Stat death

Stat death occurs 100 turns after one of a character's primary attributes (Strength, Intelligence, or Dexterity) lowered to 0 or below. The character will die unless the stat can be restored in time. After 50 turns have passed, the character can be paralyzed which is also very dangerous.

The following can all drain your attributes:

• By 1 at a time, and affected (and thus blocked) by sustain abilities:
  • The Deteriorating Body mutation (rank 1). Ranks 2 and 3 of this mutation are eventually lethal, however.
  • Sickness
  • The special attacks of certain monsters (brain worms, quasits, shadows, etc.). Although all three stats can be drained, INT is by far the one most commonly affected. This is because it is drained by a smite-targeted spell, where the others are drained only through melee attacks.
  • Decomposition (not to be confused with rotting) from attempted mutation of an undead character.
• By more than 1 at a time, but damage can be halved by sustain abilities:
  • Evoking certain items, such as a crystal ball of energy or the staff of Wucad Mu.
  • Spell miscast effects, as caused by actual miscasts, Hell effects, and Zot traps.
• By varying amounts, and not affected at all by sustain abilities:
  • Equipment with negative stat modifiers (but you can remove the equipment to restore the stat).
  • Certain spells, such as Summon Horrible Things or Alistair's Intoxication, have a chance of draining INT when cast.

Stats can be more permanently lowered by the following means:

• Mutations which affect attributes (directly, or through stiff/loose muscles, some scale mutations, etc.).
• Jiyva's stat shuffling.
• The Shuffle card.

The last two will never lower a base stat to zero, but when combined with one of the above effects could still cause stat death.

Precautions

Any character with a particularly low attribute should be aware of the dangers involved. Any attribute below 8 could conceivably be reduced to 0 by a single unfortunate effect, some of which are common, some less so.

• Cursed equipment can reduce an attribute by up to 6 for as long as it's equipped, so be cautious about wearing unidentified items if you're at risk. This is especially dangerous in regards to INT, as a character with 0 INT cannot read scrolls (and thus cannot read a scroll of remove curse in order to remove the offending item). Low-INT characters may wish to keep a Potion of Brilliance on hand to give them a window of time in which they can read scrolls.
• Miscast effects, Hell effects, Zot traps, and mummy death curses can temporarily reduce an attribute by up to 7. You may wish to bring all of your attributes up to a minumum of 8 to guarantee that you can survive a single worst-case scenario shot from either one. Alternatively, you could eat a royal jelly to restore all attributes instantly. Just remember that "Engorged" characters cannot eat any further.

History

Prior to 0.7, stat death occurred immediately upon a stat hitting 0.