Attack flavour

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Attack flavour is the type of damage or effect caused by a monster's melee attack.

Flavour	Description
Mutate	Has a 25% chance of polymorphing the defender (or mutating, in the case of the player).
Poison, medium poison, strong poison, nasty poison	See poison types for the specifics.
Poison strength, dexterity, intelligence, stat	If not resistant to poison, the defender has a 33% chance of temporarily losing a point of the affected stat.
Drain strength, dexterity, intelligence	The defender has a chance of temporarily losing a point of the affected stat. The chance of the drain effect happening is 33% (5% if the attack did no damage), with an additional check against life protection; in an apparent bug, the higher the defender's life protection, the more likely it is to be drained.
Rot	The defender has a chance of receiving 2-4 points of rot. If the melee attack did more than 2 points of damage, this chance is 33%; otherwise, it is 5%.
Sickness	The defender is sickened for 5-14 turns.
Fire	Adds hit dice + 1d(hit dice) - 1 fire damage and can burn your scrolls.
Cold	Adds hit dice + 1d(hit dice*2) - 1 cold damage and can freeze your potions.
Electrity	Adds hit dice + 1d(hit dice/2) - 1 electrical damage.
Vampiric draining	Will heal the attacker for 1d(damage inflicted), if the defender is cold-blooded or warm-blooded. Against bloodless defenders, it still does normal damage, but without the healing effect.
Hunger	Will reduce the defender's satiety by 25%, outright. If the attack does no damage, the effect only has a 5% chance of happening.
Blink	The attacker has a 33% chance of blinking with a successful hit.
Confuse	Has a 33% chance of attempting to confuse the defender (10% if the attack did less than 3 points of damage). Duration is 1d(hit dice + 3) / 10 turns, rounded up, with a cumulative maximum of 4 turns.
Drain XP	Has a 50% chance of attempting to drain experience (or hit dice, in the case of monsters); a 3% chance if the damage done is less than 6 points; and a 33% chance if the attack normally does no damage (i.e., "touch").
Paralyze	If not resistant to poison, the defender may be slowed, or sometimes paralyzed, for 1d3 turns.
Acid	The defender is hit with a level 3 acid splash. In the case of the spiny worm, this attack also imparts 1d4+1 levels of poison to any non-resistant defenders.
Distortion	This is equivalent to being hit by a weapon with the distortion brand.
Rage	The defender has a 33% chance of going berserk, if it is capable of doing so.
Napalm	Has a 33% chance of hitting the defender with Sticky Flame (5% if the attack did less than 3 points).
Steal	Will steal one item from inventory (affects players only).
Steal food	Will consume one or more items of food from your inventory – or on the ground, if you are standing on any food.
Crush	This always accompanies the constrict attack type.
Holy	Does an additional 75% damage against evil and unholy targets. This is similar to the holy wrath weapon brand, but without a random component.
Antimagic	Equivalent to the antimagic brand.
Pain	Equivalent to the pain brand.
Ensnare	If the attack does any damage, it has a 50% chance of hitting the defender with a web.
Chaos	Changes flavour with every attack, to one of the following: Fire Cold Electricity Nasty-level poison Vampiric draining Confusion "Pure" chaos, which has many different possible effects detailed on the chaos page.
Klown	Random flavour chosen from the following: Fire Cold Nasty-level poison drain XP rot blink anti-magic