Deep Elf

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This page deals with the player race; for those deep elves met as monsters, see List of deep elves.

This is an Elven species who long ago fled the overworld to live in darkness underground. There, they developed their mental powers, evolving a natural gift for all forms of magic (including necromancy and earth magic), and adapted physically to their new environment, becoming shorter and weaker than other Elves and losing all colouration. They are poor at hand-to-hand combat, but excellent at fighting from a distance. They advance in levels as fast as High Elves.

Innate Abilities

  • Deep Elves receive a bonus when using elven weapons and armour. Though elven armour impedes spellcasting less than non-elven armour for all species, this bonus is amplified for Deep Elves. They are also slightly more accurate with elven weapons.

Preferred Backgrounds

Level Bonuses

  • +1 intelligence every 4th level.
  • 20% less HP than average.
  • 30% more MP than average.
  • +4 magic resistance per level.

Starting Equipment and Skills

Deep Elves start with the equipment and skills listed for their background, with the following exceptions:

  • All equipment is of elven quality, where such variants exist.

Difficulty of Play

SimpleIntermediateAdvanced

Deep Elves are a moderately difficult race to play, due to their low HP. Moreover, their low aptitudes in fighting and most weapons mean that becoming proficient in melee will require either higher experience investment or else a narrower selection of weaponry (e.g., staves). Despite these disadvantages, Deep Elves have by far the best overall aptitudes for magic, which complements their high intelligence.

Skill aptitudes

The higher the value, the better the aptitude.

Skill Aptitude Skill Aptitude Skill Aptitude
Attack Miscellaneous Magic
Fighting -2 Armour -2 Spellcasting 3
Dodging 2
Maces & Flails -3 Shields -2 Conjurations 1
Axes -2 Stealth 3 Hexes 3
Polearms -3 Summonings 1
Staves 0 Invocations 1 Necromancy 2
Unarmed Combat -2 Evocations 1 Translocations 1
Throwing 0 Shapeshifting 0 Alchemy 1
Fire Magic 1
Short Blades 0 Ice Magic 1
Long Blades -1 Air Magic 1
Ranged Weapons 3 Experience -1 Earth Magic 1

Strategy

Deep Elves are the masters of spellcasting in Crawl. They make superlative spellcasters in all schools of magic. Played with care, this magical ability more than compensates for their extreme physical fragility (but certain hybrid classes like Enchanters are still very difficult for a Deep Elf). Experienced players may also choose to play Deep Elves as Fighters for challenge games.

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