Sap Magic

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

Taints a targeted creature's ability to cast spells. Casting a spell while afflicted with this condition causes the target to lose access to their magic, briefly preventing them from casting any further spells.

Sap Magic is a monsters-only spell. Against players, it inflicts the Sap status for 20-30 turns. When you have this status, successfully casting any spell gives you the -Cast status for 3-5 turns. Getting hit by Sap Magic multiple times will extend its duration (max. 50 turns). You can cure both Sap and -Cast with a potion of cancellation.

Monsters with wizardly spells can be affected by Sap Magic too. They receive an antimagic penalty, which could make them falter when they try to cast spells.

The following enemies cast Sap Magic:

• 6 Demonspawn warmonger

Strategy

Being in Sap status essentially means that you will be in a cycle of only being able to cast one spell every ~4 turns, until that status times out or you use a potion of cancellation. Thus, if you are primarily a spellcaster: a) make that one, periodic spell count; b) have a robust plan to create/maintain distance from, and/or avoid LOS to, pursuing enemies.

History

• Prior to 0.28, the Sap status had a 50% chance to increase your spell failure penalty each time when you cast a spell. There were three levels:
  • -Wiz: spell failure rate increased by 12%;
  • -Wiz: spell failure rate increased by 24%;
  • -Wiz: spell failure rate increased by 36%.
  • Also, the spell had a 30% chance to have no effect when cast, despite being otherwise irresistible.