Dragon-blood talisman

Version 0.31: This article may not be up to date for the latest stable release of Crawl.

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

A vial of pure dragon-blood, crystallized over many years. Transforms the user into a mighty fire-breathing dragon. The user becomes highly resistant to fire and resistant to poison, but vulnerable to cold. Shapeshifting skill increases damage from claws and armour from scales. While transformed, any equipped weapons and armour are melded. For Draconians: Transforms the user into a mighty dragon, increasing the power of any innate breath attacks. The user retains their innate colour, and becomes resistant to poison.

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

Useful Info

When eVoked, a dragon-blood 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: 150% HP
• Innate AC: Linearly scales from the following points, rounding down:
  • Below minimum: 1 AC (0 skill) - 12 AC (16 skill)
  • Above minimum: 12 AC (16 skill) - 18 AC (25 skill) ; +1 AC per 1.33 levels
• Unarmed Combat: Linearly scales from the following points (including bonus from Claws):
  • Below minimum: 9 damage (0 skill) - 24 damage (16 skill)
  • Above minimum: 24 damage (16 skill) - 33 damage (25 skill) ; +1 damage per level
• Two auxiliary attacks: Bite 5 (11 dmg) & Tail slap 3 (6 dmg).
• Breathe Fire: Active ability. Launch a piercing, range-5 bolt of fire, creating a flame cloud where it lands. No cost, but has a cooldown of a few turns. Damage = 3d(4 + 2*XL/3).
• 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 many mutations. Species movement speed set to 10.

Dragon Form has a minimum Shapeshifting skill of 16, below which you get an HP penalty, and the AC / Unarmed bonuses scale down. It has a maximum skill of 25, where skill has no further impact.

Bai Suzhen may carry a dragon-blood talisman.

Draconians

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

• The AC bonus from your scales is retained, but Dragon Form itself grants 6 less AC.
• You retain your natural breath weapon instead of Breathe Fire. Additionally, your breath weapon is boosted in power.
• Instead of gaining rF++ and rC-, you retain your natural elemental resistances, or lack thereof. Red and white draconians gain rF++/rC- and rF-/rC++, respectively. You still get rPois, no matter your colour.

Strategy

Dragon Form should be treated like the 'glass cannon' of talisman forms, much less durable than the +50% HP would make you think. The reduction to EV from size, lack of shield, loss of all armour slots, and relatively low AC (compared to Statue Form or a heavy armour character) seriously lowers your survivability. That being said: with 24 base damage, plus aux attacks, added strength, and bonuses from Unarmed Combat skill, you'll hit like a truck. It's strong even without much UC skill.

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.

Compared to other forms:

• Statue Form: Statue Form offers better defense: it has much better AC, does not reduce EV, and allows use of shields. Dragon Form, meanwhile, offers much better damage/turn. Note that, due to the rC- and restricted slots, being in Dragon Form makes it hard to get resistances.
• Storm Form: In general, Storm Form offers similar damage/turn and effective defense, but with the addition of cleaving. Dragon Form takes less skill, though. Being a dragon is usually enough to handle orbs of fire, and if you can do that, you can win a 3-rune game. Thus, Dragon Form allows you to invest XP into other skills (without lacking in power).

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 fire breath, a free, moderately powerful ranged attack. It creates a flame cloud on landing; aim with f . to place the cloud on a specific enemy. Using flame breath at melee range means your enemy will be stuck inside the cloud for a while.
• 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 (and cold attacks, like bog body's Bolt of Cold and merfolk aquamancer's Throw Icicle, if vulnerable).
• Dragon Form's claws are big enough to remove hydra heads. Use magic/wands/your fire breath, or consider using a different form in areas like the Swamp.

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History

• 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.