Conjure Flame
Conjure Flame
| Spell Details | |
|---|---|
| Damage Formula | 0 |
| Max Damage | 0 |
| Max Power | 100 |
| Range | 0 |
| Targeting | |
| To-hit | |
| Special | Cloud damage: 6 + (3d16)/3 (fire) Cloud duration: 3 + (1dPower)/2 + (1dPower)/2, but no more than 23 turns |
Conjure Flame is a level 3 Conjurations/Fire Magic spell which creates a cloud of embers at the caster's position. These embers will burst into flames after the caster's next turn unless the tile is still occupied, in which case they will be smothered. Alternatively, recasting the spell will immediately ignite the embers (and the caster with them).
The resulting cloud of flame will keep many weaker monsters at bay, but mindless, strong, or fire resistant monsters will march on through. The duration of the cloud is dependent on spellpower.
Slow monsters (worms, nagas) do not take more damage from clouds; they burn on their own subjective turn.
Tips & Tricks
- The timing of the smothering check is after your next turn, regardless of its duration. If your next action is not to either move or recast the spell, the embers will be smothered.
- By the same token, monsters following you have your whole movement duration to catch up to you before the smothering check. This is especially horrible if you are still a low-level caster, trying to flee from a fast enemy like an adder or hound. They have a high chance to catch up to you, smothering the flames - turning a formerly very useful utility spell for avoiding fights into a very iffy proposition and potential waste of spell levels. This is even more true for followers of Cheibriados, since everything is faster than them. They need much more distance from following monsters, or else a faster method of leaving their position like blinking or hopping.
- Certain icy spells and effects (e.g. Throw Frost, Bolt of Cold, icy breath weapons) will extinguish any flame clouds they strike, but are consumed in doing so. You can use Conjure Flame to block enemy ice attacks this way.
- Do note that icy effects that are partially physical in nature (such as Throw Icicle or a wand of iceblast) can still pass through flame clouds.
- It's possible to reinforce existing clouds of flame, but creating a new cloud is more efficient: the additional duration of a reinforced cloud is only 1+1d(Power)/4, maximum 11 turns. Also, this requires continuing to stand in a cloud of flames.
- If you have the ability to confuse (eg, Mephitic Cloud) and are battling a very powerful monster, dot the areas around this monster with flame clouds after it becomes confused. This extra fire damage can help considerably.
- If you place a cloud of flame adjacent to a tile with water in it, clouds of steam will generate around it.
Strategy
Conjure Flame is quite useful for blocking off narrow hallways and creating bottlenecks, though with its nerf in 0.25, it has lost a lot of versatility due to the new targeting / smothering mechanism. Note that mindless monsters, many beasts, or particularly strong or high-HP monsters will choose to walk through the flame to reach you anyway. You can exploit this by laying several Conjure Flames in a straight line between yourself and your target: the latter will happily tread through the flames, taking severe damage, until they're severely wounded. If they're monsters who flee when injured (or who you've just subjected to a scroll of fear or Cause Fear spell), they'll attempt to escape... right back into the flames behind them.
Monsters standing in a harmful cloud will always be willing to step from it into another harmful cloud, even if it's worse, as long as they weren't immune to the first cloud. You can exploit this by either creating more dangerous clouds between your Conjured Flame and yourself, or by casting a spell like Mephitic Cloud or Poisonous Vapours to prompt a stubborn monster to enter your flames.
When there is a monster adjacent to you standing in a flame cloud, it is generally best to try to stay there, because the enemy will take high damage per turn. This strategy fails with trampling monsters who can knock you off your tile on the first melee and potentially only spend 1 turn in your flame.
If the monster refuses to cross your flame, use your reaching-branded weapon with impunity (unless it also has one). Otherwise, this gives you breathing room to retreat and pummel it from afar with ranged weapons and magic. (Remember not to cast fire-neutralizing Ice Magic across the flame.)
