Excruciating Wounds

Obsolete: This article refers to an aspect of the game which has been removed. It is retained for historical reference only.

Excruciating Wounds
Level	5
School1	Necromancy
Source(s)	Book of Death Book of Pain
Casting noise	4
Spell noise	15

Excruciating Wounds is a level 5 Necromancy spell that temporarily infuses a weapon with the pain brand, but prevents you from unwielding the weapon and penalizes your spell success rate for the duration.

Effect

A wielded non-artefact melee weapon will gain the pain brand, temporarily overriding any existing brand. Launchers and unarmed attacks are not affected. While this spell is active, you are unable to unwield your weapon, and spells will be harder to cast (increasing raw spell failure by 10%).

Casting the spell at higher spell power will increase the effect's duration.

Djinn and Felids are unable to learn this spell (the former can't train Necromancy, the latter can't use weapons).

Strategy

In the hands of a skilled Necromancy practitioner, the pain brand can render a fast weapon extremely deadly to most natural monsters, and by the time a character is capable of casting Excruciating Wounds, they certainly qualify.

Followers of Kikubaaqudgha can choose to permanently brand a weapon of their choice with pain, but this spell allows Kiku worshipers to instead choose to learn several extremely powerful Necromancy spells, or for characters not worshiping Kiku to take advantage of the brand without having to find a good weapon of pain lying around somewhere. Just be aware that this brand is useless against opponents with any negative energy resistance: this includes all demonic, undead, nonliving, and holy opponents. Having the option to use your weapon's innate brand (removed by Kiku blessing) is another benefit of this spell.

Casting the spell is also quite loud, making it unwise to cast it while trying to sneak around sleeping opponents.

History

• In 0.29, Excruciating Wounds was removed. It lasted 10 versions longer than its closest relative, Warp Weapon.
• Prior to 0.26, Excruciating Wounds was a Necromancy/Charms spell. It did not prevent you from unwielding your weapon, penalize your spell success rate, or make further noise during the spell. However, the initial cast was much louder.
• Prior to 0.16, this spell could not affect weapons that were already branded.
• Added in 0.2.