Spell book
Spell books contain spells that can be memorised, if you have sufficient skills in Spellcasting and the school to which the spell belongs. They are very important, as they are the method by which spellcasters gain new spells. Spell books can be found on the Dungeon floor, bought from shops, given as gifts by certain gods, or generated with a scroll of acquirement.
Contents
[hide]Spell Book Identification and Use
Most of the time, reading a spell book is enough to identify it, revealing the spells it contains. Once a spell book is identified, you can memorize any spells it contains, provided you have free spell levels and high enough magical skills to handle the spell in question.
However, a few powerful spell books require you to have certain magical skills, or they will be "beyond your level of understanding," preventing you from identifying them:
- The Book of Annihilations requires either level 6 in Spellcasting and level 10 in Conjurations, or to be a follower of Vehumet.
- The Grand Grimoire requires either level 6 in Spellcasting and level 10 in Summonings, or to be a follower of Vehumet.
- The Necronomicon requires either level 6 in Spellcasting and level 10 in Necromancy, or to be a follower of Kikubaaqudgha.
- The Akashic Record requires level 6 in Spellcasting and level 10 in Translocations.
Spell Book Destruction
Advanced magic users often need to change their spellsets. Scrolls of amnesia allow them to forget any spell and recoup the spell levels to learn a different spell. However, these scrolls are rather rare. Conveniently, spellbooks can also be used to this effect, however you are limited to forgetting one spell contained therein, and the process destroys the spellbook itself. (Followers of Sif Muna never need to do this because they are granted this ability after sufficient piety.)
Strategy
Spell books are not exactly rare, but there are so many different ones out there that finding a specific spell book may be difficult or even impossible in a given game. While book shops provide a large, random assortment to choose from, spell books are also generally rather expensive. Thus, obtaining a specific spell book that you want can be a hassle, but you can alleviate this by worshiping the right god.
Sif Muna and Kikubaaqudgha both grant spell books as gifts, weighted towards spells/books you don't already have. Sif Muna is the most generous in this regard: since the types of spellbooks granted depend on magical skills, you can influence them by training specific skills, and thus raise your probability of getting the most useful spells for your playstyle. Followers of Sif Muna will eventually have access to every spell in the game this way. Meanwhile, Kiku only grants Necromancy-related books (including the Necronomicon at the final piety level), making him in some ways better suited for Necromancers than other spellcasters; on the other hand, he grants two randart books as you gain piety, containing level 1 to 3 necromancy spells at the *..... piety level and level 4-6 necromancy spells at the ***... piety level, so he's a good choice for training up Necromancy from scratch. It is also worth noting that Kiku starts granting his books much sooner than Sif Muna.
Note that you keep your gift books even if you abandon your god. Some advanced players take advantage of this, serving Kiku until they get the Necronomicon (and can survive Kiku's divine retribution), then leaving Kiku for another god who offers further powers.
Followers of Trog, who shun spellcasting, can burn any visible spell book (including randart spell books) as an ability. This not only scores piety, but the flame cloud generated will remain for several turns afterward, potentially blocking or damaging monsters (especially if they were standing on the book when you detonate it). Note that no monsters avoid spell books on the floor or see them as a hazard at all, making it easy for you to use your books like land mines.
List of Spells by Book
The following are all standard spellbooks in Crawl. If you find any book other than the ones listed below (often with exotic or ridiculous names), it is a randomly generated artefact spellbook. Randart spellbooks have no set contents but may often contain just the spell you were looking for.
Please do not add randart spell books to this list.
- Akashic Record: Dispersal, Malign Gateway, Disjunction, Controlled Blink
- Book of Air: Shock, Swiftness, Airstrike
- Script error
- Book of Annihilations: Chain Lightning, Fire Storm, Shatter
- Book of Battle: Fugue of the Fallen, Ozocubu's Armour, Manifold Assault
- Book of Beasts: Summon Ice Beast, Summon Mana Viper, Monstrous Menagerie
- Book of Burglary: Ensorcelled Hibernation, Swiftness, Passwall
- Book of Callings: Summon Small Mammal, Call Canine Familiar, Summon Blazeheart Golem
- Book of Cantrips: Sting, Summon Small Mammal, Apportation
- Script error
- Script error
- Book of Conjurations: Magic Dart, Searing Ray, Fulminant Prism
- Book of Death: Animate Dead, Haunt, Infestation
- Book of Debilitation: Slow, Vampiric Draining, Confusing Touch
- Book of Dreams: Ensorcelled Hibernation, Fugue of the Fallen, Anguish
- Book of the Earth: Leda's Liquefaction, Lee's Rapid Deconstruction, Bombard, Permafrost Eruption
- Script error
- Book of Envenomations: Spider Form, Olgreb's Toxic Radiance, Alistair's Intoxication, Poisonous Cloud
- Book of Fire: Foxfire, Plasma Beam, Starburst
- Book of Flames: Inner Flame, Sticky Flame, Flame Wave
- Book of Frost: Freeze, Frozen Ramparts, Hailstorm
- Book of Geomancy: Sandblast, Passwall, Stone Arrow, Brom's Barrelling Boulder
- Book of Hinderance: Confusing Touch, Confuse, Gell's Gravitas, Petrify, Metabolic Englaciation
- Book of Ice: Sculpt Simulacrum, Ozocubu's Refrigeration, Polar Vortex
- Script error
- Book of Minor Magic: Magic Dart, Blink, Call Imp
- Book of Necromancy: Vampiric Draining, Martyr's Knell, Curse of Agony
- Book of Party Tricks: Apportation, Jinxbite, Alistair's Intoxication
- Book of Power: Iskenderun's Battlesphere, Bombard, Spellforged Servitor
- Book of Spatial Translocations: Blink, Momentum Strike, Lesser Beckoning
- Script error
- Book of the Dragon: Cause Fear, Fireball, Dragon's Call
- Script error
- Script error
- Book of the Warp: Manifold Assault, Dispersal, Disjunction, Gell's Gavotte
- Script error
- Book of Unlife: Animate Dead, Borgnjor's Vile Clutch, Death Channel
- Fen Folio: Summon Forest, Eringya's Noxious Bog, Summon Hydra
- Grand Grimoire: Malign Gateway, Summon Horrible Things
- Necronomicon: Haunt, Borgnjor's Revivification, Death's Door
- Young Poisoner's Handbook: Sting, Mercury Vapours, Olgreb's Toxic Radiance
History
The Book of Control was removed in 0.17.
In 0.16, the Tome of Destruction and the Book of Wizardry were removed, the Akashic Record newly introduced.
Prior to 0.12, Vehumet gifted specific Conjurations and Summonings spellbooks instead of offering random spells.
Prior to 0.12, identifying a spell book would decrease the piety gained from burning it as a Trog worshiper.
Prior to 0.10, Spellcasting was only trainable after first gaining a level via reading scrolls.
These spellbooks were removed/made obsolete, as of 0.15:
- Book of Wizardry: Agony, Force Lance, Dispersal, Haste, Invisibility, Spellforged Servitor
- Book of War Chants: Fire Brand, Freezing Aura, Shroud of Golubria, Repel Missiles, Poison Weapon, Regeneration
- Book of Morphology: Sticks to Snakes, Petrify, Polymorph Other, Cigotuvi's Degeneration, Ignite Poison
- Book of Tukima: Sure Blade, Tukima's Vorpal Blade, Tukima's Dance
- Book of Conjurations (fire+earth): Magic Dart, Throw Flame, Stone Arrow, Conjure Flame, Bolt of Magma, Fireball
- Book of Conjurations (ice+air): Magic Dart, Throw Frost, Mephitic Cloud, Static Discharge, Lightning Bolt, Bolt of Cold
- Book of Charms: Corona, Repel Missiles, Ensorcelled Hibernation, Confuse, Enslavement, Silence, Invisibility
- Book of Minor Magic (flame): Magic Dart, Summon Small Mammals, Throw Flame, Blink, Slow, Mephitic Cloud, Conjure Flame
- Book of Minor Magic (frost): Magic Dart, Throw Frost, Blink, Sticks to Snakes, Slow, Mephitic Cloud, Ozocubu's Armour
- Book of Minor Magic (summ): Magic Dart, Summon Small Mammals, Blink, Repel Missiles, Slow, Call Canine Familiar, Mephitic Cloud
- Monster Manual: Summon Small Mammals, Sticks to Snakes, Call Canine Familiar, Tame Beasts, Dragon Form
- Book of Brands: Corona, Swiftness, Fire Brand, Freezing Aura, Poison Weapon, Cause Fear
- Book of Divinations
- Book of Surveyances
- Book of Healing: Cure Poison, Lesser Healing, Greater Healing, Purification
- Book of Practical Magic: Projected Noise, Selective Amnesia, Detect Curse, Dig, Remove Curse