Bennu

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Revision as of 07:02, 11 January 2016 by Medar (talk | contribs) (Update for 0.17. Use template.)
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Version 0.17: This article may not be up to date for the latest stable release of Crawl.
bennu bBennu.png
HP 50-103
HD 14
XP 1337
Speed 16
AC 6
EV 16
Will 140
Attack1 27 (peck: holy)
Attack2 24 (claw: plain)
Attack3 24 (claw: plain)
Resistances rF+++
rPois+
rMiasma
rN+++
Vulnerabilities None
Habitat Land
Intelligence Human
Uses Uses nothing
Holiness Natural
Size Medium
Type bennu, bennu
Flags See invisible
Flying
Speaks
Warm-blooded
No poly
A sacred, self-created sunbird, representative of rebirth. It has ascended past the cycles of life and death, and calls upon aspects of both, rising forth from death in a burst of unholy flame.

Useful Info

Bennu are curiously contradictory creatures, masters of both life and death. Their attacks inflict both holy and draining damage, and upon death they emit a large burst of ghostly flame, damaging the living and healing the dead. Once they've resurrected once, however, they become mortal, and slaying them a second time will finish them off. They are very rare, appearing only in the Tomb of the Ancients, and usually only on the third and final floor.

Tips & Tricks

  • The ghostly flames it emits upon death will heal any undead units within its radius. Try to finish off any particularly dangerous, heavily wounded undead opponents before landing a killing blow on the bennu (or better yet, try not to fight a bennu with other opponents around at the same time).
  • Lacking any ranged attacks, or even any particularly devastating melee ones, the bennu is one of the least-deadly opponents in Tomb, at least against living characters. Undead characters should avoid leaving these enemies alive for very long, however. Their holy-branded peck attacks can be surprisingly harmful if you lack solid physical protection. The ghostly flame bursts they emit upon death will heal you, however.

Trivia

The bennu is a reference to Bennu, an Egyptian deity of the sun, creation, and rebirth. The unholy aspects ascribed to it in DCSS have likely only been added to make it better fit in the undead-filled Tomb of the Ancients.

History

  • Bennu were added in 0.16. For a brief time during their development, they also possessed sticky flame attacks.