Necrotise

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

Necrotise

Spell Details
Damage Formula	1d(4 + Power/5)
Max Damage	1d9 negative energy
Max Power	25
Range	5
Targeting	Beam
To-hit	Infinite
Special	*Ignores AC *Checks willpower

Necrotise is a level 1 Necromancy spell which fires a beam of negative energy against a single target; it must succeed against the enemy's willpower to function. If it kills the target, or the target is killed within 1.0 turn after, they will turn into a skeleton on your side.

Necromancers begin with this spell in their libraries. Kikubaaqudgha will always gift this spell at 1* of piety.

Useful Info

Other than dealing direct damage, this spell creates derived undead, in the form of skeletons.

HD of skeletons depends on the spellpower: minion_hd = mons_hd * (100 + pow) / 300. This means that at the max spellpower skeletons will have 1/2 of their original HD. Skeletons will last for around 27 turns, regardless of spellpower. There is no limit to the amount of skeletons that you can create.

Necrotise has an enchantment power multiplier of x3.5, which makes it significantly harder to resist than other early-game spells. However, due to the low spell power cap, it struggles to affect enemies in the mid-game onwards.

Strategy

Necrotise deals decent damage that ignores AC and EV. For an XL 1 Necromancer, expect around a 60-80% chance for Necrotise to work (ignoring your own spell failure rate).

Note that your own skeletons can block Necrotise's line of fire.

Monster Spell

Monsters have access to the Pain spell, which deals the same damage but doesn't create a skeleton.

History

• In 0.32, this spell will be replaced with Soul Splinter.
• Necrotise was introduced in 0.29, combining the effect of Pain (without the self damage) and Animate Skeleton.