Lost soul

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lost soul *
HP	20-40
HD	10
XP	?
Speed	15
AC	0
EV	10
MR	Immune
Attack1
Attack2
Attack3
Attack4
Max Chunks	0
Type of Meat	None
Resistances	rF+, rC+, rPois+, rN+++, rTorm, rRot+++
Vulnerabilities	Holy, Holy wrath
Habitat	Land
Intelligence	Plant
Uses	Uses nothing
Holiness	Undead
Size	Small
Type	lost soul, lost soul
Flags	Insubstantial Evil Maintain range Submerges Levitate

The echo of an unmourned soul, flickering in and out of the mortal world. Though the memories of its living self are long-faded, it is drawn to the moment of death by some lingering instinct. So powerful is its drive for self and purpose that it seizes upon the passage of other souls, losing the last vestiges of its being in the memories of another's life.

Useful Info

Lost souls are wandering confluxes of necromantic power which have no offensive capabilities of their own, but which sacrifice themselves to revive allied living or undead monsters within their line of sight at the moment they are killed.

If an undead monster is killed while in sight of an allied lost soul, the soul may die instead and the undead will be restored to full HP with all status effects reset (this does not apply to any form of derived undead, however). If a zombifiable living creature dies while in LoS of an allied lost soul, the soul will instead assume its likeness, turning into a spectral thing of the same type. This copy will have stats as though it were wearing the original's gear and will have full access to all of the original's spells.

Lost souls do not always choose to sacrifice themselves to save a fallen ally; if monsters of varying strength are present, they will often ignore the deaths of weak monsters in order to save themselves for the strong. If several lost souls are clustered together, they will be more likely to sacrifice themselves for weaker things.

Lost souls move quickly and avoid getting close to you, but are generally fragile. If they find themselves in your line of sight with no other monsters around, they will flicker out of the living world and reappear near some other monster elsewhere in the level, then temporarily submerge into the air there.

Lost souls can be found in the Crypt, or be summoned by deep elf death mages.

Tips & Tricks

• While it's normally reasonable to focus your attention on the largest threat in a fight with multiple enemies, be careful when doing so with lost souls around. They're fairly fragile, so it's usually worth spending a turn or two to take them out before finishing off any powerful foes.

History

Lost souls were added in 0.13.