Mummy

Version 0.26: This article may not be up to date for the latest stable release of Crawl.

This page covers the player species. For the monster, see Mummy (monster). For a list of all monstrous mummies, see List of mummies.

These are undead creatures who travel into the depths in search of revenge, redemption, or just because they want to. Mummies progress slowly in levels, half again as slowly as Humans in all skills except fighting, spellcasting and necromancy. As they increase in levels, they become increasingly in touch with the powers of death, but cannot use some types of necromancy which only affect living creatures. The side effects of necromantic magic tend to be relatively harmless to Mummies. However, their desiccated bodies are highly flammable. They also do not need to eat or drink and, in any case, are incapable of doing so. Like other undead, mummies are naturally immune to poisons, negative energy and torment; have little warmth left to be affected by cold; and are not susceptible to mutations.

Innate Abilities

• Mummies are undead and have the following innate traits:
  • Benefits: Cold Resistance 1, Life Protection 3, Poison Immunity, Rot Immunity, Torment Immunity, cannot be mutated.
  • Penalties: Vulnerable to Dispel Undead, holy damage, and holy wrath-branded weapons (which they cannot wield); cannot go berserk.
  • Mummies suffer penalties to Stats in lieu of mutation.
  • Mummies cannot memorize any self-transformation spells, nor can they memorize spells that only affect the living: Beastly Appendage, Blade Hands, Borgnjor's Revivification, Death's Door, Dragon Form, Hydra Form, Ice Form, Necromutation, Spider Form, Statue Form and Sublimation of Blood.
  • Being undead, mummies may not worship The Shining One, Zin, Elyvilon, or Fedhas Madash.
• Mummies have one level of fire vulnerability.
• Mummies are incapable of drinking potions of any kind.
• Mummies do not breathe, and thus cannot asphyxiate (but still cannot enter deep water, which would cause unraveling rather than drowning).

Mummies have a base Strength of 11, Intelligence of 7 and Dexterity of 7 (before Background modifiers).

Preferred Backgrounds

• Mages: Hedge Wizard, Conjurer, Summoner, Necromancer, Fire Elementalist, Ice Elementalist

Like Ghouls, mummies are prohibited from becoming Transmuters.

Level Bonuses

• +1 to a random stat every 5th level.
• Average HP.
• Average MP.
• +5 willpower per level.
• Gain boosts to Necromancy spell power at levels 13 and 26.

Starting Skills and Equipment

Mummies receive the skills and equipment listed for their background, with the following exceptions:

• Mummies start with no potions of any kind.

Difficulty of Play

Mummies are a very difficult species to play. First and foremost, they cannot quaff potions. This knocks out several survival tools, some of which are especially critical in the early game. Among other things, lack of potion use also means that confusion is in effect as bad as paralysis for Mummies. Beyond this major liability, Mummies also level up very slowly, their intrinsic rF- can cause unexpected (and lethal) spikes in damage until it is offset, and they have poor aptitudes at almost everything. They cannot use many useful spells, nor helpful tools such as berserk and the various forms one can access through Transmutations.

Mummies gain intrinsic spellpower enhancements to Necromancy spells at level 13, and another stacking enhancement at level 26. Unfortunately, this advantage provides no benefit in the early parts of the game, when characters are most vulnerable.

Skill aptitudes

The higher the value, the better the aptitude.

Skill	Aptitude	Skill	Aptitude	Skill	Aptitude
Attack		Miscellaneous		Magic
Fighting	0	Armour	-2	Spellcasting	2
		Dodging	-2
Maces & Flails	-2	Shields	-2	Conjurations	-2
Axes	-2	Stealth	-1	Hexes	-1
Polearms	-2			Summonings	-2
Staves	-2	Invocations	-1	Necromancy	0
Unarmed Combat	-2	Evocations	-2	Translocations	-2
Throwing	-2	Shapeshifting	N/A	Alchemy	-2
				Fire Magic	-2
Short Blades	-2			Ice Magic	-2
Long Blades	-2			Air Magic	-2
Ranged Weapons	-2	Experience	-1	Earth Magic	-2

Strategy

Mummies should be considered a challenge species, but there are ways to play to their advantages (such as they are).

Gozag is a good god choice, since Gozag gives them a way to get potion effects in emergencies. Call Merchant provides a good selection of equipment, which can help compensate for poor skill aptitudes.

Necromancer is a decent start for Mummies, as it gives you access to allies so long as you can rustle up some corpses. Mummies are also immune to many of the side effects and miscast effects of Necromancy.

Assuming you have managed to offset their rF-, high level Mummies fare well in the optional extended endgame. However, one has to survive all the non-optional parts first, during which time torment immunity does not help, and yet all the disadvantages of Mummies are as salient as ever, if not more so.

Mummies must always be careful of sources of confusion: they have absolutely no way to cure it except to let it wear off naturally, which can make confusion almost as bad for them as paralysis is for all species. While confused, you cannot use spells or scrolls, and cannot accurately or effectively use melee, ranged weapons, wands, or movement. Thus, Mummy characters should value extrinsic willpower and clarity even more highly than other species.

History

• Mummies were the species least affected by the removal of the hunger system in 0.26; prior to its removal, they were notable as the one species that could safely ignore the food clock in its entirety.
• Prior to 0.20, mummies had a spellcasting aptitude of -1.
• Prior to 0.19, mummies gained an ability at level 13 called Self-restoration, allowing them to sacrifice one point of max MP permanently to restore their Stats and a bit of Rotted HP.
• Prior to 0.17, mummies did not gain a stat every 5th level.
• Prior to 0.8, mummies gained 3 MR every level instead of 5.