Sanguine talisman

Version 0.34: This article is up to date for the latest stable release of Dungeon Crawl Stone Soup.

A vial of roiling blood that pulses with the beat of an unseen heart. Transforms the user into a fearsome vampire - a creature that straddles the border between life and undeath. They can drink the lifeblood of the living to heal themselves, and even turn those they slay stealthily into vampiric thralls, but do not heal in the presence of monsters. At great effort, they may scatter into a swarm of bats - either to flee or to assail their enemies.

A sanguine talisman is a talisman that changes you into Vampire Form.

Useful Info

When eVoked, a sanguine talisman turns you into Vampire, which lasts until you end the form. Entering or exiting a form takes 5 turns.

Vampire Form has the following effects:

Combat Bonuses

• Unarmed Combat: 3 base damage (no boost).
• Stab attacks as well as all melee attacks made at 50% hp or lower heal you (the chance scales with Shapeshifting).
• Killing living or demonic beings with a stab attack can turn them into vampiric thralls. Thralls are quickly decaying undead, which have a vampiric bite attack, and, if they had spells, Vampiric Draining. You can have only one thrall at a time.
• Hypnotic gaze: Whenever a living, demonic, or holy monster first notices you, it may become momentarily dazed, preventing it from shouting. Creatures which fail a willpower check will be dazed for longer.

Resistances

• Part-living and part-undead: The form gives you some undead resistances and makes you vulnerable to Dispel Undead and holy wrath, and you will recover more slowly from Doom and Banes, but you can still be affected by poison.
  • rC+
  • rN++
  • Torment resistance (50% damage from torment, stacks with rN)

Restrictions

• Cannot regenerate health when monsters are visible.

Improved Bat Form:

• You have an XP-rechargeable ability that lets you instantly turn into a bat swarm and surrounds you in clouds of bats.
• The clouds deal damage to non-undead and put monsters into sleep.
• You get a big EV bonus, which the regular bat form doesn't have.
• Bat Swarm only XP-recharges while the talisman is equipped.

Additionally, the form gives you a +100 Stealth bonus.

Vampire Form has a minimum of 17 Shapeshifting skill, below which you get an HP penalty, and the contamination effect scales down. It has a maximum skill of 25; further skill has no further impact.

Bat Swarm Form	Gargoyle

Armataur	Djinn	Felid	Gargoyle	Humanoid	Naga	Octopode	Tengu

Strategy

This form is one of the few that doesn't meld gear, making it easily accessible to any character with enough training, and one of the few forms that works well for Ashenzari worshipers.

On the surface, this form directly buffs stabber builds with bonuses to both stealth and stabbing. However, there's no reason a caster wouldn't also find the range of resistances and the Daze effect helpful if they have the training (looking at you Gnolls). The lack of regeneration while enemies are present is only infrequently a problem, but you may find yourself reliant on more healing potions than usual in this form.

History

• In 0.34, vampiric thralls will get a bonus stabbing damage vs. sleeping monsters.
• Sanguine talismans were added in 0.33.