Ice Elementalist

Version 0.27: This article may not be up to date for the latest stable release of Crawl.

Ice Elementalists are magicians who have specialised in ice, one of the four types of elemental magic. The spells in their library are quite verstile.

Preferred Races

Merfolk, Gargoyle, Draconian, Deep Elf, Demigod, and Naga are the recommended races if you pick an Ice Elementalist Background.

Starting Equipment

Some species may receive different items based on their unique restrictions.

• +0 robe

Available Spells:

• Freeze
• Frozen Ramparts
• Ozocubu's Armour
• Hailstorm

Ice elementalists start with the Freeze spell already memorised.

Starting Skills and Stats

These are adjusted by your species' aptitudes.

• Dodging: 2
• Stealth: 2
• Spellcasting: 2
• Conjurations: 1
• Ice Magic: 3

Choosing Ice Elementalist adds 7 to your starting Intelligence and 5 to your starting Dexterity.

Strategy

A strong choice; their starting book offers you an excellent repertoire:

• Freeze is a powerful level 1 attack spell, ignoring both AC and EV to never miss. However, feel free to use whatever stones, tomahawks, javelins, or darts you find in order to compensate for its 1-tile range.
• Frozen Ramparts is a very strong spell (especially in hallways), dealing strong and guaranteed AOE damage as long as you can survive a few hits without moving. Ozocubu's Armour may give you just the defense you need in such a situation.
• Hailstorm is awkward to use as it cannot strike the tiles next to you, but deals respectable damage. It is most effective if you can catch multiple creatures at once, but is no less potent against a single target if you can manage to keep them in range. Learning Iskenderun's Mystic Blast or Swiftness can help with that.
• Summon Ice Beast caps out the Ice Elementalist's book with a strong summon spell that remains effective throughout the Lair and its branches.

Ice Elementalists will want to look into getting another source of damage at some point, as while cold damage is particularly useful against many early-game enemies like reptiles, several kinds of enemies resist cold (early examples include undead and ice beasts). Hailstorm is at least somewhat effective against enemies not made entirely out of ice.

History

• Prior to 0.27, Ice Elementalists started with the Book of Frost, and had Summon Ice Beast.
• Prior to 0.25, Ice Elementalists started with Throw Icicle instead of Frozen Ramparts, and gained Hailstorm.
• Prior to 0.14, Ice Elementalists only started with 1 level of Spellcasting.