Ignite Poison

Version 0.13: This article may not be up to date for the latest stable release of Crawl.

Ignite Poison
Level	5
School1	Fire
School2	Transmutation
Source(s)	Book of Fire Book of Alchemy
Casting noise	4
Spell noise	0

This spell attempts to convert all nearby poison into liquid flame, burning poisoned creatures from within. It is very effective against innately poisonous creatures. The caster is not affected.

Ignite Poison is a level 5 Fire Magic/Transmutations spell which causes all nearby poisonous things in line of sight to burst into flames (excluding the caster). Any monster which leaves a poisonous corpse, is poisoned, or (in some cases) has a poisonous attack takes fire damage (and is cured of any poison in its system). Ignoring the player's inventory, all poisonous corpses and chunks, all potions of poison, strong poison, or degeneration, all poisonous ammo, and all poison or mephitic clouds burst into flame clouds.

It has no effect on either the Staff of Poison or the Staff of Olgreb.

Strategy

Against monsters with poisonous corpses (including kobolds, killer bees and hydras), Ignite Poison deals significant, undodgeable damage almost like smiting (though it can still be lessened with fire resistance). Clearing a killer bee vault using this spell is similar to using Cheibriados' Slouch ability. Just shout to get the attention of as many killer bees as possible and then cast it twice. Everything in sight will be dead.

Clearing the Spider's Nest or Snake Pit branches is much easier with this spell.

This spell also works great when used together with Mephitic Cloud; the noxious clouds generated by the former spell turn into clouds of fire. This combination makes it easy to take out groups of monsters rather early in the game. First confuse them with Mephitic Cloud, then (once the monsters are confused) cast Ignite Poison and let the poor guys stumble through the flames. And, of course, casting Ignite Poison after casting Poisonous Cloud creates the "fire version" of Freezing Cloud.

Also note that monsters that are immune to Mephitic Cloud will happily walk right into the clouds to reach you. If you cast Ignite Poison at the right moment you can get rid of them as well.

History

It used to be an amazingly painful way to eliminate poison from one's own system, but as of 0.8 it no longer affects the caster or his inventory.