Venom Bolt

Version 0.12: This article may not be up to date for the latest stable release of Crawl.

Venom Bolt
Level	5
School1	Conjuration
School2	Poison
Source(s)	Young Poisoner's Handbook Book of Power
Casting noise	5
Spell noise	5

This spell throws a bolt of poison.

Spell Details
Damage Formula	4d(4+0.15*Power)
Max Damage	4d34
Max Power	200
Range	6
Targeting	Bolt
To-hit
Special	Poison

Venom Bolt is a level 5 Conjurations/Poison Magic spell which causes poison damage to all enemies that it strikes along its path, both immediately (max 4d28.75) and over time by poisoning them. Poison resistant targets take significantly less damage. Each time it hits a monster it loses one square of range.

Tips & Tricks

For its level, Venom Bolt deals significant amounts of damage, making it useful in clearing those mid-game branches that have few poison resistant monsters such as the Lair, the Orcish Mines, the Elven Halls, and the Shoals. If you can line up several enemies along a narrow hallway, you can devastate them with only one or two castings.

Unfortunately, many of the game's later dangers are resistant to poison damage, rendering the spell ineffective. On top of that, you can deal more irresistible damage to single targets with Poison Arrow, and can affect a larger area with smite-targeting through Poisonous Cloud, making those spells popular alternatives. Although it has its use in the mid-game, you will probably want to forget Venom Bolt at some point, if you decide to take it up at all.

History

Prior to 0.12, Venom Bolt did less damage.