Freezing Cloud

Version 0.29: This article may not be up to date for the latest stable release of Crawl.

Freezing Cloud
Level	5
School1	Air
School2	Conjuration
School3	Ice
Source(s)	Trismegistus Codex Book of Vapours
Casting noise	6
Spell noise	2
Power Cap	200
Range	5
Flags	Area, Cloud, Needs tracer, Target

Conjures up a large cloud of lethally cold vapour.

Spell Details
Damage Formula	0
Max Damage	0
Max Power	200
Range	6
Targeting	Smite
To-hit
Special	Cloud damage: 6 + (3d16)/3 (cold) Cloud duration: 3d(Power/4); divided by 4 if the cloud is over lava

Freezing Cloud is a level 5 Conjurations/Air Magic/Ice Magic spell which creates 8 to 10 clouds of freezing vapour around the smite-targeted tile. This spell uses "flood fill": casting it on an open space will create a perfect 3x3 square if you get 9 clouds, but using it in a corridor will spread the same 9 clouds throughout the corridor.

While this spell is very powerful -- potentially dealing sizable cold damage (6 + (1d16 + 2d17 - 3)/3; averaging 13.83 per turn) multiple times to anything that decides to charge through -- this is all the reason to be careful without rC+ or better.

Although you can target any tile within its range and your line of sight, be aware that you cannot target a tile that already contains a cloud of any sort. Creatures already within existing clouds will not be affected by Freezing Cloud unless they step into the icy mess you create around them. The effect can spill out of line of sight, but it will dissipate instantly.

Strategy

• Be careful using it in hallways, as it can easily hit you and your allies if you cast it at too short a range. Conjure Flame can help negate this risk; if you put a flame cloud directly in front of you and then cast Freezing Cloud, the freezing clouds will fill away from you.
• Summoners should use this spell with caution unless they have the Summon Ice Beast spell. While summoned living creatures will avoid the clouds and undead will march through it taking a severe beating, ice beasts will ignore the effect entirely and attack whatever happens to be currently freezing to death inside.
• The mass of icy mist around an enemy can prevent them from hitting you with fire-based magic and attacks. Fire dragons and orbs of fire, for instance, will waste their attacks dispersing the clouds in front of them, saving you from taking the hit.
• All clouds prevent other clouds from being placed on their tile. Assuming you have rC++ or so, spawning ice clouds on your own tile is a good defensive mechanism against a number of cloud-spawning enemies, like red draconians or apocalypse crabs.
• Clouds can be used to block some enemies' movement, but this isn't always a good thing. Orc priests and hellions, for example, will be forced to use their irresistible ranged attacks instead of going into melee. Thankfully, the former tends to die in around 2 turns of the cloud.
• If you happen to know a sleeping enemy is around a corner, you can hit them before they enter your line of sight by casting the spell at a tile adjacent to the foe. The enemy will take damage and wake up, but won't automatically know you're there. They will instead wander around, potentially giving you a chance at another attack before they start retaliating.
• All worshippers of Qazlal are immune to their own clouds, making this spell much more safe and versatile.

History

• Prior to 0.27, this spell was a level 6 Conjurations/Air Magic/Ice Magic spell.
• Prior to 0.19, (Freezing) clouds would dissipate 4* faster while out of LOS, not instantly.
• In 0.13, this spell's duration was not affected by being out of line of sight.