Dreamshard necklace

Version 0.31: This article may not be up to date for the latest stable release of Crawl.

A beautiful rainbow of colour and motion trapped within a delicate crystal on a thin silver chain. Listening carefully, one can hear the distant echo of a thousand dreams from all corners of reality, their melody giving a warm sense of safety.

the dreamshard necklace

Amulet of the acrobat

Protects the wearer from lethal damage once

Mechanics

If the user would be reduced to 0 HP, the dreamshard necklace's *Dream effect activates, causing the following effects:

• The triggering blow is negated; the wearer is left at 1 HP. Poison is removed, but Sticky Flame and Flay are not.
• The wearer is immune to all damage until their next action.
• Shadow Creatures is cast, creating several floor-appropriate allies
• A bank of fog is created.

Afterwards, it loses the *Dream property, effectively becoming a regular amulet of the acrobat.

Desirability

The dreamshard necklace lets you escape from a deadly situation once a game. This lets you take somewhat greater risks than you otherwise would.

• At a human level of play, mistakes of some kind are inevitable. It can save you as you were mindlessly tabbing enemies.
• For careful players, it can increase risk tolerance. For example: say a god ability has a 95% chance of keeping you alive, but a scroll of blinking has a 100% chance. Normally, you should use the scroll of blinking ASAP, since a 5% chance of death is too high in a permadeath game. With the dreamshard necklace, however, you can afford the risk. You can use the god ability, thus saving you from having to use the scroll 95% of the time.
• There are a few cases where you can instantly die in 1 turn, from 100% health, due no fault of your own. For instance, you could be teleported into the lungs of Zot:5, and take too much damage. This amulet offers some protection against these theoretical cases.

It is best not to 'rely on the dreamshard necklace: the *Dream effect can only be used once, and only leaves you at 1 HP. Also, make sure you have a way to escape if the *Dream effect activates. But if used carefully, it can be a powerful tool.

Despite already having multiple lives, Felids still receive a benefit from this amulet, as it will save them from experiencing the XL reduction from an actual death.

History

• Prior to 0.31, the *Dream effect was much stronger:
  • The dreamshard necklace didn't have Acrobat, and drained the wearer on unequip. Also, when activated, the necklace was destroyed (this didn't trigger the *Drain).
  • The dreamshard necklace would restore 50% - 100% of your max HP, instead of leaving you at 1 HP.
  • It had a 50% chance to activate if you lost half of your current HP in a single turn.
• The dreamshard necklace was added in 0.28.