Borgnjor's Vile Clutch

Version 0.22: This article may not be up to date for the latest stable release of Crawl.

Borgnjor's Vile Clutch
Level	5
School1	Necromancy
School2	Earth
Source(s)	Book of Dreams Book of Unlife
Casting noise	5
Spell noise	?

Calls forth hands from corpses interred beneath the dungeon floor long ago. Enemies caught in the area will be held in place and constricted until they break free.

Spell Details
Damage Formula	2d(5 + Power / 15) per turn
Max Damage	2d18 per turn
Max Power	200
Range	5
Targeting	Smite
To-hit
Special	Area of Effect, Damage over time

Borgnjor's Vile Clutch, also known as BVC and zombie hands is a level 5 Necromancy/Earth spell in the books of Necromancy, Dreams and Unlife. It affects all enemies in a smite-targeted 3x3 area with the constriction status (displayed as "constricted by zombie hands", which deals damage over time until the affected monster(s) die, escape constriction (which they must waste turns to do), or the effect runs out. In most cases, the monster will die or escape before the status runs out. If you leave line of sight of any affected enemies, they are immediately released.

Resistant enemies

Only a small number of monsters are not affected by zombie hands, all of which are also immune to regular types of constriction. They are as follows:

• All slimes and jellies.
• Insubstantial enemies, including wraith-type undead, many monsters in the Abyss, and orbs of fire.
• Spiny enemies, consisting of porcupines, torturous demonspawn, and Hell Sentinels.

Uses

BVC is a very versatile spell. It can kill a large number of enemies in a few casts, and has a few specific benefits:

• Cannot be dodged and is largely irresistible (except for creatures listed above).
• Pins the target in place, allowing the player to move away even from fast enemies.
• Reduces the target's EV, making them easier to hit with melee or other destructive spells. This combos particularly well with bolt spells, as BVC pins several creatures at once.
• Makes the target waste turns trying to escape, similar to nets. Enemies that can reach you will still attack you in melee, but this means BVC's effect will last longer since they're not trying to escape.
• Destroys groups of enemies, since it affects an area.
• Can be used to pick off enemies behind other enemies, since it is smite-targeted.

History

• Prior to 0.22, BVC was also found in the book of Necromancy and it did 33% more damage than currently.
• The spell was added in 0.21.