Asterion

Version 0.14: This article may not be up to date for the latest stable release of Crawl.

Asterion H
HP	150
HD	15
XP	3029
Speed	10
AC	5
EV	7
Will	100
Attack1	40 (hit: plain)
Attack2	20 (gore: plain)
Resistances	None
Vulnerabilities	Holy, Silver
Habitat	Land
Intelligence	Normal
Uses	Weapons & armour Starting equipment Open doors
Holiness	Natural
Size	Medium
Type	minotaur, minotaur
Flags	Evil Hybrid Priest See invisible Speaks Unique Warm-blooded

Once a king infamous for waging bloodthirsty campaigns, Asterion was exiled to the depths of the dungeon for his crimes. Here he lurks in his tattered finery, dreaming of a new kingdom. In his lust for power, the minotaur king turned to the worship of Makhleb, and Makhleb has rewarded him with horrifying destructive might. “The fact is that I am unique. What a man can pass unto others does not interest me; like the philosopher, I think nothing is communicated by the art of writing. Annoying and trivial minutiae have no place in my spirit, a spirit which is receptive only to whatsoever is grand.” -Jorge Luis Borges, “The House of Asterion”. 1947. trans. Antonios Sarhanis, 2008.

Useful Info

Asterion the Fallen King is an extremely dangerous unique minotaur, often generated with a demon blade, demon whip, demon trident, or broad axe, as well as a possibly ego shield. A worshiper of Makhleb, he is capable of launching a variety of powerful elemental attacks against you at range, and he hits astonishingly hard in melee, even before hasting himself and conjuring a spectral weapon to his aid.

Location

• The Swamp
• The Snake Pit
• The Shoals
• The Spider's Nest
• The Vaults:1-3
• The Elven Halls
• The Depths:1-3

Spells

Spell set
Slot1	Major Destruction
Slot2	Spectral Weapon
Slot3	Haste
Slot4	Spectral Weapon
Slot5	Spectral Weapon
Slot6	Haste

Tips & Tricks

• His Major Destruction ability allows him to hit you with the following spells: Bolt of Fire, Lightning Bolt, Sticky Flame, Iron Shot, Bolt of Draining, Fireball, and Orb of Electrocution. It's unlikely that you'll have resistance to all of these elements, but even so, it is far better to try to quickly kill him at range than to allow him into melee. With the aid of his Haste and Spectral Weapon spells, he can deal extraordinary amounts of damage very quickly, particularly when you consider how early in the game he appears.
• If you do decide to fight him in melee, use hallways and chokepoints to avoid letting the spectral weapon reach you. Of course, if it's a polearm, this is impossible. On that same point, if you have area of effect spells, attacking both Asterion and his weapon will significantly increase your damage output against him, as the weapon shares damage with its caster.
• He has sufficient MR and HD to make most debilitating effects chancy at best. Dedicated Hexes specialists can likely afflict him with a variety of status effects, but others are unlikely to get much use out of such abilities.
• He is vulnerable to silver and holy damage (but not weapons of holy wrath). While holy damage is unlikely to be available, ranged weapons users with silver ammunition can deal very heavy damage to him, likely taking him down before he gets close enough to be a threat.
• He doesn't need very many turns to kill poorly armoured characters. Err on the side of paranoia when it comes to fleeing a fight before it has a chance to get ugly.
• Keep in mind: Asterion can see invisible, but his spectral weapon cannot; Asterion cannot cross deep water, but his spectral weapon can.

History

Asterion was added in 0.14.