Ice beast

Version 0.32: This article is up to date for the latest stable release of Dungeon Crawl Stone Soup.

ice beast Y
HP	18-37
HD	5
XP	130
Speed	10
AC	5
EV	10
Will	20
Attack1	5 (hit: cold)
Resistances	rC+++ rPois+ rDrown
Vulnerabilities	Fire
Habitat	Amphibious
Intelligence	Animal
Uses	Uses nothing
Holiness	Natural
Size	Large
Type	ice beast, ice beast
Flags

A terrible creature, formed of snow and crystalline ice. Its feet leave puddles of icy water on the floor.

Useful Info

Ice beasts are one of the more threatening early game creatures. Their icy bodies are resistant to cold and poison, and their attacks can deal a significant amount of cold damage with each hit. Fortunately, they are vulnerable to fire. They are occasionally found in the early Dungeon, showing up as early as D:5 or 6, and they can be summoned by ice statues or the unique elf ice mage Fannar.

Players can use the spell Summon Ice Beast to call an ice beast into existence to fight for them.

Tips & Tricks

• Ice beasts introduce new players to the danger of elementally-charged attacks - their cold damage bypasses AC. Melee characters should show more caution than usual around these creatures, softening them up at a distance if possible.
  • Note that, while the cold damage itself bypasses AC, the physical attack does not. If an ice beast does 0 damage with its physical hit, it is unable to deal any "additional cold damage". High AC characters have less to fear, and low AC characters, more.
• Their immunity to cold and poison can be a problem for some characters. Characters who have been kiting dangerous foes with poison or curare darts will suddenly find that trick useless.
  • The best spell that Ice Elementalists have is Summon Ice Beast itself. When you're fighting ice beasts, Summon Ice Beast will be a bit hard to cast, but it does the job. Hailstorm (if found) can work, though it doesn't hit targets at melee range.
• If you have a wand of flame, now's not a bad time to use it.
• If you don't have any good means of fighting an ice beast, then don't fight an ice beast -- a wand of polymorph is a good choice to change them into something more manageable.
• Ultimately, it might not be a bad idea to just avoid ice beasts until you're ready to deal with them. Not killing one rare enemy here and there will hardly leave you underleveled.

History

• Prior to 0.29, you could make ice beast skeletons.
• Prior to 0.27, creatures made of ice (such as ice beasts) were completely immune to Hailstorm.