Ignite Poison

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Ignite poison.png Ignite Poison
Level 4
School1 Alchemy
School2 Fire
Source(s) Everburning Encyclopedia
Trismegistus Codex
Casting noise 4
Spell noise 0
Power Cap 100
Flags Area
Converts all nearby poison into liquid flame, burning poisoned creatures from within. It also turns clouds of poison and mephitic gases into flame. The caster is not affected directly.

Ignite Poison is a level 3 Fire/Transmutation/Poison spell which causes all nearby poisoned creatures and poisonous clouds to burst into flames.

Effect

All poisonous clouds and noxious fumes (mephitic clouds) in the caster's line of sight are replaced with flame clouds. All poisoned monsters in line of sight take fire damage and lose their poisoned status. Tiles affected by Eringya's Noxious Bog have a chance to create short-lived flame clouds. Higher spell power increases the duration of the flame clouds and the damage taken by poisoned creatures.

Poisoned creatures take direct damage according to how many poison stacks they have, dealing approximately 200%-300% of the potential poison damage immediately, depending on spell power.

Duration of the flame clouds from former clouds is 3 + (1d(20 + <power>) - 1) / 10 turns[1]—that is, from 3-5 turns to 3-15 turns.

Duration of the flame clouds from Noxious Bog is instead 1 + 1d(1 + <power>/30) turns (2-5 turns).[2]

Strategy

Ignite Poison deals heavy, unavoidable fire damage to every poisoned creature in sight.

For reference: At 25 power, casting Vapours x2 -> Ignite Poison deals 8d13 damage (avg. 52)[3] Iron Shot at 70 power deals 9d7 damage (avg. 32). While the former takes 3 turns to pull off, Poisonous Vapours has a number of advantages - it is smite-targeted, never misses, has full LOS range, and it's a level 3 spell.
  • With Olgreb's Toxic Radiance, it's strong against whole groups. Imagine Poisonous Vapours, but applied to everything on the screen.
  • With Mephitic Cloud, it will create flame clouds. While not as impressive as the above effects, it can be used by venom mages in order to damage enemies with poison resistance.

Also good with Eringya's Noxious Bog, which inflicts high amounts of poison, even against those with poison resistance.

The biggest downside is that Ignite Poison relies on poison. It is also somewhat poor with turn economy.

Tips & Tricks

  • Monsters will happily walk into a cloud that they're immune to. As few monsters are immune to poison AND fire, venom mages can use Ignite Poison to kill undead, ice beasts, and other poison-resistant monsters.
    • It doesn't matter where the clouds come from -- some enemies (such as swamp drakes, swamp dragons, and green draconians) are perfectly happy to fill the dungeon with poisonous clouds. Turn that tactic against them by converting their breath weapons into a sea of flames.
    • A scroll of poison or low-powered Condenser vane evocation can produce ignitable clouds -- combining them with this spell can be highly effective. Just make sure you have no immediate plans to move anywhere.
  • Vehumet considers this spell destructive; Venom Mages looking for this spell should consider worshipping this god.

History

  • Venom Mages started with this spell in 0.25 and 0.26.
  • Prior to 0.18, Salamander mystics had Localized Ignite Poison in their spellset.
  • Prior to 0.17, Ignite Poison was a level-5 spell, but affected monsters with venom-branded attacks, poisonous flesh, and potions of poison. It did not use the Poison Magic school.
  • Prior to 0.8, Ignite Poison used to be an amazingly painful way to eliminate poison from one's own system.

References

  1. spl-damage.cc:2000 (0.29.1)
  2. spl-damage.cc:2013 (0.30.0)
  3. Poisonous Vapours inflicts 1 + pow/15 "stacks" of poison, and Ignite Poison deals (stacks*2)d(12 + pow/16.6) damage. If you reach just 30 power, you also get to do 6d13 (avg. 39) damage in 2 turns.