Curse skull

Version 0.17: This article may not be up to date for the latest stable release of Crawl.

curse skull z
HP	34-70
HD	13
XP	1586
Speed	15
AC	35
EV	3
Will	Immune
Resistances	rF++ rC++ rElec rPois+++ rDrown rMiasma rN+++ rTorm
Vulnerabilities	Holy
Habitat	Land
Intelligence	Human
Uses	Uses nothing
Holiness	Undead
Size	Tiny
Type	curse skull, curse skull
Flags	Evil See invisible Flying Unbreathing Speaks

A charred skull floating in the air and rotating slowly. Mystic symbols are carved into its blackened surface.

Useful Info

Curse skulls are powerful undead monsters which resist almost everything, summon swarms of undead allies, and torment you repeatedly. They never move while you're within line of sight, but will quickly position themselves in irritatingly out-of-reach places whenever you flee. They can be found in the Crypt.

Spells

Spell set I
Slot1	Summon Undead	Magical flag, Noisy flag
Slot2	Symbol of Torment	Magical flag, Noisy flag

Tips & Tricks

• Their high AC, elemental resistances, and evasive behavior make them more difficult to kill than you might expect.
  • Casters with Dispel Undead can destroy them in a couple shots once they get within range, though their tendency to summon allies coupled with their habit of appearing at the very edge of your line of sight makes reaching them difficult. Several Earth Magic and pure Conjurations spells also work fairly well, though the undead allies often get in the way of Orb of Destruction. If you have to rely on elemental magic, Fire Storm will take them down very rapidly, but Ice Storm may have difficulty targeting them once they get their undead allies in place. Air elementalists are mostly out of luck; they ignore electricity damage, and even though they fly, their AC makes Airstrike much less effective than you might hope.
  • Melee fighters with holy wrath weapons can take them down quickly, and vorpal weapons are your best bet when that's not an option. Due to the way AC damage reduction works, killing them in melee will take somewhat longer for short blades specialists than for heavy two-handed weapon-wielders. Also, unless torment's not an issue, consider using a scroll of blinking to immediately get into melee range with them.
  • They've only got 3 EV. If it's an option, Bolt of Inaccuracy is extremely effective against them, hitting at very long range and cutting right through any allies.
• Curse skulls are immune to Silence, so you can't simply disable their ability to cast spells.

History

In 0.14, curse skulls could move (albeit slowly). In 0.15, they returned to being stationary, and finally in 0.16 and later they could move quickly.

Prior to 0.13, curse skulls had significantly higher HP and AC.