Curare

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

It is tipped with a substance that causes asphyxiation, dealing direct damage as well as poisoning and slowing those it strikes. It is twice as likely to be destroyed on impact as other darts.

Curare is a rare, poisonous brand found on darts and the unrand whip "Snakebite". To vulnerable targets, curare inflicts 2d6 untyped damage, as well as poison and slow. Darts have a 100% chance of inflicting all these effects, while Snakebite has 40%.

It has no effect on monsters with poison resistance. For players, poison resistance gives a 66% chance for curare to fail, and reduces the poison effect if it does work. Players need poison immunity to be immune to curare. HD and willpower do not affect the success rate.

In addition to the brand, the Concentrate Venom spell will upgrade a creature's natural venom (both from venomous attacks and the Spit Poison ability) to curare.

Strategy

Even at 0 Throwing skill, curare darts are powerful. Unlike atropa and datura, curare doesn't rely on skill to actually inflict its effect, nor does HD reduce the chance - if you hit the dart, you slow and poison any non-resistant enemy. Slowness makes enemies attack 50% slower, allows you to kite them, and lets you escape from attacks of opportunity. Many dangerous enemies lack poison resistance, from ogres or giants to powerful uniques like Gastronok, Snorg, and even Antaeus.

Be aware that curare will work equally well on you, should you lack poison immunity. Most of the time you won't have to worry about it, but the occasional kobold brigand or spriggan rider may be carrying curare darts, the unique kobold Sonja is guaranteed to spawn with several curare darts, and naga magi and Amaemon can grant their allies curare-branded attacks.

Trivia

Curare is a general term referring to resinous, organic substances derived from tropical south and central American plants, crude preparations of which have long been used as arrow poisons to aid in the capture of wild game. Curare produces profound skeletal muscle relaxation, which can lead to respiratory paralysis and death. As such, curare alkaloids were once used in western medicine to induce general anesthesia.

The world "curare" is itself a European interpretation of the South American Indian word for poison.

History

• Prior to 0.27, curare dealt asphyxiation damage. Unbreathing creatures were immune to the damage but not poison or slow.
• Prior to 0.24, curare was found on needles instead of darts.
• Prior to 0.17, curare would interrupt Breath-based abilities, like dragon breaths and Word of Recall.