Box of beasts

Version 0.26: This article may not be up to date for the latest stable release of Crawl.

Type	Miscellaneous item
Name	box of beasts
Icon

A box filled with the bizarre leftovers of a depraved wizard's magical experimentations. Opening it might set loose a friendly mutant beast: bizarre creatures, each with their own combination of traits. Increased skill with Evocations will allow stronger beasts to be released. There are six known traits: Bat beasts fly and move very quickly, but erratically. Fire beasts resist and breathe fire. Ox beasts resist cold, are armoured with thick fur, and can knock back foes. Shock beasts resist electricity and can transform into living lightning. Sting beasts resist poison and have a reaching poison-tail attack. Weird beasts can see invisible and attack with constricting tentacles. As far as anyone knows, all beasts have exactly two of these traits.

A box of beasts is a miscellaneous magic item which can summon an irregular, albeit friendly, monster, classified generally as a mutant beast.

The box becomes empty after one use and can be recharged only by gaining experience while it is in the player's possession. Carrying multiple boxes is no more useful than carrying one, since evoking one causes all boxes, both carried and stashed, to become temporarily inert.

Mutant Beast

A mutant beast usually combines two random traits/facets:

• Bat: flying, fast, batty.
• Sting: reach/poison, rPois.
• Fire: fire breath, rF.
• Weird: constrict, sInv.
• Shock: rElec, blinkbolt.
• Ox: trample, rC, +5 AC.

Each beast also has one of five tiers, corresponding to HD and melee attack damage.

• Larval (HD 3) (12 damage)
• Juvenile (HD 9) (19 damage)
• Mature (HD 15) (26 damage)
• Elder (HD 21) (33 damage)
• Primal (HD 27) (40 damage)

HD of mutant beasts is roughly

(Evocations skill + 1d7 - 1d7), rounded up to the nearest tier & capped at 27.

History

• Prior to 0.26, boxes of beasts had a 1/3 chance to fall apart after every use and didn't recharge with XP.
• Prior to 0.19, boxes of beasts didn't stack.
• Prior to 0.17, a box of beasts would instead summon a chimera.
• In 0.16, box of beasts became considerably stronger than before.
• Prior to 0.13 this item summoned individual (non-chimera) monsters.
• Prior to 0.9, it appeared as a small ebony casket while unidentified.