Channeling

Version 0.28: This article may not be up to date for the latest stable release of Crawl.

Dramatically increases the user's regeneration of magical power for a duration that increases with Invocations skill.

Channeling is the act of passively restoring MP to a character (as opposed to using an action to restore MP with a potion of magic or the Sublimation of Blood spell). There are two types: Active Channeling (which requires using an activated ability) and Passive Channeling (which comes from equipment and happens without the player's input).

Djinn do not use MP and cannot make use of any form of channeling.

Active Channeling

Channel Magic is an ability that allows worshipers of Sif Muna to restore MP much more quickly. Followers gain this ability at 1* piety.

Success rate: (60 + 4*Invocations)/100 + Piety/25
MP Recovered: 3-5 per turn for (4 + random2avg(2 * Invocations / 3)) turns, or roughly (4 + 2*Invocations/3) turns

Passive Channeling

Orbs of energy and the staff of Wucad Mu allow you to passively channel energy, refunding the MP costs of spells you cast. An orb counts as 2 sources, while the staff counts as 3.

When casting a spell while wielding a source of passive channeling, you have a Sources * Evocations / 108 chance of regaining the MP used in the spell. Each time this happens, you have a 1 / (Evocations - MP cost) chance of either being confused for 1 + 1d4 turns or losing 1-5 intelligence.

History

• The ability to stack multiple sources of passive channeling was added in 0.28.
• Prior to 0.27, the staff of Wucad Mu could be evoked to actively restore MP. Its success rate increased with Evocations skill (though it was never foolproof), but decreased with the wielder's remaining MP.
• Prior to 0.26, you could actively channel magic by evoking a staff of energy; this provided fewer MP, but could not backfire.
• Prior to 0.25, a crystal ball of energy could be used as a high-risk way to restore MP, much like the staff of Wucad Mu.
• Prior to 0.24, Channel Magic was Sif Muna's *** ability.
• Prior to 0.19, Sif Muna instead granted Channel Energy, which was a repeatably usable ability, not a duration. With each use, it restored a small amount of MP (depending on Invocations skill) and cost hunger but no piety.