Holy

Version 0.28: This article may not be up to date for the latest stable release of Crawl.

Holy is one of the least common elemental forces within the Dungeon, but one of the strongest in the late game. Players who do not worship the Shining One or Zin will have almost no access to holy powers, and there are only a handful of rare monsters with innate holy abilities.

Holy Damage

Holy damage is the manifestation of the wrath of the Shining One or other good beings. Holy damage is usually only inflicted against targets that offend good beings: This includes all undead and demonic monsters. Demonspawn or undead (including lichform) characters are also affected. There is no special resistance to Holy, though AC and Deep Dwarf damage shaving still apply as usual.

Holy Wrath

The holy wrath brand, while associated with The Shining One and considered holy (demonspawn and undead cannot wield them), does not in fact deal holy damage. Rather, it offers a large physical bonus against undead and demonic foes.

Holy Sources

There is one non-divine source of holy damage are available to the player:

• Scroll of holy word: (3d15 + 1d20 & daze)

There are also two good gods you can worship to gain access to holy damage abilities:

• Followers of Zin can use Recite to target all those vulnerable to holy. It has a special effect against monsters with "evil" spells/clerical abilities, too.
• Followers of the Shining One can attack with Cleansing Flames.

Although monsters may occasionally wield holy wrath weapons themselves, most monsters have no access to holy damage. However, there are several holy monsters that can be found in the Abyss, Pandemonium, and certain Ziggurat floors which have very powerful holy attacks and special abilities. These monsters are a major threat to any holy vulnerable characters, so be extremely careful when facing them.

Holy Resistance

Only holy monsters have holy resistance, rendering them completely immune to Cleansing Flame, the only player holy attack that can hurt non-evil monsters.

Holy Vulnerability

Holy vulnerability renders you susceptible to many holy attacks you would otherwise be immune to. You take 150% from beams, and 75% from holy flavored melee. Holy wrath will deal random extra damage, from +1 damage to +150% (average +75%). You can acquire it by:

• Playing an undead or demonspawn character.
• Being under the effect of the Necromutation spell.

Holy Spells

Way back in the days of yore (namely, pre-DCSS), holy spells existed and were player-castable. These included such now verboten effects as Minor/Major Healing, Restore Strength, and Purify. The last one, Cure Poison, was removed in 0.17 (long after it lost Holy). Interestingly, the holy spell school had no miscasts, so unlike with Divinations they did not last as vestiges.

The school survived for monsters considerably longer, although its spells were gradually migrated away from it (as spells such as Healing needed to be used by evil monsters as well as good). The remains of the school were ultimately completely removed around 0.10. While some monsters have spells that are themselves considered to be holy, there no longer exists a defined school of holy spells.

See Also

• List of holy monsters
• List of holy resistant monsters
• List of holy vulnerable monsters

History

• Prior to 0.27, Zin's Sancturary dealt Holy Word inside it.
• Prior to 0.20, monsters spellcasters and priests using "evil" magic would recieve full damage from Cleansing Flame, while others would recieve half. Followers of an evil god (players included) also took full.
• Prior to 0.15, worshipping a good god would give bonus holy word damage.