Reflection

Version 0.21: This article may not be up to date for the latest stable release of Crawl.

Reflection is a curious ego that can be found on all types of shields and as a type of amulet. It provides no additional defensive properties, but reflects all successfully blocked projectiles, both physical and magical, back in the direction they originated. Be aware that only some spells can be blocked (for example, it can prove devastating against casters with Orb of Destruction or Lehudib's Crystal Spear, but it serves no purpose against Fireball or Airstrike). Also, its reliability is dependent on your actual skill with shields, and dodged attacks will not be reflected.

An amulet of reflection grants you a bonus to your SH score as well as the reflection ego; this will give you a minor ability to block attacks even without any other form of shielding. Amulets also stack with other sources of SH, including a worn shield, the large bone plates mutation, Qazlal's storm shield, or The Shining One's divine shield.

The unique fighter Donald often carries a shield of reflection. Two special unrandarts with reflection exist: the Brooch of Shielding, an amulet of reflection with an unusually high enchantment, and the Warlock's Mirror, a buckler of reflection capable of reflecting any form of attack (even those that are normally non-reflectable).

Tips & Tricks

• The reflected attack can miss and may strike unintended targets.
• This ego is nowhere near as powerful as it is in some other games, most notably NetHack. Your chance of blocking an attack is not increased by wearing a shield of reflection, and there are still many types of attacks that cannot be blocked at all. In general, a shield with any resistance you may be lacking is preferable to a reflection-branded shield, though one might prefer it over a protection-branded shield, especially if you know you'll be facing opponents with powerful, blockable ranged abilities soon (Roxanne, Dispater, etc.).
• If you've found a shield with a good ego (like resistance, for example), an amulet of reflection is perfect for giving yourself even more defense.

History

Until version ?? the game treated the reflected attack as an attack initiated by the player himself. If you followed a god who prohibited certain attacks, you would invoke penance for these unintentional reflected attacks.

The amulet of reflection was added in 0.18.