Ring of Flames

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This article is about the spell. For the ring that enhances Fire Magic, see Ring of fire.

Ring of Flames
Level	7
School1	Charms
School2	Fire
Source(s)	Book of Fire Book of Clouds
Casting noise	6
Spell noise	0

This spell surrounds the caster with a mobile ring of searing flame, and keeps other fire clouds away from the caster. This spell attunes the caster to the forces of fire, increasing their fire magic and giving protection from fire. However, it also makes them much more susceptible to the forces of ice.

Ring of Flames is a level 7 Charms/Fire Magic spell that spawns a circle of clouds of flame around the caster. While active, the spell grants the following effects:

• One enhancer for Fire spells, similar to a ring of fire or staff of fire.
• Two levels of fire resistance (rF++) and two levels of cold vulnerability (rC--). Note that rC-- does not make you take any more damage from cold than rC-; it just makes it more difficult to gain positive or zero cold resistance.
• Constant spawning of clouds of flame in the eight squares directly adjacent to the caster. If the caster moves, the clouds already spawned that are no longer adjacent will linger for a few turns.
• Immunity to clouds of flame, whether spawned by Ring of Flames itself, Conjure Flame, trees on fire, or by Fire Storm (though the last will still deal damage on cast if you are within its blast area). Walking into a square with a cloud of flames with Ring of Flames activated will cause it to disappear. There's thus no risk to get cremated when the spell expires.

Strategy

While the cold vulnerability might sound scary, the circle of clouds of flame will neutralize any incoming ice-based bolts (arrows, crossbow bolts, breaths, etc...), making you immune to most forms of cold damage save for the following:

• Ozocubu's Refrigeration: extremely rare, as it's only cast by Fannar and players. Don't cast it yourself (though it's highly unlikely that you'd be able to, considering how much you've invested in Fire Magic for Ring of Flames), and if you run into Fannar or the ghost of an Ice Elementalist, consider fighting them without Ring of Flames up.
• Ice Storm: only cast by Lom Lobon and some Pandemonium lords. By that point, you should have multiple ways of compensating for the cold vulnerability, and you might not even need Ring of Flames.
• Ice Magic miscasts: will only affect you in Cocytus, if you abandon a god who can visit his wrath on you as miscasts (i.e. Vehumet, Fedhas Madash, Makhleb, Nemelex Xobeh, or Xom), or if you severely fail to cast an Ice Magic spell... but if you're using Ring of Flames that shouldn't be the case. As for Cocytus, you won't need the fire resistance and your fire-based spells should melt anything within a mile without the need for an extra enhancer, except in emergencies. Finally, if you did abandon one of the above gods, hold off on casting Ring of Flames if you feel extremely unlucky -- the odds of receiving an Ice Magic miscast at the wrong time are rather low.
• Cold-branded melee attacks: this is the only real danger (see Ice fiends), though any monster will probably have to stand in clouds of flame to melee you, hastening their own demise (watch out for monsters with polearms of freezing, as they'll be able to reach through your shield). It's better to be safe than sorry by making sure they have to walk through a Fire Storm or two to get to you, though.

Ring of Flames works similarly to Conjure Flame: mindless monsters will tramp to their death through any number of spawned clouds, so you can kite them forever and weaken them without ever having to stand still to nuke them -- combine with a movement speed increase (such as Swiftness) for even more fun! -- while intelligent monsters will shy away from the clouds, stopping them from reaching you and meleeing you. It can also serve as emergency fire resistance if you happen to bump into a fire-based monster such as fire elementals or Azrael.

Another side effect of being surrounded in clouds of flame is control over / protection from cloud spells, since a cloud cannot be spawned in a square that has one already -- of any type. This means you can safely cast cloud spells at semi-close range, as long as your barrier of clouds surrounds you on all sides; it also prevents swamp drakes, swamp dragons, and death drakes from engulfing you in their clouds of poison/miasma.

The spell is not without downsides:

• It cannot be turned off, should you wish to for whatever reason.

• Clouds of steam will constantly spawn if you use it when near water, such as in the Swamp or the Shoals; and while the steam clouds can help kill monsters, or even break their line of sight to you, they can also prevent you from seeing incoming threats or from casting cloud spells as you'd wish.

• Whatever Ring of Flames keeps out -- i.e. cold-based bolts -- it also keeps in, making you unable to resort to those abilities or spells for its duration. In fact, using a cold-based bolt will open up a space in your Ring for a single turn, potentially allowing a deadly Bolt of Cold or some such to reach you.

• Using this spell versus freezing vapors (spawned in ice caves) will prevent them from spawning next to you, but due to the nature of the spell they can spawn on you freezing you for extra cold damage and the spell will not remove other clouds by itself.

• After the spell times out, you are will be surrounded by multiple clouds of flame, which you now lack invulnerability to. (Per above, these clouds quickly time out in 2-3 turns.)

Warnings

• Spell is about to expire: "Your ring of flames is guttering out."
• Spell expires: "Your ring of flames gutters out."