Ozocubu's Refrigeration

Version 0.30: This article may not be up to date for the latest stable release of Crawl.

Ozocubu's Refrigeration
Level	7
School1	Ice
Source(s)	Book of Ice The Unrestrained Analects
Casting noise	5
Spell noise	0
Power Cap	200
Flags	Area

Turns the air bitterly cold, freezing all other creatures in line of sight. This is less effective against creatures packed tightly together - those adjacent to others will be partly insulated from the cold, taking less damage.

Spell Details
Damage Formula	4d(7.5 + power/9) cold
Max Damage	4d30
Max Power	200
Range	LOS
Targeting	LOS
To-hit	Never Miss
Special	Damage reduced by 30% per creature adjacent to target(s), up to 2 creatures Can slow cold-blooded monsters

Ozocubu's Refrigeration (OR for short) is a level 7 Ice Magic spell which chills all targets within your line of sight (including invisible targets), dealing moderate cold damage. This is entirely unavoidable, has a 50% chance of slowing cold blooded targets, and does not always awaken sleeping monsters. However, damage is reduced when creatures (player or monster) are directly adjacent to each other:

• One adjacent creature to target: 70% damage
• Two or more adjacent creatures to target: 40% damage

Strategy

This spell is a room-wide spell, that, ironically, also works well at taking down single targets. It has full range and never misses, which are useful traits for any spell.

Against a large, widely spaced group, you'll be doing about 30 damage to every monster in your line of sight. Teleported inside Elf:3's final vault? 4 OR casts later, it is mostly empty. A room full of Boggarts? Easy. The adjacent creature penalty is harsh, but you'll still be able to filter out weaker monsters after multiple casts.

Synergies and not so

• This spell can be used as an alternative to, or in conjunction with, Freezing Cloud. The latter is an area spell that works better against cramped enemies.
• Ozocubu's Refrigeration combines very well with Summon Ice Beast and Simulacrum, which are both cold-immune.
  • Lightning spires and Spellforged Servitors will not turn hostile when you freeze them, though the former may well be destroyed by a single application of OR. Servitors are thankfully more resistant.
  • This spell plays poorly with other followers, whether summoned or created through Necromancy. At best, you'll dismiss your army -- at worst, you'll have to cast OR several more times to put down your former allies.
• Casting Ozocubu's Refrigeration in quick succession takes a lot of MP. Keep up the pressure with the aid of potions of magic, MP restoration on kills from The Shining One or Vehumet, or Sif Muna's Channel Magic.
• A way to move adjacent monsters away from you is helpful; spells like Iskenderun's Mystic Blast make sure that you don't penalize Refrigeration's damage.
• An ironic synergy with a scroll of immolation. The inner flame enchantment creates a flame cloud for every enemy you hit, which increases your damage output. Immolation is amazing in cramped situations; even a weakened refrigeration can trigger a chain explosion.

Quality of Life improvements

The screen will flash blue every time you cast OR. Over time, that may seriously reduce the joy of using this spell. Fortunately, there is a setting you can add to your .rc file that will block all player animations (not just of OR...):

use_animations -= player

Monster Version

The version of the spell used by monsters functions in much the same way.

The following enemies cast Ozocubu's Refrigeration:

• e Fannar

History

• Prior to 0.30, Ozocubu's Refrigeration had harsher penalties for adjacent targets; it was reduced to 66% with 1 adjacent target, and 33% with 2.
• Prior to 0.29, Ozocubu's Refrigeration did not have a penalty when creatures were adjacent to each other, but prevented the user from drinking potions for 7-15 turns. It also dealt less damage (4d(5 + power/10)), but did not check AC.
• Prior to 0.27, Ozocubu's Refrigeration was a level 6 spell.
• Prior to 0.25, Ozocubu's Refrigeration dealt 25% less damage on-average and would also harm the caster.
• Prior to 0.15, this spell would not temporarily disable potions, but did have a tendency to destroy them.