Tree Form

Version 0.25: This article may not be up to date for the latest stable release of Crawl.

You have been transformed into a tree and are rooted to the ground, unable to move or teleport. You have minimal evasion but increased health and natural armour, and are resistant to poison and immune to negative energy. Any equipped cloak, helmet, gloves, boots and body armour are melded.

Tree form is a bad form that can be inflicted on the player by wand of polymorph or the Polymorph spell. Its most notable feature is that it entirely prevents the player from moving or teleporting, but not from otherwise acting. Unlike most bad forms, it can be entered easily by quaffing a potion of lignification. While transformed into a tree, the player gains the following attributes:

Pros

• +50% HP
• +20+0.5×XL AC (+33 AC at level 27)
• 48% GDR
• Unarmed Combat base damage is set to 12
• Bonus to to-hit
• rPois
• rN+++
• Torment immunity
• Unbreathing

Cons

• Cannot move, but can cast spells, use abilities, and attack
• EV is reduced to basically nil: (2 + size_modifier/2 + EV from Repulsion Field mutation, the same as when you are paralyzed)
• Cannot teleport without divine intervention (Lugonu's Bend Space ability works as normal)
• Cannot fly
• All equipment other than shields, weapons, and jewellery are melded.

Strategy

Tree Form can be helpful in some situations despite providing several severe drawbacks (melding most equipment, inability to move or teleport, loss of EV). Players in Tree Form get a large boost to their physical durability, which may help them survive fights against strong monsters. Tree Form also provides poison resistance as well as complete immunity to all forms of negative energy, including torment; battles with enemies that rely heavily on those elements can be significantly safer in Tree Form. (Some good examples include killer bees, spiny frogs, and swamp dragons for poison, or Menkaure, shadow dragons, and curse toes for negative energy).

Tree form is more useful for characters that don't or can't use much armour (Transmuters, trolls, felids); characters that rely on their gear to round out their defenses may find themselves missing a crucial resistance at an inopportune moment. Fortunately, weapons are unaffected by Tree Form, while Unarmed Combat specialists will find the extra damage quite helpful.

If you don't have a reliable way to fight from a distance, be particularly wary of any monsters with ranged weapons or reaching attacks, as they will be able to attack you with impunity. Choose where you enter Tree Form carefully, lest you find yourself being poked to death by spears or filled full of arrows; hiding around a corner (or better yet, in a kill hole) can be helpful.

Keep in mind that being in Tree Form prevents you from using virtually any method of escape. Should the battle go south, your only option will be hope you can survive long enough for the transformation to wear off; a potion of cancellation will immediately end Tree Form in an emergency, but such potions are rare and valuable.

History

• Prior to 0.19, Tree Form greatly increased the player's Stealth modifier.
• Prior to 0.16, Tree Form also gave +10 strength.
• Prior to 0.15, players in Tree Form could not eat or drink, but did not hunger. Tree Form also greatly increased players' size.
• Prior to 0.14, it slowed the player by an amount based on your experience level ranging from 50% - 0%, prevented players from shouting, and followers of Fedhas Madash gained rF+ and rC+.
• Prior to 0.13, it made the player vulnerable to fire, and the AC bonus and the speed penalty didn't depend on XL.
• Like most bad forms, Tree Form was added in 0.12

Tree Form