Call Imp

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

Call Imp
Level	2
School1	Summoning
Source(s)	Book of Blood Book of Minor Magic
Casting noise	2
Spell noise	0
Power Cap	100
Flags	Selfench, Unholy

Calls forth a minor demon from the pits of Hell. The demon will fight alongside the caster for a time depending on spell power.

Call Imp is a level 2 Summoning spell which summons a celuran imp.

Hedge Wizards and Summoners start with this spell in their spell library.

Effect

Summons a single celuran imp. There is a summon cap of 1; casting the spell again will cause the old summon to very quickly time out.

Possible summons:

• there is always a 27.8% chance to summon a 5 White imp - Deals melee and ranged cold damage
• then there is a 16.7% chance to get one of these two imps:
  • 5 Shadow imp - Casts Pain
  • 5 Iron imp - Strong but slow, multi-resistant
• otherwise you get a 5 Crimson imp - Blinks, regenerates quickly

Duration class ranges from 2 (around 18 turns) to 6 (around 171 turns). The formula is 2 + (1d<power> - 1) / 4 (capped at 6).

Strategy

Call Imp is a versatile spell that is cheap and easy to cast. You only get one imp per cast, but they can be any of four types with varied and useful abilities.

Standard crimson imps are difficult to kill, but they are weak, and blink around, so are less effective at blocking line of fire. They also do less damage than other imps. White imps are useful for slowing cold-blooded foes, and have strong distance attacks and cold-based melee attacks. Shadow imps can see invisible creatures like orc wizards and can hit things with negative energy. Iron imps are slow, but hit as hard as wolves and are tough to take down.

Monster Version

Unlike the player version, monsters can sustain up to 3 imps summoned by this spell. Odds for different imps are fixed at 44.4% crimson imp, 22.2% shadow imp, 22.2% white imp and 11.1% iron imp.

The following enemies cast Call Imp:

• h Natasha

History

• Prior to 0.30, this spell could summon white imps with a 27.8% chance, an iron imp, a shadow imp, or a crimson imp instead of exclusively a celuran imp. The icon on tiles also used to have a crimson imp on it.
• Prior to 0.28, this spell had a summon cap of 3.
• Prior to 0.25, the type of an imp varied with spellpower. Higher spell power increased the probability of getting a shadow or iron imp and decreased the chance of summoning a crimson imp.
• Prior to 0.12, summoned shadow imps could give you permanent undead allies by casting Animate Dead, allowing characters without Necromancy to create undead armies.
• Prior to 0.7, Call Imp was a level 3 spell. Also, it could not summon iron imps.