Dragon-coil talisman

Version 0.33: This article is up to date for the latest stable release of Dungeon Crawl Stone Soup.

For the spell present in 0.30, see Dragon Form (spell).

An intricate carving, inlaid with dragon tooth and scale. Transforms the user into a mighty golden dragon. The user becomes resistant to fire, cold and poison, and gains a powerful breath attack that inflicts all three types of damage at once, but only recharges as you gain XP. For Draconians: Transforms the user into a mighty dragon. The user retains their innate colour, becomes resistant to poison, and their breath weapon's power and recharge rate is greatly increased.

A dragon-coil talisman is a talisman that changes you into Dragon Form.

Useful Info

When eVoked, a dragon-blood talisman turns you into Dragon Form, which lasts until you end the form. Entering or exiting a form takes 5 turns.

Dragon Form has the following effects:

Combat Bonuses

• HP Bonus: +50% HP
• Bonus AC: Linearly scales from the following points, rounding down:
  • Below minimum: -6 AC (0 skill) - +6 AC (16 skill)
  • Above minimum: +6 AC (17 skill) - +12 AC (25 skill)
• Unarmed Combat bonus base damage: Linearly scales from the following points:
  • Below minimum: +0 damage (0 skill) - +8 damage (17 skill)
  • Above minimum: +8 damage (17 skill) - +18 damage (25 skill)
• Two auxiliary attacks: An off-hand claw attack and Bite 5 (11 dmg)
• Golden Breath: Active ability. Launch a piercing, range-5 bolt of fire and cold, leaving clouds of poison gas in its trajectory. No cost, but has a cooldown and charges need to be regained through experience gain.
  • Damage: Linearly scales from the following points:
  • Below minimum: 3d2 damage (0 skill) - 3d18 damage (17 skill)
  • Above minimum: 3d18 damage (17 skill) - 3d28 damage (25 skill)
• Stat Bonus: +10 strength.

Resistances

• rF+
• rC+
• rPois
• Innate flight.

Restrictions

• Melded Gear: All armour, weapon and shield. (Can only wear jewellery)
• You cannot throw items.

Other

• Dragon Form is Giant-sized. This gives a penalty to EV, but you are resistant to trampling, constriction, and nets.
• Suppresses anatomy mutations. Species movement speed set to 10.

Dragon Form has a minimum Shapeshifting skill of 17, below which you get an HP penalty, and the AC / Unarmed bonuses scale down alongside . It has a maximum skill of 25, where skill has no further impact.

Bai Suzhen may carry a dragon-coil talisman.

Draconians

If you are a Draconian, Dragon Form has the following modifiers:

• You retain your natural scale colours.
• The AC bonus from your scales is retained.
• Your breath weapon is retained instead of having Golden Breath
• Instead of gaining rF+ and rC+, you retain your natural elemental resistances, or lack thereof.
  • You still get rPois, no matter your colour.
• Damage dealt by your breath weapon receives bonus damage that linearly scales with your Shapeshifting skill from the following points, rounded down:
  • Below minimum: 0% (0 skill) - +40% (17 skill)
  • Above minimum: +40% (17 skill) - +~67% (25 skill)

Strategy

Dragon Form should be treated like the 'glass cannon' of talisman forms, much less durable than the +50% HP would make you think. The reduction to EV from size, lack of shield, loss of all armour slots, and relatively low AC (compared to Statue Form or a heavy armour character) seriously lowers your survivability. That being said: with extra unarmed damage, plus aux attacks, added strength, and bonuses from Unarmed Combat skill, you'll hit like a truck. It's strong even without much UC skill.

Although Dragon Form melds staves and int-raising gear, you can use magic however you please. Since you won't have armour or shield encumbrance, it might even be easier for you to cast spells than in your natural form.

Compared to other forms:

• Statue Form: Statue Form offers better defense: it has much better AC, does not reduce EV, and allows use of shields. Dragon Form, meanwhile, offers much better damage/turn. Note that, due to the restricted slots, being in Dragon Form makes it hard to get additional resistances.
• Storm Form: In general, Storm Form offers similar damage/turn and effective defense, but with the addition of cleaving. Dragon Form takes less skill, though. Being a dragon is usually enough to handle orbs of fire, and if you can do that, you can win a 3-rune game. Thus, Dragon Form allows you to invest XP into other skills (without lacking in power).

Tips & Tricks

• Support magic, like Ozocubu's Armour or Vhi's Electric Charge, can be very useful to have. Since you're using Unarmed Combat, Manifold Assault only hits 1/2 targets, but it can still be worth using.
• Don't forget about the golden breath, a free, moderately powerful ranged attack. It creates a cloud of poison gas on landing; aim with f . to optimize your trajectory. Enemies tend to walk through the clouds of poison so long as they continue to move towards you normally, and using golden breath at melee range usually means your enemy will be stuck inside the cloud until it dissipates.
• If you can manage to get Dragon Form by the Lair rune branches, the ability to fly and poison resistance are helpful there. Just watch out for silver javelins in Shoals.
• Dragon Form's claws are big enough to remove hydra heads. Use magic/wands/your breath, or consider using a different form in areas like the Swamp.

Dragon Form / Golden	Black	Green	Grey	Pale	Purple	Red	White	Yellow	Felid	Gargoyle	Octopode

History

• Prior to 0.33, this talisman was named the dragon-blood talisman and transformed non-draconians into fire dragons instead of golden dragons. Draconians also did not recharge their breath faster while in Dragon Form.
• Dragon-blood talismans were introduced in 0.31, along with talismans themselves. This form was previously implemented as a level 7 Transmutations spell, Dragon Form. Previously, Dragon Form had 38 base damage and a flat 16 AC.