Poison Arrow

Version 0.21: This article may not be up to date for the latest stable release of Crawl.

Poison Arrow
Level	6
School1	Conjuration
School2	Poison
Source(s)	Book of Annihilations
Casting noise	6
Spell noise	6

Fires a magical arrow coated with the most vile and noxious toxin. Even those resistant to poison will be poisoned by it, and a small portion of its direct damage bypasses poison resistance.

Spell Details
Damage Formula	4d(3.75+Power/4)
Max Damage	4d54
Max Power	200
Range	7
Targeting	Beam
To-hit
Special	Poison, partially ignores resistance

Poison Arrow is a level 6 Conjuration/Poison spell which damages and poisons a target. It is somewhat effective even against enemies with poison resistance; 30% of its damage is irresistible, and it can always poison any natural or plant monster. Undead and nonliving monsters will only take the partial damage, however.

Strategy

This spell has a much higher variance in damage output than most conjurations, but its average damage to non-resistant creatures is actually on par with Lehudib's Crystal Spear when the lingering poison damage is taken into account. It is extraordinarily effective in branches where most or all of the creatures are not poison resistant, somewhat less effective in branches such as the Snake Pit or Swamp that are home to poison-resistant creatures, and rather bad in branches that are populated by undead or demons. It can be quite useful against the draconians in Zot, since only the green ones are poison resistant.

History

Prior to 0.6, 60% of Poison Arrow's damage was irresistible.