Fulminant Prism

Version 0.30: This article may not be up to date for the latest stable release of Crawl.

Fulminant Prism
Level	4
School1	Alchemy
School2	Conjuration
Source(s)	Book of Blasting Book of Conjurations
Casting noise	4
Spell noise	0
Power Cap	200
Range	4
Flags	Area, Not self, Target

Conjures a prism which unleashes a violent explosion of arcane force after a short duration. The prism is extremely fragile and any damage caused to it may result in premature detonation.

A slender prism that crackles with barely-contained destructive energy. Any blow which cracks its fragile surface is likely to result in a violent explosion.

Spell Details
Damage Formula	Normal explosion: 3d(6+Power*7/40) Weak explosion: 2d(6+Power*7/40)
Max Damage	3d23 ~ 36
Max Power	200
Range	4
Targeting	Smite
To-hit	Never miss
Special	Detonation radius: 2 (normal), 1 (weak)

Fulminant Prism is a level 4 Conjurations/Hexes spell which creates an explosive prism of the same name.

Conjurers start with this spell in their libraries.

Useful Info

Fulminant Prism creates a prism at an empty, smite-targeted location within its range. The prism will detonate with a radius-2 explosion after 20 auts, dealing considerable physical damage that can't be blocked or evaded, though it is reduced by AC as normal. The explosion can hit monsters from outside your line of sight.

The prism can be damaged and destroyed by enemy attacks; it is rather frail, but immune to most elemental damage. If destroyed prematurely, the prism will create either a smaller, weaker explosion, or no explosion at all (if it is destroyed immediately after being created).

Fulminant Prism is considered a conjured entity, not an ally, so it continues to function under Okawaru or Sacrifice Love. Vehumet increases the range of where you can place the prism, but doesn't increase the prism's blast radius.

You don't need to wait for a prism to explode before placing a new one.

Strategy

Although you need to place prisms carefully to prevent monsters from destroying them, Fulminant Prism has a number of positives. It is smite-targeted, has a large AOE, and deals decent (never missing) damage. Although there are more time- and MP-efficient methods for taking out powerful, well-armored opponents, it's excellent for wiping out swarms of smaller foes.

Even as the damage itself starts to become weak, the prism has a few major benefits:

• The prism itself can block line of fire. A shining eye can't Malmutate you through a prism, for example. Enemy orbs of destruction and rolling boulder beetles will collide with the prism. You can use smite-targeted attacks, like Airstrike and Freezing Cloud, to attack enemies behind a prism.
• It can hit things from outside line of sight; monsters never attack when outside LOS. Therefore, prisms can be used to whittle down oklob plants and statues from a position of safety. You can also snipe enemies around corners.

Therefore, Fulminant Prism is often a spell worth keeping, even in the late game.

Tips & Tricks

• Don't blow yourself up. If you set a prism 1 space in front of you, a normal-speed species can back up 2 tiles and be safe.
• Monsters will only target the prism if it would block their intended movement. As the explosion is quite big, you can set it out of an obvious path, if so desired.
• When climbing up stairs, you can place a prism behind yourself to prevent tramplers from knocking you off.

Aiming Prisms

As a normal speed species fighting a 10 speed monster, the following configurations work:

• 

  Place a prism up to 4 tiles in front of a monster, then back away.

• 

  You can place a prism 1 tile in front of you, back away, and it won't hit you.

• 

  If you're willing to keep enemies in melee, place a prism 3 tiles away from you (2 tiles away from the enemy).

Notice how the prisms are in front of an enemy, but not in the direct path of it. Remember that diagonals exist. For example, if a monster is down and to the right, you can place the prism up and to the right.

History

• In 0.31, this spell will be in Alchemy instead of Hexes.
• Prior to 0.14, Fulminant Prism was a level 5 spell.
• Fulminant Prism was added in 0.12.