Irradiate

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Version 0.29: This article may not be up to date for the latest stable release of Crawl.
Irradiate.png Irradiate
Level 5
School1 Alchemy
School2 Conjuration
Source(s) Book of Spontaneous Combustion
Book of Transmutation
Casting noise 4
Spell noise 0
Power Cap 200
Range 1
Flags Area, Chaotic
Transmutes an ultra-thin layer of the caster's skin (or equivalent) directly into pure magical energy, blasting adjacent creatures. It heavily deforms its targets, weakening them and reducing their armour. The caster is not left entirely unaffected; some of the magic lingers, enough to leave them dangerously contaminated after a few castings.

“Reflex in the sky warn you you're gonna die
Storm coming, you'd better hide from the atomic tide
Flashes in the sky turns houses into sties
Turns people into clay, radiation minds decay”
-Black Sabbath, “Electric Funeral”. 1970.

Irradiate is a level 5 Conjurations/Transmutations spell that essentially blasts all tiles adjacent to you with pure magical energy, dealing 3d(11 + power/6) damage and malmutating them. Multiple applications of this effect stack, but are a little risky to cast - each casting of Irradiate afflicts the caster with 1.25 - 2 points of magical contamination.

Tips & Tricks

  • Irradiate is irresistible, never misses, deals high damage, and inflicts a strong debuff on enemies. For casters who can afford the awkward spell schooling, this is a good spell to have for any 1-range fights you might have to take.
  • Irradiate can always be cast 2 times in a row safely, assuming you don't miscast and have no contamination to begin with. Having a light grey Contam means that the next cast could bring you to a dangerous level of glow, but you may also get dangerous contam with a dark grey Contam.
    • If you accidentally cast Irradiate one time too many, quaffing a potion of cancellation should drop you back into the safe zone. Whether it's worth using up the potion to do so, however, is questionable.

History

  • Prior to 0.29, the spell dealt 3d(13 + power/6) damage, and caused 1 - 1.5 points of contamination.
  • Prior to 0.26, the spell ignored AC and dealt slightly less damage, 6d(5 + power/12). Also, it had an explosion noise.
  • Prior to 0.19, the contamination caused was significantly higher (was 1.5 to 3).
  • Irradiate was added in 0.16.