Bolt spells
Version 0.30: This article may not be up to date for the latest stable release of Crawl.
The Bolt spells are a series of spells which all function similarly, hitting multiple targets along its line of fire. Although there is some variance in their damage output and range, they all behave in nearly the same fashion.
Players no longer have access to any "traditional" bolt spell in their spell library, though bolts are still accessible through other ways.
Player-Castable
Almost all "bolt" spells have been removed from player libraries, although there are a few spells that create bolts:
Evocable
Thunderbolt
- Available through a lightning rod
- Power determined by Evocations
- Consecutive zaps increases strength and changes behavior of the bolt
- Aiming for a different target creates a wide spray that covers the area between the previous bolt and the current bolt
- Deals electricity damage; deals less damage when spread over a wide area
- Range 5
Corrosive Bolt
- Available to players through a wand of acid, Nemelex's Vitriol card, or Makhleb. The wand alternates with quicksilver and light.
- Power determined by Evocations (wand) or Invocations (god)
- Deals acid damage.
- Inflicts corrosion.
- Range 5
Quicksilver Bolt
- Available to players through a wand of quicksilver, or purple draconian breath. The wand alternates with acid and quicksilver.
- Deals irresistible damage
- Strips cancellable enchantments from targets
- Range 7
Bolt of Light
- Available to players through a wand of light. The wand alternates with acid and quicksilver.
- Deals irresistible damage
- Blinds enemies
- Range 5
Sword Beam
- Available through the unrand artefact, the sword of Power
- Deals irresistible damage, unaffected by skill
- Activates on melee hit; chance increases with HP, (10 * HP/27)%.
- Range 4
Major Destruction
Makhleb's Major Destruction will fire a bolt spell, some of which are now exclusive to this ability:
Bolt of Fire
- Deals fire damage
- Range 7
Bolt of Magma
- Deals partially irresistible fire damage
- Range 5
Bolt of Draining
- Deals negative energy damage
- Inflicts draining
- Range 6
- Also available through Nemelex's pain card
Lightning Bolt
- Deals electricity damage
- Can bounce off walls; multizaps
- Range 5-12 (depending on spell power), undiminished by hitting targets
Major Destruction can also fire Corrosive Bolt.
Monster
Bolt of Fire
- Deals fire damage
- Range 7
Bolt of Cold
- Deals cold damage
- Range 6
Crystal Bolt
Bolt of Draining
- Deals negative energy damage
- Inflicts draining
- Range 6
Energy Bolt
- Deals irresistible damage
- Range 7
Lightning Bolt
- Deals electricity damage
- Can bounce off walls; multizaps
- Range 5-12 (depending on spell power)
Bolt of Magma
- Deals partially irresistible fire damage
Quicksilver Bolt
- Deals irresistible damage
- Strips cancellable enchantments from targets
- Range 7
Venom Bolt
- Deals partially irresistible poison damage
- Inflicts poison.
- Range 6
History/Trivia
- In 0.30, Lightning Bolt was made monster and Makhleb only, removing the last player-castable bolt spell.
- In 0.29, the wand of quicksilver and wand of light were added as alternatives for the wand of acid. Each game can have only one "bolt" wand type now.
- In 0.28, Bolt of Magma was made monster and Makhleb only.
- In 0.27, Makhleb's Major Destruction was made explicitly bolt-only.
- Prior to 0.26, most beam spells (except for Shock and Lightning Bolt) had their range decreased by 1 for each target they hit.
- Most bolt spells were removed from player's libraries in the positional magic update of 0.25; Bolt of Fire, Bolt of Cold, Bolt of Draining, and Venom Bolt were removed.
- Prior to 0.21, the wand of lightning existed, which cast Lightning Bolt.
- Prior to 0.20, there were special evocable items called rods; the Rod of inaccuracy had a powerful but highly inaccurate bolt spell called Bolt of Inaccuracy, and the Rod of ignition could fire a special version of Bolt of Fire named Explosive Bolt.
- Prior to 0.18, there were wands of fire, cold, and draining, which cast their bolt spells with Evocations. The Rod of destruction, had a special bolt spell called Random Bolt. In their place, the wand of acid gave players access to Corrosive Bolt.
- 0.17 added Corrosive Bolt.
- Prior to 0.16, the Tome of destruction could fire a number of these bolt spells.
- Random Bolt was added in 0.14.
- The term 'bolt' did not always refer only to spells which can hit multiple targets in a line. Notably, the spell Iron Shot went through the names Bolt of Iron and Iron Bolt before being renamed Iron Shot to avoid confusion, and Throw Icicle was renamed from Ice Bolt for the same reason.
