Orb of fire

Version 0.11: This article may not be up to date for the latest stable release of Crawl.

orb of fire *
HP	150
HD	30
XP	11437
Speed	15
AC	20
EV	20
Will	Immune
Resistances	damnation, rElec, rC+, rPois+, rN+, rTorm, rRot, rConstr
Vulnerabilities	Silver
Habitat	land
Intelligence	Normal
Uses	Uses nothing
Holiness	Non-living
Size	Little
Type	orb of fire, orb of fire
Flags	Spellcaster Flying See invisible Insubstantial Glows

A globe of raw primordial fire, capable of impressive pyrotechnics, and of twisting the very flesh of creatures who come into its ken. "There's not the smallest orb which thou behold'st But in his motion like an angel sings, Still quiring to the young-eyed cherubins." -William Shakespeare, _The Merchant of Venice_, V, i. 1597.

Useful Info

Orbs of fire are fast, powerful, end-game game-ending monsters that are normally encountered in the Realm of Zot. They have traumatized many adventurers who died just before reaching the Orb of Zot.

Spells: Bolt of Fire (3d40), Fireball (3d43), Polymorph Other

Tips & Tricks

• Silence has no effect on them.
• Having rF+++ provides 80% fire damage reduction, making it much easier to survive their brutal Fire Magic. Wearing an amulet of resist mutation will prevent them from mutating you too heavily.
• Ice Storm is an excellent method for taking out orbs of fire. It can strike multiple enemies at once, and while orbs do have partial cold resistance, the physical portion of the spell will get through. Fire Storm can also deal decent damage to them due to the unresistable damage portion, but it's less effective. Unresistable Conjurations, such as Orb of Destruction or Lehudib's Crystal Spear, are an option, but attacking only one orb at a time can take too long. Even if you connect with every cast, it still takes four or five Orb of Destructions to dispatch a single orb.
• Melee fighters should use antimagic-branded weapons to limit their ability to deal damage.
• Orbs of fire are chaotic, so ranged weapon fighters can use silver ammunition to deal tremendous damage to them.
• The "glowing" colors the orb cycles through indicate merely that it has cast a spell; it bears no relation to the type of spell cast or about to be cast:

The orb of fire glows yellow.

The orb of fire glows bright magenta.
The orb of fire glows deep purple.
The orb of fire glows red.

The orb of fire emits a lurid red light.

History

In very ancient, pre-Stone Soup versions of Crawl, these monsters were instead called "Swords", as can be seen in this ancient changelog, in a reference to the Chronicles of an Age of Darkness by Hugh Cook. This explains the rather nonsensical (from a thematic standpoint) inclusion of Polymorph Other in their spell set, since their original flavour was a very different monster.