Harpy

Version 0.26: This article may not be up to date for the latest stable release of Crawl.

harpy H
HP	25-52
HD	7
XP	621
Speed	25
AC	2
EV	10
Will	20
Attack1	19 (claw: plain)
Attack2	14 (claw: plain)
Resistances	rPois+
Vulnerabilities	None
Habitat	Land
Intelligence	Human
Uses	Uses nothing
Holiness	Natural
Size	Medium
Type	harpy, harpy
Flags	Flying Batty Warm-blooded

A bird-like creature with a human face that roams the coasts endlessly, feared for its sharp claws and harrying strikes. “Bird-bodied, girl-faced things they are; abominable their droppings, their hands are talons, their faces haggard with hunger insatiable.” -Virgil, Aeneid 3 “And Phineus had scarcely taken the first morsel up when, with as little warning as a whirlwind or a lightning flash, they dropped from the clouds proclaiming their desire for food with raucous cries. The young lords saw them coming and raised the alarm. Yet they had hardly done so before the Harpyiai had devoured the whole meal and were on the wing once more, far out at sea. All they left was an intolerable stench.” -Apollonius Rhodius, Argonautica 2. 179 — 434

Useful Info

Harpies are dangerous pack monsters that fly around in the same chaotic way bats do, but deal significantly more damage. They can be found in the Shoals, the Vaults, and the Depths.

Tips & Tricks

• While heavily armoured characters should be able to soften the multiple attacks of harpies, lightly armoured characters can quickly take heavy damage from them, and escaping them on foot is impossible. Reading a scroll of fear is an excellent way to clear them away, giving you time to regroup or escape if necessary.
• Their willpower is fairly low; any Hexes-specialist can hit them with whatever they want, and even untrained wand use has a decent chance of affecting them.
• Attacks that affect multiple targets at once are a good idea against harpies, but they resist poison, so Mephitic Cloud and Olgreb's Toxic Radiance are not options. Fireball works just fine, however, as do enchantments such as Confusion or a wand of enslavement. Also, even a modestly powerful Airstrike should take them out in one or two hits.
• Be very careful around undead harpies: they lose the batty flag, changing them from hard-to-hit pests into something more akin to a nerfed Executioner. Luckily, undead harpies are fairly rare, but be wary of killing harpies around casters with Animate Dead or Simulacrum. Speaking of, also note that harpy simulacra can have horrifying damage output, though thankfully they are much rarer than skeletons or zombies.
• You can summon your own band of harpies through use of the Monstrous Menagerie spell.

History

• Prior to 0.14, harpies had an infuriating ability to destroy your food supplies; barring Jiyva worship, any attack of theirs would have a chance of destroying random food items in your inventory. Coupled with their habit of devouring any corpse they crossed paths with (and the fact that they could affect food and corpses at your feet), they were one of the more legitimate starvation threats in the game, as well as being fairly dangerous physical attackers.
• Prior to 0.12, a popular tactic for dealing with harpies was to paralyse or petrify them over the deep water of the Shoals, which would kill them instantly.