summon Horrible Things is a level 8 Summoning spell that summons a horde of large abominations and tentacled monstrosities.

Players colloquially refer to this spell as XXX.

Useful Info

When cast, 2 to 6 large abominations and 0 to 2 tentacled monstrosities are summoned. On cast, this spell inflicts 2-5% Doom upon the player, with a 25% chance of an extra 6-10%.

Higher spell power may increase the number of the creatures.

• The number of large abominations summoned is 1 + 1d3, plus a power / 200 chance for an extra one.
• There is a 1 - (121 / power) chance for two tentacled monstrosities, and if that fails an independent 1 - (51 / power) chance for one monstrosity. If no monstrosities were created, one extra abomination is created instead.

There is a summon limit of 8 horrible things; additional summons will cause the oldest to very quickly time out.

Duration of the summons is around 27 turns (duration class 3), which does not depend on the spell power.

Strategy

This is one of the most powerful Summonings spells in the game. It has a high summon cap and summons multiple, relatively powerful, monsters at a time. Large abominations hit fairly hard, dealing up to 40 damage per hit. Tentacled monstrosities deal more damage, are resistant to many elements, and constrict foes, drastically reducing their evasion.

The willpower penalty is annoying, and it stacks, meaning it's hard to overequip willpower to counteract it. It can be mitigated by using summons in order to block line of fire, but there are always times where a deadly hexer can come from behind and get a deadly status like paralysis off.

The undead only have to worry about drain, meaning this spell is far less risky.

Monster Version

The monster version of Summon Horrible Things creates 3 to 5 monsters, each one has 75% chance of being a large abomination and 25% chance of being a tentacled monstrosity.

The duration class of the summons ranges from 2 (around 18 turns) to 6 (around 171 turns), based on the strength of the caster. Monsters do not suffer any ill effects from casting the spell.

The following enemies cast Summon Horrible Things:

• & Mnoleg

The following enemies may be able to cast Summon Horrible Things, depending on their spell set:

• & Pandemonium lord (2.8% chance)

History

• Prior to 0.34, casting this spell could give a Weak-Willed temporary mutation instead of giving Doom.
• Prior to 0.33, casting this spell could inflict 1 point of intelligence drain. In addition, Xom casting the spell would not affect the player.
• Prior to 0.28, all summons would take a share of XP whenever they did damage. This made it somewhat harder to recover intelligence drain by only using this spell.
• Prior to 0.19, casting this spell could inflict 1-2 points of intelligence drain.
• Prior to 0.15, casting this spell could inflict 1-3 points of intelligence drain.
• Prior to 0.2, the summons created were permanent.