Swiftness

Version 0.13: This article may not be up to date for the latest stable release of Crawl.

Swiftness
Level	2
School1	Air
School2	Charms
Source(s)	Book of Air Book of Burglary
Casting noise	1
Spell noise	0

This spell imbues its caster with the ability to achieve great movement speeds. But this speed comes at a price: the caster is less stealthy and more likely to blunder into traps while the spell is in effect.

Swiftness is a level 2 Charms/Air Magic spell which reduces your movement delay by 2, making it easier to escape combat or pursue fleeing enemies. However, this speed leaves you moving carelessly, reducing your stealth by 50% and reducing your ability to detect traps. The duration added each cast is 20 + 1d(Spell power), with a cap of 100 turns.

Note the difference between this spell and Haste, the level 6 Charms spell which speeds all actions (movement, attacking, spellcasting, spellpower), at the cost of magic contamination.

Limitations

• This spell does stack with other sources of speed, such as Haste and boots of running.
• Be aware that if you move onto water (without being airborne), your Swiftness is temporarily ineffective.
• Under normal circumstances, spriggans receive no benefit from this spell and centaurs only receive a 1 point bonus to move delay due to the in-game cap on movement speeds. If your spriggan or centaur is moving slowly for some reason, however, Swiftness will function correctly.

History

In 0.14 it will let you walk 33% faster for 12 to 30 turns, but after that, your movement speed will be 33% slower for the same amount of time. The penalties to stealth and trap detection will be removed. For centaurs, and anyone with movement delay 7, the fluctuation is smaller: ±16% instead of ±33%.

Prior to 0.13 this spell couldn't be cast while standing in shallow water.