Amulet of Elemental Vulnerability

Version 0.29: This article may not be up to date for the latest stable release of Crawl.

A blue-steel amulet. Its creator, an exceedingly practical woman, designed it to provide powerful protection against mundane jabs, stabs and bites. It's worse than useless against fire and frost, but how often does anyone really need to worry about that?

the amulet of Elemental Vulnerability

+8 AC
rPois
rC--
rF--

Desirability

The amulet of Elemental Vulnerability is an odd piece of jewellery. Matching the ring of the Tortoise's amazing AC buff is great, and poison is the killer of many, many early characters, but even in the Dungeon, there are many elemental threats. Orc wizards can Throw Flame, you don't want to be stuck next to an ice beast, and the occasional branded weapon, vault, or unique might catch you off guard. The Lair isn't safe, either -- a rime drake is bound to ruin your day.

Overall, wearing this amulet means you have to worry about a different set of monsters. Thus, this amulet introduces a player-side risk -- if you forget you are vulnerable, or face a lot of elemental monsters, you're in trouble. Whenever this risk is worth it depends on the character. Characters who would struggle a lot with the mid-Dungeon or Lair monsters will enjoy this amulet, as it allows them to fight monsters they otherwise wouldn't. Stronger characters, meanwhile, will get less benefit from the amulet. They won't need it to survive "ordinary" encounters, but they can face surprising damage spikes against elemental monsters they wouldn't normally find threatening.

Other amulets can compete heavily with this unrand, if and when you've found them. An amulet of regeneration provides strong protection in ordinary combat scenarios (and helps with poison, too), while an amulet of reflection provides a comparable defensive bonus with no downside. By the time you reach Vaults, Elf, or Depths, the rF-- and rC-- become a very clear downside, and you should swap amulets by then.

Note that vulnerability does not stack; you'll take the same 150% fire damage whether you have rF- or rF--. However, having multiple ranks of vulnerability makes it exceedingly difficult to negate, at least while you're still wearing the amulet.

This artefact is more likely to spawn in the early game, where it is more likely to be useful.

History

• The amulet of Elemental Vulnerabilty was introduced in 0.29.